Miriam
Bitter was such an enjoyable read, it was hard to put it down and with the short chapters I kept wanting to read on. At first Gilda did not come over as a particularly nice person but as the story progressed a lot of it was to do with her upbringing and her immaturity. Once we found out about her misunderstanding I really wanted Reuben to warm to her but understand how much damage was done after all those years. The book also captured the flavour of the times perfectly - I was there!
I would like to ask Francesca Jakobi if she has children of her own and how would she react if there was a rift due to a misunderstanding.
I look forward to more from this writer.
I don’t have children myself – I suspect it would have been harder to write about such a painful rift if I had.
If there were a similar misunderstanding in my own family, I would hope that I’d try to tackle it sooner rather than later. Part of the problem with Gilda and Reuben is that their misunderstandings were left to fester for so long. If they’d been able to talk about Gilda’s past when Reuben was younger, I think things would have been different.