The House on Fortune Street: A Novel

The House on Fortune Street: A Novel
by Margot Livesey

The House on Fortune Street: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Margot Livesey
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-01
ISBN: 0061451525
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper

Book Reviews of The House on Fortune Street: A Novel

Book Review: The House on Fortune Street
Summary: 2 Stars

I read this book for our book group and I have to say I really didn't like it. I found myself not really caring about any of the characters. I usually love when a writer switches points of view but here I think it didn't work. The beginning was promising but when she switched to telling the story from each character she lost momentum and I found myself not caring. I only finished it to meet with the group. By the end there really wasn't a resolution and it then seemed rushed. Maybe she had to meet the deadline but there were too many loose ends that needed fleshing out.

Summary of The House on Fortune Street: A Novel

It seems like mutual good luck for Abigail Taylor and Dara MacLeod when they meet at St. Andrews University and, despite their differences, become fast friends. Years later they remain an unlikely pair. Abigail, an actress who confidently uses her charms both on- and offstage, believes herself immune to love. Dara, a counselor, is convinced that everyone is inescapably marked by childhood; she throws herself into romantic relationships with frightening intensity. Yet now each seems to have found "true love"?another stroke of luck??Abigail with her academic boyfriend, Sean, and Dara with a tall, dark violinist named Edward, who literally falls at her feet. But soon after Dara moves into Abigail's downstairs apartment, trouble threatens both relationships, and their friendship.

For Abigail it comes in the form of an anonymous letter to Sean claiming that she's been unfaithful; for Dara, a reconciliation with her distant father, Cameron, who left the family when Dara was ten, reawakens complicated feelings. Through four ingeniously interlocking narratives?Sean's, Cameron's, Dara's, and Abigail's?we gradually understand how these characters' lives are shaped by both chance and determination. Whatever the source, there is no mistaking the tragedy that strikes the house on Fortune Street.

"Everyone," claims Abigail, "has a book or a writer who's the key to their life." As this statement reverberates through each of the narratives, Margot Livesey skillfully reveals how luck?good and bad?plays a vital role in our lives, and how the search for truth can prove a dangerous undertaking. Written with her characteristic elegance and wit, The House on Fortune Street offers a surprisingly provocative detective story of the heart.

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