Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but flawed.
Review: This book is a page-turner, but it did not deserve the Booker Prize. While the poetry was quite impressive, the prose was often awkward and stilted. This was distracting, but not distracting enough to stop me from finishing the book!
Rating: 
Summary: A rewarding experience for the heart and mind...
Review: Ms. Byatt creates a finely woven literary tapestry in which strands of poetic remembrances from a forgotten romance are interwoven with the prosaic realities of her heros' academically stimulating but emotionally bereft lives. As rivetting as the characters' relationships become as the plot develops, it is being a part of a forbidden secret unfolding that creates the ultimate seduction for the reader.
Some may be put off by Possession's verbosity initially. Ms. Byatt does seem to embrace her adjectives and then wallow around on the floor with them. But her effusive descriptions create a world appropriate to the intellectuals-- both past and present-- who reside within it. For a reader who appreciates the intricacies of both the heart and mind, Possession is a literary experience not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Complex, intellectual, and satisfying beyond all expectation
Review: Byatt has shown talent before, but here she is simply brilliant. Set in the 1980s, the story is about two scholars who discover that the writers they are studying had secret liaisons. Their search for the details and answers to this mystery lead them through a series of intense intellectual and emotional adventures, always contrasting back and forth between their developing relationship and that of their scholarly prey. The balance of Byatt's character portrayals is especially gratifying; while the tone of the book is definitely feminist, there is no male/female typecasting. There are, in fact, no heroes or villains: only heroic and villainous acts, by fallible, inconsistent humans. The fictitious writers, Randolph Ash and Christabel LaMotte, are incredibly romantic 19th century characters. Byatt creates for each of them a body of works; for Ash, genuine, complex poetry; for LaMotte, complex and pithy fairy tales. In fact, the poetry is so good that I suspected it was copied. I was wrong; Byatt is that good. And if I still haven't sold you, I will add that there are scenes here of breathtaking erotic sensuality. Nothing graphic (give it a PG rating), but ooh wow! erotic.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing!
Review: At the time, I was a Senior at Boston University taking 2 literature classes, totalling 14 novels to be read in 4 months. I didn't need another book to read, but I picked up Possession at a used bookstore. From the very beginning, I was entranced. The mystery of what Roland found in the vault at the Bristish Museum and what it would unfold intrigued me...the ghosts had come alive. The web so intricately spun between the characters served as a trap; I was caught in the lives of the poets and the academics, their loves and searchings. But moreso than a trap, Possession was a refuge.
The voices of Byatt are myriad and incredibly believable. She is a centuries-old male poet, a writer of fairy poems and stories, a literary telescope into the British countryside, a frustrated Post-Doc, and a woman professor that has never quite been understood. Possession is an amazing literary experience, full of love and mystery. It is a TREASURE.
Rating:
Summary: Once you get in, it doesn't let you go
Review: I had come back to work after a week's vacation in Cape Cod, mostly spent on a patio reading, when my boss came in to chat. (Unusual; he's a nice guy but not keen on chatting about non-work matters) Talk turned to books. I told him about what I read on vacation and then he asked what my favorite book was. "Possession by A.S. Byatt", I answered. "It takes a while to get into, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I was continuing to read it. Maybe because it won the Booker Prize, I just wasn't sure. But once I reached the letters discovered by the two researchers, it became a page-turner. I was straining to read it in the dark when the train I was on went into a tunnel, because I simply could not put it down. Definitely the most satisfying reading experience of my life". My boss had similar feelings (although not about reading it while a train went into a tunnel). He recalled a lengthy passage where every single type of flower in a field is described. Enough already, he wanted to say, I understand!! But then he later realized, he had a perfect, vivid picture in his mind's eye of that field of flowers. I guarantee that, after reading this book, you will be left with your own version of my boss' field of flowers in your mind's eye
Rating:
Summary: An intelligent novel focused upon the power of possession.
Review: A.S. Byatt's novel is a superbly intelligent and absorbing story of the power of possession. Byatt's intense literary power is elegantly displayed in "Possession" as this is a story which engages both the intellectual and romantic side of her readers. This novel, although slightly heavy at times, is accessable to a wide range of readers and quickly draws the reader into the lives of the characters. Once inside the pages of "Possession,"
this novel carries you on a wonderful journey as two people retrace the history of two lovers as they slowly come to discover their own. "Possession" will leave your mind entranced and heart warmed.
Rating:
Summary: a literary adventure
Review: I'm always surprised when someone doesn't like
this book. Our book group is reading it (at my
instigation) for our next meeting and I can
scarcely wait to hear their opinions. I read it
during a snow-storm and 10-day power outage (on
Orcas Island) and was enthralled. It has mystery,
adventure, and romance -- all the elements that
exist in the everyday page-turner, but here they
are presented in a graceful, literary format. I
have since re-read it and enjoyed the writing even
more, once I wasn't so caught up in the plot (and
so cold I could scarcely feel my toes). I highly
recommend it. It deserves the Booker Prize and
more!
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to like this book
Review: I really did, and kept reading it even though I found it and the characters lifeless. It won the Booker Prize! Shouldn't it have been a little less predictable? A little less tiresome? But I did read it through to the end and finally found a lovely passage -- the piece about the braided hair. A Booker author should give us that level of beauty for more than just one or two pages . . .
Rating:
Summary: Stunningly subtle twists that lead to an unsuspected ending.
Review: I rarely read fiction these days (not much time, as a graduate student), but I read "Possession" at the instigation of a friend of mine, who was having trouble "getting into" the book. I managed to stick with it, through the first couple of chapters -- and then I was hooked. "Possession" is a stunningly subtle, well-crafted novel, and if you stick with the rather slow beginning, I promise you a tantalising journey (and it IS a journey!) through the rest of the book. Very, very clever. This is the kind of novel/romance that I like to read -- none of your slobbering heroines or muscular male icons. THIS novel gives your brain a most satisfying meal! Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: A Masterfully Constructed Romance
Review: A. S. Byatt's Possession is a masterfully constructed novel.
Two Victorian epic poets fall in love; two twentieth century
scholars, trying to interpret their poems, are drawn into their affair. Byatt has invented all the Victorian poetry, and she serves it up in portions which contain the literary clues that the scholars, and you, the reader, are searching for. A wealth of details, among them a lime-green Volkswagen, link the Victorian characters to the contemporary ones. Thus, the novel is a double mystery, a double romance, a beautifully formed story.
|
