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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780099478461
ISBN: 0099478463
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: June 12, 2008
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage

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Alternate Versions: Click to Display

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• Books > Subjects > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > T > Tremain, Rose
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Rating: - Entertaining Read, But Unoriginal and Easily Forgotten
I'm stuck between giving this book a 2 star rating (because, I know that in a few hours time I'll never think about it, or any of the characters again), or a 4 star rating (because, despite it's faults, it did provide me with entertainment for the past few days). So I think I'll settle with a cowardly 3/5, though, if I'm honest, it probably deserves less.

I feel that Tremain had all the foundations for a brilliant, life altering, inspiring + revitilasing novel, but realised none of these opportunites and instead decided to tell a stereotyped story with no originality or new depths, purely a piece of toss-away fiction. All the characters had been done 1000000000 times before, there was no originaliy to be drawn from anywhere. Lev, the hard workng immigrant sending money home to his family. Ina, the mother set in her old ways. Christy, the irish drunk. Marina, the perfect, beautiful wife etc. The only character to really intrigue me was Lev's best friend Rudi, but we didn't see ... Read More

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Rating: - Enjoyable read but not my favourite Rose Tremain novel
I enjoyed this book, however, out of the four Rose Tremain novels that I've read, this is my least favourite.

I couldn't understand why Levs' home country was fictional, and felt that the only reason could be was that Tremain couldn't be bothered to do her research this time, and did she feel obliged to bang a story out quickly simply to please her agent and readers?

The approach taken with 'The Road Home' is in stark contrast to, for example, 'Music and Silence' which, in my view, was so well researched, and well written that whilst immersed in it's pages I almost felt as if I were a part of the story.

Like I said though, I found 'The Road Home' to be an enjoyable read, just more on a par with the chick-lit style holiday novels one usually finds in the airport departure lounge book shops.

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Rating: - A surprisingly good read
Having never read a Rose Tremain book before, I was slightly off put by the title and cover of the book - but as the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. I was truly caught up in the trials and tribulations of Lev, who struggles, and succeeds in some ways to "make it" in London as a Polish migrant worker. Armed with very few English words - "I am legal", "May I help you", he faces many difficult times before he is helped out by people he meets along the way. A great read with a fantastic cast of characters.

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Rating: - To be or not to be.
What would you do if you lived in a post communist, economically ravaged country devoid of employment opportunities and responsible for an ageing mother and and young daughter? Perhaps, like Lev, you would leave your home and try and earn a living in a foreign land. This is the essence of Tremain's sensitive treatment of an economic migrant's almost desperate attempt to improve his lot. Tremain places the widower Lev within a harsh London landscape where suspicion, rascism and exploitation are never far from the surface. Fortunately Lev is spared the misery of most migrants and is able to find work and friends and eventually to prosper which, most importantly, benefits not only himself and his family but the country he has left. Although I found this novel lacked the weight of, for instance, Music and Silence or the Colour, and was somewhat predictable, it still displayed a beautiful, elegant prose, which involved a descriptive narrative that, for me, brought to life the contrast between the ... Read More

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Rating: - Reads like a true story
When this book was first published I wasn't sure I would like it, but because I've enjoyed Rose Tremain's other work I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed.

There are plenty of reviews that outline the story in some detail. Suffice it to say, therefore, that the novel follows the journey of Lev from his Eastern European homeland to Britain in search of work that will enable him to better the lives of his mother and daughter in his unnamed home country. His experiences in the alien environment of London and picking asparagus on a Suffolk farm, and his eventual return to his native land may, as some reviewers have suggested, be stereotyped, but that in many ways is their strength. Rose Tremain writes beautifully, and through her pen we see how strange British society must seem to someone from a former communist regime. Her descriptions are vivid and real. We can imagine Lev's daughter Maya in her small village school, sitting on a wooden bench eating her lunch of ... Read More

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