How It All Began

This is a fun read. It is a bit contrived around the idea of chance encounter leading to other things, but she is such a skilled writer that you are able to go along with it and look for the next step of the progression. The characters are wonderful.

On a fairly slight premise, a range of characters are introduced to the reader. I would call it a 'kind' read with no character's foibles too harshly drawn. An enjoyable escape to the fictional characters lives and trials. Not demanding and not trite.

I enjoyed this book as much as her earlier books. Now in my sixties I am close enough to old age to feel the vulnerability of it - the realisation that you don't bounce as well as you once did.Her prose is still as clear and concise as ever and the characters are beautifully drawn. Some may find their moral compasses somewhat old-fashioned but I appreciated this aspect of the story - it is not all about me.

I liked the way the author could get into the minds of the characters to have their point of view used in the narrative, and yet could also withdraw from the characters to offer Omniscient Author pov. Very nice wit and a general kindness toward people in the novel made it comfortable to read.

I recommend this gentle book to anyone. The characters are true to life, yet each gives us insights to consider about our own life. The story thread keeps the reader moving easily along until the end, without the author intruding on it.

An older woman is mugged and temporarily moves in with her daughter, which sets off some serious and hilarious chain reactions in the lives of a group of disparate characters, all of whom are amazing in their own way and extremely well depicted. As a reader, I was empathizing all over the place, particularly with Charlotte, the muggee. I've never read a better description on how it feels to be aging and become less independent. But fear not, Charlotte is far from through, and all the characters find ways to cope with the changes in their lives - for better or worse. Great fun!.

A delightful book based on the premise of the butterfly effect in English life, using precise language, making commentary about human character, relationships, aging, the immigrant experience, as well as various professions constructed in a somewhat episodic manner. Loved the last paragraph

If you are a Penelope Lively reader, you will know that the little wisdoms along the way and a gentle mystery-like plot will care you along to a satisfying read. Take this one to the beach or pass on to a friend with literary tastes who also enjoys an engaging time-out from the heavy stuff.

Intimate, non-dramatic but credibly human.The intertwining of human destinies is influenced by one random event and allows the author to portray various divergent characters.A most satisfying novel of human relationships !

Ever since I turned the last page of Penelope Lively's Booker Prize winning novel Moon Tiger nearly 25 years ago, I was hooked. Her peek inside modern British culture was a look at a world that probably no longer exists. Lively's characters are complex--especially her women--and drive the story; I've often envisioned the conversations we'd share. And so The Road to Lichtfield, The Photograph, and Moon Tiger remain some of my favorite reading memories. The author is now eighty and I'd thought she was no longer writing--so imagine my delight when I discovered How it All Began written in 2011.

I loved the concept--one event sets off a series of events ala the butterfly effect--when I read the blurb. The elderly Charlotte Rainsford is mugged and must move in with her daughter and son-in-law after her release from the hospital. The web of characters affected by this event move outward from there: Charlotte's daughter Rose, Rose's employer Lord Henry, Henry's niece Marion and her lover Jeremy, Anton, the eastern European immigrant Charlotte comes to tutor.

The makings of a satisfying read ... except it's not. The characters are not interesting enough to carry a plot and by the end, I simply didn't care what happened to them. To make matters worse, the last chapter was six pages of disappointing epilogue. How sad that this will be my last impression of Lively's work.

This is a fascinating account of a 77 year old woman who broke her hip when a thief grabbed her handbag and knocked her over. Her daughter, her daughter's husband, her daughter's employer, her daughter's employer's niece and herself a teacher, now retired, but teaching people how to read; all find themselves on different courses as though the incident switched the tracks under them. How it happens, what actually happens seems amazing, yet undeniable. Very good book.

What a pleasant time I had reading this novel. The abundant characters are quite varied and well-developed in revealing detail. They merrily criss-cross over each other's lives, interact with and without contact. The novel utilizes simple words to portray complex emotions, setting scenes with precision. I especially loved the elder statesman, Henry. Throughout this book, my senses were alerted.

Penelope Lively always has a great concept for her books, often historical, always philosophical. So I find every one of them worth getting. Unfortunately I find that she creates better novels from some of her ideas than from others. This was a book I much looked forward to, and I really like the concept and the start of the book. But about a third of the way in I found myself bored, and so I skipped sections, cheated and read the end. I found myself really disappointed. I thought more would happen to the characters, and one thing would lead to another. But like real life, it became mundane and very ordinary. If you are a Lively fan, do get the book, but I warn you, it's not one of her best.

I sent a copy of Chapter 5 to my daughter because it so perfectly summed up how I was feeling when I read it having just had knee surgery and feeling a little dependent on others and a little old. It is so beautifully and differently written. If you enjoy this, be sure to read all of Alexander McCall Smith!

It was a bargain to pick up a mint copy "used" at the store for only two bucks, plus p&h.
Working from a chance event (a mugging that knocked one of the characters down and broke her hip)this book plays on chance encounters and their aftermaths. Our lives are not preplanned but hinge on chance encounters, coincidences, and this book exploits that idea. The conclusion suffers from an unfortunate deus ex machina coincidence that could have been easily avoided if the author had inserted a sentence or a paragraph in the right places early on. Foreshadowing helps and it can be subtle. I had to do that in my book "White Slave" or the coincidence when the main character runs into an old paramour in New Zealand would be a howler readers would object to, but I had prepared them. I enjoyed this one as it does not dwell on women's hair and their clothes as some female authors do. --Harley L. Sachs, author of Kindle books.

In this exceptional novel, Penelope Lively expertly and captivatingly details how the fates can work for us and how they can work against us and, in the process, reveals how far reaching the consequences of these fateful happenings can be.

This was a slice of life story and pretty realistic. I thought the mother's reaction to having to come to live with her daughter on target. She doesn't want to be a burden. However, it does give her the opportunity to know her son-in-law and her daughter better. The romance with the immigrant was very touching and the ending very realistic. I won't give the ending away.

My books arrived on schedule and in better condition than I expected. I read a review of this book in the New York Times book section and look forward to reading it later this spring. Right now, it is in my "to read" pile of books beside my bed. Happy reading...

A notable wordsmith, Penelope Lively. Excellent use of language, good characterization, realistic dialogue. Perfect grammar. But it's one of those novels that never seems to get to even the start of a story-line. It's a good read if all you want is internal character development and don't mind an absence of plot.

One thing leads to another. That's really the whole story of this going-through-the-motions novel by Lively. A combination of the obvious and the unlikely, revolving around characters who fail to develop from beginning to end. The writing is enjoyable, but it's really a bucket of air.

An elderly woman is mugged, falls and breaks her hip and other lives are effected (even the mugger makes a brief appearance). Lively fans won't be disappointed and her first-time readers will discover a new other with a flock of books they may read.

Now that's a movie showcasing unintended consequences. Domino affect etc. This book, for me, was a light weight compared to that. Quick synopsis: Marion leaves a cell phone voice mail for her lover who is married to Stella. Stella hears it and quickly asks Jeremy (the lover and husband) for a divorce. This is supposed to set in motion a sort of 6 degrees of separation. There are seven main characters supposedly affected by this voicemail. I only cared about one, Anton, the eastern European trying to learn english and find a job and find happiness. There are no gripping cliff hangers nor any great dialog unless it's the blathering on of Henry the octogenarian academic. I read that this would be a great book for book club discussions because of the law of unintended consequences or which fork in the road should I take and what would be those consequences if I took one. I think book clubs have been there and done that before. I guess the author was going for a more mundane set of circumstances...

It took me a while to read this story to the end. Reading a story by an English writer is annoying at times because of the differences in speech and idioms.I have concluded that Americans speak American, the English speak English !

Interesting twist on Chaos theory and intertwining lives. I felt that the characters were both compelling and believable. My initial impressions of a few of the main chracters changed over the course of the book owing to the author's skill.

I liked the book and the ending was satisfactory, but, really, was it necessary for Anton to" tongue" kiss Rose to say goodbye? Wouldn't a sweet. ;loving, chaste kiss have been more appropriate and believable?

Well written for the type of story it is. One bad incident & how it affects the victim’s life & the lives of those around her without going into a lot of detail. Read it, enjoy it & move on to the next book.

This was read for a book club and I was in the minority as far as my opinion. I think Ms. Lively is an accomplished writer but I
found the story and characters uninteresting and the plot, and the way everyone intersected, very contrived and plotted.
Always knew where the novel was going and what the outcome would be. Easy read but with all the wonderful works out
there, a bit of a waste of time. Learned nothing from reading it.

This is the first book I have read by this author, and I dare say it will be the last. The writing style is very unusual: choppy, incomplete sentences. British writing is often a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I can deal with it if the story is good. Of the many characters in this book, I only really cared about Charlotte, whose mugging set the plot in motion, and Anton, a recent immigrant from Eastern Europe. The story line went from one character to the next and the next and so on until it came back around to Charlotte again. When I'm reading a good book I don't want it to end. When I finish this book, I was relieved.

How it all began follows a series of incidents that happen after a young thief knocks an older woman down and steals her purse. It answers in a very interesting way "What would happen if a mom was attacked, injured, and had to go and live with her daughter?" I liked the story.

The characters in this novel feel real. The experiences they have and their reactions to them are believable. Their "stories" are the stories of life, the ways in which lives evolve and the interrelationships between them. A thought provoking, interesting, and enjoyable book.

I have no problem - the 3 or 4 books arrived on time in very good condition and there is no more to say. This insistence on headline for each and 20 words for each is coercive . If I had a complaint I might need to be more specific. I usually opt not to review so I don't get into all this.

This was a struggle to continue reading. I put it down often. Especially after the portions regarding Henry. A retired scholar who is well full of himself and a very annoying man.

I had hoped the other characters would evolve into something more than they actually did. They had definite possibilities but never fully evolved.

An unsatisfactory read. the store needs a way to tag books on their face after reading so that books like this will never be pulled up for a reread.

Penelope Lively has given us a novel that illustrates how one misdeed can affect many people. She does so, of course, in her own indomitable style.

The author tells us that the plot is inspired by The Chaos Theory:

'Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general.' Wikipedia

Charlotte, a woman of indeterminate age, but probably in her seventies, is mugged. She is thrown to the ground, breaking her hip, and her money is taken. That one incident has an affect on at least seven more people. While recuperating, Charlotte goes to live with her daughter, Rose, and Rose's husband, Gerry. Charlotte finds it difficult to be dependent on others, Rose works as a personal secretary to an elderly Lord, an independent scholar, Lord Henry Peters. He suffers from a fading memory, but his ego has him believing that his words command everyone's attention. Henry's niece, Marion, a bit self centered, is an interior designer. Her work has slowed to almost no work. She has also taken up with a married man, Jeremy. Jeremy is a purveyor of other people's junk, and a man who wants it all. His wife, Stella, is a nervous wreck, and she takes a multitude of medications. They have two daughters, and Stella has a sister, Gill, who would drive anyone to drink. Stella reads a text message one day that changes the course of her life. Back to Charlotte, she is a teacher to immigrants who have difficulty reading English. While she is housebound, she invites one of her students, Anton, who is in his forties, and an accountant, to Rose's home for his tutoring. While he is receiving Charlotte's assistance, he meets Rose and they strike up a friendship. All of these people and several they meet by happenstance have become affected by Charlotte's mugging. We learn a little about them and how their actions affect others. Many questions linger on as time passes, and even though I could guess how their lives might change, the journey was delicious.

This is one of Penelope Lively's best novels, and I have enjoyed all twenty-two of them. She has something to teach us all about our behaviors, and how we lead our lives. We have been at the beginning many times with Penelope Lively. But, this time, she tells us "These stories do not end, but spin away from one another, each on its own course." Does everyone live happily after ever? No, does anyone? Each individual leads the life they were meant to live, she believes. Sometimes we are happy, and sometimes we are not. Life goes on, after all.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 01-06-12

Moon Tiger

Family Album: A Novel

I didn't like this book by Penelope Lively, I really don't like her books except for her memoir, and 1 early novel. Everything was just too convenient, I found the book very annoying, and I didn't care about anything in the book, including the characters or their lives.

This was my first Kindle book -- so the odd thing was I never knew quite how far along I was in the book. When I reached the end I was shocked it came so soon and let down. While it was a lovely read, beautiful language and a soothing gait, I kept expecting something to happen. All that happened was the end, all too soon, and no closure. The author was adept at engaging us in the lives of her characters, but then it seemed that she got tired of writing, threw in some cursory sentences almost as an epilogue to only barely give us an idea of how things ended up, and then left us high and dry. Very disappointing in the end.

I read this book for book club otherwise I wouldn't have bothered finishing it. I guess there are lessons about choices made and aging but the premise that one incident sets into motion other incidents is pretty much a given and hardly needs to be pounded home in a story. Just didn't think it was worth reading

For a book which is supposed to be about how the events of peoples' lives are interwoven in unexpected ways, this book is disappointingly predictable and way too neatly packaged. The characters and situations are right out central casting. The ending is hokey in an overly perky sort of way and totally contradicts the authors stated theme that life is an ongoing chain of interlocked events with no pat resolutions. If only she had explored this theme in more nuanced way it could have been an excellent novel, but alas it feels like a generic British sitcom with an extraneous conceptual overlay designed to make it more intellectually seductive. It didn't work at all for me.

Perhaps some reviewers who complain of 'no story' or 'mundane' have missed the point. So much of life is mundane, skittered by chance and circumstance--which is the author's 'point'. Sometimes chance sends us off in whole new directions, as it does Marion. Sometimes it makes us come to terms with age and loss, as it does Charlotte. Sometimes it presents the possibility of an entirely new future, as it does for Rose and Anton. And sometimes nothing at all changes, as it does for Lord Henry. These are not new lessons. She is telling us right out loud that much of life is chance, and chance occurrence is not a message. It is life.

What makes this book worth every star is how beautifully it is constructed, how thoughtfully it is felt, how wonderfully observed and said. There are ruminations in here on aging (a sensitive point for this reader), on the unspoken (a love affair that does not happen), on choice, chance and feeling. There are funny bits, and a gentleness even when the observations are tart. For some (like me) the references to other writers ( the daVinci Code and to Jane Gardam) are both satisfying (yes! I agree! da Vinci is a waste of paper -- the sort of book that embarrasses you be to caught reading. And yes, Jane Gardam is unmissable, another perfect writer!) binds author and writer to a secret little club.

It is not the Ms Lively is saying anything terribly new. Perhaps all of life's insights have already been said and so often! It is that she says it so well. She builds her world comfortably but with such care that you can't imagine saying it another way. There is not a jarring note. You note the comic bits with a smile and a sense of recognition, wry not raucous. Lord Henry is on the one hand hilarious and the other very sweet. The wistful moments are the same wistful sense anyone with a bit of history has experienced, and Ms. Lively brings those back whole. None of the characters are young, and I can't imagine the book satisfying the young reader. It ruminates about experience, the vagaries of life, the occasions missed or met, and perhaps can't be appreciated by readers who haven't yet had loss or regret.

She even talks about whether novels have to have a message--a direct little nudge at her readers, making us ask ourselves if a 'message' is required; a warning that her book may not have one at all. To have said that so baldly within the book suggests to me that she is arguing a bit with modern literary criticism -- but I could be fantasizing about that. Ms. Lively engages with her readers more than many authors do, and in How It All Began she occasionally speaks directly to the reader, breaking the 4th wall of separation between actor and audience . In this book, you are clearly spending time with Penelope Lively. It is time very swell spent.

And the delightful thing about a book is that you can do it all again tomorrow.

How It All Began is a book to read for its interesting and subtle moments. It's great for readers who like to identify with the way characters react. It's not a book to read for plot. It has no overall plot, just subplots that are loosely connected, but have little affect on each other once they are going. Some of the stories end, but others don't. Penelope Lively seems to have done this intentionally, because toward the end of the book she says, “An ending is an artificial device...”

Anton and Henry are two intriguing personalities. Anton is an immigrant to England where the story takes place, coming from an unnamed eastern European country. He's a trained accountant, but has problems speaking English, so he's had to settle for manual work. We get to follow his struggles with the language and with his attraction to Rose. Henry is also an absorbing character. He's very out-of-date with his style of dress, mannerisms, and general attitudes. Combine those characteristics with mild dementia and Penelope Lively has created a fascinating personality.

However, it is the women who are the most captivating characters in this novel. Charlotte, Rose, and Marion alone make the book worth reading. Charlotte is Rose's mother as well as the woman whose mugging starts the novel rolling. She is also Anton's English tutor, which is how Rose and he meet. I loved reading Charlotte's reactions when I knew Rose's secret. Marion has her own set of relationship issues with both her business partners and her love interest.

The premise of How It All Began is that a single event can cause a number of changes to occur in the lives of loosely connected people. Most of the subplots hold true to that idea, but one of the major ones, does not. This is the story about the reaction of Henry, an aging historian, to problems he had when delivering a speech on 18th century life. Henry was embarrassed by his performance and decides to compensate for his failure by pursuing a different venue to express his ideas – television. Henry's life had been altered slightly because of the event that was “how it all began,” but the only change was that his niece had attended his lecture instead of his personal assistant. It seems to me his life would have played out the same even if the original event had never occurred.

Another nice aspect to this novel is Lively's tendency to branch off from her story to make interesting observations about aspects of life. Here's a section where Charlotte is thinking about how our perception of time changes as we age:

One persuasive explanation has to do with the changed nature of experience itself; when we are young, novelty abounds. We do, see, feel, taste, smell newly, day after day; this puts a brake on time. It hovers, while we savor each fresh moment. In old age, we've seen it all, to put it bluntly. Been there, done that. So time whisks by. Ah, that's why–those interminable days of childhood.

The thought is absorbing, even though it has very little to do with the rest of the book. Charlotte is also an avid reader, so we also get her opinions of readers such as Henry James. That's fun, too.

In short, this is a good book for readers who like interesting, quotable thoughts and well developed characters, but who don't care if a plot is a bit disconnected.

Steve Lindahl – author of Motherless Soul and White Horse Regressions

I won't give this five stars. I imagine I'm spoiled by reading genre fiction where more gripping things happen. In this quiet novel, we are allowed to explore the inner lives of the characters. I did like them all but enjoyed Charlotte especially. She is a woman about my age (67) with a rich inner life, a love of good literature, and the ability and willingness to help others. She has had a fulfilling life and therefore is able to gracefully accept growing older. I wasn't all that enamored by the thesis that an event that happens to one character ripples through the lives of many people. This seems obvious to me. But I did enjoy the book and feel it enriched my life.

I love the premise of this book, that a single incident, such someone being mugged, could have a ripple effect into the lives of 6 or 7 other people, most of whom aren't even aware of the victim. In this, Charlotte has been mugged and as a result has injured her hip, requiring her to move in with her daughter, Rose and her husband, Gary. But because of her accident, we are introduced to Rose, who, needing to reshuffle her work, introduces us to her employer, Lord Henry, a one-time prominent academician and adviser to politicians. He, in turn, introduces us to Marion, his niece, an interior decorator and weekly visitor. Marion introduces us to Jeremy, her lover who shortly after our introduction, finds himself in a distressing divorce process.

It's six degrees of separation meet the domino effect. Each individual is well presented. Their characters are distinct but familiar. We all know someone like them. I can't go into much detail without giving their individual stories away, but Charlotte blithely goes about her recuperation and learns a bit more about her son-in-law. Rose starts to reach for something she can't have even if she suspects she'll be happier for it. Marion's trusting nature gets her in trouble. Henry starts off being a bit irritating but you feel a little sorry for him towards the end. And then there's Jeremy, playboy and self-obsessed prat. You can't help but want him to fall into a mud hole, but somehow he manages, as do some people we know, bounce right back up without a speck on him and carrying on as if nothing untoward had happened.

For over half of my adult life, I've ascribed to a three-point philosophy: "Everything happens for a reason. It's never the reason we think. Timing is everything." Why was it, for instance, that back in 1976 a phone call just before lunch delayed my departure to my usual restaurant? By the time I arrived, the restaurant was crowded and so I went next door. Seated a table away was a friend I hadn't seen for years; her dining companion was the HR person of the department where they both worked. The latter was vexed at having to throw together an ad for an unexpected opening. As Fate would have it, I happened to be looking for a transfer; my faxed resume was waiting on her desk by that afternoon. Were it not for the phone call that delayed me, I would not have subsequently met my first husband, started an acting company, and gone back to college.

Is it any wonder, then, that I frequently found myself nodding in fond reminiscence throughout Penelope Lively's charming novel, "How It All Began." What starts as a random mugging on a London street quickly segues to a compelling demonstration of The Butterfly Effect. Workaday lives and perspectives are not only disrupted by this unsettling incident but also transformed in unexpected ways. Lively's main characters are artfully crafted as flawed but sympathetic and entirely plausible. We have known people just like Rose, Anton, Jeremy and even the egocentric Lord Henry. Charlotte's frustrations at having to recuperate in her daughter's home are matched only by her growing anxieties about being an old person in a young person's world. We can relate to the lonely Marion's justifications that having half a loaf is better than none and yet all too frequently want to slap her upside the head for tolerating Jeremy's wishiwashiness. (For those of you hooked on the "Mr Selfridge" series on Masterpiece Theater, Jeremy is clearly channeling the philandering Mr. Grove.)

My favorite of Lively's characters is Anton, a central European immigrant who seeks to better his lot in life by acquiring the two things that have always been just beyond his grasp - fluency in the English language and someone who believes in true love as much as he does. Anton's fragile journey in both of these quests is genuine, sensitive, and bittersweet.

At 229 pages, it's a read that can easily be accomplished in two evenings but one in which the thoughtful, retrospective content will linger for a lifetime.

The title refers to the incident at the beginning of the novel, when 77 year old Charlotte Rainsford is felled in the street by a mugger and breaks her hip. This accident triggers off the chain of events in the rest of the book. Charlotte has been afflicted for some years by the aches and pains of advancing years, but has up till now always kept her independence. Now she has for the time being to live with her daughter Rose and her stolid son-in-law. She loves Rose dearly, but is unhappy to lose her independence and to intrude on the life of Rose and her husband. She is a lovable person and reflects insightfully on the process of getting old, and one fancies that her thoughts are those of Penelope Lively herself, who is much the same age. I found them the wisest and most engaging part of the book.

The other old person in the book is far from insightful. He is the crusty 77 year old Lord Henry Peters, who was once a distinguished historian of 18th century England, a Regius Professor, had sat on Royal Commissions and been advisor to a Prime Minister. Rose works for him as his personal assistant. He still represents the now out-of-date Namierite approach to 18th century history (though he is aware, in one of Penelope Lively's delightful phrases, that "the 18th century has moved on, leaving him behind.") He is out of date in many other ways - his manner, the way he speaks and dresses - and he really does not understand the world in which he now lives. While giving a lecture, he suddenly and humiliatingly forgets names. He feels he must find another way to keep his name before the public, and he hits on the idea that he would condescend to present a television programme on the 18th century, not in the busy-busy way that young telly-dons now do it, but rather à la Kenneth Clark, unaware that that approach is now also dated. It's surprising how far, through a contact, he got, and we are given an idea how tedious the actual making a television programme can be. And then Henry is taken for a ride, quite a pleasurable ride for him - and he is so unworldly that he never notices.

I found these two old folk the most interesting characters in the book. The people in the next generation down - a banker, an interior decorator, an antique dealer - go through the usual experiences of affaires, marriage problems, and financial worries. (Lively is bang up-to-date with the current recession.) Well, perhaps no quite so usual: it is rare that divorce proceedings can make for such entertaining reading. The husband in question is quite a character - very well drawn.

Unusual, too, is Anton, a middle-aged economic migrant from Eastern Europe, who was an accountant in his own country, but in England has to work as a labourer on a building site until he has learnt to read English. Charlotte, who had been an English teacher and had been running an adult literacy class, now has one-to-one sessions with Anton in Rose's home and talks to him about the literature (again probably speaking for Penelope Lively). Her daughter Rose also helps him with his English and in other ways. The developments which follow are somewhat predictable, but still charmingly described.

I found the coda very satisfying.

Penelope Lively is a marvellous writer. Her clear prose slips down like a cool glass of champagne. She moves deftly from character to character in this well-plotted story. Her learning, about literature, history, and much else besides, is worn lightly. Above all, she is witty, wise and compassionate.

It all began when 77-year-old Charlotte Rainsford was mugged; which meant she had to move into her daughter Rose’s house, where she tutored Anton, her adult literacy student, while her broken hip mended; which meant Rose noticed Anton’s “amazing eyes” and couldn’t accompany Henry, the retired professor she worked for, to an event in Manchester; which meant Henry’s niece, Marion had to go to Manchester in Rose’s stead; which meant Marion had to text her lover, Jeremy, and cancel a proposed tryst; which meant Jeremy’s wife, Stella (who discovered the text), began divorce proceedings; which meant…well, you get the picture. The plot is a series of random events setting one another into motion like a Rube Goldberg machine. In counterpoint to this “Butterfly Effect” view of life is another theme: the very un-random, “clever contrivance” of the stories we read in books - “not like our life,” as Anton the English student observes. If there ever was a seasoned fashioner of story, it’s the prolific Dame Lively, who ever so quietly shapes these Butterfly Effect episodes into a gently-flowing tale with a beginning, a middle, and (despite the author’s declaration to the contrary) a neat, satisfying end. Along the way, we’re treated to Lively’s deep insights into the human condition through her characters’ expectations (sometimes realized, sometimes not), their struggles with the passing of time, and their efforts to respond to the things life throws at them. We, all of us, get “swerved” by a chain of events we can’t even guess the beginning of. But as Anton puts it, “there are always more than one way to look at what happen.” It is all illuminating, satisfying and thought provoking…everything a really good book should be.

Once in a while, a work of fiction comes along that is eloquent, satirical, literate, warm, and engaging. Penelope Lively's "How It All Began" is one such novel. The epigraph is about the famous "butterfly effect": One seemingly insignificant event (such as the flapping of a butterfly's wings) can ultimately set off a chain reaction that influences the weather in a distant locale. In Lively's scenario, it all begins in London with the mugging of Charlotte Rainsford by "a fourteen-year-old with behavioral problems." As a result, Charlotte has a broken hip and her daughter, Rose Donovan, insists that it would best for her mother to recuperate at home with Rose and her husband, Gerry. This throws a monkey wrench into Rose's planned excursion to Manchester with her boss, a septuagenarian and historian named Lord Henry Peters. While Rose is busy getting her mother settled, Henry enlists his niece, Marion Clark, an interior designer, to fill in; consequences ensue that will affect Marion's life, as well. In fact, it is safe to say that few people emerge unchanged at the end of this tale.

Rarely has an author assembled such an absorbing cast. Henry Peters is "newly retired, brisk and self-important." Although he was once a force to be reckoned with in academia, his opinions are no longer sought after. In his declining years, he is self-absorbed, moody, and resentful of the infirmities of old age, which he considers "an insult" and "a slap in the face." Seventy-six year old Charlotte, who treasures her independence, appreciates Rose's attentiveness and concern. However, Charlotte is restless, sometimes in excruciating pain, and impatient to resume her normal routines. She also dislikes being "on the edge of things now, clinging on to life's outer rim." To pass the time, she brings over one of her literacy students, Anton, an immigrant who is learning to read English so that he can land a much-needed white-collar job. Finally, Marion, who has been involved in a love affair with a married man, finds herself reconsidering the choices that she has made.

Lively is a benign puppet master who empathizes with her characters' frailties and applauds their strengths. She understands the siren call of self-delusion; it may even be a necessary tool for survival. She also appreciates the integrity, selflessness, and practicality of individuals like Rose, Anton, and Charlotte. "How It All Began" is stylish and poignant, with witty dialogue that incorporates a highly skilled use of fragments, stream of consciousness, and clever asides. The seriocomic plot is wonderfully constructed and moves along effortlessly to a realistic and satisfying conclusion. This book is an uncommon treat to be savored--an entertaining and amusing story that captures the essence of what it is to be human.

"She is as much a product of what she has read as of the way in which she has lived; she is like millions of others built by books, for whom books are an essential foodstuff, who could starve without." This is the voice of Charlotte. Charlotte has much to teach us about books, language, story, and life, as she recovers in her daughter's home, after being injured by a mugger. As an English tutor to Anton, an immigrant working to make a better life, Charlotte opens a new world to him as he considers new possibilitites, a new job, a new love. But, that love creates complications in others' lives. Every action taken by every person in Lively's story affects another, for better, or worse, or somewhere in between. Charlotte's daughter Rose's life is complicated by her presence, and by Anton's. Rose's employer's life is complicated by Rose's absence. Her employer's neice's life is complicated by having to take Rose's place. Each character's story connects with another, until the story draws to a close when Charlotte returns home. A close, however, is not the same as an end. "An ending is an artificial device; we like endings, . . . [but t]hese stories do not end, but they spin away from one another, each on its own course." And spin, they do, in Lively's masterful hand.

Oh, I dearly loved this book about an event which spawned a series of follow-on events, some of which could be termed momentous, in the context of a life. The story was funny and true and ridiculous and painful and all those things that life can be. It was comforting to hear about folks whose lives had hit a major speed bump but who managed, by shuffling the deck, to usher in a new chapter in their lives, one that they liked even better. But it is lightly told, and not so painful for us, safely behind our reading glasses, sipping tea and considering just how awful divorce could be...for the characters of course.

I was also struck by parallels between the theme in this book by Lively and Kate Atkinson's new offering Life After Life . It is almost as though the grande Dames of British Literature were given a writing assignment to mull over the possibility that Hitler had never been born or had died in early life, before the tragedy of World War II. The assignment might have specified that they didn't have to focus on the 1940's, they just had to mention Hitler and make their story relevant to a new reality. Consider Lively's contribution, that she places in the mouth of Henry, retired University professor and a man sure of his talent to make history interesting and relevant:

"I myself have a soft spot for what is known as the Cleopatra's nose theory of history--the proposal that had the nose of Cleopatra been an inch longer the fortunes of Rome would have been different. A reductio ad absurdam, perhaps, but a reference to random causality that makes a lot of sense when we think about the erratic sequence of events that we call history. And we find that we home in on the catalysts--the intervention of those seminal figures who will direct events. Caesar himself. Charlemagne. Napoleon. Hitler. If this man or that--no, this person or that--had not existed, how differently could things have turned out? Focus upon a smaller canvas--England in the eighteenth century, of, indeed, any other century--and we find again that it is personalities that direct events, the human hand that steers the course of time...A decision is made in one place, and far away a thousand will die."

Then, consider Kate Atkinson's contemplation of this question, whom she gives to Ursula, her protagonist :

"Don't you wonder sometimes, " Ursula said. "If just one small thing had been changed, in the past, I mean. If Hitler had died at birth, or if someone had kidnapped him as a baby and brought him up in--I don't know, say a Quaker household--surely things would be different."

And it is a great theme to be going along with: eliminating those pesky outsized actors from our history. After all, isn't life complicated enough with just our own mistakes to manage?

In any case, the thing that really caught my attention in this book, and that I loved above even the story (something which Lively spends some time considering--how a story can draw us in) is the discussion an older woman, a retired teacher of literature as it happens, has with a younger economic migrant to whom she is teaching the fundamentals of reading. They speak of language, words, and the passion the younger man has for stories. He'd had trouble learning English, both spoken and written, but he was passionate about stories. So she teaches him, rather than the language of commerce, the language of poetry. She gave him stories, and his passion for stories developed into a passion for words, which he collected assiduously and used ardently. He loved, and was loved though words. It was delightful. Life After Life: A Novel

Like a lot of contemporary fiction I'm reading these days, Penelope Lively's new novel might have borrowed a title from Anthony Trollope: "The Way We Live Now." Although Lively's story lacks the fully-detailed financial shenanigans of Trollope's longest novel, it does provide a similar shapshot of a set of typical people in a certain place and time, which in this case is educated and affluent Londoners today. The story spins off the mugging of an elderly widow named Charlotte Rainsford, whose resulting broken hip sends out ripples of effect that change -- at least temporarily -- the lives of a bunch of people, most of whom don't even know Charlotte. Charlotte's daughter Rose and her husband must accomodate her in their home for her recovery, and Charlotte must struggle to recover her prized independence. Rose's sometime unavailability requires her employer, a retired history professor, to sometimes call for help on his sole relation, a niece named niece Marion. Marion must add juggling her uncle's needs to the challenge of rescuing her interior-design firm in the lean times of post-crash Britain, both of which put stress on her affair with Jeremy. Jeremy's own business dealing with architectural elements reclaimed from old buildings is also struggling even before his wife discovers the affair and demands a divorce. And an Eastern European immigrant who Charlotte is teaching to read English must now meet her for tutoring sessions at Rose's home, where he and Charlotte's daughter develop an unlikely friendship. Lively's actual title -- "How It All Began" -- is mostly inappropriate, it seems to me, because it implies a before-and-after demarcation that doesn't exist for all of the characters in this ensemble cast. The life of only one of those characters is profoundly changed as a result of the ripple of effect set off by Charlotte's mugging. The rest experience a period of turbulence before settling back into post-mugging lives that appear as placid as their pre-mugging lives. Much of Lively's novel is told through interior monologue, and she's such a fine writer that each character's interior voice is both distinctive and captivating. One of the things I especially liked about this book is the fact that she has two elderly characters who are interesting, not merely geezer cranks used for effect. However, on the flip side, the other characters, with the exception of one 20-something academic who appears very briefly, are all middle-aged. Rose and Jeremy both have children who might have been used to present a younger point of view, but that's really an unfair quibble. Reviewers should stick to the book that was written and not gripe about the book they wish had been written. I quite enjoyed this one as a light summer read, and I'll be trying some other titles from the prolific Lively.

Opening this Penelope Lively book I was from the start taken by the character of Charlotte and a feeling of familiarity and appreciation didn't leave for the rest of the novel. Set primarily in London, the scenario and the people felt to me like I could have met them and the mugging... well, I have had that experience too. Charlotte, a very independent-minded senior with her wits and sense of humour about her, endears herself immediately to the reader. The day-time mugging that makes Charlotte fall and break her hip is the trigger of the well-known 'butterfly effect' that will lead to a series of unexpected encounters. While not earth-shattering as such the incident will lead to unforeseen encounters that in turn can open up new or deeper feelings and understanding among a small group of people directly or indirectly connected to Charlotte.

Central to the novel are Charlotte's musings about her life, how her presence will impact the lives of her daughter Rose and her son-in-law while she is confined to their house to recuperate. How well does she know them? Can she get to know them better sharing their space? Do they do so willingly? Lively, not surprisingly, goes beyond Charlotte's perspective as she tells us more about the back-stories and current lives of Rose and husband Gerry, Lord Henry (Rose's boss) and Marion, his niece. Their stories and a few more encounters that become relevant over time are interleafed with Charlotte's ongoing efforts to regain her independence. Each has a role to play in the butterfly effect around Charlotte's mugging and together they build a mosaic of interconnected pieces that also becomes a portrait of a slice of modern English society. Lively does this often with tongue-in-cheek wit and humour while always also demonstrating her empathy with all of her characters. A wonderful, heart-warming story to enjoy and some pearls of wisdom to take away from it. [Friederike Knabe]

How It All Began by Penelope is a thought provoking fictional account of how the

lives of multiple people can be impacted by a random accident. It reminds me of widening ripples after a pebble has been thrown in a pond.

Charlotte Rainsford is walking down a street in London, when she is mugged by a teenager. She falls and breaks her hip, and her life is understandably altered due to her injury. She cannot live alone while her hip is mending and mobility is severely limited. The reader also finds that the mugging incident triggers actions that lead to a marriage on the brink of divorce, the possible bankruptcy of an interior decorator's business, the less than stellar performance at a lecture of a well-known historian, and how an immigrant's attempt to improve his life in the UK impacts the course of a twenty year marriage.

My Thoughts

"How It All Began" is the perfect book to read while curled up in your favorite chair with an afghan and a hot chocolate. The reader will want to time with this book to allow full immersion in the story. The characters are ordinary people living ordinary lives. A random incident changes all their lives and the reader is compelled to keep reading to find out how the story unfolds. Will the couple on the brink of divorce end or mend their marriage? Will the interior decorator be able to save her business or will she have to change career direction? Will the historian be able to restore his reputation in the academic world or will he fade into obscurity with a blemish on his record? Penelope Lively answers these questions in such a way that reader has additional questions. Ms. Lively leaves her readers wanting more, an excellent achievement for any writer.

By Celeste Thomas

At first I thought this was a Ruth Rendell-like psychological murder story, but as I continued (the actual shout-out to Ms. Rendell was fun), it was obvious this was a meditation on the power of story for everyone in the world, even if it was reduced down to a microcosm of people in London. Good stories engage almost all humans, from the low-brow reader of The Da Vinci Code, to an immigrant struggling with Maurice Sendak, to a pompous scholar attempting to write his memoirs in his dotage, to an aging teacher trying to find meaning once again in Henry James.

The chaos theory thing is just the device to set this all in motion, but soon the reader is caught up in the linchpin of all good stories: the overarching desire to find out what happens next. Lively delivers this beautifully, and is not afraid to use familiar narrative tropes to achieve her ends (because isn't finding out you were right about what happens to certain characters part of the satisfaction of reading a story?). It's a lovely book, very smart, very wise.

If you have been fascinated by the idea of chaos theory--how a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the globe can create a tsunami on the other side--this book entertainingly illustrates this concept in the lives of several colorful and (mostly) lovable characters. Structuring the story, the concept provides symmetry to this sympathetic and graceful tale.

This is my favorite novel of Lively's and I can't wait for our library fiction group to read and discuss it. Lively's writing style is vivid, fresh and alive. I couldn't help but wonder if she used Charlotte, the protagonist, to express many of her own ideas on life and literature. What a wonderful character! You wish you had someone like her in your own life. Henry, the fussy Scholar and Lord, is a hoot and comes to life with his musings and pronouncements.

And dear Anton, Rose's literacy student, you rooted for and hoped Rose...well, read about them and see what you wish.

This book compels the reader to realize how one minor incident can change a life, perhaps a succession of lives and that's what makes life so fascinating and full of possibility.

This book is a small jewel box of lively and lovable characters, intriguing situations and sparkling dialogue which you will want to open and enjoy. So far, it's my favorite novel that I have read this year.

The apparent premise of this story was how chaos theory could apply to ordinary lives based on a single event - the mugging of an elderly lady by an unknown (and throughout the story anonymous) assailant. We meet a fairly common cast of middle class characters whose lives are altered to some degree by this event, but the changes are pretty mundane. I was hoping to see something of real interest happen, but was disappointed. Jobs and relationships experienced various stresses, but I I got tired of the self centeredness of all but one of the characters. The one character who earned my sympathy was Anton, the Eastern European immigrant struggling to learn English in order to apply for meaningful work. The reactions and thoughts of the other characters were predictable and usually annoyingly selfish. I found my thoughts frequently drifting off in the middle of converstions in which the participants were also allowing their thoughts to drift from each other - life immitating art. The author states in the final chapter that "endings are an arbitrary device" because of course the characters' lives presumably continue onward beyond the pages of the book. In spite of that thought, all is resolved in very tidy (and predictable) fashion.

The apparent premise of this story was how chaos theory could apply to ordinary lives based on a single event - the mugging of an elderly lady by an unknown (and throughout the story anonymous) assailant. We meet a fairly common cast of middle class characters whose lives are altered to some degree by this event, but the changes are pretty mundane. I was hoping to see something of real interest happen, but was disappointed. Jobs and relationships experienced various stresses, but I I got tired of the self centeredness of all but one of the characters. The one character who earned my sympathy was Anton, the Eastern European immigrant struggling to learn English in order to apply for meaningful work. The reactions and thoughts of the other characters were predictable and usually annoyingly selfish. I found my thoughts frequently drifting off in the middle of converstions in which the participants were also allowing their thoughts to drift from each other - life immitating art. The author states in the final chapter that "endings are an arbitrary device" because of course the characters' lives presumably continue onward beyond the pages of the book. In spite of that thought, all is resolved in very tidy (and predictable) fashion.

An elederly woman is mugged on a London street corner. As a result, lives are disrupted, fates are altered. An affair is exposed, marriages threatened, new relationships formed - all due to the mugging of an elderly woman.
The woman in question, Charlotte, is injured to an extent that she requires convalescence, in the home of her daughter, Rose and Rose's husband, Gerry. Rose's work for Henry, an aged academic, is consequently disrupted, requiring Henry's niece, Marion to accompany him on an ill - fated trip and to break a date with her married lover. All because Charlotte is mugged.
Like Lively's other novels, this is an unnerving look at human relationships. It examines how we interact with the people in our daily lives- who we draw in and who we keep at arms' length.
Told in the third person (a rare treat in contemporary fiction), the narrative is presented from multiple points of view, providing concrete examples of the ways in which a single event (i.e. a mugging) impacts innumerable lives - including people mugger and victim will never know.
How it All Began is a spell - binding page turner that no lover of intelligent literary fiction can afford to miss.

Yes, she's still got it, even though she's probably now of a similar age and condition to the aching Charlotte. There's the usual obsession about circumstance and the passage of time - but why not? I can't tire of that. Her characters are engaging as ever, and I was soon desperate to follow their stories. But most of all I love her WRITING: witty but sympathetic, elegant but unstuffy. It's nothing short of delicious.

Yes, she's still my absolute No. 1 favourite author, by a mile. Thank you, Mrs Lively, for yet more hours of delight - and for teaching me more about writing, over the years, than any MA course could have done.

"How It All Began" is an enjoyable, undemanding novel with an ensemble cast and a generally happy ending. The characters are credible, even the academic, and their problems are meaningful. Lively writes intelligent, clear prose. Using the voice of Charlotte, the English teacher, Lively provides as good a description of the rewards of reading as I have seen. Charlotte's reflections on identity also nicely hit the mark: "But her thoughts are often of the past. That evanescent, pervasive, slippery internal landscape known to no one else, that vast accretion of data on which you depend - without it you would not be yourself." At the same time, while reading this novel I began one by Susan Choi with her poetic, more challenging style, as a counter weight.

"So that was the story. These have been the stories: of Charlotte, of Rose and Gerry, of Anton, of Jeremy and Stella, of Marion, of Henry, Mark, all of them. The stories so capriciously triggered because something happened to Charlotte in the street one day."

So begins the final chapter of Penelope Lively's latest novel, a stroll down the leafy lanes of accidental cause and effect. Charlotte is mugged in the street and breaks her hip. Her daughter Rose must leave work to go to the hospital. Rose's employer, Lord Peters, a distinguished elder historian, must call on his niece Marion to accompany him to an important lecture in Manchester. In the confusion, he forgets his notes, so the lecture does not go well. Meanwhile, a text message that Marion sends to her lover Jeremy to cancel their tryst is intercepted by Jeremy's wife Stella. All this in the first two dozen pages, but the ramifications will spread for the two hundred that follow. It is a riff on the popular notion of chaos theory: the butterfly spreading its wings in the the store causing a tornado in Texas.

But it is chaos theory cozied up. You get the sense that Lively is writing for the readers that found her somewhere between THE ROAD TO LICHFIELD in 1977 and MOON TIGER, her Booker Prize winner ten years later -- readers who for the most part have grown older with her and are happy to wait to take the latest book out of the library, pretty much knowing what they will get. Indeed, she has done the chain-of-circumstance thing before, in CONSEQUENCES (2007), though rather better and on a larger scale. But that spanned several generations, and contained characters of many different ages. This one is definitely an older person's book, with only one significant character under forty. I would call it a romance, were it not for the complete absence of young love; the romantic entanglements in this book are wearier, rocking the apple cart but not turning it over. Lively avoids neat endings and her characters do at least have one foot in the modern world, but there is a distinctly old-fashioned air to her gallery of slightly comic types and in the suspension of disbelief she requires from her readers.

Fans of Lively's work will probably already have read this book and found very little in it to surprise them. But by the same token, it is far from her best, with no hint of the depths she could touch even as recently as THE PHOTOGRAPH (2003). This latest book and its predecessor, FAMILY ALBUM, make me wonder whether she has lost her edge or if I have simply moved on. But at least her books still work as intelligent comfort food. [4 stars for fans; 3 for others]

This story begins with an elderly woman, Charlotte being mugged in London. Following this a cascading series of events that are triggered by the mugging form the basis of the story. A marriage is threatened, an affair discovered, an elderly peer attempts to regain his youthful vigor and importance, an interior designer finds an unlikely business partner, a newly arrived immigrant finds acceptance and love in an unexpected way. Each of these story lines is developed and interspersed through to the end of the story. The author really examines the effect of chance on a number of unconnected lives. I hate to summarize this story with any more detail as the story is the charm of this novel.
The novel is very well written, the dialogue is rich and true. The characters are genuine and for the most part likeable. The serendipitous nature of the story is really its allure; the author does a great job of stringing together events into an impressive story that is very enjoyable. I loved the ending - nothing ambiguous about the fate of these characters, I've recently finished a couple of novels with murky endings, so this ending was much appreciated. This is my first Penelope Lively novel, I had never heard of her but clearly she is a well recognized gem of a writer - several Booker short lists and a Booker prize. Lucky me a new author!!

The word "delicious" keeps cropping up in reviews of Lively's most recent novel, and I completely concur. I could spend my last days reading nothing but this woman's fiction. How many times have I read a "book club hit" and wondered "why-why-why." No wit, no momentum, no insights, no music...no reason to read on.

There is nothing mediocre about Penelope Lively or this latest novel of hers. It reads like a dream, with appealing characters, believable situations, psychological acuity, and lucid, witty prose. It's a comedy of manners, essentially, with many nuanced ruminations about the pleasures of reading and language, the perils of aging, and the fickleness of reputation. There is a pleasing theme about loyalty that runs through it as well, one that adds weight and helps to hold the story to ground. Most obviously, Charlotte's daughter Rose and her stolid husband take loving care of her during her convalescence from a mugging without so much as a word of complaint. (Rose's loyalty in other regards is challenged but I won't spoil that particular plot thread.) Husbands and wives, lovers, employers, and scholars' assistants all have their loyalty put to the test. The main character Charlotte, a retired English teacher, even questions her loyalty to Henry James. Was he too fussy a writer, or is it only her infirmity that makes her unable to focus on his challenging sentences?

All of it is accomplished with the lightest of touch. Lively does not provide signposts announcing a proclamation--for instance, about "death"--like many writers. All her insights are artfully woven into an appropriate character's thoughts, speech, or actions, so you must pay attention or you might miss them. And that would be a shame.

I love books with multiple characters, with lives swiftly unfolding and running up against major snags posed by love, health, and the economy. Somehow Lively stage manages all these characters and mini-plots in such a way that the energy snowballs, something you expect from an action or mystery plot, not a literary novel. What a talent.

Rebecca Burke
Author of The Ahimsa Club

The `ripple effect' is in play all around us even as we are totally unaware of it.

The story starts when elderly Charlotte Rainsford is accosted on the street by a petty thief.

A small inconsequential incident, right? Well, actually, no, because the consequences of this seemingly non-descript act are so far reaching & intreguing it is almost unimaginable.

Ms. Lively has written a very thoughtful story with wit & intelligence that is sure to turn you on to the idea of how one little act can change people's lives without them even knowing it. An idea that is certainly something to contemplate.

Despite this book's undeniable shortcomings, I considered giving it five stars. It's such a pleasure to read; every word is perfectly chosen, every analogy precisely evokes the images or emotions that Lively wants to describe. Each character's voice is unique and speaks from the page. The book has some depth to it, though it never tries to challenge the reader -- in several places, characters discuss the book's own theme, that seemingly small events have unforeseen implications. This would seem sophomoric in another writer's work, but comes across here as an affectionate nod to the reader.

The book has two problems. First, it describes several essentially unrelated groups of people but, rather than having their stories converge as would be typical in a novel, their stories grow farther and farther apart by the end. This means that there is no climax, no denouement. Instead, the book just sort of ends. We are given a coda describing what happens to some of the characters afterwards, but there's no denying that the ending is nonetheless abrupt and arbitrary.

Second, the characterizations of most of the people in the story are thin, uniformly so with the men. Worse, with only one exception, the male characters in the story are objects of pity or mockery. It's easy to forgive this at the start of the book when we are just meeting everybody and may presume that they will be fleshed out later, but it never happens. By the end, it seemed to me that virtually every character in the book could just as well have been in one of those paint-by-numbers romantic comedies with twenty couples falling in love in two hours. They had identifying traits but no personalities.

In lesser hands, this would not have been a satisfying book. However Penelope Lively writes so well that I'm pleased to have read it, despite these weaknesses.

I've enjoyed several of Lively's books, and was expecting a thoughtful, well-done work. What I got was a masterpiece. Age and experience have given her the insight to develop the tender, deep world view she has gifted to us.
The theme is about how a chance event sets off a rippling chain in the lives of several people- a sort of random chaos that ultimately produces profound changes in some of them.
The characters are truly appealing- even the flakes, the doddering elderly, the nervous hysterics, the adulterers and the wannabe adulterers. The wonderful Charlotte Rainsford looks out on life with a clear, dear, unsentimental yet sympathetic view of those around her; and her passion for reading was like coming home for me:
"Her life has been informed by reading. She has read not just for distraction, sustenance, to pass the time, but she has read in a state of primal innocence, reading for enlightenment, for instruction, even.
. . . .she has read to find out if things are the same for others as they are for her- then, discovering that frequently they are not, she has read to find out what it is that other people experience that she is missing."
I hope that when I am Ms. Lively's age, that I can even think occasional thoughts like hers, let alone write about them so profoundly.

I really enjoyed the point of of this book which is that nothing happens in isolation. Any single event ripples through us and touches the lives of countless others in ways we we cannot know. We are all connected, though we can never get to know everyone we are connected with and what those intersections look like.

How it All Began has an interesting premise. Charlotte Rainsford is mugged on the streets of London and this sets off a chain of events that changes the fates of her daughter and various other random people. I have always believed in fate and how one small choice by someone can have a ripple effect across the lives of many others. It was very interesting to see how this played out in the novel, although I did think it tended to be a bit dry at times. I thought Lively did a great job of bringing the tale full circle.

Charlotte's daughter, Rose, has to leave her job as a personal assistant to Henry, an elderly Historian, to take care of his mother. Henry's niece Marion has to take Henry to a conference, and cancels her plans with her boyfriend Jeremy. Jeremy's wife catches the text and their marriage is in turmoil. Charlotte begins teaching her English language learner Anton at home, and soon married Rose and Anton find they have a spark. Henry's conference does not go well, and he looks for a different avenue for his research.

The characters were all very unique and interesting. I enjoyed reading about them, but mostly about how their lives were all changed by this one event. This was the July FLICKS Book and Movie Club selection. Sadly I missed the meeting, but I was at my sister's wedding, which was worth it.

This review was first published on my blog, Laura's Reviews.

I enjoyed this so much I have been recommending it enthusiastically for the last few weeks. How it All Began is an agreeably smooth, engaging novel but it also much more. Though it is so very readable I found it took me quite a while to complete because when I finished a paragraph I often went back and read it again. Filled with engaging characters and plot lines, this novel also has a lot to say, unobtrusively, about choice, chance, living, and aging. I am not usually one who rereads but I feel pretty sure this will get a second read before too long. I think it would be a great book club choice.

How It All Began was a bit disappointing for me. The novel dragged in parts and felt very contrived. The clipped writing style and many British expressions got in my way. I did not relate to many of the characters except for Charlotte and Anton. Charlotte presented the brightest spot for me. Her wisdom and insight on teaching and aging was eloquent. I enjoyed every section that centered around her. I found it hard to like other characters like Jeremy and Stella. Their deeply flawed characters led me to believe their lives would take a similar course even without the accident that put Charlotte out of commission. So much for the domino effect. With characters so defined in their natures, no one event will determine the course of their lives.They are the determiners of their own fates.

I happened across a copy, remaindered, in the local bookstore, and recognized the author's name (I'd heard her interviewed on PBS last spring). Good reading from beginning to end. Deft use of multiple viewpoints, rather free-wheeling punctuation, bite-size scenes. Now I'll have to find copies of her other novels, and read her memoir, which was the subject of the PBS interview. (I'll leave the more detailed critiques and summaries to others.)

I have never read another of Penelope Lively's other books, but this one was recommended, and I thought the author's credentials were sufficient for a purchase. I like books set in the UK, and I don't mind a good character study from time to time. I was set to really enjoy this book.

I will admit that the writing is very enjoyable. It's easy on the reader, and it moves you forward through the novel like floating in a boat on a stream. There are many interesting characters, some with more developed backgrounds than others. I enjoyed the "butterfly effect" that underlies the entire book - that one person can cause a ripple effect in other people's lives, even if those people are not known. It's an interesting premise, and I think makes a good story.

However, I couldn't help feeling like almost everyone in the story spent the majority of the book "whingeing" and feeling sorry for themselves. Only Anton seems to be trying to change his circumstances. Everyone else just seems to float along in despair and immobilizing self-doubt for long periods of time. Marion finally pulls it together towards the end. Charlotte gets her wish, finally, but then spends her time thinking of the past, just as she did the rest of the book. Everyone basically spends the novel laughing at Henry or taking advantage of him, which was sad. The story just got so...depressing. And it made the characters pretty unlikeable, even if they are pretty accurate portrayals of some people's lives. The only character I really felt anything for was Gerry, and that's mostly because he was so unaware of what was happening around him, I could pity him. The last chapter also felt a little like a cop out, especially when the author keeps reminding us that stories never really end.

I'll probably try some of Ms. Lively's other works since I think the writing is so good, but this book left me a little depressed and not sure I had spent my time wisely.

Penelope Lively is one of my favorite authors and this novel is one of her best. The protagonist is a character I would really like to know. She is thoughtful, complex, and hopeful. Especially if you like Penelope Lively's writing, this book will not disappoint. Try it!

Knowing of Lively's previous work, I had expected a good book. What I got was an absolute gem, a pleasure to read and savor. Lively pens a great story, but it is the telling which has me spell-bound. This is a tumultuous story, with it's ups and downs, and it's hell-breaking-loose moments, but the author tells it comfortingly, with wit and wisdom and that rare panache of making even the more serious events look amusing. Her characters are sketched with a deep and intimate understanding, and Lively festoons them with their peculiar quirks and eccentricities by and by.

Lively takes her time telling this tale. Events happen, but they don't happen in isolation. We also are privy to the people and the happenings around that event - the lead-in, the aftermath and it's repercussions. This careful construction gives the book depth - it is like being there and knowing these people intimately. Her descriptions give them personality; to me, immersed in this book, they are living-breathing, full-bodied people. The characters in this book are ordinary, everyday people and the tale is of common-place everyday happenings ; people get mugged everyday, hearts are broken, and infidelities bloom anew. But to take these characters and these happenings and tell a tale like this, is rare. "How it all began" is a rare and accomplished novel, by an author well-versed in the language of life.

What I enjoyed most about Penelope Lively's novel, How It All Began, was the cast of charming and endearing characters. Lively frames her plot around the notion of how a single accident can lead to considerable consequences for characters that at first seem unconnected from one another. For those readers who like to read about a wide range of behavior, enjoy witty dialogue, and have any interest at all in chaos theory, this novel will deliver the goods.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

An elderly woman gets mugged.

That's how it all began.

Like the butterfly (what is the illusion? the butterfly breathing in the rainforest? the butterfly knocking its pupa onto a jaguar when it emerges?) in the well-known paradigm, this single act sets all kinds of crazy, unrelated events in motion. For better or worse (most seem to be both).

It's an absolutely delightful story. It's one that you won't regret reading. I promise.

This a.m. after a brutally hot hour long walk,I sat down in a chair with the ceiling fan whirling about me, and the a/c set to 68, trying to cool down. no better way than to do that with a book in hand. I finished Penelope Lively's newest novel (she is a Brit who has written many books over her long literary career). This one was called "How It All Began." Think about circumstance, happenstance, serendipity, being a minute late, a day early, in a certain place at a certain time and how that can change YOUR life, and the lives of all those in your circle forever. Such is the premise here. 77 yr. old Charlotte is mugged one day by a 14 yr. old boy on the streets of London. Her hip is broken, which means she can not live in her own flat again until she is healed. She moves into the home of her daughter, Rose, (& Rose's husband, Gerry) for a few months. She notices Rose and Gerry don't communicate much, and now Rose cannot do her work for old Henry, a self absorbed historian trying to publish his memoir (as she is nursing her mother). So Marion, Henry's niece, has to make some change of plans in HER life to help Henry. In that task, Marion sends a text to her married lover, Jeremy, who has left his phone behind and the obvious message is seen by his wife, Stella. All hell breaks lose there! Meanwhile, Charlotte, who had been a teacher, is now teaching English as a 2nd language to Anton, a lovely man from eastern Europe, who has been dumped by his wife and lost his job as an accountant due to the economy, and has ended up in london, hoping to better his life. Charlotte teaches him English during sessions at Rose's house. Rose arrives home each day at the end of these lessons, makes tea for her mother and Anton ( who is temporarily doing construction work) and begins to care for him, sending Rose & Anton a place they never thought they would go. They take long walks around London, become wonderful friends, and grow to love one another. But choices have to be made before a line is crossed....and so it goes. so many things happen or don't happen because a 14 yr. old boy decided to mug someone on a specific day & time and Charlotte just happened to be in that place, during the time that this boy carried out his impulse. This was not the fastest read, and at times I was bored, but then it picked up again and held my interest for the last 100 pages.

A very English story about how the mugging of an elderly lady leads to all sorts of unforeseen consequences, both good and bad. In the character of Charlotte (the woman who is mugged) the author has created an excellent portrayal of the various indignities of old age, a portrait that appears in different--and less sympathetic-- form in another character, an overage, self-important retired professor.

In general, I like this author's plots and her writing style, except for one English affectation that just about drives me crazy: the over-use of the word "one" as the subject of a sentence in place of I, you, he or she. Maybe the English really do talk that way, but I find it the written equivalent of a stick in the eye.

The book is enjoyable. It starts with the premise that one act can impact many others. And so it does, to our endearment. The author tells the tale smoothly and with humor, yet it does lag for a brief spell. Perhaps there are too many characters. Mark, for one, could easily have been dispensed with. Or the relationship between him and the Lord could have taken the course it seemed bound to follow- the bedroom. But I am not an author, so I can make suggestions like that without having to worry about the consequences.

This multifaceted novel is masterfully written. I enjoyed the writer's voice as a tool for imparting emotion. She successfully took the opening incident as a pool player breaks billiard balls, showing her various characters' reactions to bouncing, aging or bone breaking.

It is wonderful to read a book written by an older writer (78) full of intelligence, thoughtfulness and a wonderful sense and presentation of individual characters and their interactions. I highly recommend this book.

this is one of those books that really makes you stop and think...it is a simple, quick read but has a lot to say about life, aging, the choices we make, or don't make, fate, etc. etc. this is the first novel of lively's i have ever read but now i want to get her other books. i really enjoyed her contemporary tale of the way all our actions do have some kind of effect to ourselves and others...

.... and better with the female characters than with the male. The Polish accountant gets to be laughable; the adulterous husband tries the reader's patience, and the shadowy banker/property developer remains shadowy. The quality of the writing drops as PL's interest in the characters and "plot" dissipates towards the end.

A perfect novel, rare as hen's teeth these days. Characters one cares about, true understanding of both contemporary and universal time. Life is arbitrary, but life requires action. As a Penelope Lively fan, I think this is her best. Think of that, unlike her characters, age has not stunted her growth. Instead, she has really hit her stride! I find this inspiring, both as a reader and as a person, who is a character in my own life.

Others have summarized the plot very well. This is quick, light, enjoyable reading. Unfortunately, it contains no surprises, telegraphing its developments well in advance and repeatedly. There are many very well-written or amusing passages, but the characters, although endearing, are superficial. For a writer who notes that life does not have easy, tidy or complete endings, she closes with just such endings for each character.

This was my first time reading Penelope Lively, and I very much enjoyed it. It's not deep literature, but the characters and the story are compelling and the writing is fluid and unusual in a way that is appealing and sounds like conversation. The writing will be appreciated by fans of Joanna Trollope, who may find it similar (I did). Definitely a nice read.

I'm only two-thirds the way through this beautifully-written novel, but I'm loving it so much, I'm reading slowly so it'll last longer. Penelope Lively is one of those rare talents who can take a handful of perfectly ordinary people and make them fascinating.

Perhaps because I recognise so much in this novel, I found it rather predictable. By recognise, I mean middle class living. The characters are a little steroeotyped-and the relationships slightly cliched. Lively is a master of the 2 word sentence, and I love the brevity of her prose. But unlike her other novels which I have enjoyed, this for me was not a page turner and I left the book for 4 weeks after reading half of it, before I picked it up again. There is a lack of action to grab my attention, although it is very well written.

When I read the fulsome praise for this book, I was surprised that I had never encountered this author. So, expecting a Muriel Spark-type story, I bought the book and read it. Much to my dismay, Muriel Spark Penelope Lively is not. I have read the criticisms of this book here, and I agree with almost all...even the British grandmother one.

The story is very mundane at best. Lively has a writing style that makes John Grisham look like Leo Tolstoy in comparison. Her characters are two-dimensional (especially Anton, the East European, who is a walking, talking parody of a cliche), uninteresting and uninspired. I finished the book while waiting to renew my driver's license at the DMV; at least it was more interesting than posters about inspection stickers.

I love British fiction, but I also like a writer who knows how to write. That is the hallmark of authors such as Muriel Spark or, more recently, Anita Brookner. Read them, Penelope Lively you can skip.

I read this for my book club. I am a 26 year old female. This book was mmeannt to entertain British grandmothers. Since I am neither British nor a grandmother, I found the plot and characters of this book flat and boring. I couldn't even finish it, it was that painfully boring.

I have read a number of books by Penelope Lively and all have been more sophisticated, creative and entertaining than this one. The characters in "How It All Began" are cardboard, their circumstances ordinary and the results of the event that sets the story in motion are just what one would expect. The book covers the stories of about five or six people in the course of just over 200 pages, not enough time for any of them to be developed sufficiently. Their thoughts are repetitious. One story line, about an elderly professor named Henry, is particularly tedious with its references to British history circa the 18th century. Although the novel is short it seemed to take me forever to finish it.

I borrowed this from the library looking for en enjoyable read to pass the time. I am very happy I didn't spend an money on this book. I got about 4 chapters in (really trying to get a hold of the story and give it a good chance at something decent) but it never happened and I will be promptly returning it.

The story is placed in London, and so is the author from the same region. I suppose if you are familiar with the way they speak over there, and the propriety of the older and well-off class, you may have a much better liking to it. But as an all-american mid-western gal, that was the first road block with this book.

The flow of this novel is also extremely choppy. Bouncing unexpectedly from one group of characters to the others. Switching to another story line ubruptly. It just didn't leave a good taste with me and didn't feel like it was thought out too well. (Road block #2)

The plot sounds great and I think could make a great book, it just wasn't written properly. Or Penelope Lively isn't my kind of author.