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The Rain Before It Falls

Author: Jonathan Coe
Publisher: ISIS Publishing
Category: Book

Buy New: Ł21.94

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

29 reviews

Media: Hardcover
Edition: Large Print Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 266
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8

ISBN: 0753180987
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780753180983
ASIN: 0753180987

Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Also Available In:

•	Paperback - The Rain Before It Falls
•	Hardcover - The Rain Before It Falls
•	Paperback - The Rain Before It Falls (Vintage Contemporaries Vintage Contemporaries)
•	Hardcover - Rain Before it Falls, The
•	Hardcover - The Rain Before It Falls

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Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing male stereo types were not up to the job August 5, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

J Coe is male but he is hard on his own sex - the men in this book are not the best. Perhaps one or two are ok types but they lie low. The big secret of Rosamund is not so very shocking and the only thing slightly iffy is whether she did did do what Beatrix thought she saw her do.. Ungrateful, damaged, hard and frightening women abound, luckily slightly to the left of the Executrice herself. A multi layered story that was worth the telling with plenty of delightful period detail to set the scenes. Satisfying and enjoyable, the dissection of various mother / daughter relationships was worth the trouble. The setting out of their feelings was accepting and understanding. I went on thinking about it all afterwards (read it overnight) and will read it again less hurriedly to enjoy the writing.

2 out of 5 stars

not a bad holiday read August 1, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

not a patch on house of sleep, what a carve up or rotters club. however the photographic descriptions made compelling reading. what was disappointing was the poor and somewhat twee ending; i've got to hand it to coe because he tied up all those loose ends but there wasn't much of a twist in the tale and was a little predictable. don't buy it, borrow it from your library, if only for a holiday read.

3 out of 5 stars

Ian McEwan it's not July 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Whilst I enjoyed this book in some senses and indeed managed to read it very quickly, I did find it somewhat one dimensional. The plot itself is absorbing, with its focus on the ripple effect of one generation on another. However I felt that, apart from Rosamund, the main narrator, you never really get a proper insight of the characters (who were perhaps more interesting), partially due to the premise of the novels narrative construction - an old lady looking back on her past with the help of a series of photographs and literally talking through each picture. There is no real dialogue, and it is all told from the perspective of the present looking back. I would have liked to know more about some of the other main characters Beatrix, Imogen and Rebecca, and to have heard their 'voices' a bit more. An enjoyable but slightly unsatisfying read.

5 out of 5 stars

poignant and emotionally engaging July 29, 2008
This is a wonderful novel, very different from Coe's other work in many ways but written with characteristic ease and unaffected emotional intensity. I loved it and felt bereft when it ended.
The conceit of telling the tale through descriptions of a collection of old photographs was clever - it allowed Coe to reveal the story as a series of vignettes, each one taken from a slightly different perspective and each one adding a different quality of detail.
I rate Coe as one of the finest authors of our time. What impressed me almost more than anything in this novel was how he was able to write about the female experience with such veracity. Some of his other works are funnier and more intricate in plot but this was an absolute joy in a totally different way.

2 out of 5 stars

disappointing July 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Having read other reviews I expected a lot more of this book than it delivered. I felt it tried to cram too much into too small a space. Lacked depth and just felt dreary to me. Sorry. Haven't read any other Jonathan Coe novels. Wouldn't be put off completely as I believe this may not be typical of his usual writing. Rotter's club sounds like a good title!