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Secrets of the Heart |
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S ecrets of the Heart byElizabeth Buchan Penguin 383 pages, 2000 ISBN 0140290079 Reviewed by Marie Thorpe, South Africa Agnes Campion has mixed feelings when she hears she has inherited the neglected family mansion, Flagge House. The inheritance brings a host of problems, not the least of which are the resident ageing aunts. To add to her turmoil, she is besieged by the attentions of two very different suitors - Julian, the ruthless property developer and Andrew, struggling to save his organic farm. Each of Buchan's characters is in some way fighting against the crushing effects of time and change. There is Agnes battling to save her crumbling house; Andrew who hurls himself against the bulldozers; and Julian whose livelihood depends on those same bulldozers. Then there is Kitty, Julian's live-in mistress, waging a fruitless battle against the ageing process which has made her redundant; Aunt Maud, who escapes to the idyllic world of The Sound of Music; and Penny who tries frantically to turn back the clock. Buchan has a real gift for depicting her characters from the inside out. We feel each one's almost unbearable longing for what had never been and would never be as they are left with the "dust-powdered coffins of unrealized ambitions." Yet each character grows through the process and manages to salvage a little happiness from the ravages of time. The reader emerges feeling battered yet uplifted by a flickering hope. |
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