Spoiler alert! This post refers to the ending of the novel!
In response to Anna's interest in Twitterature, here is my tweet regarding Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale:
Bookseller and biographer, who lost her own twin at birth, discovers the family secret of a famous twin author, allowing her to die in peace (137 characters).
Mine is not very interesting. It doesn't feel much different from the punchy sentences used to promote books. Let me try again:
How I ache for my twin lost at birth. I wonder how this famous author lives without her twin? (spoiler alert!) Aha, she’s not a twin! (133 characters)
That's a little more dramatic, coming from main character Margaret Lea's perspective.
In response to Anna's interest in Twitterature, here is my tweet regarding Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale:
Bookseller and biographer, who lost her own twin at birth, discovers the family secret of a famous twin author, allowing her to die in peace (137 characters).
Mine is not very interesting. It doesn't feel much different from the punchy sentences used to promote books. Let me try again:
How I ache for my twin lost at birth. I wonder how this famous author lives without her twin? (spoiler alert!) Aha, she’s not a twin! (133 characters)
That's a little more dramatic, coming from main character Margaret Lea's perspective.
I enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale and would recommend it to anyone who likes ghost stories, gentle gothic, and literary allusions. I have two criticisms: 1) It did seem a bit plodding. As Emperor Joseph II says to Mozart in the film Amadeus: "There are simply too many notes." Maybe there are too many pages? Maybe that says about as much about Setterfield as it did about Mozart. 2) I do like the unraveling of family secrets but thought there could be a few more clues regarding the outcome buried earlier in the storyline to make the outcome more satisfying. The outcome was kind of deus ex machina somehow.
Works Cited
Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale. New York: Washington Square P, 2006. Print.
Image from: http://www.amazon.com/
I didn't mind the pacing so much and the quality of language was to my liking. But the Post Script was like eating a hardy slow cooked stew only to discover severed human fingers at the bottom of your bowl. The editor should have edited but instead, we all were left with this huge flat disappointment. Or at least I was. It ruined what was a pretty good story. I think Possession by A.S. Byatt captures what The Thirteenth Tale did not. Byatt had an ending worthy of the story.
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