Sadly, this book did not live up to my expectations.
In Zelda's Cut, Isobel Latimer is a middle-aged literary author straddled with an invalid husband, a passionless marriage, and financial troubles. As a means of raising some fast cash, Isobel and her agent engineer Zelda, a character completely opposite in looks, literary style, and personality from Isobel. With her new secret persona, Isobel as Zelda, lands a lucrative book deal, and enjoys being a sexually and socially desirable woman. But in the process of living her new secret life, Isobel finds that Zelda has become an entity of her own, and when her agent decides to take over Zelda's life and success, Isobel realizes that she's loosing control over who Zelda is and what she does and also loosing control of who she is as herself.
I did find it interesting that the book openly explored transgender issues and sexuality, but I didn't always like the characters as people. I suppose this is one of the reasons that I didn't like the book. Even if a book doesn't end happily, I like to enjoy the characters. With a likable character, you can sympathize or empathize or feel sorry for them as appropriate, but if you don't like them, its difficult to feel anything but disappointment in the book.
It's such a shame, because I typically like Phillipa Gregory's books.
I first fell in love with Gregory's books when I read The Other Boleyn Girl about 5 years ago.
I came across it in the bookstore and was drawn to it by the cover artwork (I am often drawn to books by the cover art, particularly historical looking covers as historical fiction is one of my favorite genres). I had never heard of Phillipa Gregory and this was a couple of years before the movie The Other Boleyn Girl came out, but I bought it and took it home.I was immediately hooked--Gregory wrote such a vivid picture of life in Tudor England and her focus on well known historical figures, as well as those that I had never heard of, made for a fascinating read. After I finished the book I immediately went to the computer and did some background research on Tudor England and her characters, trying to learn what from the story was documented fact and what was embellished fiction.
Soon after I discovered that Gregory had written five other books about Tudor England. I gobbled them up, each as good as the last. Last year she came out with two books on Plantagenet England, the period of Civil War (called the War of the Roses) before Tudor England. Again, excellent read from cover to cover. The duo she wrote about the English gardener John Tradescant and his son in post-Elizabethan England, were also good.
But when I branch out to other books of hers, more strictly fiction, I find that my reading experiences change. I'm not sure she is as successful in books that don't play off of real people and real events. I think part of what makes her so captivating in historical fiction is that she's giving depth and dimension to real- life historical figures. She's giving the reader some insight into a person they might have heard of before and wondered about. I think it gives the entire time period she's writing about more dimension and context.
But the books that I've read that are not based on real people have typically disappointed me. In a way they seem to be more of a psychological study of society or individuals or class structures. Interesting in their own right, but not as interesting to me, and none of them have ended happily.
I suppose I might give a few more books a chance, but sadly I think I might have to stick to her real-person based historical fiction.
