Reason Read: TIOLI, ROOT
Been on the shelf since 2020, Indispensable book Powell
Story of an actress told by her daughter. It is an in depth look at mother/daughter relationships. There is a lot of sexual detail in this book but it actually is well done. ( )

Wow! Unputdownable!!!
How has this woman got inside my marriage, my parenting my being a child my watching my mother die. An extraordinary work. Funny and moving and so so observant. Absolutely brilliant!! ( )

As much as I love the theatre, there were references to plays and actors that I honestly couldn’t differentiate between which were real and fake, but that isn’t a fault, mind you. The writer’s passion for her home country of Ireland shines on the pages, with lush descriptions of the landscape and the Irish way of life.⁣ ( )

I had to try twice to read this book, and I love historical fiction. It took me so long to get through it the time I did manage to finish. It was boring at times, but Enrights writing was brilliant enough to finally get me through. I guess what bothers me, was that I was supposed to feel something for Norah, and I didn’t. I just don’t see how a few moments of witnessing an eccentric mother could shape her into what she was? The relationship just didn’t seem compelling enough, or maybe it just wasn’t deep enough. Usually, historical fiction draws a much stronger emotion out of me, but this story left me flat. ( )

(7.5)I am struggling to rate this book. For myself, it got off to a slow start.
Norah Fitzmaurice, a novelist, is approached to do an interview on her mother, the late Katherine O'Dell. She was a well-known and beloved actress in Ireland in her twenties and thirties. But how do you describe your perception of your mother when it is so very different to the public perception of this glamorous icon?
Norah's husband suggests that she researches and writes her own book. So Norah sets out to uncover the truth about her mother's life, from her birth until her death in her fifties, by which time she had been diagnosed with mental health problems, following a shooting incident.
Norah had always considered she had a close loving relationship with her mother, despite her many absences when performing in theatre or movie sets.
However, her research reveals that there was much she kept hidden from Norah. The biggest secret being who Norah's birth father was.
I often struggle to engage in books about the acting scene and stardom, as it holds little interest for me. The book improved, I felt, when Norah recounts her own sexual awakening and personal life. The book reads like a memoir and I did check to see if it was at all autobiographical, but no it is pure fiction, so in this sense it is a convincing portrayal of perhaps how little one knows about someone whom one considers to be close. ( )