I thought it was well written, but I just couldn't get into the characters and quickly found myself not caring what happened to them. I thought some of the observations about Bali were insightful, but not enough to overcome the overall feeling that it was just plodding along.

Melody Simpson păși prin iarbă și pe pământul umed, îndreptându-se ușor spre fundul grădinii ca să se uite la copiii ei care dormeau. Era o seară răcoroasă de vară. Își ridică faldurile rochiei și își trecu ușor degetele prin păr, chiar dacă era trecut de miezul nopții și nu avea cine să o vadă.
Apoi savură liniștea aceea profundă. Era prima vară de după război, prima vară din noua sa viață, prima vară în care Domnul, oricât de îndurerat și de rănit ar fi fost El, era în Ceruri, iar pe pământ era liniște și pace. Desigur, Melody Simpson nu credea în Dumnezeu, era doar metaforic. Doar în astfel de clipe era tentată să o facă. Înainte să îi fugă gândul la toate cele întâmplate până atunci.
Virginia și Emmy își făcuseră un cort din două bețe lungi și un cearșaf vechi, prins cu câteva cărămizi adunate de la capătul străzii, unde zăceau rămășițele unei case bombardate. Cortul fusese ideea lui Emmy, care, la cei cinci ani ai ei, era prea leneșă sau prea tânără ca să îl realizeze, astfel încât proiectul ei se concretizase doar când Virginia, sora ei responsabilă și oarecum timorată, luase asupra ei sarcina aceasta.
Melody Simpson se lăsă pe vine ca să arunce o privire în cort. Când erau treze, se lăsa veșnic cu păruială între cele două fete, când vesele, când încăpățânate, dar întotdeauna una împotriva
celeilalte. Dar când dormeau, doar în maiou și pantalonași scurți, învelite cu o pătură groasă, cu brațele subțiri și albicioase încolăcite fiecare în jurul celeilalte, păreau să-și împărtășească
toate visele.

This had all the ingredients of a great book and just fell short. Two sisters are each examining their lives while on an island. Emmy is in Bali and Virginia is in the Isle of Skye. At some points the book made me miss Bali so bad, but it was just okay.

Well written and impressive for a first novel (written in her twenties) and perhaps even more so because both protagonists are middle-aged women, an experience that the author had at the time yet to relate to. A bit rambling with little sense of where the story was going and what the characters had learned by the end of it.

Parts are set in Bali, which I appreciate. There is a very good nasty-old-woman character.

Two story lines about two sisters... pretty boring and I only finished it for the sake of finishing a book. The plot left much to be desired as there wasn't much of a plot at all....

Did not like these characters, very disjointed story line.

I really didn't like this book until the end! I can understand why people give up before finishing, but it is worth persistence.

No one else seems to think this book is meant to be humorous, so it's possible I'm way off base. But I found this an enjoyably dark & totally cringe-y comedy of manners featuring a quartet of naive, deluded and dysfunctional English women behaving terribly in all manner of mundane (and mildly preposterous) situations both at home and abroad.

I read this some time ago.... I really like Ms. Messud's writings. This was a book I liked so much I got both the US and the UK editions (Granta)!

It reads like a book that a post-midlife crisis writer would create, rather than someone in her 20s. She's a strong writer but this didn't work for me as well as The Emperor's Children.

It's not really fair for me to rate a book that I did not finish. I was debating whether or not to continue when it was due back at the library with no renewal allowed. We are first introduced to the younger of two English sisters, Emmy. She is now 47 and newly divorced. She is pretty miserable, and understandably so. However, her negativity and pathetic attitude start to grate. I was relieved when the narrative switched to the elder sister Virginia. Unfortunately, Virginia turns out to be just as miserable. Her self-righteous attitude comes through in her Bible study. That did it. Done!
P.S. I was especially disappointed because I found Messud after reading a glowing write-up in the New York Times recently.