A Change of Altitude – Anita Shreve (affliate link)
Wow. Sitting in a camp chair, looking over the river so still it’s almost glassy, rosellas tweeting and the sun sinking slowly behind the trees, I closed the back cover and took a deep breath. My first thought was of the ending (obviously), which seemed to hang without the resolution I was looking for. And so I slowly out the book down, and turned my head, leaning back in the chair, and let the story as whole wash over me. Then it all became a bit clearer.
It was the attitudes of the characters that unsettled me. Not that they were unrealistic, but that they were sadly too real. Unwanted flirtations, and the consequences laid at the feet of the unwilling woman. I have been having several discussions lately with friends about modern day feminism, rape culture, and internalised sexism. And this just hit fair to close to home for me, that despite how far we have come, there is still a lot we need to fight for, for ourselves and for our daughters.
But you don’t come here to listen to my ramblings on gander politics. And to be honest, I feel underqualified to comment too much – there are much better and articulate bloggers who can cover the issue better than I can. I enjoyed this as a thought provoking read, which, really, is what I wanted from this challenge. Not just ticking boxes, re-reading favourites, or powering through lighter reads to notch up a tally (not that they won’t be included!). It was well-written, with a solid plot and good characterisations. I’d rate it a 8/10.
{current 13/13 total – 15 books (2 new reads, 13 re-reads)}
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