The carousel by Rosamunde Pilcher

Well, as my first Pilcher's book it was kind of a disappointment, but I can see its merits too. Maybe it just suffers the passing of time, maybe in 1982 the characters didn't appear so plain and unreal, and the plot was not so predictable back then. Maybe.
Now in 2016 unfortunately everything does appear plain and predictable. She writes well, that's true, but I can easily see why so many of her books (if not all of them) have been made into films, because the background is essential, and the heart of it all.
Somehow it mains me to say this, but I didn't like it. The characters were very plain.
Prue has the kind of boyfriend that mothers like (her mom too) but doesn't make her laugh; she goes to her aunt Phoebe's home to help her because she broke her arm (not that she does much helping, to be honest, basically she drives her to a neighbor's house once and that's it) and surprise (?) she meets famous and rich painter Daniel and falls for him in a moment. I so didn't like him. He never made me laugh, on the contrary I found him very unpleasant. As most artists (or most men?) he runs away from responsibilities. It turns out that sweet and lonely child Charlotte is Daniel's daughter (he had an affair with her mother Annabelle 11 years ago) and very conveniently what happens? Her mom runs away with another man, her "father" doesn't want her because he always knew she was not his, her grandma can't have that burden on her shoulders, so she goes to live with Prue and Phoebe. Charlotte has known Daniel for no more than a day but already loves him (blood doesn't lie, they say...)
Daniel runs away, escaping the responsibility again, but it takes him only two days to change him and he comes back, and tells Prue his plan to adopt Charlotte. He was like a wanderer who had always thought only of himself, but in only two days he has bought a car, arranged where to live with the child, reached an agreement with Charlotte's other-father, and made up his mind to adopt her and live with her and with Prue. Easy, isn't it? He found out he's much richer than he thought too!! This because for ten years his agent has thought of everything for him, that it involved finding an accountant, a lawyer or arrange his exhibitions, he did everything himself, honest and reliable... do this kind of people really exist in real life???
But the worst thing for me were the dialogs. Plain, unreal characters can sometimes be ok in this kind of stories, but the dialogs were so... can't find the right word here, they were unreal and annoying and false. I did not find Daniel funny or charming at all. This is what killed the story, I believe.
I so liked her boyfriend in London, much more than I liked Daniel!


ITA le bianche dune della Cornovaglia