Love, sleaze, tragedy.....it's all here! (The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin)

Member Name: hypno06

Product:	The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin
Date:	25/05/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solid characters, easy to follow.

Disadvantages: Only able to scratch the surface of some deep social elements.

This is my first "grown up" book review - so please bear with me if the standard is not as you would like from a book review, but please give me any pointers you feel fit so that I can make future reviews better!

I bought this book as part of a BOGOF offer in WH Smith ahead of my holiday. I hadn't seen any review of it in the past, so was attracted by the title alone. Well, almost alone - the book had the added "draw" of carrying the "Richard & Judy Book Club" sticker, as well as the BOGOF one....

This book is set in the first half of the 20th Century. Lilly is born as the century breaks, in Germany. She is the illegitimate baby to a troubled cabaret artiste, and finds herself orphaned at an early age.

Brought up until her teens in an orphanage run by a Nun who does her best to provide education and opportunity, but who is always thwarted by the attitudes and financial strings of others, life in the early 1900s doesn't run smoothly for Lilly.

Befriended by another orphan, Hanne, who has had more experience of life outside the orphanage, Lilly starts pushing her boundaries a little and exploring Berlin. Her eyes are opened as she is greeted by a grimy, sleazy world of bars and working girls.

When the orphanage is finally closed down, Lilly is on her own, and this book follows her life through the ups and downs of Berlin through two world wars. Life is never easy nor predicable for such a young person left alone in such a changing world.

Being the daughter of a cabaret artiste, you would expect there to be some sort of yearning to be in the spotlight, and you would be right - Lilly enters the world of entertainment, moving into the new and exciting world of silent movies via the less desirable "tingle tangle" clubs of Berlin. She meets colourful characters along the way - some she comes to love and trust, others that are perhaps not all they seem.

Lilly grows up quickly - you would expect nothing less of someone in this situation, and as you are reading the book, you get a real feel for how she matures. Her definition of "love" develops as she gets older, her idea of responsibility changes, her ability to adapt to the next major change, both in her personal life and in world affairs (remember, there are two world wars taking place in the course of this book) develop, and you really get to know Lilly as she moves through young adulthood.

Although Lilly is the main character in the book, there are others worthy of note:

- Sister August. The Nun in charge of the orphanage. She is given an impossible task but does it with as much enthusiasm as she can muster. She gives Lilly her first glimpse of determination and love. I feel that Sister August is a real role model for the young Lilly.

- Hanne. Remaining friends for life, Hanne leads a more "colourful" existance than Lilly, and needs Lilly to be the stabilising factor along the way. Fun, and frustration......a rollercoaster of a friendship, as many are!

Eva & Stefan - a brother and sister who took Lilly in when she needed help. Relationships are formed that are revisited throughout the book....some good, some bad - I won't give it away......

Ilya - a Russian film director. A working relationship develops into true love. But of course nothing is as simple as it seems.

The backdrop to this book is the world of silent movies, in particular in Europe. Each chapter begins with a postcard image or photograph representing an element of the film industry and Berlin at that time. It would be easy to skip past them, but take a moment before reading the next chapter to look at the postcards. They really do give you the ability to see some of the emotion of the time.

This book is set in the first half of the 20th Century, a time when Berlin was going through immense changes, and although this is obviously a theme and feature of the book, it does not require a great previous knowledge of European history of that time. The author, Beatrice Colin, has done well to provide her reader with enough description and information to enjoy the book without a history O level.......If, as I did, on the other hand, you have studied history of that area from that time, or have an existing enthusiasm for 20th Century history, you will read far more into this book as you draw on those history lessons from years gone by.

This book has everything that you would expect......solid characters, a changing mood, and a twist at the end. It is not a long book, only 400 pages long and is ideal as a holiday read, because once you get into it, you won't want to put it down! My only criticism really would be that the world of silent movies, and the massive changes going on in the world in those first few decades of the 20th century, are so vast, that any book such as this really only scratches the surface.....in some ways, you are left wanting more!

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite
Author - Beatrice Colin
www.beatricecolin.co.uk

isbn 978-1-84854-031-6

published by John Murray - www.johnmurray.co.uk

Cover price £7.99 - check out Amazon to get it much cheaper or look for the offers in bookstores.

Summary: Lilly Aphrodite and her Luminous Life.......more eventful than mine!