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Feb 20, 2017wyenotgo rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A most unusual and enjoyable book, even though for well over half its length is can be slow going if you find local color and village gossip hard to take. But I can assure any reader that it's worth the time it will take. I found I simply had to marinate in it, go with the flow and let it take its meandering course. Ebenezer Le Page is a wonderful character, and he is a great deal more than just a curmudgeon who has lived far too long and is saddened by the changes that have beset his island home. He is at heart a romantic who longs for a better fate not for himself but for those whom he has loved -- his boyhood friend Jim, his sister Tabitha, his deeply troubled nephew Raymond and most of all his beloved Liza, to whom he remains true all his life despite her refusal to marry him. This is very much a story about place and about the effect of the passage of time and the intrusion of the outer world upon that place and its people. The plot is a circular one, reflecting the circle of life as experienced by the narrator. And perhaps best of all is that narrator's wonderful voice, his unwavering vernacular, his inclusion of the unique Guernsey patois, the deceptively simple style. Definitely 5 stars!