The Affair
Gill Paul
483 pages
Published in 2013
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Kicking off our Beach Reads themed reviews for the month of July, The Affair is an enjoyable but shallow women’s fiction novel set in 1960s Rome, which was first published in 2013. This came to me from a friend and I was in the mood for something light, so it seemed to fit the bill. I was interested to read about the filming of the famous Cleopatra movie (which I have never seen) and loved the idea of a trip to Rome, but didn’t like any of the characters and the mystery was underwhelming.
Diana Bailey is a young English historical researcher specialising in ancient Egypt, so is thrilled to be invited to Rome to work on the extravagant production of Cleopatra staring Elizabeth Taylor. Her much older husband is not happy about being left in London, and refuses to come visit her. Embracing the glamorous world of movie-making, Diana is seduced by a local man, but it’s her friendship with a young make-up artist that really gets her into trouble…
This was easy reading but ultimately not very satisfying – there’s a subplot about the Italian heroin trade which leads to melodrama, and the backdrop of the tumultuous affair going on between Taylor and her co-star Richard Burton. I enjoyed the details of the film set but felt impatient at Diana’s naïveté and couldn’t stand sleazy journalist Scott. The ending left things mostly unresolved although I liked the epilogue about the fate of the various real-life characters. I think those who enjoy romance stories would like this more than I did.
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