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Confusion cover art

Confusion

By: Elizabeth Jane Howard
Narrated by: Jill Balcon
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Summary

This, the third volume of the best-selling The Cazalet Chronicles, takes up the story of the Cazalet family in the spring of 1942 and follows them through the war to VE Day. Polly and Clary have left Home Place for London where Archie Lestrange keeps a close eye on them; Louise, surprisingly, has married; Polly makes a painful discovery; Zoe, despairing of Rupert's return, stumbles on solace; and Edward's duplicity demands a reckoning.
©1993 Elizabeth Jane Howard (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Lush, sprawling escapist fiction of the first order....Howard creates a nearly palpable world, peopled with the sort of well-conceived characters that linger long in the reader's mind." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Confusion

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Addictive, Easy, Indulgent

I had never heard of this series until Audible, cleverly, kept suggesting it to me. I am now on this, the third book of the series and hopelessly addicted.

The characters are (almost) all frightfully posh, very privileged and insulated from 'real life' in so many ways. The war comes as a terrible shock, and yet, with their huge country house to escape to, plus many grand London homes and mansion flats, they cope.

The things I like are the rattling plot lines - though in this volume, I am getting very tired of the children so often leading the narration. It's OK to see life through the eyes of 10 year old Neville now and then, but not as much as this. Otherwise, the plot lines, of which there are dozens, really get along at a good pace.

I also like the way the characters are presented. I don't LIKE a good many of them, but that's not a problem. Also, and cleverly, they are allowed to develop and mature as the volumes progress.

I also like the narration. I see from reviews that whilst many agree, some do not, and I can see why. But this narrator, with a cut-glass style (thus, she struggles a bit with servants' voices, but it's not too bad) does really suit the utterly upper-middle class setting.

Sometimes I have been annoyed by bits of the story, but if I'm really honest, it's an effortless listen, a posh family soap. My next 2 credits are due today and I am going to get the last 2 volumes. Addiction. But I am going to force myself to listen to a gory murder or a history book first to refresh my palette!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic book

I have know completed all five books in this series. I hardly ever give five stars but these books totally deserve it.
I didn't want any of them to end. I feel like the characters are real people that I know. I can't put my finger on what makes them so brilliant unfortunately, as I wish I could write stories like these. I loved the innocence of the children and the time. I couldn't wait to go to bed to be able to listen to them. I completely and utterly lost myself in every one of the books. It's interesting as such things as morals and thoughts on life are as relevant hundred years of so ago as they are today.
I would totally recommend all five of these books. I cannot sing their praises enough.
The narration was absolutely fantastic with lots of different voices to have to change into. I did read that the narrator was a friend of the writer. Excellent work well done, I wish I spoke as beautifully as you do.
You must must listen to these books.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

If you could sum up Confusion in three words, what would they be?

Great family saga

What did you like best about this story?

everything, in this book the focus is on the younger members of the family.

What about Jill Balcon’s performance did you like?

Everything..Jill has a special style well suited to a family saga. Loved it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No...best to listen in stages, you won't want to hurry this book, there is so much to take in, it is beautifully written

Any additional comments?

All the books in the "Saga" are lovely...a real treat to listen to, the characters are well drawn and the war years full of incidental detail....really enjoyed all of them.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Disliked the narrator and the story

This is the 3rd of the unabridged 'Cazalet Chronicles' books read by Jill Balcon. I'd started to dislike her narration in book 2 ('Marking Time') but since I'd stupidly bought the whole 4-book set I ploughed on with it. The characters from this family saga who had interested me in book one ('The Light Years') were effectively sidelined in this book, as the focus moved almost exclusively to the 3rd generation of rather self-regarding young adults. Balcon's voice veers between deep and piping, depending on whether she's depicting adults or children, and unless I wore headphones I often missed what she said. I also found there weren't adequate pauses between different scenes - I thought I was listening to one group of people only to find that the story had moved on to somewhere entirely different. It shows how little variety there is in Balcon's reading for me not to spot the switch of location until several minutes had passed. I enjoyed neither the narration nor the story.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Confusion

Loving the story just as well as the TV series was fixed to the whole episodes

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The ongoing saga

The more I’ve listened to this, the more I get annoyed with what an awful mother Villy was! Adore the growing up and passing of time this book describes

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

EJH writes with such insight into the emotional life of each of her characters. This makes the reader feel very familiar with them. We become part of the family while having a privileged overview of the whole.
She also depicts the times through which they live so vividly making this a social history.
I wonder why she is not compared more often to Jane Austen?
Jill Balcon is the perfect narrator.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Vivid writing - a wonderful experience

Vivid writing, a book which draws you in and keeps you immersed right to the last word. I've spent a wet week's holiday living with the Cazalets.
One criticism: the narrator does not leave a pause when the POV shifts to a different character. This was particularly obvious in the final twist when she read on, as if we were still hearing Archie's thoughts, and that spoiled it a bit. I had to check with the book that this was a different character.
But on to the next book...

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Wasted a lot of time writing the Cazalet Saga.

The best of this novel is the televised series which deviates from the book and adds some spice. Even the BBC recognized the books were a failure and gave up the ghost after a single miniseries.
It is the total lack of anything remotely interesting that makes the book truly boring.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

Transported me to a past time so vividly and compellingly- I absolutely love listening to the Cazalet Chronicles which are beautifully written and read.

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