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The Infinity Pool Kindle Edition
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJuly 15, 2015
- File size2609 KB
Product details
- ASIN : B011RA8QZW
- Publication date : July 15, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 2609 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 314 pages
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Jessica Norrie](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/01Kv-W2ysOL._SY600_.png)
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2016I don't really know what happened to my interest in this story. It started off well enough, with several interesting characters getting to know one another while staying at a seaside resort. I felt this story had a lot of potential, but somewhere along the line, I lost interest in everyone except Maria.
I'm sure some of it had to do with the monotony of the descriptions of the day to day running of the resort. Perhaps if it had focused more completely on the lives/personalities of the characters as they interacted with one another, it may have made it more interesting.
It's not a bad read, but I was left a bit unfulfilled, and I didn't feel there was closure for any of the characters either.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2020I listened to the audio book of The Infinity Pool narrated by Jack Wynters. I enjoyed the readers voice interpretation of this novel and thought his tones suited the subject matter of the book very well.
The Infinity Pool is beautifully written and compelling and I found this book to be a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is about a vacation camp on a remote island where mainly British people go to recuperate from their stressful jobs and to take various courses aimed at developing them as people.
The camp leader is a charismatic man named Adrian, who is a bit of a womanizer but who is very good at helping other people rediscover the good in their lives and re-energize. As a result, Adrian is popular with the guests, many of whom come specifically to take his courses.
The book starts with Adrian feeling slightly disgruntled with his life and role at the camp and looking for a way to reignite his enthusiasm and vigor. He meets a young local girl and sets out to woo her as he finds her company gives him a new lease on youth.
His relationship with the girl ends and his very modern and cavalier attitude offends the locals who live in a nearby village. It is the last straw in an already strained relationship and a group of young men from the village set out to cause disruption at the camp and among the guests. At times, their actions are outright hostile and even criminal.
This is not a run of the mill mystery, it has a heavy focus on characterization and the development of selected characters in the book as they go through a period/s at the camp and undergo a healing process which allows them to move on from their pasts and change as people.
I enjoyed this story and was happy with the ending except for one small thread which wasn’t tied up for me. Other readers may not think that and it isn’t significant, just a small niggle for me.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2017Jessica Norrie’s novel, set on a sun-drenched island somewhere in the Mediterranean, examines the personalities and pitfalls encountered on the sort of package holiday that offers holistic life-skills and self-improvement courses. While practising yoga and suchlike activities, guests at the Serendipity resort, together with staff and, from time to time, local villagers, confront social, personal and philosophical challenges.
Norrie has a confident narrative voice and a shrewd and sympathetic view of human nature, which makes her account of the goings-on at Serendipity entertaining as well as thought-provoking.
The central character is absent for much of the book: this means that the reader builds up a picture of him through the thoughts and observations of other characters, like a photographic negative – he is defined by his impact on others. When he re-emerges in his own right, his condition is so altered that we learn about other people from their decidedly contrasting (and sometimes unattractive) reactions.
The prose is occasionally lyrical – as a swimmer emerges from a pool, “The water softly shifted to a forgiving stillness” – and consistently accessible. The author is very good on the strains inherent in a globalized culture. The gulf between Serendipity’s staff and guests on the one hand and the local community on the other sours into violence, which may not be entirely surprising since, as one of the resort’s denizens observes, “Our food and our water supply are better than theirs, so we don’t eat in their restaurants or buy their fruit, except in town where it’s so touristy; most of us don’t even try to speak their language; we don’t talk to them when they come to our bar; we expect them to put up with us sunbathing naked on the beach in front of their grandmothers – and then we go on about how beautiful the country is and how fascinating the local traditions are.”
The author also has a clear-eyed view of the reality beneath picturesque Mediterranean society. A young woman considers “meeting and marrying some local man and giving birth within the time honoured local conventions, kicking just a little against restrictions on her sex because that was what each new generation did, then in turn chivvying her own daughters and unconditionally adoring her sons.”
The Infinity Pool is a well-written and acutely observed examination of diverse lives.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2015A real page turner!
Jessica deftly weaves together self exploration and improvement at a holiday retreat with cultural infiltration in a plot-twisting mystery. Looking forward to the sequel.
Top reviews from other countries
- A Reader ReportsReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2015
4.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing journey that could go a little further.
The Infinity Pool lies within the Serendipity holiday community on a hot and sultry un-named island. Serendipity is a place to which people return year after year: to recharge their batteries, to make new friends, to practise yoga, mindfulness and self-awareness, and above all, many come as disciples of Adrian, the Director. When Adrian himself is inexplicably absent for the season, tension mounts within the camp, and between it and the local village, but nobody can work out exactly why… and where it will all lead.
Jessica Norrie’s debut is a psychological novel, set in an idyllic location, endlessly appealing, but as with any Garden of Eden, a serpent sits in the wings. One of the highlights of the story is Norrie’s ability to build an atmosphere of not just tension, but menace, and to do it in the most understated of ways. Is there something going on? Or are the personalities who holiday here simply prone to paranoia? Alice’s obsessions and Ruby’s desperation might be explained away, but the reaction of Chris, practical police officer, to her dip in the infinity pool is unsettling to say the least.
That said, the novel is not without moments of humour, and it is sensitively written. In telling the story of Maria, Norrie is at her best, showing the development of an impressionable girl into a determined young woman. Of all the characters, I felt as if I got to know Maria on a level not quite achieved with the other characters and I really wanted to know what happened next to her.
The Infinity Pool competently explores the impact of individuals and communities on each other and on the environment; the tentative amicability that is all too easily frayed when misunderstanding and miscommunication – as well as sheer bloody-mindedness – are rife.
There are things I wish were a little different. First, a minor, and probably personal, irritation. The island on which Serendipity exists is never named and the locals are just referred to as speaking in their own language. I guess it to be Greece (and it doesn’t matter to the story anyway) but not being told – for no good reason? – still bugs me; I couldn’t place it properly as I read. Secondly, and more importantly, I want to delete the prologue-like Chapter 1. What happens to Adrian here removes the element of surprise, the twist that I expected later on – and which I think is already better explained later on in the novel…
That aside, I enjoyed The Infinity Pool, I would recommend it to others and would love to discuss it at a book group! It’s a good debut and I’ll certainly read Jessica Norrie’s next novel with great interest.
- Philipp RöhlichReviewed in France on September 1, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars More Thank a great summer read
A true page turner that demands a sequel! A brilliant author is born! I'd love to read a French translation!
- Kathy HarveyReviewed in Australia on September 26, 2015
3.0 out of 5 stars Light holiday read
Light holiday read. Was a little strained at times - story line was a little thin and took far too long to weave a simple story - ok reading tho not a fluent style
- RujuReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2016
3.0 out of 5 stars Meandering tale
The Infinity Pool is a bit of an oddity that doesn't easily fit into any genre. The setting is an island retreat called Serendipity where people go to discover themselves, and the story is told by an eclectic group of characters who go there, although a local girl also gets in on things when her naivety results in her getting involved and we hear her side too. It's a meandering tale that wanders along pleasantly without a great deal happening so it's not for the impatient. However, it's quite well written and a decent enough read as long as you take it for what it is.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Australia on December 11, 2015
4.0 out of 5 stars The Infinity Pool is a literary work of great heart and sensitivity
The Infinity Pool is a literary work of great heart and sensitivity. The story centres on Serendipity, an island retreat with European holiday sensibilities. The stifling humid heat and afternoon siestas bring a languidness to the atmosphere, as do the rock-pooled beaches and the invasive and mesmerizing song of insects. Serendipity is where the westerners go to unwind and rejuvenate with self-help classes of yoga and creative writing in a seventies love-in atmosphere.
The prelude drops the reader into the delightful position of knowing from the start the fate of the much-revered director of Serendipity, Adrian, who has become victim to a violent accident and left to die amongst the bushes by the Infinity Pool on Serendipity grounds.
The story unfolds in a sedate manner due to Norrie’s elegant style, but an underlying tension is maintained throughout the book. It’s not a strung-out exciting thriller, but rather a story imbued with a thread of uneasiness that weaves through the novel with the help of a series of disconcerting events that leave the community uncertain and wary of relationships with the locals. When the loved director of the camp goes missing, the previously calm camp begins to unravel in both a physical and emotional sense.
The Infinity Pool contains a cast of colourful characters that Norrie successfully inhabits and executes, each with their own distinct voice, personality and experience on their Serendipity journey. The detailed insights into the characters’ thoughts allows the reader a sense of playing an active part in the community as it explores tangles and misunderstandings that arise when cultures attempt to blend.
The Infinity Pool is a calm literary read that tackles social issues of culturally taboo relationships and cultural attitudes towards women and the story moves along by means of a lean to the whodunit genre. It’s the perfect read to pack in your bag for a summer holiday, but you won’t regret curling up with it in front of a cosy fire too. The author creates a wonderful and believable scenario and the reader is placed securely in an environment in which to settle and become part of the Serendipity scene.