Review: The Mitford Affair: A Novel

The Mitford Affair: A Novel by Marie Benedict
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Received an ARC to discuss on BookBrowse. This is the second of Benedict's books that I have read and this was as difficult as the first to get into. Over half the book is written in alternating chapters, each of which focus on one of three Midford sisters, Diana, Unity or Nancy. In this half it is confusing to keep the women straight since they had cute nicknames for each other that were not always clear to whom they referred. Also in the first half there is little action since the reader is put into the mind of the narrator and therefore is made a spectator looking through her eyes. I found this boring and very distancing from the character as well as the story.

Since I never finished the first book of hers that I tried, Her Hidden Genius, I decided to stick this one out to see if there was improvement the deeper into the story and indeed there was. Still, though more active since dialogue was introduced and Hitler became a main character with which these women interacted, the story still did not engage me. It was certainly not " an explosive novel" as promised by the blurb but rather a repetitive, tedious exposure of the obsessive minds of three spoiled aristocrats who sought escape from their boredom and gilded lives by pursuing a rabid political movement headed by a mad man.

View all my reviews