Product Description

Jennifer is in solitary confinement. Through the world of memory and imagination she lives in, two stories emerge; her romantic relationship with a jazz musician and the link this has with her imprisonment, and the experiences she imagines her ancestor has whilst bound for Botany Bay.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #363016 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Nick Hornby, Sunday Times
'Brilliant .. seductive and assured'

Independent on Sunday
'Glaister's rounded gift is to show life as it really is'

Times Literary Supplement
'Glaister is particularly good at evoking the all-pervading unease of people who want to forget their ill deeds but can't'

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, dismal and compelling
I have become quite a fan of Lesley Glaister since picking up Honour Thy Father a few months ago, and Partial Eclipse doesn't disappoint.

It's the story of two women from one family, separated by time, but brought together by circumstances. During a week of solitary confinement, Jenny tells not only her own story, the events leading up to her incarceration, but also the story of Peggy, an ancestor transported to Australia for stealing a peacock.

Glaister, as always is immensely readable, the stories of these two women seem to tumble forward with a momentum of their own and the characters are all vividly drawn.

I would suggest if you're thinking of reading Partial Eclipse that you first read Digging To Australia - it's not necessary, but it is a prequel, and the events of Digging To Australia are recalled in Partial Eclipse.

Full of life and feeling
This novel opens with a woman in a prison cell but it is not until the very last pages that we learn how she got there. The writing is very good, well-paced, strong and evocative. We learn about her affair as a very young girl, with a married man, but Glaister transcends the conventions with her adroit characterisations which allow for eccentricity and for the depth of feeling she can encompass. There is little that is predictable in this most predictable of situations, but it does become a salutary warning along the way, though I am not sure what the moral might be, or even if there is one. As pure story, it is electrifyingly readable, however, and full of life and feeling, as she moves easily between the modern day story and that of an ancestor of the protagonist who was deported to Australia for attempting to steal a peacock. Glaister's measured, clear, persuasive prose makes this a compelling read.