Spanish Lover

Lizzie and Frances are nearly identical twins in "A Spanish Lover," by Joanna Trollope. Lizzie and her husband have a business, four children, and a beautiful home. Frances, on the other hand, is unmarried and seems to be drifting along without a sense of direction.Frances at last decides to step out of her sister's shadow and become her own person. She starts a travel business, which becomes a great success, and she begins an unconventional love affair with a married Spaniard. Meanwhile, Lizzie and Richard suffer serious financial setbacks that threaten their comfortable lifestyle. Lizzie, who has always been self-satisfied and even-tempered, cannot help but be jealous and resentful of her twin's financial and emotional independence. Joanna Trollope is a contemporary Jane Austen. With a keen eye, she examines how time, economic circumstances, and romantic entanglements can upset the delicate balance of a relationship. She also explores the theme of whether we should try to please our families or ourselves. Trollope shows how making life-altering decisions can involve some serious tradeoffs. As one character in the book aptly states, "There is no change without sacrifice." The author's writing flows naturally and her language is lyrical and beautifully descriptive. The characters are vividly portrayed and the dialogue is humorous, poignant, and insightful. I highly recommend "A Spanish Lover" for its rich detail and its penetrating look at contemporary family life.

Can people really change their innermost selves? In this fabulous Trollope story, the answer is a resounding no, and it echoes from generation to generation.William and Barbara, staunch, middle-class, and proper, astonish themselves when they conceive twins. Barbara is not at all pleased, somehow embarrassed by this quite excessive show of pregnancy and birth. William, however, is enchanted. Imagine, he thinks, a conservative schoolteacher, nothing to recommend himself, really, and he has begotten twins! It makes him feel very important, and that's a good thing, because when Elizabeth (Lizzie) and Frances finally make their appearance, Barbara is quite disgusted and repelled by the mere thought of any further mothering.William becomes a house-husband of sorts, and Barbara, in her no-nonsense way, sees to her daughters' non-emotional needs. It works well until the girls are 10 years old, at which time comfortable, boring, predictable Barbara takes off for Marrakesh on a hippie trek (a truly hilarious plot twist). She is gone for some time, during which William begins a discreet love affair with the local artist, Juliet. Nevertheless, when Barbara comes back (not having succeeded in becoming a hippie or even a successful feminist, another hobby horse of hers), William takes her back as a natural course of events. He also keeps Juliet on the side; Barbara knows about this, and things continue, changed, but not really.Fast forward 25 years. Lizzie, having had a fling at artsy life herself, is married to a fellow student, Rob, and the two have created a very successful art/antiques/crafts boutique. They live in a large, sprawling house, and have four children. Lizzie works away at the huge mouthful of life she has endeavored to swallow--boutique, children, house, dutiful daughter, loving wife, loyal twin. As much as she thinks of herself as more successful at life than Barbara, she is more like her mother (albeit more giving) than she would ever want to be.It is only Frances, the gadfly, the unpredictable, the "different," who seems to have a "real" life. She has remained unmarried, had a series of unsuccessful love affairs, and runs a highly successful travel agency. The rest of the family is constantly worried about her...almost like she must fit into the mold in order to be happy. She seems quite happy enough--especially when she meets her Spanish lover (he of the book's title) halfway into the book. A torrid, gorgeous, passionate, beautiful, storybook affair ensues, much to the consternation of everybody else, who are waiting for the shoe to drop. Lizzie is worried and jealous--the business has begun to fail, and she and husband Rob are beset with money worries. Barbara, who knows nothing of passion (and doesn't approve of it), is waiting for Frances to be devastated. But Frances takes her own way, does her own thing, and defies her entire family and upbringing. I don't want to be a spoiler and say exactly what she does, but it alters her life, an

I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. The characters,who were exceedingly well written, very realistic, and very interesting were very gracefully unfolded. I loved the relationship between the twins and the way the submissive twin (Frances) emerged into the more interesting and daring personality. I also appreciated the way in which she gently extricated herself from her sister (Lizzie) and her family influences to do what she wanted to do. It was very ironic and telling that Lizzie actually felt she possessed Frances in the same way she felt she possessed her own children, husband and business. Lizzie's evolution was also insightfully written, but the real story is with Frances, and deserves the most attention. The elders (father William, mother Barbara and mistress Juliet) were in a muddle from the sixties and seemed to float through life with no real direction or purpose. They stayed together in their mental menage-e-tois to simultaneously torture and comfort one another. Frances falls in love with a married man (Luis, the Spaniard)who is so very different from her culturally, emotionally and mentally, that it seems almost impossible that there could be any real attraction, but they share an intense passion for one another. She wishes to manifest all of her love and passion in the person of a child, which will be the living verification of their relationship. He tells her upfront that if she has a child, their relationship will end. She, thinking as a woman in love always thinks, feels that he will certainly change his mind once she becomes pregnant and he sees the child. Instead, he transfers his emotions from her to the child. She physically uproots herself to live in the hostile environment of a country and culture which is not accepting of outsiders and is very definately male oriented. She decides this is the best place for her child, who should be with his father as often as possible. She seems to feel that,even although the permutations were laid out for her as to why the situation will not work, she can change them, and if not, she can endure them. Luis comes across as a selfish, self-centered immature macho-man who lives in the past and considers only himself when things are not going his way. Despite the fact that he would not be an appealing mate to most women, he is very well written and very believable. I would love to see a sequel to this story, which I will definately reread in the summer, on the beach.

"The Spanish Lover" is the story of British twin sisters who lead very different lives. Lizzie "has it all" -- the good-looking husband, two well-behaved children, a spacious country home, and a successful gallery/shop she runs with her husband. She worries about Frances, her single twin, who seems to lead, in Lizzie's estimation, an unfulfilled existence (since it is in complete contrast to her own life). Frances is a travel agent who travels to Spain and meets Luis, a man who will have a dramatic impact on her life. When Frances decides to pursue a relationship with Luis, Lizzie begins obsessing over Frances' life and loses sight of the events in her own life. At first read one would call this the story of Frances' awakening and growth but it is really the story of the evolution of both sisters and the impact on the other people in their lives. The characters and plot are well-developed and the book is well-written. The ending is a bit contrived but still believable. Amazingly I did not take the cynical view that these people could not possibly exist or that the events could not happen -- Trollope made me WANT to believe them! This is an excellent summer read - escapism with substance.

I am a big Trolloppe fan, and enjoyed this book because it let me get to know the two main characters in enough depth so I wasn't going "huh?" every time someone said or did something, a minor complaint in some of her other novels, where dozens of characters are thrown at you. I savored the contrast between scenes set in chilly Bath and sunny, historic Spain. What I didn't quite believe at first was how the Spanish Lover, Luis, would go so nuts over prim Frances in the first place, but what happens at the end, which I won't give away, rings true for this kind of man operating in this kind of culture. The back story of the parents seemed labored and not entirely believable. It actually detracted from the otherwise strong believability of the twins. I always groan when a baby appears at the end of a book, making a paste-on happy ending, and as if to rectify all wrongs, but the ending here was bittersweet and mixed for both sisters. Life moves along in its real, sometimes thwarted way.