The Perfect Stranger: A Memoir of Love and Survival (3*)
I felt I should take a look at this acclaimed memoir which was first published in 1966 and then again on no less than three subsequent occasions, latterly this year. It hurtles rapidly through school, Butlin's, post-war Paris, Korea, Oxford, Barcelona and Jakarta, all within a relatively short time span. In places I found it absorbing and moving, but other parts were a slog. Perhaps its aim (as expressed in the 1995 foreword) of sharing the universal facts of love and death is too literary for my quotidian tastes.
Key to star ratings: 5*** wonderful and hope to read again, 5* wonderful, 4* enjoyed it a lot and would recommend, 3* enjoyable/interesting, 2* didn't enjoy, 1* gave up.
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