Book Review: THE ELOQUENCE OF DESIRE BY AMANDA SINGTON-WILLIAMS

Genre:  Fiction
Published:  2010 by Sparkling Books
Source:  Author

About the Book:

Set in the 1950s, The Eloquence of Desire explores the conflicts in family relationships caused by obsessive love, the lost innocence of childhood and the terror of the Communist insurgency in Malaya.

Richly descriptive and well-researched, the story told by Amanda Sington-Williams unfolds as George is posted to the tropics in punishment for an affair with the daughter of his boss. His wife, Dorothy, constrained by social norms, begrudgingly accompanies him while their twelve year old daughter Susan is packed off to boarding school.

Desire and fantasy mix with furtive visits, lies and despair to turn the family inside out.

We first meet George, travelling home on the tube, after his meeting with his boss where he learns of his 'promotion' to Malaya.  Both he and his wife know it's anything but a promotion.  

His wife Dorothy feels powerless to do anything but go with him as she feared being frowned upon and shunned by other people if she divorced George.  "The alternative to divorce, thought Dorothy, was to grit her teeth and depart for Malaya."

She hates Malaya and they are both bored, Dorothy starts to fantasise about having an affair and their relationship is tested by other people and the frightening Communist threat to their lives.

Each chapter is written from a different person's perspective and I thought this gave an added dimension to the story.  The chapters also moved the story along so I was made to really think about what must have happened as the author quite often just gave clues and it was left to me to work it out, most of the time this worked okay.

Overall, I did like this style of writing, it flowed very easily.  The descriptions of Malaya and the people seemed real and believable and I could easily picture them.

I enjoyed this story and would happily read another book by Amanda Sington-Williams.

Special thanks to the author for sending me this book to download.