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Casting Off Cazalet Chronicle Elizabeth Jane Howard 9780330344814 Books

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Casting Off Cazalet Chronicle Elizabeth Jane Howard 9780330344814 Books

Casting Off is the last book in a volume of four series. I loved all these books and was sorry to see them end even though I could not put them down when reading...staying up to the wee hours of the morning to see what happened next. The war is over and the Cazalet family is expecting things to go on as before the war ...that does not happen as they have all changed and grown during the war and cannot go back to the way it was. Polly and Clary are sharing a flat in London wondering what happened to their youth. Clary is in love and becomes pregnant only to be devastated with the results...the patriarch has died..there is a divorce as was expected...Rupert returns home after four years and discovers there is tension with Zoe and delight with a new daughter, Juliet. Rachael continues to care take of any and all leaving herself empty of the love she could embrace..this is one of the best series I have read in years. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good read. I got my books from Amazon at a great price and you can also.


Tags : Casting Off (Cazalet Chronicle) [Elizabeth Jane Howard] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The aftermath of war, and the slow dawning of a new era of freedom and opportunity, shape the destinies of the Cazalets in the final volume of this magnificent family saga. Polly,Elizabeth Jane Howard,Casting Off (Cazalet Chronicle),Pan MacMillan,0330344811,Sagas,Fiction

Casting Off Cazalet Chronicle Elizabeth Jane Howard 9780330344814 Books Reviews

Th Cazalet Chronicles are so very lovely. But this edition is very badly done. So many typos. “Men” is “then” throughout the book and many many more. Very poor.
This is the third reading of Howard's Cazalet Chronicle. I keep giving to friends and buying again. I wish they would never end.
I loved this series but the final volume was impossible to find when I originally red it a few years ago. (Had to order from the library.) Terrific story in the Downtown Abbey (20 years ahead) genre of an upperclass family before and during WWII. The character development, especially as the children grew up and the varied settings--London, country house, French underground--made for hard-to-put down reading.
Just finished and now looking forward to the fifth in the series. Never before have I read so many of one author in so short a period! I so enjoy these books and it is such a joy knowing the next is available !
Howard portrays a post war London as struggling with difficulties of housing and rationing .The celebrations of a coronation are a long way off and there seems very little for the population to be happy about..
I did feel this book displayed this weariness and I shall be interested in finding how the Cazalets get on in the fifties.
I wonder if Rachel's relationship with her father had been the reason for her difficulties.
My favorite of the four I have read. Probably because I finally know who everyone is and whom I enjoy the most and the least as in all families.
Wonderful series about a wonderful family. God Bless dear Archie, is all I will say.
There have been a lot of novels written lately with a knitting theme, testimony to the popularity of knitting in current society - a good thing in my opinion. The reviews on them have been mixed, some are good, others are basically little more than Harlequin-type romances with a few knitting scenes thrown in. I was a little skeptical about Nicole R. Dickson's Casting Off but it proved to be quite charming.

It is essentially a romance, too, and there are no surprises to be had but there are some very good characters, the setting on an island off the coast of Ireland is delightfully described, and the story at least involves some actual knitting (and spinning). To be honest the only character I had a hard time warming up to was Rebecca, the main character. Rebecca, a young single mother of a precocious six year old, is working on a PhD in archeology and comes to Ireland to study traditional "ganseys", Irish knit sweaters. She is haunted by a past relationship with the despicable Dennis, the father of her daughter Rowan. Once on the island she is overwhelmed by the friendliness of its citizens all of who know her well from the stories told by Sharon, a young woman from the village who was Rebecca's roommate in college. Thus begins her education of spinning, knitting, gansey lore and, of course, a predictable but still sweet romance with the entirely too perfect Fionn.

Each chapter begins with a description of a gansey pattern taken from a fictional book we later learn was written by Rebecca's daughter Rowan. As someone who has been knitting Aran and Guernsey patterns for over 40 years I never heard of some of them but I enjoyed the "alternate" descriptions immensely. There were a few things about the writing that annoyed me, particularly the repetitive descriptions, but I loved most of the characters, especially the old fisherman Sean who was a miserable old s.o.b. in his youth and paid dearly for it. Since tradition tells us that originally it was men who did the knitting I was glad the story acknowledged that.

My problem with Rebecca, like with too many "heroines" in novels today, is that for someone working on a PhD in archeology thus, we can reasonably assume, fairly intelligent, she can certainly be a bullheaded nitwit. Right from the beginning she is very attracted to Fionn (who wouldn't be? he's perfect) but she keeps finding little things to pitch ridiculous hissy-fits about and stomp off in high dudgeon. Then, of course, Fionn does something irresistibly cute and she gets over it. I guess this is how contemporary writers build romantic tension but there were a couple of times when I thought Fionn should have given her a good kick in the pants.

Some of her issues are explained when we find out what happened "that fateful night" (the build up to that got a tad tiresome, too) but other issues are never explained like her attitude toward the local Catholic priest, the sweet, charming Father Michael, and also to the Church. I couldn't help but wonder if this was an issue of the author's own that spilled over into the story - particularly when Father Michael told Rebecca why Fionn had come to him for Confession. Those of us who are Catholics know Father Michael should be excommunicated for doing that - not a thing taken lightly among Catholics.

So, I liked the story, I loved the people and the setting, and it was a thoroughly pleasant read. I wish Rebecca had been less of a twit (she didn't deserve Fionn, he's perfect) and I wish the author had paid a little more attention to detail but, all in all, it was a pleasant story. I'll look forward to Ms. Dickson's next work.
I liked the book in the sense that it is well written, like all Howard's work. However, I found the characters a bit frustrating at times. All those secrets that they kept from one another made their lives seem rather miserable. I began to feel that a bit of directness would not have gone astray - but maybe that's an Australian attitude. The girl cousins seemed to generally make a bit of a hash of their lives - a bit aimless, not much self-discipline, generally seeming to need a bit of a shake-up.

So separating the characters from the writing, the book was very good. However, I found that the characters seemed to take forever to do anything or get anywhere and I felt like saying ''Just get a move on; stop dithering around". Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed finding out what had happened to the family, even if the outcome was a bit disappointing. Makes me think my life is pretty cheerful after reading all their woes.
Casting Off is the last book in a volume of four series. I loved all these books and was sorry to see them end even though I could not put them down when reading...staying up to the wee hours of the morning to see what happened next. The war is over and the Cazalet family is expecting things to go on as before the war ...that does not happen as they have all changed and grown during the war and cannot go back to the way it was. Polly and Clary are sharing a flat in London wondering what happened to their youth. Clary is in love and becomes pregnant only to be devastated with the results...the patriarch has died..there is a divorce as was expected...Rupert returns home after four years and discovers there is tension with Zoe and delight with a new daughter, Juliet. Rachael continues to care take of any and all leaving herself empty of the love she could embrace..this is one of the best series I have read in years. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good read. I got my books from at a great price and you can also.