Naomi WoodCritiques

A beautifully written retelling of the lives of Ernest Hemingway's wives. The stories are fictional with a hint of the biographical, and start off at the end of each marriage, when things are just about to start falling apart. I must admit I went into this only really being aware of Ernest, so it was nice to read a book that centred on his wives and was told from their perspective.

Hemingway’s wives are endlessly fascinating and in this book we get to hear from all four of them from the sainted Hadley, to the somewhat shrewish Fife, to feisty Martha, and then finally to docile Mary. Each thought their marriage would last forever, but each is betrayed by Hemingway’s roving eye, outsized ego, and finally, by the family nemesis – depression. An easy and interesting read.

I was not expecting very much at all out of this book, but the writing straddles the line between literary and popular in a way that is quite readable, without sacrificing depth of emotion and meaning. Themes include: marriage, infidelity, sex, suicide, literature and the Jazz Age and American ex-pat community, masculinity and aging. Really, really recommended. A very quick read, as well.

1922, Paul rebels against his father, a manufacturer, and goes to study art at the newly opened and radical Bauhaus school in Weimar. there he falls in with a disparate group of fellow students whose lives, loves and art are influenced by the Bauhaus, Germany between the wars and the rise of the Nazis.
Although I found the first third of the book difficult to engage with, by halfway I was really interested. I think this had a lot to do with the way that Weimar Germany was depicted and the slow, insidious rise of the Nazi party. The deprivations of life in 1920s Germany were depicted well, hyperinflation was astonishing. Although the fate of each student was mapped out from the start, story was still gripping and ultimately very sad.

Entertaining but superficial, author Naomi Wood has taken one of the least dynamic features of Ernest Hemingway's storied life – his wives – and crafted a solid soap opera out of it. In her narrative, Wood flits backwards and forwards in time, with each part of the novel – named after each of Hemingway's four wives, and written from their perspectives – revolving around how Papa would move on from each of them in turn. Whilst still with Hadley, Fife arrives; with Fife, Martha arrives; with Martha, Mary arrives; with Mary, the shotgun arrives. He left each of them before he thought they would leave him, Wood tells us, and she does well to highlight such patterns in Hemingway's life in her prose.

However, Mrs. Hemingway never becomes more than the chick-lit that its premise, marketing and prose style all suggest. It's all rather safe; there's little real tension in the story, despite the philandering and the alcoholism and so on. Hemingway, who was very autobiographical in his fiction, wrote about these same events much better; it is unfair, perhaps, to compare Wood's writing to the marital tension in, for example, 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber', but given the subject matter of her book the comparisons are inevitable.

The main drawback is that Wood's book will be the first point of entry for many of a certain demographic into Hemingway's body of work, and it offers up a rather wrong-headed interpretation. Absent are any of the truly remarkable things about Hemingway – his prose style, his eye for detail, his taste for life, his wealth of biography – which might induce a reader to find out more. This is a writer who deserves to be read. Instead, his attraction is, in Wood's telling, largely due to a fake charisma and emotional manipulation, to career success and physical appeal (summarised lamely as "What a pull he has! What a magnetism!" (pg. 126)). Knowing her audience, perhaps, Wood is unwilling to betray the sisterhood; Ernest is the abusive villain here, whilst the wives (even Martha, somewhat incredibly) are meek innocents bamboozled by his presence. Even when they are calculating how to steal him from under the nose of the previous wife, they are portrayed as guileless. The flaw in Wood's book is not so much in fictionalizing Hemingway's life (the recurring character of Harry Cuzzemano is made up, but it works), but in editorializing it.

Wood has found a creative opportunity in telling the story of (or rather, a story about) the Hemingway wives, but while one can see why the book was written, it is not all that apparent why it should be read. However tastefully done, the life in question deserves a much greater stage than to be mere chick-lit fodder – indeed, Hemingway himself only managed to cover it by devoting a lifetime of writing to it, from his youth in 'Indian Camp' and 'Big Two-Hearted River' through Paris and Spain in The Sun Also Rises to the Gulf Stream of The Old Man and the Sea and the manuscripts about the African veldt. Attempts to "find the real Hemingway" are like attempts to find the real Shakespeare. Why would you bother? You have their work, which is superior to the man.

The author and publishers timed this right. A book with a group of Bauhaus students at its centre published last year, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the still influential school of art. We'd been intending to take a short holiday in Germany to take advantage of the various exhibitions and celebrations of the centenary. We planned it, pencilled in some dates but somehow never got round to organising it. Pity, it will have to be postponed to a future, unknown, date isolation, lockdown, virus and travel permitting.

Six new students of varying backgrounds arrive and make friends. Their friendships develop. They fall in and out of love. Their studies progress, or don't. Kandinsky, Klee, the Albers have walk on parts. All amidst the political developments in Germany of the twenties and thirties. The collapse of the Weimar republic, the rise of the Nazis and the chancellorship of Hitler. A progressive institute like the Bauhaus, progressive in social attitudes as well as art, was doomed in those circumstances. The lives and backgrounds of the six protagonists draws out the tensions not only between them but in society more widely. As to be expected things don't end well.

The story is told through the eyes of one of the six, Paul Beckermann. Though he carries the story he is not a particularly endearing character. Distant, full of suspicion and doubt it makes you wonder what the other five see in him. But doubt especially is a key element. With a threatening and dangerous political situation developing with unexpected rapidity and all you want to do is get on with your life you have doubts in yourself. What course of action to take? And that is the nub of the book.

Written by a tutor in creative writing at the UEA it is cleverly constructed and carefully written. The denouement is signalled early on. The question is by what route we get there. But with a less than engaging main character there is no real sense of involvement in the outcome. Nevertheless, when we do eventually get to visit Weimar, Berlin and Dessau the characters will be at the back of my mind.

One little question that came to me whilst I was reading was that there are six principal characters. Three men and three women. The author, a woman, chooses to tell the tale through one of the male characters. Not unusual by any means. But I just wondered what led her to make that decision?

I've had this book on my 'to read' list for three years now since I read a storming review about it when it was first published. At last I came across a copy of it last week in my local secondhand shop, and it lived up to the hype.

In this novel Naomi Wood creates a fictionalised account of the four marriages of Ernest Hemingway, portraying a man who loved his wives deeply yet who loved women in general too much to ever commit to monogamy. Four sections are narrated by each of the four wives, and it's an interesting angle through which to explore the heyday of that era and the personal life of one of the literary greats. The book takes us from Hemingway on the cusp of success in Paris to his final marriage when he begins to feel washed up as an author and ends up taking his own life.

The dramas of a third person in each marriage are played out amidst a fabulous social backdrop that includes the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. Wood portrays him as a good looking man with incredible charisma, whose wives are (mostly) so infatuated with him they're desperate to overlook his indiscretions if he'll only stay with them.

This book works on so many levels. The crowded marriages are made up of complex relationships between the philandering author, the wives and the mistresses, who all become inevitably, reluctantly intertwined with each other. The affairs never stay secret for long in the wild, arty social circles in which Hemingway moves, and the famous Lost Generation are every bit as fascinating as the Bloomsbury Group were in London. It's also a fly on the wall account of the making and downfall of a darling of the literary world, and of the immense challenges of being married to a genius and dealing with the emotional swings that such temperament brings.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and flew through it over the weekend. There's something about those arty social sets from the early 20th century that's so absorbing, and it's prompted me to push some of Hemingway's work up on my to read list.

5 stars - a fabulous page-turner. Don't be put off by the chic lit-esque cover.

I'll look for more books by this author. This one was excellently written. Ernest Hemingway had four wives. He accumulated them like stars in the sky, looking on the horizon to see the brightest among many. He plucked another woman before letting go of the previous one.

He was a cad, a charmer, a person who most likely thought he was sincere, yet he was far from that! Hadley Richardson was his Paris wife who was with him when he hung along the glamours Fitzgeralds, and the in crowd -- the "lost generation" of authors during that time period. Latching on to Hadley's friend, Pauline Pfeiffer, the three of them traveled and lived together for a period of time before poor Hadley had enough and gave Ernest the divorce he desired. She also gave him one of his three sons.

Fife Pauline), was glamours where Hadley wasn't. She was exceedingly rich and very charming. Neither Ernest or Fife could let go of their emotionally and sexually charged affair. Within days of the divorce from Hadley, he married wife number two. Pauline and Ernest had two sons, a rather large lifestyle in Cuba and the Keys of Florida, but even she could not quench his thirst for cheating and carousing.

Wife number three was Martha Gellhorn, an accomplished journalist who intentionally placed herself on the front line of wars. While Ernest found her incredibly intelligent, he tried to keep her at home, barefoot and pregnant if he could have had his way. He didn't get his way and Martha was the only wife who left him, stinging his ego and for a short period of time, smacking his self conceit.

Mary Welsh was yet another woman found before it ended with Martha. More sedate than the others, she loved him and saw him through his days of talk of suicide. Eventually, he did indeed end his life, leaving each current and previous wife wondering how the storm of his life impacted on them so tragically.

Written from the perspective of each wife, the chapters begin at the end of the relationships as the wives look back, and eventually becoming one of the group of four.

Highly Recommended.

The title is clever, as this book is actually about all four Mrs. Ernest Hemingways - Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh - told from their points of view.

In an interview, author Naomi Wood says, "I decided to show the dying days of each marriage, with flashbacks. I wanted each wife to give her account and for us to see how people remember and sometimes misremember their past." But she also writes about "the love that got them there in the first place." Of course, for the first three wives, the "dying days" include Ernest's affairs with the next wife - and for Mary Welsh, the "dying days" occur after his suicide.

This is a well-researched and very enjoyable read - or listen-to. Kate Reading (a.k.a. actress Jennifer Mendenhall) is (as usual) outstanding as the narrator for the audiobook.

© Amanda Pape - 2017

[This e-audiobook, and a print copy for reference, were borrowed from and returned to local public libraries.]

The conceit here is: there's not one but four Mrs Hemingways. We get novelized renditions of each biography, depicted in two or three vignettes each from different time periods in the relationship, interleaving them throughout the chapter. (Each Mrs Hemingway gets a chapter, which is sectioned by date, see-sawing between earlier and later vignettes.) Wood does not attempt to tell a complete story of events, but to reveal the nature of the relationship each woman has with Hemingway, more or less at the beginning and at the end of each marriage.

1 - Hadley Richardson: the vignette here is the breakup, an ill-advised vacation with the mistress, at Mrs H's suggestion. Contrasted with their time in Paris. The Hemingways have one son.

2 - Pauline (Fife) Pfeiffer, the vignette this time Ernest's affair with journo Martha Gellhorn in Spain; ironic in that Fife was the mistress breaking up Hadley's marriage, She says as much at one point. Fife & Ernest have 2 sons. Contrasting vignette her time with Ernest, breaking up his earlier marriage. At one point, Fife confronts Ernest at a party at which she sees him with a masked woman, unmasks her and finds it's not Martha. Says she won't give him a divorce any time soon, and chapter ends.

3 - Martha 'Marty' or 'Rabbit' Gellhorn: apparently never pursued Ernest, was motivated by her writing and his expertise, yet she marries him. Unlike others, doesn't stay home: continues her war journalism, often without him. In one scene, watches him write a postcard ("everything fabulous") to Fife, after he tells Martha "I want to marry you". These scenes, whether factual or invented, made it less and less believable that women would fall for him. What motivates him? Ego and sex? After this chapter, it would seem severe insecurity and loneliness.

4 - Mary Walsh: meets Ernest in Paris, on assignment in 1944, Ernest wanted to stay away and wanted Marty to as well, but Marty needed to go and so went aboard a steamer laden with dynamite. Ernest flies over himself, arriving before her, and very consciously allows her the more dangerous transport. Ernest "liberates" the Paris Ritz, but has an affair while Marty is gone in London (all of 17 days, he's so insecure he can't stand even that short period).

Wood never identifies biographer Jeffrey Meyer's claim that Ernest's marriages follow a pattern due to an early breakup. From wikipedia:

While recuperating, he fell in love, for the first time, with Agnes von Kurowsky, a Red Cross nurse seven years his senior. By the time of his release and return to the United States in January 1919, Agnes and Hemingway had decided to marry within a few months in America. However, in March, she wrote that she had become engaged to an Italian officer. Biographer Jeffrey Meyers states in his book Hemingway: A Biography that Hemingway was devastated by Agnes' rejection, and in future relationships, he followed a pattern of abandoning a wife before she abandoned him.

Interesting to have read it, and certainly does not leave a favourable impression of Hemingway, the man.

//

Hadley loses Ernest's COMPLETE UNPUBLISHED MSS on a train journey, astounding. Took with her to meet Ernest on vacation, stepped out of the train car to smoke / buy cigarettes, returned to find the case gone. Carbons and original drafts, all brought in one suitcase, all lost. One of my favourite items from the story, learning this literary fact. A side-plot involves the efforts of Harry Cuzzamano, a hanger-on or perhaps merely an opportunist, to locate this set of unpublished papers, and make money from it.

Evidently both Ernest's father and Hadley's father suicided. Ernest's mother mails him the pistol with which his father shot himself along with a cake, and he's said to keep it with his collection. (Ernest has this revolver in Paris Ritz 1944.) Ernest quoted as calling his father a coward -- yet he does the same. Ernest suffered great pains from various injuries, especially after 2 airplane crashes in Africa.

Wood writes that Ernest had electroshock therapy shortly before his suicide; and suffered head trauma from the 2 plane crashes. Died not in Key West house, at his desk as unaccountably I'd thought, but in Ketchum ND, in a vestibule. He'd been discovered by Mary just there, with a shotgun, and persuaded not to go through with it a few weeks prior. Mary gives story to reporters and in obituary that death was an accident, and few knew of clinic visit / EST. Harry Cuzzumano visits and is told by Mary. Hmmn.

//

Alas, apparently that story of Hadley losing his early work on the train is not entirely true, or so a July 2017 New Yorker article.

Nothing knew to learn. Except the antics of a one Mr. Cuzzemano. A sad exploration of Hemingway's need to be in love and not being able to quite leave the other behind before marrying the next one.½

A bit too easy reading for me, more like from the romance genre. That maybe because the social circle is full of lazy, superficial, self absorbed and spoilt lot of alchoholics out to steal other people's spouses with not an iota of conscience or responsibility to society or children. I say children because the atmosphere was like children should be seen not heard.i braced myself to get something intellectually out of the book, but the whole time it just drags on and on about the same set of people with no values, but it is not Noami Woods incapability, the subject of the book is such. I have only read Hemingway's short stories ( More than 30 years back) out of which only "snows of Kilimanjaro" comes to mind, and it stayed in my mind, but I wanted to know what the hype about him was about. I will try to read his other works one day.

Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary were the four women who called themselves Mrs. Hemingway. In sections that stretch from Paris in the 1920′s through the Florida Keys to 1960′s Idaho, Naomi Wood relays the stories of the women who loved the infamous writer.

The magic of Mrs. Hemingway is Wood’s ability to make readers feel frustration and spite toward a mistress in one section, but feel empathy toward her as a wife in the next. While each of Hemingway’s wives is set apart with a distinct personality, the impact he has on all of their lives binds them together in a unique way.

“Ernest and the woman laugh as they shelter under the eave until the woman says something and looks ready to leave. Ernest watches her walk away, but his stare is one of accomplishment, as if, later in the night, he will come to possess what he appears to be losing now.”

Mrs. Hemingway‘s prose is stunningly effortless and moves with a lovely, constant cadence. Throughout the novel, Wood finds ways to bring new light to otherwise worn commentary on marriage, particularly in the section from the perspective of Mary as she grieves Hemingway’s death. Though bookstores are well stocked with “Mrs.” and “Wife” titles, Mrs. Hemingway is one that truly deserves to stand apart from the others.

Read more at rivercityreading.com

In an alternate present, England turned to God after the war and the fierce resurgence of Christianity was met by flaming resistance from the Secular Movement. Churches burned and those with the wrong papers were beaten in the streets, until a newly-elected religious government had the confidence to banish the dissenting minority to the Island.

30 years later, the Island depends on English charity to survive. Sarah Wicks slips aboard the second-last boat of the year in search of her mother, who vanished during a second purge 10 years ago and who she has only lately discovered did not, in fact, run off with a man from York. Eliza Michalka is Island-born, working in the brothel to earn her keep after her mother's death left her with nothing, dreams of a better, easier life in England. And Nathaniel Malraux, a shaven-headed youth who fancies himself keeper of the Island's purity, leads his gang of Malades to 'crab' anyone suspected of English or Godly sentiments. When their stories converge, it can't end well.

It's the little details that stand out. The novel is weakest in the heavily-borrowed brush strokes used to paint the context of sectarian division and fascist control in the 50s and 70s. It has its strength in the vignettes of the Islanders such as Mrs Page's secular funeral, the secret words Eliza writes beneath her fringe each morning, and the rather literary love letters Nathaniel's dead father wrote to his wife.

As events inevitably build, Wood walks a fine line, never straying into outright brutality. She is interested in the inner landscapes rather than the outer acts as she paints the early aggressions of a gang who are acquiring a taste for violence. Their fire contrasts with the apathy and loneliness of their parents' generation, many of whom quietly regret the acts that had them banished.

The core of the plot is far from original, but the well-drawn setting and accomplished character work make it better than perhaps it should be. While the loose ending left me somewhat dissatisfied, this remains worth a look. Just make sure you're in a resilient mood when you pick it up.½

This is a well written, insightful, and I imagine historically accurate history of Hemingway's four marriages told from the viewpoint of the wives.

The book was an interesting fictionalisation, and I wonder how much the available information on each woman influenced the way they are portrayed by Naomi Wood. Only Mary Welsh wrote her own memoir. Only Mary Welsh comes across with any warmth.

Hadley Richardson was wife #1. Her tale made me sad, how weak Hemingway was and how accepting of his weakness she was. It didn't make me warm to Hemingway any.

Fife Pfeiffer was wife #2. She was the winner to Hadley's loser. Feistier when it came to her own losing, but still not feisty enough to force Hemingway to grow a pair and stop chasing the thrill of the first flush.

Martha Gellhorn was wife #3. A college-girl crush on a famous writer that turned into codependency via marriage. She is Fife+. More of a match, more her own person, but consequently blind to the inevitable, because she is focused on her own selfish needs, not his. She is neither admirable nor sympathetic. I feel like they deserved each other and nobody should care.

Mary Welsh was the better wife, wife #4. She had the measure of the man, and the man was older. The extraordinary events of the 20th century had their impact, too, it comes across. To live through 2 world wars, the Spanish Civil War and the upheavals of modern life's rapid change meant Mary was a different woman to the previous three wives, and Hemingway a different man, by the time their paths crossed. I liked Mary.

This book is very well written, and the author did a great job of making all of the women in this story distinctive and memorable. She also brings depth and detail to the character of Hemingway himself. Each wife is given her own section of the story, as well as appearing in the stories of the other wives. The most annoying part of this book is the fact that every wife after the first becomes Hemingway's mistress with this blind hope that she'll be the one to tame him. This cycle of mistress, wife, bitter spouse made me extremely annoyed with three of the women. Hemingway doesn't come off much better. I have very little respect for someone who has very little respect for marriage. Aside from the character's moral flaws, a well written and interesting book.

Really enjoyed this book. Reminiscent of The Paris Wife, but it explores all four of Hemingway's marriages - to gentle Hadley Richardson, obsessive Fife, ambitious Martha and sunny Mary.

I loved this book! It was well written and paced well. I had recently read "The Paris Wife" which made we want to read more about the wives of Ernest Hemingway, although I have yet to read any of Hemingway's actual books. I loved delving into the stories of the various wives. My husband and I visited the Hemingway House in Key West a few years ago and I only wish I had had this book to read at that time. I highly recommend it!

In the same vein as The Paris Wife, Mrs. Hemingway tells of life with ERnest Hemingway as seen through the eyes of each of his wives: Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn and Mary Welsh. Hemingway may have been a great writer (although that is debatable to many), but there is no doubt that he was a congenital depressive and an absolute pig to women.

As each of his wives tell her story, a sad and damning portrait of Hemingway emerges - insecure, jealous, self-centered and unwilling to divest himself of his own myth of the swaggering conquering hero. As his ability to write starts to disappear, he drowns himself in drink and depression, ultimately blowing his head off in 1961.

In the end, each of his wives seem to be far better off without him.

The Paris, Key West, Spanish and Idaho Wives
Naomi Wood singlehandedly leaps over the competition with a sequel to The Paris Wife (which was by Paula McLain) that also covers the other wives of Ernest Hemingway although in a shorter format by dedicating roughly ¼ of the book each to Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn and Mary Welsh.

The book is told in succeeding first-person accounts by each of the women, usually at the time of the end of each of their marriages (in Mary Welsh's case after Hemingway's passing) with flashbacks to earlier happier times. Naomi Wood does a great job at capturing the main character of each woman and Kate Reading does an equally fine job at narrating for each of them. Martha Gellhorn comes across as perhaps a bit softer toned than she was reputed to be in real life and Mary Welsh's section is light on the difficulties of the final years, but that just leaves room for future historical fiction accounts. There is at least one completely fictional character that is used to slightly tie the 4 stories together - a book collector / profiteer named Harry Cuzzemano makes cameo appearances throughout while seeking rare Hemingway editions or manuscripts. Perhaps this is a commentary on the greater Hemingway industry which seems to be never ending with the ongoing publication of 20 volumes of letters and new "restored" editions of each of the writer's own works being slowly released as well (A Farewell to Arms & A Moveable Feast so far, and The Sun Also Rises this summer 2014).

There does now seem to be a whole new burgeoning genre of Hemingway inspired historical fiction, whether it is macho stuff like Dan Simmons "The Crook Factory" or the more romance inclined Erika Robuck's "Hemingway's Girl" (where 2nd wife Pauline Pfeiffer plays a large role). As a Hemingway nut I can only say the more the merrier.

When I read [book:The Paris Wife|8683812], a year or so ago, at book's end I was convinced that Ernest Hemingway was a self-centered jerk. This book, detailing the marriages and first meeting swith the man, presented a refreshingly whole picture, one that I felt gave the reader a better and maybe more fair portrait of this complicated author.

I probably knew the least about his last wife Mary and apparently she is the only wife to pen her own memoir about their marriage called [[book:How It Was|2519224]. I loved how Wood told this story, clear and easy to read but with some beautiful passages and insightful words. Each wife has her own section, but many times they overlap. She does skip around a bit, starting each section at the end of the wives marriage and than going back to the beginning. The overlap seemed to be as his life was lived, often wife and mistress were together, especially in the case of Hadley and Fife, and again with Fife and Martha. I had recently finished a book called [book:The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris|18089902] and was happily surprised to find this hotel mentioned in the book, and Martha and Ernest's meeting there. Ernest apparently liberated the wine cellars. Wood has treated all her characters gently and with respect, not taking sides.

After reading this I now find Hemingway a brilliant but tortured man. He never really fell out of love with any of his wives, felt regretful for the way they had ended. He was insecure, wanted attention and drank like a fish. A habit that did not serve his mental illness well and that contributed greatly to his depressed and paranoid state and of course to his eventual death.

There is an afterward but does not detail what was true and what was not, just stating that much of it was true, and much of it was fiction. She does point out particular books to read if the reader is so inclined. All in all I thought she did a wonderful job.

ARC from publisher.

Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood is a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's marriages to four very different women – Hadley, Pauline, Martha, and Mary. It is the story of Ernest Hemingway through the eyes of these women. It is a story of the times from Paris to Key West. It is a story of these four women and what drew them to a man like Ernest Hemingway and of the friendships they found in each other.

Read my complete review at: http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2014/05/mrs-hemingway.html

*** Reviewed based on a copy received through a publisher’s giveaway ***

A fascinating glimpse into a dystopian world where the Church rules England and non-believers have been banished to a small island...I thought this was well written with an engaging style. Disturbing, yet not without hope, the characters are complex and the plot keeps you reading until the end. I wasn't keen on how the book ended though.

This is a story which imagines that English history took an alternative course in the 1950s, being taken over by religious zealots who exiled unbelievers to an island off the north east coast.
I enjoyed the descriptions of what it would be like to live in such a place; these showed real imagination and originality. The island has been established for about 30 years and we are told that at first the islanders enjoyed a hedonistic lifestyle free of any religious judgement, but later settled into a small and small-minded community.
The story is underpinned by many separate stories of love and disappointment - unrequited lovers, petty jealousies, mothers and children, husbands lost at sea. These individual stories were interesting but rather less satisfying than the overall concept.
A well-earned four stars.