Bitter Orange

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Sultan S, Spector J, Mitchell RM (December 2006). "Ischemic colitis associated with use of a bitter orange-containing dietary weight-loss supplement". Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 81 (12): 1630–1. doi: 10.4065/81.12.1630. PMID 17165643.

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller | Waterstones

But the world is a nicer place when you think everyone is telling the truth. There are no agendas, no hidden motives; no one lies for dramatic effect.

This novel has all these elements, but also asks the reader to work a few things out on their own. So, while this book certainly stimulates the senses, it also gives the brain a little exercise, too. It might sound like I'm providing an unnecessarily long list of similar books, and that leads me to the main reason I didn't fall completely under the spell of this story: it's like a lot of other stories. Most of all, it made me think of Anita Brookner's Look At Me. Both Look At Me and Bitter Orange are narrated by a lonely woman named Frances, in early middle age or thereabouts (the age of Brookner's Frances isn't clear) whose imposing and dominant mother has recently passed away and whose only pleasures are found in academic pursuits. In both books, the main character is drawn into the orbit of an attractive, volatile couple whom she adores but who – the reader can see – treat her as an amusing plaything at best, an object of ridicule at worst. Now, I'm sure this is coincidental (if Fuller was consciously inspired by Brookner's novel, I can't imagine she'd give the protagonist the same name!) but it did blunt my enjoyment a little bit, especially since Look At Me is one of the best books I have read, and almost everything else pales in comparison.

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller – review | Fiction | The Guardian

A perfect heatwave read, Claire Fuller’s third novel tells the suspenseful story of the profligate summer of 1969 spent at a dilapidated English country house. Frances Jellico, who seems to be on her deathbed in a care home, recalls for the chaplain, her friend Victor Wylde, the August 20 years ago when she stayed at Lyntons, a neoclassical mansion in Hampshire, to report on the garden architecture for the new American owner, a Mr. Liebermann. Frances was an awkward 39-year-old at that time; having spent 10 years caring for her ill mother up to her recent death, she’d never had a romantic relationship or even a real friendship. So when she got to Lyntons and met Peter Robertson, who was to survey the house and its fittings, and his girlfriend Cara Calace, a melodramatic Anglo-Irish woman who tried to pass as Italian, Frances instantly latched on to their attractively hedonistic lifestyle and felt, for the first time, as if she had people who cared about her and genuinely liked her. Victor - the church - the graveyard - the grounds - and the entire Lynton House in England were vital to this story —— summer of 1969. At first this book put me in mind of Penelope Lively's style - a character, near death, lies reminiscing about a long ago, life-altering incident, but when an air of menace wafted into the proceedings, it seemed like Patricia Highsmith all the way. And, indeed, there's something of a Mr. Ripley feel to this tale of a tangled threesome, though there's more of a mystery in Fuller's book as to who's going to do what to whom . . . and when. In some respects, the pudding can feel overegged; although not unexplored territory, the relationship of a single woman to a couple whom she idealises and feels drawn to as a unit, rather than as two individuals, is rich enough to make additional devices and embellishment unnecessary. (For the ne plus ultra in this genre, go to Anita Brookner’s Look at Me.) It is Frances’s apprehension that her growing addiction to them is fundamentally indecent, braided with the dramatic irony inherent in the reader’s view of them, that gives the novel its power. Duenwald, Mary (2005-10-11). "Bitter Orange Under Scrutiny as New Ephedra". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-11-03.Frances has a pretty solitary childhood and it was basically she and her caustic, inflammatory mother, once her father departed from their lives, running off with Frances’ aunt. That was a major trauma in her and her mothers’ life; they lived together and remained totally dependent on the father/husband for living quarters and expenses. Our Endless Numbered Days, the first of her five novels, was published in the UK by Penguin Books, and in the United States ( Tin House) and Canada ( House of Anansi Press). It appeared in translation in a further 12 countries. Swimming Lessons was published by Penguin (UK) in 2017, and was also published in the United States, Canada and a further 6 countries. Bitter Orange, was published in 2018 by Penguin (UK) and in the United States and Canada, and was/will be published in a further 6 countries. Unsettled Ground was published in 2021 in the UK, the US and Canada, and was/will be published in a further 14 countries. Hafızaya, toplumsal cinsiyet ve statü rollerine, arada kalmışlığa dair büyük sözler söylemeden de düşündüren bir eser Turunç Ağacı. A rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension." - Ruth Ware, author of The Woman In Cabin 10 At the end of the novel, Frances is left with a wild mass of memories that have soaked into every fiber of her being—memories that have permanently stained her, like the spilled wine that has soaked into the antique furniture at Lyntons. For some, such stains devalue a piece of furniture, for others, they add character and perhaps provide the hint of a story. The thing is, one can never be rid of memories, so some tell different stories to try to cope with them. But the truth will out—sometimes, anyway.