Other Rebecca

by Maureen Freely

So says her employer to the protagonist of this spellbinding novel which echoes Daphne Du Maurier's classic, "Rebecca." Her future husband is the renowned writer and infamous widower, Max Midwinter,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747531668
• ISBN13: 9780747531661
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 279 Pages

Customer Reviews

Well, I... don't hate this remake!

A writer is blocked. She can't bring herself to work on her novel. She is no hack though. She's just finished writing a short story collection. So why can't she write now? Then her life takes an interesting spin. She meets a man -- a dark, handsome and brooding widower by the name of Max Midwinter. The man is an accomplished writer as well, a poet and his late wife Rebecca was also a writer. She had penned a rather revealing take on his family and their marriage. No sooner does the second Mrs. Midwinter (no first name, of course) move in than she begins to feel like a shadow to this Rebecca character. Her husband gets angry or shuts down when his wife is mentioned, and he picks up on other vices as well. But will she develop some sympathy for the dead wife after she meets the entire Midwinter family, and will her love for Max endure as his alcoholism and secretive nature get worse and worse? And, more to the point, is Rebecca's death linked to her husband? The Other Rebecca is a modernized version of Daphne du Maurier's classic. It is also a satire. I had no idea what I'd make out of this novel when I cracked it open. Another horrid sequel, I thought. Well, color me surprised when I found myself enjoying this book. The narrative is quite well written, the characters are fleshed out, and the language is so ridiculous in its overuse of dry wit and irony that you cannot possibly take it seriously. Yet it is quite a successful feat. Maureen Freely writes with fabulous insight and dark humor, adding a touch of gothic atmosphere for good measure. Feminism is rampant here. The aforementioned theme served as an undertone in Rebecca, and Freely cranks it up several notches in her remake. There are some twists and turns and the ending is quite impressive (but not altogether surprising). All in all, The Other Rebecca should be read if you're not a Rebecca purist and can appreciate a satirical do-over of the beloved classic. Look for it in your library or at a used bookseller, for I doubt that you'll find a copy of this out-of-print book elsewhere.

Fantastic

this is a great book, i would really recommend it!

Atmospheric and witty

Maureen Freely's 20th century retelling of Daphne DuMaurier's "Rebecca" updates the 1938 classic with plenty of sex, drugs and cutthroat literary feuding while managing to retain the claustrophobic pathos of the original.The American narrator of "The Other Rebecca" has just finished her first book of stories and is having difficulty beginning a novel when she meets and falls for Max Midwinter, dashing British poet and brooding widower of the sharp and talented Rebecca, whose posthumous autobiographical novel viciously skewered her in-laws and husband.The Midwinter family latches onto Max's new wife, a timid thing easily swayed and subsumed by the capable and meddlesome Aunt Bea, the fanatical Danny who worships Rebecca's memory and the two mistrustful children. A new biography linking Max to Rebecca's death plunges him into depression and alcohol, alienating him from his new wife whose ineffectual attempts to help backfire with unerring devastation. Freely's narrative echoes DuMaurier's with a modern day wryness, wit and black-humored feminism.