He has known for a long while that he is falling short of Dad's expectations, and yet the expectations would appear to be wildly unrealistic.
The boy, a talented artist, has no aptitude for science, but it has always been made clear to him that his destiny is an Oxbridge education in this very field.
No expense has been spared to achieve that goal, but all in vain. In his father's view, Dominic is wilfully failing to exploit his potential, of which there exists no evidence at all.
Rooting through his grandfather's attic he discovers a photograph album in which he appears as a baby. He recognises his parents, his infant self, no problem there, but as the child grows older, in picture after picture, "there were scenes with other kids that looked as if we were the best of friends, but I didn't remember them. Holidays I'd never had, places I'd never been. Yet there I was, right in the middle of it all, living a life I didn't remember."
A little research leads Dominic to suspect that, literally, his life is not his own. Even his name is second-hand, first bestowed on the child in the photographs who grew into a gilded youth, Cambridge graduate laden with honours, and died on the brink of a glittering future in the year before Dominic's birth.
When the truth comes out and his father speaks of "re-creating" him, Dominic knows that this is exactly what he is supposed to be, the reincarnation of his dead brother, the lost genius; but in his own anguished interpretation he is "a duff copy of the original", a freak in the eyes of many and, in the eyes of those who know the facts, a failed experiment.
The proverb "don't judge a book by it's cover" can be applied in this novel . As you can see , the cover is a major failure I guess but , and that is a big BUT , the story is amazing .
ENJOY :)
No comments:
Post a Comment