A PEN/Faulkner Award finalist about two sisters’ divergent paths, from the author of The Burning Girl and The Emperor’s Children.

In this highly acclaimed novel, life isn’t all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy’s marriage ends, she flees her home in Sydney to “find herself” on the island of Bali―only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, Virginia follows her aging mother’s advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.

I'm to read for a book group later this year. Another book about the attempt to find oneself--I guess that is the theme for the books chosen: Razor's Edge, Maugham's biography, Painted Veil, American Taliban, this novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Sea of Popplies and probably others I've forgotten! I've now read it and found the uptight sister's loss of faith predictable but familiar whereas trying to find oneself on Bali seemed just too exotic. Both characters are in an emotional limbo, both waiting for something outside themselves to tell them/ make them find meaning in their lives. But meaning can only come from the self but neither woman seems to have much of one. I was reminded of Arnold Bennett's Old Wives Tale which I read many, many years ago--also about two sisters, one who lived the high road, and one the low in the era of the French Revolution, but the two roads lives seemed ultimately much the same by the end. Who knows whether my memory of that book is accurate--I will have to find and re-read it, but my point is that it was far more satisfying a novel than Messud's modern one is. ( )

She writes very nicely and everything. It's just that the people are, well, kind of boring. Does that flag me as a reader of juvenile taste (not enough explosions!)? Well, maybe so, but I've got to tell'em as I see'em don't I? And I liked Emperor's Children after all. ( )

There is a blurb from the New York Times on the front of 'When the World Was Steady' that states, "Claire Messud is a novelist of unnerving talent". This quote is the most accurate description of Ms. Messud's work that I can think of. Her prose is lyrical and gorgeous. However, this novel failed to engross me in the same way 'The Emperor's Children' did.

When the World Was Steady follows two drastically different sisters whose life paths are as divergent as their personalities. While both are British, one sister is living in Bali while trying to move past her divorce from her Austrailian husband and the other is an uptight spinster living with their mother in England. As is the case with all of Messud's novels, what happens plot wise isn't as important as the description of the inner lives of the characters. This is where Messud excels. Her descriptions of the women's thoughts and desires are poignant and true on some fundamental level. Messud's prose is lyrical and beautiful.

When the World Was Steady is classic Claire Messud. ( )