Moon Tiger

Not at all what I usually read, and thus - a refreshing change! I give this probably 4.5/5.

A meditative look at mortality, history and life (LIFE) through the eyes of a dying elderly woman, Claudia. Claudia is an intellectual firebrand and narcissist living in the first half of the 20th century; not always likable, but that's fine. The book swims with a weird (beautifully written!) stream of consciousness as we drift from Claudia as an old dying woman in 1980s England to Claudia as a young war reporter in 1940s Egypt to Claudia's fractured, aloof motherhood. It's good! The writing walks a very strong purple line; let's say I found it a pleasant lavender, though your mileage may vary.

Central to Claudia's life is her too-brief romance with an English soldier, Tom, stationed in Egypt,. This was kind of the standard “doomed love in the souq” sub-genre (i.e. English Patient, Cairo Time, Casablance), where the desert is a stand-in for that place beyond “real life” and quotidian responsibilities. Despite it being a sub-genre that's been done to death, I still found this part of the book really affecting. (And I LOVED the awful British 1940s slang - I say!) Oh, Tom!