A time piece

I enjoyed this book very much. Howard’s characters live in a moral universe I don’t fully understand, but like being there with them for their collective journeys.

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strange but interesting

I think this was actually, inadvertently, a novel about the effects of childhood sexual abuse really. There is some evidence, I have read, that girls who are sexually abused as children struggle with their total powerlessness in that situation. As they develop into puberty they can sometimes learn to use their bodies and desirability in a transactional sort of way, to get things they want, often just affection. If you see Arabella in this light perhaps her choices make more sense. She is the only one not driven by lust, certainly not for him anyway, she just wants him to like her and assumes (correctly) that he will want her. perhaps the relationship with Anne is more romantic and deeply felt, but ultimately she just wants to be in their marriage in a way she never can. The sideline of the despair of Janet... is this supposed to foretell her future somehow? interesting. The only point that bothered me was that the day after the abortion, when she confesses that she bleeds through far more sanitary towels than she imagined she would need, she dresses in white jeans! As if!

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Nothing much happens but unputdownable

Would you consider the audio edition of Odd Girl Out to be better than the print version?

Yes. There is a lot of minutiae in Elizabeth Howard books, which give great richness in an audiobook but might be tempted to skip in print.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Most interested in the husband

Which character – as performed by Eleanor Bron – was your favourite?

The odd girl out. I had expected to find her very irritating but the narrator brought empathy to her role

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not so much emotional as stimulating. Very interesting 'read'.

Any additional comments?

Eleanor Bron is a fantastic narrator. I often find women narrators have dreadful hissing or whistling 'S's which drives me up the wall. Eleanor Bron both knows how to talk properly and brings great depth to the characters and description.

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10 people found this helpful

Wonderful story.

Wonderful use of language to tell the story.
You can really imagine Ann Edmund and Arabella.

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Totally Absorbing

Wonderfully Read by a brilliant narrator. Heartbreaking story impossible to put down. Such cruelty. Multilayered and satisfying.

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Great story beautifully read

I enjoyed the detail, the people, the tangled web of deceit and truth. Elisabeth Jane Howard is my favourite author.

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Different

I’m undecided on this. Half vacuous characters. I’ve listened twice and still don’t really understand the value of the sun story. Not bad, not one of her best.

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1 person found this helpful

Wonderful

As always with E J Howard the story is enthralling and the writing first class I love books written in the time and style they are set in The reading was also excellent I shed a few tears and am so pleased that women's lives are better in the present

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1 person found this helpful

What a delicious freeze frame of the 70''s, Joy!

I dithered over getting this for a long time due to negative reviews but finally took the plunge and can safely say "Come on in the water is delicious!"
I thoroughly enjoyed this trip in the time machine to a completely different age where one day seemed to last about a week with the amount of things people got done - picking raspberries, cracking crab, aspicing things with a basil (I think) leaf. Wow it was such a journey to a gentler time.
For those people who reviewed saying how could a happy couple be open to distraction?
Obviously you have never been in a long time relationship, happy or otherwise!
I found this to be such a tender story and so beautifully written in any age but all that delicious seventies style pizazz - the trouser suits, the hair styling, the endless food prep all pure gold.
The dark backstory and the careless business trip all counterbalanced the domesticity to perfection and I drank it all like a fabulous retro cocktail.
I think this is one of the few audiobooks which I will listen to again as such a delicious trip to another world and the intriguing psychology of a relationship and the cracks one never knows are there until they are tested by temptation.
A very modern tale set in the gorgeous glamour of yesteryear.
Total vibe - I loved it!

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6 people found this helpful

Masterful character insight and exquisite prose

This was my first Howard and won't be my last. I found the prose beautiful and the sense of character remarkable. Sterling performance by the narrator too.

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