This book seemed a little all over the place. There were parts repeated, and the main character was unlikeable. Overall, it was just OK.

This is a hot mess of a book. The narration is obnoxious and addresses the reader directly. It feels like a sprawling collection of notes rather than a cohesive story. It gets a hard pass from me.

Not quite what I was expecting and a bit disjointed and repetitive unfortunately. Not my favourite Fay Weldon title.

A very Fay Weldon book! Ironic, witty, clever, fascinating. London between WWI and WWII, Vivien, 24, tall, plain and socially challenged, but she is just the catalyst for the rest of the story, poor Vivien. Not the usual historical novel, but then Fay Weldon is not the usual novelist. A good and different read.

Not an easy book to get into I'm afraid. Excellent prose but far too slowly paced for my liking. Disappointed.

Not for me , this one. The author has a particular writing style which I found distracting and eventually quite boring. I'm sure this will appeal to others but I found it very difficult to stick with.

**Review will be published to blog on 26 Mar 2017 at 10:00AM EST**

I chose this book because:

"What neither of them know is that she is pregnant by another man, and will die in childbirth in just a few months…” Whaaat? How can you just say that?? What happens next?? I love stories about imperfect women. And even though we already know that she dies, I hope I’m taken on an journey so that by the end of it, I’ll still find myself surprised (perhaps moved by emotions, or marveling at the circumstances surrounding her death, or something else altogether).

Upon reading it:

I liked the candid writing style. But after awhile, it didn’t become anything more and left something to be desired. It was just “this is what happened”—no suspense, no build up. I wasn’t sure what the climax or conflict was. The story is definitely more character-driven than plot-driven.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the characters. I was looking forward to learning more about Vivvie, but from the beginning of the story to when she died, she was mostly just strange. So to me, her character felt very one-dimensional. Nevertheless, she was my favourite character, and I was sad that her character wasn’t explored more before her imminent death, because I still do think that she was interesting. I wasn’t really invested in any of the other characters, and there was more about her mother Adela than I cared for.

Starting the the book, I had thought that this metafiction and that knowing about Vivvie's death at the beginning was refreshing. But now I wonder if the book would have benefitted from being written from first or third-person perspective, and for us not to know about Vivvie's death until it happened. At least then Vivvie's death could have been a point of climax and/or conflict.

Weldon is a devilishly clever writer. This is a wonderful novel of a British family in the period between the two Wars but it's more than that in a way- it's a group of terrific character studies - Vivian, Sherwyn, Adela all stand out on the page. THanks to Netgalley for the ARC. If you haven't read Weldon before this is a great place to start; if you have, you know what a treat is in store for you.

I'm not sure my patrons would enjoy this one as I found it to be a little odd. The story is very much about the characters and they are all a little strange and not very likeable. The historical period serves as a backdrop and only really becomes a part of the story towards the end. The author definitely has a way with words and the style of writing was enjoyable and this book has garnered good reviews elsewhere so it may just me.

Before The War is a historical novel set in the early twentieth century with an ironic tone and a self conscious narrator. It tells the story of Vivien Ripple, the daughter of a publisher, Sherwyn Sexton, a writer and an editor at Ripple & Co, and the events that occur after Vivien makes the unlikely suggestion that they get married. Europe tries to recover from one war and hurtles headlong into another whilst the characters find themselves entangled more messily than they imagined and the world they live in shown to be ridiculous.

Weldon writes in a humorous and metafictional style, with a narrator who skirts between exposing the act of making up details on the spot and claiming that the events are true. The narrative of the novel is farcical and not particularly original, reading like something from Waugh or Burgess perhaps, but the narratorial style provides a driving force, exposing the act of looking back at fake history from the twenty first century through direct comments to the reader and references to modern things such as Gone Girl mixed into asides. The use of hindsight and historical irony makes this a novel more about the act of writing a novel set between the world wars than one focused on a narrative in the period.

Before The War is not quite the historical novel it seems to be, but this makes it suited to readers looking for irony, self consciousness, and something akin to Evelyn Waugh writing his novels from the vantage point of the twenty first century.

Thank you Netgalley for review copy of this book for impartial review.

Unfortunately I only read until about 40 pages in - I found the main male character in the book to be vile and I knew I could not read on if it was through his eyes. Disappointed.