Temples of Delight

Rating:
Summary: Amusing Beautifully Written Tale!
Review: Don't miss this one! Mainly about the lives of school girls in modern England, with enough eccentrics and quirks to keep you smiling throughout, with nice Mozartian references, not to mention PG Wodehouse, "The Leopard", Oxford, aging hippies,and several disorganized, but loving families. The heroine's mixed up love life is mostly amusing, though it does seem to hit a strange wall with the very odd Giavanni at the end. Still, this is miles ahead of most popular fiction out there,and worth re-reading too!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but not her best
Review: I confess that at the halfway point in this sometimes absorbing and certainly thought-provoking story, I was becoming rather angry at young Alice for being such a doormat, especially regarding men. She's very much the sort of person whom things happen to, rather than taking the lead in her own life. She seems to live in the objective tense. And the sudden advent of her neurotic personality has not very convincing roots. In fact, none of the characters are particularly likeable: Jem is certainly a tragic figure, but she's unreliable and mendacious and seems to make the worst of her life. Flora is also rather tragic, but she's a cold fish, ungrateful for Alice's friendship and self-absorbed. Roland is a polite bigot, unshakeable in his assumed superiority to practically everyone. Matthew is opportunistic and shallow. Giovanni is extremely demanding and manipulative, regardless of the fact that the author portrays him as being sincerely in love with Alice. Alice's parents -- possibly the least objectionable people in the book -- are nevertheless bigoted in their own way and assume that money can buy anything. Iona is the most annoying sort of ignorant adolescent and an intellectual thief as well. But despite all this, Trapido succeeds yet again in involving you in the story. I don't think this one is anything like as good as _Brother of the More Famous Jack_ or _The Travelling Hornplayer,_ but even so it's worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Not my favorite from Trapido
Review: I must agree with another reviewer who stated that while pretty good, this novel is not her best effort (that would be "Brother of the More Famous Jack" and "The Travelling Hornplayer") I never found the characters in this novel to be as engaging as in her other works. Our main character Alice while intellegent and lovely, is so easily swayed by the men in her life I was beginning to think she was incapable of knowing her own mind. And the men in her life....ugh, I was having a hard time deciding who was more obnoxious, the foppish "my poppet" Roland, the "marry the bosses daughter" Matthew, or the egomanical Giovanni. By the end of the novel I was hopeful for Alice but something about Giovanni.....Hmm.

Rating:
Summary: A true delight
Review: I really loved this book. I could never tell quite where it was going but I loved where it ended up. One reviewer on this site commented that he was tired of Alice being a doormat for men, but I could easily see why she would be this way. Her development into a person with enough self-confidence to assert herself is an imporant part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably good.
Review: I started my Trapido obsession when "The Travelling Hornplayer" came into the bookshop where I work on weekends. After reading that (with bated breath) I ordered each and every other books by this wonder that I could find. So, even after reading the 'series' out of sequence, I can hereby state that is one of the best bunches of books around. "Temples of Delight" appealed to me a bit more, maybe, than even the others; I always was a bit of a sucker for a school story, which the story of Jem and Alice starts out as. Plus, the enchanting scraps of "The Divine Miss Davidine Delight," Jem's novel, are just gorgeous. I can picture Iona Morgan cacking herself as she reads it in Alice's room. The characters on the whole are very easy to visualise, which for me is a big indication of the author's abilities. Even more than that, you find yourself yelling at Roland, "Stop it, you twit!" and at Joe, "You complete jammy bas*ard!" (isn't he AWFUL!) and feeling so sorry for little Alice. And then, she's so happy, and you can believe she deserves her happiness. In the series as a whole, I love the Shakespearean twists (not quite the second son of Sir Rowland de Boys, however) and the way everyone pairs off, in the most unlikely couples. Reading through each book, you come across linkages and cross-linkages you utterly weren't expecting. Magnificent. I can't say enough nice things about this book, this series, this author. I can't wait for the next one! (I think its to be called "Having Sex With Stravinsky" and is due sometime in 2001. Or before, if we all wish hard enough.) Read on!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably good.
Review: I started my Trapido obsession when "The Travelling Hornplayer" came into the bookshop where I work on weekends. After reading that (with bated breath) I ordered each and every other books by this wonder that I could find. So, even after reading the 'series' out of sequence, I can hereby state that is one of the best bunches of books around. "Temples of Delight" appealed to me a bit more, maybe, than even the others; I always was a bit of a sucker for a school story, which the story of Jem and Alice starts out as. Plus, the enchanting scraps of "The Divine Miss Davidine Delight," Jem's novel, are just gorgeous. I can picture Iona Morgan cacking herself as she reads it in Alice's room. The characters on the whole are very easy to visualise, which for me is a big indication of the author's abilities. Even more than that, you find yourself yelling at Roland, "Stop it, you twit!" and at Joe, "You complete jammy bas*ard!" (isn't he AWFUL!) and feeling so sorry for little Alice. And then, she's so happy, and you can believe she deserves her happiness. In the series as a whole, I love the Shakespearean twists (not quite the second son of Sir Rowland de Boys, however) and the way everyone pairs off, in the most unlikely couples. Reading through each book, you come across linkages and cross-linkages you utterly weren't expecting. Magnificent. I can't say enough nice things about this book, this series, this author. I can't wait for the next one! (I think its to be called "Having Sex With Stravinsky" and is due sometime in 2001. Or before, if we all wish hard enough.) Read on!

Rating:
Summary: Why isn't this author more well-known?
Review: I worked backwards, first reading The Travelling Hornplayer, before I read this. A measure of a good book for me is whether or not I think about the characters when I am not reading, and how much I enjoy them--for good or bad--when I am reading. It is delightful to finally see Alice get away from Roland "my poppet" Dent and head back to Jem. This is a book well worth reading! Go and find all of Trapido's books, you won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: This is a GREAT book
Review: It's amazing what she does! I'm in awe. Noah's Ark is great too - I'd highly recommend it, and all the others. This one is my favorite.

Rating:
Summary: A book for all
Review: Temples of Delight is a garish, brash romp through female friendship and the ensuing ups and downs of such relationships. Walking through the hills of Iceland would barely prepare one for the yo yo lifestyle that alice faces as she goes from boarding school to the urban jungle and, finally, to Bangladesh where she baptizes her adopted baby in a ceremony that Trapido brings alive with such prose that I guarantee you will be moved to tears. Every woman and her best friend should read this book and savor the everlasting bond of enduring female friendhip that comes with it.

Rating:
Summary: Read this gem first, then all her others ASAP!
Review: What could be a better pleasure than finding a modern fairy tale of a very smart book that has sequels, and whose sequels intertwine with other unique but sequalized books by the same genius author? Sure, it is unlikely that so many lives like these should each contain such drama and beauty and then miraculously meet characters from previous books, but what fun, what romanticism! Finally, an intelligent person's serial novel. Is anyone else distracted by the fact that every A-level character ends up at Oxbridge? Can't people go to U of Sheffield or wherever and still be glorious? And why did the Italian branch of the family get such little mention? Or - maybe a new book will address them! Write more, Ms Trapido!