Sweet caress

Sweet caress

Ratings2

Average rating2.5

15

"When Amory Clay was born, in the decade before the Great War, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events. Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler. Her hunger for experience draws her to the decadence of Weimar Berlin and the violence of London's blackshirt riots, to the Rhineland with Allied troops and into the political tangle of war-torn Vietnam. In her ambitious career, the seminal moments of the 20th century will become the unforgettable moments of her own biography, as well. In Sweet Caress, Amory Clay comes wondrously to life, her vibrant personality enveloping the reader from the start. And, running through the novel, her photographs over the decades allow us to experience this vast story not only with Amory's voice but with her vision. William Boyd's Sweet Caress captures an entire lifetime unforgettably within its pages. It captivates."--


Become a Librarian

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

A distaff version of Boyd's earlier Any Human Heart, but this book is not half as good. The lead character, Amory, is frustratingly passive and many supporting characters and places are left undeveloped. It reads like a sketch for a longer novel, and that's the one I'd rather have read.

October 24, 2015

Top Lists

See all (5)

List

237 books

Leseliste

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Year of the Monkey
The Ongoing Moment
The Communist Manifesto
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Off The Map

List

106 books

Owned

Days At The Morisaki Bookshop
Look Out, Secret Seven
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Ignited Minds
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason
Life, the Universe and Everything

List

233 books

On My Kindle

Jamrach's Menagerie
Them
Half Blood Blues
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
The Age of Miracles
Reamde
The Etymologicon