Review: Lovely Tale Spinning
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 30, 2008
Things We Can't Untie by L. Curnow presents the tale of two women, drawn together by shared affections for one man and a tragedy.Anna has just lost her partner, Chris, in short order after he had recently reconnected with an old flame (presumably) of his, Catherine.  The two women are set to come to terms with this sudden and tragic circumstance, with each other, and with their own selves.The author does a lovely job of spinning this tale, alternating between characters and time, like stacking blocks to make a pyramid...Anna, Catherine, Anna...now, two weeks ago, now, the night before, now...As the reader I felt as though I was consistently climbing steps to reach that pinnacle of the story.While the writing as a whole is clear and easy to follow, the author enters into the tale with Anna's waking up.  The next couple of paragraphs appear to be purposely disjointed in order to reflect Anna's own sense of inner havoc.  I like this in idea, but the execution was a little off as some of Anna's thoughts and sensations were told to us by the author, some shown and some 'thought' by Anna herself.  The latter of the three would likely benefit from being formatted in way to make clear we are in her head.Other than this one quip, I enjoyed the pace and structure of the story as well as the writing style.  I empathized with both Catherine and Anna by the end of the piece.  I would definitely enjoy reading this through  to the end.