Reviews

'Clarisse's journey through life is by turns joyful, daunting, often bewildering. Her story - and that of the men and women whose lives touch hers - is told through a series of encounters, each prefaced by a poetic meditation. Indeed, the whole novel is a kind of meditation - on politics, feminism, sex and death. Running though it like a strand of silk, both binding Clarisse to the earth and letting her float free, are her thoughts about the nature and practice of Catholicism. An intriguing read, raising many questions about the role of women over the past half century'

Joceline Bury, journalist. Review of Clarisse by academic Verina Jones:

'There is a powerful allusion here to one of the fundamental archetypes of the European novel, but with several twists. Clarisse might be an "honest woman" (almost) like Richardson's "redeeming virgin", but she is Clarisse not Clarissa, indeed "Clarisse in Potignac". Clarisse might be in Potignac but she is not really French, or really English for that matter. She is in a sense Italian, at least in part. Clarisse's great-grandmother, whose story she is writing "in the form of a novel", was of Italian descent. Her name was Raiza, a transparent anagram of Zaira, who is the protagonist of another novel by Patricia Borlenghi.

Watch out for this and other refined narrative ruses in a novel which races through like a thriller while engaging with the great issues of life.'