Her Fearful Symmetry

Last night I finished reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffernegger, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife". I actually haven't read TTTW yet (although it's on my book shelf) so "Her Fearful Symmetry" was the first book I've read by Niffernegger.

The book started off really promising. It begins with 20 year old American twin girls named Julia and Valentina. Their mother Edie, interestingly enough, was also a twin, and her estranged twin sister Elspeth lived in London. At the beginning of the book, Elspeth dies of leukemia, leaving her twin neices her London flat with strict instructions that their mother Edie does not step foot in the apartment.

Julia and Valentina go to London and live in Elspeth's apartment. They meet Elspeth's younger boyfriend Robert who lives in the flat below, her OCD and anxiety ridden neighbor Martin whose wife recently left him... and... Elspeth's ghost, who inhabits the apartment.

The set-up of the book is really good; the first half, even two-thirds of the novel is very good and well written. Niffernegger does a good job developing the characters and building suspense. But at the end of the novel, the plot falls flat and left me really disappointed. What happens at the end really does not do justice to the characters and plot she so skillfully develops throughout the rest of the book. As the book goes on, it becomes more and more outrageous and unrealistic. There is also a serious lack of continuity and a lot of loose ends that lack closure, or sub-plots that go nowhere. The end is completely incongruous with the rest of the book.

When I finished reading, I went on Amazon.com to read some reviews of the book. I wasn't surprised to find that many readers were left with the same sense of disappointment and confusion that I was.

As I was reading this book, I had an eerie sense of deja-vous. A few months ago I read and reviewed (see the January 2010 archives) a book called "The Thirteenth Tale". Like "Her Fearful Symmetry", "The Thirteenth Tale" is about two sets of twins, mistaken identity, ghosts, London. But what both books also have in common is that they set up the plot and the characters well, then ultimately fall flat, disappointing the reader.

When I reviewed "The Thirteenth Tale" I talked about the concept of willing suspension of disbelief. This is the idea that the reader should willingly "suspend his/her disbelief" while reading a fictional piece. In other words, even if something isn't possible in real life, we willingly believe it while reading with the understanding that we are reading a work of fiction. Some authors lead us to do this really skillfully (J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is a perfect example). But Niffernegger (like the author of "The Thirteenth Tale") is not successful in this. I actually do happen to believe in ghosts, but I simply cannot believe her ghost story. Nor can I believe in the things that happen over the course of the book. She just doesn't make it believable.

This predicament makes me really reluctant to read "The Time Traveler's Wife". I am aware of the basic premise of TTTW, and it doesn't sound very believable. Again, I am really open to reading fantasy books and imagining things that aren't possible in real life. But if Niffernegger couldn't convince me about a ghost, how will she tell the story of a man who travels through time in a way that makes sense? I may still read the TTTW, but I am definitely skeptical.

--- EMily