I liked the slow drawing in of my interest and attention until I just had to finish it!

I liked the sisters, each different in their individual ways yet alike in their reverence of their family name and of withering customs, trying to protect both to the point of being ridiculous.

I liked the historical setting, the subtle blend between the private lives and the public tragedies destroying the world around them.

What I didn't like, or rather couldn't understand, was the abrupt ending. After having come so far, it was a huge letdown. But I'm guessing somethin must have happened with the author to make him desist from writing about this particular subject. And it's a real shame 🙁

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There is just a bit too much of other authors' styles for me to really appreciate this book.

The way the plot unfolds is too much like Liane Moriarty of Big Little Lies.

Marty and Ben emulate Charles and Sebastian of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. But it's not just the relationship. Mrs. Day tries to infuse her novel with the same atmosphere, the same mannerisms permeating Mr. Waugh's masterpiece, succeeding only in blurring the line between the modern times when her story takes place and the '30s of Brideshead Revisited. And I didn't like that because it didn't seem likely that this obsession that Martin feels for Ben could be justified in our day and age.

In other words, what worked beautifully in the '30s for Charles and Sebastian makes no sense in today's world of Martin and Ben, not even if motivated by sexual orientations.

And since that's at the heart of the book, I further disliked this book and all its negative implications about obsessions and compulsions driven by misplaced love and sexual attractions.

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Now that I've read this second part of Ms. Atwood's story, I can't help comparing it with the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. The Handmaid's Tale focuses on the rise of a totalitarian regime, while The Testaments is all about its fall.

And while I truly objected to the unrealistic means, the downright nonsense by which such a regime rose, I really appreciated the way it fell.

Much of my appreciation is due to Ms. Atwood's capable use of different point of views from that of The Handmaid's Tale. They gave the author a more objective perspective, and this in turn benefitted the reader's experience by making it less obsessive and less improbable than The Handmaid's Tale. Or maybe the 35 years' distance between the two novels gave Ms. Atwood a depth and an insight she lacked before.

Either way, I definitely liked this book!

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