Joanna

by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán

Book Overview

Written by the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Gregory Award, this family drama features a trinity of women bound by compulsion and secrecy. Joanna, an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881846902
• ISBN13: 9780881846904
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 260 Pages

Customer Reviews

A three-generation saga of pain

It has just occurred to me that this book (1990) has a similar structure to "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" (1987): Three women, three generations, tell the same story in the same order (daughter, mother, grandmother) from their own point of view. The main difference is that in Joanna the story takes place in the early XX century and the characters are educated upper class English women. In AYRIBW the story takes place in the later part of XX century, and the characters are poorly educated, downright poor Indian women. That said, both novels are wonderful reads in their own rights. Joanna is terrific in that the three narrators elicit very strong emotions on the reader. You cannot help but hate Kitty, sympathize with Joanna and feel pity for Florence. Hers being the last chapter brings a deep understanding of how things happened the way they happened.