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Books : The Colour
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The Colour by: Rose Tremain List Price: £7.99 Vegetarian Books Price: £5.99 You Save: £2.00 (25%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780099425151 ISBN: 0099425157 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Pages: 384 Publication Date: July 03, 2008 Publisher: Vintage Studio: Vintage Sales Rank: 9108 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: Rose Tremain has long been one of the most vigorous and imaginative of novelists; her sweeping narratives (set against the most vividly realised of canvases) have made her books as dramatic and assured as anything being written today. The Colour represents a further burnishing of her considerable talents; it is a powerful drama of greed and aspiration set in the New Zealand Gold Rush of the mid-19th Century. Tremain's protagonists are Harriet and Joseph Baxter, who (along with Joseph's mother) leave England for the promise of the new world that New Zealand represents. Needless to say, their relocation comes with many attendant (and nigh-insoluble) problems. But their struggle against the land continues apace until Joseph discovers gold in a nearby creek and ill-advisedly conceals the find from his mother and his wife. Gold fever takes an all-consuming grip upon him, and he leaves the family-owned farm to traverse the gold fields of the Southern Alps. There he will find a strange fate: one that affects those he has left behind as well as him. As a study of human nature in extremis, this could well be Tremain’s most impressive book. Lacking the elegant stylishness of Restoration, The Colour grants us a fastidiously rendered picture of life lived at the sharp edge. And while her characters are confronted with terrifying decisions that few of us are ever likely to encounter, Tremain’s narrative gifts make it easy to identify with the decisions (both wise and catastrophic) that her characters take. The sense of period is forcefully conveyed, and while this is not as ingratiating a read as such earlier Tremain books as The Swimming Pool Season, her new level of ambition makes it perhaps the author’s most important book yet. --Barry Forshaw Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - a beautiful work..........I read this book on holiday, so was able to relax and fully appreciate Tremains subtle yet dramatic writing. Having never read her books before, I am now a convert and so glad I picked up this book which held me from paged first to last with ease. A beautifully written and compelling story. Rating: - excellent readI loved this engrossing historical novel - highly reccomended. If you can do please read 'Music and Silence' by the same author - absolutely outstanding. Rating:  - Panning for gold and being disappointed.I have previously read and loved "Restoration" by Rose Tremain. The main character was incredible; flawed and yet I cared so much what happened in his life. This book was SO different. Like other reviewers, I did not know there had been a gold rush in New Zealand, so that part of the story was interesting, as was the insight into the world and imagination of the Maori nanny. However, I did not like any of the characters. There was nothing much to admire about them and their motives for reacting in certain ways were at times unconvincing. All in all I found this book cold and sadly lacking. At the book's most depressing moments, and there were quite a few of those, I found myself like the characters, cold and miserable, searching for a glimmer ... Read More: Rating: - Descriptive writingSet in the New Zealand Gold Rush of the mid-19th century Harriet and Joseph Baxter, along with Joseph's mother, leave England for the promise of the new world that New Zealand represents. Their new home comes with incredible problems and hardships. Their struggle against the land continues until one day Joseph discovers gold in their nearby creek and hides the find from his mother and his wife. Gold fever takes grip of him, and he leaves the family-owned farm and journeys to the gold fields of the Southern Alps. Left alone with his mother Harriet discovers that Joseph had found a little gold on their land. When Joseph's mother dies Harriet bravely decides to cross the mountains in an attempt to find her husband. But she isn't prepared for at ... Read More: Rating: - Tedious characters and insufficient plot.What a disappointment. When you strip away some of the eloquent prose you are left with characters that do not engage you on any level.The main male character was so dull and such a loser you felt he deserved everything that happened to him. The only time I felt any sympathy for him was when he embarked on an abusive and homosexual relationship with a young, manipulative man rather than endure any more loneliness. The plot is sparse and in the main predictable, though coupled with one or two inexplicable courses of action by the central characters.Why would you put yourself through great hardship to track a husband you despise to tell him his elderly mother had died! This novel needed humour, pace and action! Instead you were left with characters ... Read More: |
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