Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Summary: Julia and Valentina Pool are twenty-real old twins, living in America, with no real interest in education or finding jobs. One day, they receive a letter informing them that they have inherited their aunt Elspeth has died of cancer, leaving to them her apartment in London. There are two conditions. They must live in it for one year before they sell it and that their parents can never enter the apartment. Elspeth was their Mother Eldie's estranged twin sister.
 They move to Elspeth's apartment, which borders Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx, Christina Rossetti and George Eliot are buried. In the apartment building, they meet Martin, who has an obsessive compulsive disorder, Robert, who was Elspeth's lover, and also the ghost of their aunt who still inhabits the apartment.

Review: I had mixed feelings about this book. There were parts of it that were enchanting, such as the description of Highgate Cemetery that emerges almost as an additional character. I also liked reading about the relationship between Martin and Marjake. But overall I can't say that I really enjoyed reading the book, despite the subtly of the emotional experience that it provides.

The whole twin relationship and the seeming loss of identity and the anxiety that characterized the Valentina-Julia relationship (and was suggested in the Elspeth-Edie relationship) seemed a bit clichéd to me. The aimlessness of the twins' lives also bothered me. All the characters were flawed and also quite quirky. I guess they did live next to a cemetery, but it made them less believeable.

The only relationship that I was sympathetic to was the Martin-Marjake relationship. Despite Matin's obsessiveness, he evoked the most empathy. Obsession becomes a recurring theme in the novel. There is the oppressive closeness of the twin sisters, Robert and Elspeth's frantic communication after her death, and his own obsession with the cemetery, so that his thesis is thousands of pages.

The book has dark undertones which become more vivid as it progresses. It is hard to talk about a lot of the ideas, without spoiling it for people who haven't read it. It is like a Victorian ghost story set in Contemporary times. I personally prefer the old school Gothic writing. A ghost writing "LOL" on an Ouija board is really not palatable for me.

It is a gripping book though, that is hard to put down. The story is developed nicely and keeps one engaged. One really gets a sense of the personalities of each of the characters. (Though for me, getting to know them really made me dislike a lot of them!) I would recommend it just for the description of Churchgate, the subtlety of the text and the haunting quality that seeps through the book. But I had been wanting to read it for a long time and was quite disappointed.