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Moon Tiger Penelope Lively 9780802135339 Books

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Moon Tiger Penelope Lively 9780802135339 Books

After so many stellar reviews for this extraordinary Booker Prize winning novel,
I am reluctant to write yet another.

However, as the story feels very personal on a variety of levels,
I am compelled to write my admiration for this superb book, and the affect it has on me.

My English parents were in the British Army in the Middle East, and I was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1944.

Only recently I learnt my biological father was not my father who brought me up, but an RCAF pilot,
who died before the war ended.

I have not been able to find his family name, but his first name was Charles.

He was “Tom Southern” in Moon Tiger.

My mother had many traits of “Cecilia Hampton” and shortly before she died in 2014,
my mother left a leather bound volume of handwritten letters from Dad during the final years of the war.

No doubt Dad was very surprised his future bride had suddenly a son which he had not fathered, but he brought me up as his own, and I never knew otherwise.

Ms. Lively’s wonderfully evocative book has helped me fill in some of the gaps,
to experience how Cairo was then, the atmosphere of wartime, and how I came to be in this world.

Thank you, Dame Penelope.


Tags : Moon Tiger [Penelope Lively] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div><B>Winner of the Man Booker Prize and Shortlisted for the Golden Man Booker Prize</B><BR><BR>The elderly Claudia Hampton,Penelope Lively,Moon Tiger,Grove Press,0802135331,Literary,British - Egypt,Egypt,Historical fiction,Psychological fiction,Terminally ill,Women historians,World War, 1939-1945 - Egypt,World War, 1939-1945;Egypt;Fiction.,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Coming of Age,GENERAL,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction,POPULAR ENGLISH FICTION,United States,World War, 1939-1945

Moon Tiger Penelope Lively 9780802135339 Books Reviews

Penelope Lively's approach to history seen through the eyes of an older woman who is dying brings the readers awareness to the way all of us replay our histories, as a kalidescope, past and present overlapping and intercepting. A story of love, and war, unusual characters, and a vivid world view make this a jewel of a story.
The book is not easy as it describes the last days of an elderly lady, with details that reminded me of my late mom. It is bouncing between past and present, hence showing the heroine from different angles. As all Lively books, the characters are deep, complex, interesting. I loved the book.
This is a brilliantly conceived and written novel of an elderly woman historian and author who revisits her life and a tragic love affair in Egypt with a British officer during World War II. Time shifts in this novel and the concepts of time and memory are explored. Claudia Hampton isn't a sympathetic figure, but she's an interesting, intelligent and occasionally humorous character so much can be forgiven. But you may not care for, or about, her much. I enjoyed Penelope Lively's more recent and buoyant novel HOW IT ALL BEGAN better, but this one is so well-written, it is worth reading even if you aren't in sympathy with its protagonist.
When I first started this novel, I thought it jumped around rather chaotically, but then I realized that it was cleverly written like the mind of someone of advanced age who was dying. As it moved from present to past and back again, you began to see what Claudia's life had been. I found the descriptions of life in Cairo during World War II fascinating, as well as the British battles with Rommel. Very good book!
First off, I hate that asks "Is there violence", as if that would sell the book. Yes there is, but it is a war story, so you can't expect a Disney fantasy, and the violence is not for the gratification of prurient desires, or 'entertainment'. The same is true with sexual content. This is about adults, and adults do make love. That said, Moon Tiger is one of the most captivating books I've read in a long time. Claudia, the basic protagonist is a professor of history, which is her life in this tale, which, at first, appears to be an autobiography. The conceit of the author, and the narrator, is that our world is not just that which goes on in our own minds, but also in other's conceptions of us. This is the fabric which makes us whole. Some episodes are thus repeated in the viewpoint of another person engaged in the scene. Lively uses this device with precision, that goes deep into the psyche of Claudia. At times we view her with disfavor, but, like a true acquaintance, the reader also sees her with affection. Lively won the Booker Prize for this book, and deserves it without reservation.
Gorgeously written, Moon Tiger is at once a rumination on the nature of memory and an inquiry into how we make sense of the past both the larger scale events of history as well as the smaller episodes comprising our own lives. Lyrical and reflective in tone and style, it is the kind of book you want to read slowly to savor the lushness of the writing and the thoughtfulness of its ideas.
Penelope Lively is a modern British writer. Moon Tiger is one of her best, written in 1997. The book opens when Claudia is in her seventies and dying in a nursing home. Then there is a series of flashbacks to her life.

She's a wild and wonderful character from an upscale British home, battling with her brother in her childhood, and battling with everyone else after that. Yes, Claudia has a strong personality and there is nothing soft or sweet about her. She's a hard-boiled journalist who gets caught up in the winds of history, living in Egypt during WWII and writing about it with a sharp and realistic tongue and indulging in a love affair that ends in tragedy.

Her life is her career and she certainly is nonconventional. She is a mother of a daughter conceived with a Russian boyfriend who she was not intent on marrying. She's not a good mother in any sense of the word, leaving her daughter's upbringing to her own mother and being rather abrupt and unfeeling with the child.

Perhaps the best part of the book is her reportage of the War in Egypt. Usually books about WWII do not go into this aspect in much detail. However, her words makes it come alive. Her personality comes alive too. She is anarchistic, neurotic and filled with her own self-importance. Frankly, she is not a likable character. But she is real, very real and frankly, I loved her.

I enjoyed this book. It took me to a time and a place in history that I found fascinating. And I loved the view of history through the personal lens of this writer.
After so many stellar reviews for this extraordinary Booker Prize winning novel,
I am reluctant to write yet another.

However, as the story feels very personal on a variety of levels,
I am compelled to write my admiration for this superb book, and the affect it has on me.

My English parents were in the British Army in the Middle East, and I was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1944.

Only recently I learnt my biological father was not my father who brought me up, but an RCAF pilot,
who died before the war ended.

I have not been able to find his family name, but his first name was Charles.

He was “Tom Southern” in Moon Tiger.

My mother had many traits of “Cecilia Hampton” and shortly before she died in 2014,
my mother left a leather bound volume of handwritten letters from Dad during the final years of the war.

No doubt Dad was very surprised his future bride had suddenly a son which he had not fathered, but he brought me up as his own, and I never knew otherwise.

Ms. Lively’s wonderfully evocative book has helped me fill in some of the gaps,
to experience how Cairo was then, the atmosphere of wartime, and how I came to be in this world.

Thank you, Dame Penelope.