A Favorite of the Gods
by Sybille Bedford
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sybille BedfordEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-09-18
ISBN: 1582431582
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Counterpoint
Book Reviews of A Favorite of the Gods
Book Review: Revisiting a favorite theme
Summary: 4 Stars
Most of Bedford's work--I've read a lot of it--circles around a favorite theme--that time between the wars in Europe, when there was almost complete freedom of movement, and many people seemed to live very well on very little money, relying on the generosity of wealthy friends. "A Compass Error" and "Jigsaw" are her best and most autobiographical, but I find the further she strays from her own life story the murkier things get. In this novel, Constanza is the daughter of an American heiress and an Italian prince, who finds her life upended when her mother self-destructs after discovering the Prince's long-standing affair. Constanza moves to London and grows up to become very beautiful, intelligent, a little wild, and quite self-absorbed. She seems oddly without anchor--she marries a man she doesn't love, has a child without seeming to notice, and is then devastated when her husband divorces her because she never loved him. Constanza gets another chance with a different man, but throws it away. For me it was as if I observed this from a distance--I never really understood Constanza's motives. Her mother Anna also confused me--I never quite had a handle on how wealthy she really was or wasn't, despite a great deal of discussion on the subject of money. And I never really figured out what Anna's "problem" was. Bedford is a beautiful writer and I love the picture of the world between the wars that she paints, and for that I give this book a 4, but her characters were disturbingly vague, and the book left me oddly disatisfied.
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