"Cleopatra's Sister"

One of the first writers I wrote about on this blog was Penelope Lively (on 1/25/10), one of my very favorite contemporary authors. She writes beautifully, her novels have intriguing plots and settings, her characters come alive, and she thoroughly understands human nature. On my trip to Kelowna, British Columbia last week for a wonderful family reunion on the beautiful Okanagan Lake, I took along paperback copies of three of Lively's novels, all of which I had already read, but wanted to re-read, knowing they would be good company on the trip. The first one I read was "Cleopatra's Sister" (Penguin, 1993). This novel tells the story of a flight from England to Nairobi that makes an emergency landing in the fictional North African country of Callimbia (Libya?), where the passengers are taken hostages as bargaining chips with England. The two main characters, passengers Howard and Lucy, are drawn to each other during the ordeal. Much of the book is about their back stories, as well as the back story of Callimbia, which includes the historical story of Cleopatra's sister, and then these strands gradually come together in the suspenseful telling of the hostage-taking. This is not one of Lively's best novels, being a bit schematic and with a storyline a bit too "torn from the headlines." But even lesser Lively is wonderful, and I enjoyed the novel. If you have never read Lively's work, I recommend you begin with one of the following novels: Moon Tiger; Heat Wave; The Photograph; Consequences; or her recent Family Album. I can almost guarantee that if you read one of her novels, you will read more.