the book of lost and found by lucy foley

Here's a taste of the cliches which form the plot of this holiday read: 1920s and the Bright Young Things, budding artist falling in love with daughter of wealthy family, capital cities, illegitimacy and adoption, wartime, Paris, the Resistance, beautiful men and 'fierce' women (the author's favourite adjective). And despite letting both Kate and Tom narrate in the first person (and the same voice), I didn't connect with either generation (although I am thankful for the small mercy of Kate and Oliver's predictable outcome being left largely to the imagination).

The cover and blurb suggest a Jojo Moyes-style then-and-now story of wartime love, but what Lucy Foley delivers is more watered-down Harlequin romance than historical fiction. Nice, in my opinion, that the author resisted temptations that could have reshaped the ending.Tags: first-novel-or-book, made-me-look-something-up, read, rounded-up-in-star-rating, taught-me-something Read more It was a product of this story, but not the focus of this story. And I also applaud the almost afterthought of how the relationship with Kate and Oliver panned out. Their story continues to be a love story, even though it didn't have the traditional ending. But though they each had loss and disappointment, and lived without the other, they each had full lives, filled with love (though maybe not a 'great love'.) They had family, friends, careers, and memories. Both Tom and Alice continued to love each other their entire lives, recognizing the other as their one great love. In a fairy tale world Alice and Tom would have ended with them being reunited, but Foley didn't yield to the happily ever after that some might crave, and for this, I applaud her. ***(You were warned: Spoiler alert) One of the things I liked best about this book was the end. I appreciate it when a book expands my viewpoint and my knowledge. The narrative floats between Kate's story in 1986 and that of the artist and of the woman in the sketch, the illusive Alice/Celia from the 1920's through WWII. Kate begins a quest for the woman, which first brings her to the artist, and to the island of Corsica.

Part of this hint includes a drawing from 1929 of a young woman, who bears a striking familial resemblance. But shortly before her her grandmother died, she revealed a hint to the identify of Kate's actual grandmother, her mother's birthmother. Poor Kate has lost both her mother, a famous ballerina/choreographer, and her grandmother (actually her mother's adoptive mother) within a year. (And I will give a slight spoiler alert at the end, so stop reading when you next see 3 stars like this: ***). There was a lot to like in this book: art, love, history, intertwined tales, Corsica for starters.

The book of lost and found by lucy foley