I finished Sky of Stone this week, and it all turned out alright. But I won't spoil it for those of you who might want to read it. I highly recommend it!
I've started on Portobello, a recently published novel by Ruth Rendell, a very prolific writer of mysteries and other fiction. She's a British writer, and her characters tend to be from the working class or the middle class. There's always an element of what our politicians like to call "class warfare" that's central to the plot. The British are well versed in class struggle, having dealt with it for most of their nation's existence. We inherited it from them, but we like to think that somehow we rose above it when we split from them. And those of us who don't have to confront it every day believe that if they just don't speak of it that it will go away.
But Ruth Rendell has a way of rubbing our noses in it, to the point that some of her characters are quite unlikable and unattractive. But despite that, Rendell keeps me reading to find out what's going to happen to them. I guess I'm hoping they will surprise me with a quality that redeems them in the end.
Portobello is the name of a street where the classes meet--it's on the edge of a nice neighborhood, but is also a place where petty criminals can be found. The novel brings together a variety of people who come from different backgrounds and whose paths cross, quite by accident. There's an ominous tone to the action as the disparate threads draw together. Something bad is going to happen--or so it seems. I'll find out before long, as I'm about two-thirds of the way through.
I'll let you know next time how things turn out for these unattractive denizens of 21st century London.
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