The Marriage of Opposites

This book was provided by the publisher, in return for a fair and honest review

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

Telling the story of "common people", "looked over people", "people surrounding a famous person", "insider view told by a family member", etc, has become a popular genre. From lesser known biblical characters to forgotten painters, it seems that every possible angle is being explored in order to tell a story with a celebrity hook. In this case, the plot revolves around Rachel Pome Petit Pizzaro, whose connection to fame is her son, Camille Pissaro, dean of Impressionism.

Rachel is seen as a headstrong, outspoken, unpleasant woman (the reader will tend to agree, specially as the book progresses). She grows up with her best friend, the family servant's daughter, and eventually accepts a marriage of convenience to help her father's business. Eventually widowed, she falls in love with her husband's nephew, which is forbidden by the Jewish faith. Of course, this doesn't stop her. Eventually, one of her sons (her favourite, of course) goes to France to become a painter. Interwoven are the story of Justine and her daughter, family secrets and mistaken impressions.

That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the book let me down. The characters are often barely sketched out (just try to describe her second husband, for example). The story often jumps several years, leaving the poor reader confused. And it both foreshadows to the point of obviousness (come on, who didn't know Justine's parentage a third of the way in?) and springs things completely out of the blue (Isaac's background). Hoffman also wants to be poetic and literary, using and abusing the symbolism (such as changing a historical character's background to fit).

That sounds pretty harsh but the book is better than that. The first part is an amusing read and most of the faults are concentrated in the second half. I felt as though Hoffman suddenly realized she had to get to a certain point before ending the book and started axing sideplots and minor characters. For example, near the end one of Rachel's child is extremely ill. There is no build up: the narrator just informs the reader of the fact, even though we had seen no sign of Rachel's worry until this point.

Would I recommend this book? Not really. There is better light reading out there.