Amanda
A historical romance of a grand, old-fashioned and very British variety, with hints of L.P. Hartley, D.H. Lawrence and Evelyn Waugh — an impressive feat for an American author writing many decades after them ... Where the first section, told from Marion’s perspective, is smooth, subtle and often ravishing, even as it juggles multiple threads and timelines, the shift to Jamie’s perspective feels overwhelmed ... Cross is a clever world builder, but in a tale with a fairly simple premise...the threads around Jamie’s story often feel like a tangled study in tedium ... Cross remains a talented ventriloquist. Her eye for detail and her romantic language transport the reader ... Believably charming ... Astute ... There is also real daring and originality in her portrayal of the sexuality ... Though sometimes tricky and bloated, the first and final sections of Amanda are compelling and ultimately convincing, which is one of the most difficult things a love story can be.
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The book gathers pace and builds in intensity in its third and final part ... [A] complex work ... Both stimulating and affecting ... Cross impresses with original descriptions...and deft examinations of the agony and ecstasy of love. This is a book that appeals to hearts and minds.
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An utterly convincing, inside-out look at an England navigating the heat and the shadows of The Great War ... Cross has a secret weapon: a profound willingness to risk losing her reader, such that she manages never to do so ... Brilliant flashes of prose and turns of phrase ... The novelist’s work into language, syntax, idiom, and usage pays off in spades ... What Cross gets so profoundly correct in her novel is that sense of realness exuded by Marion and Jamie ... A propellent, engaging, complex work of literature that inhabits, rather than uses, its time period ... Truly original.
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