THE MUSEUM OF BROKEN PROMISES by ELIZABETH BUCHAN

THE MUSEUM OF BROKEN PROMISES

BY

ELIZABETH BUCHAN

THE BLURB:-

Welcome to the Museum of Broken Promises, a place of wonder, sadness and... hope.

Inside lies a treasure trove of objects- a baby's shoe, a wedding veil, a railway ticket- all revealing moments of loss and betrayal. It's a place where people come to speak to ghosts of the past. The owner, Laure, is one of those people.

As a young woman in the 1980s Laure fled to Prague, where her life changed forever. Now, years later, she must confront the origins of her heart-breaking exhibition: a love affair with a dissident musician, a secret life behind the Iron Curtain, and a broken promise that she will never forget.

THE REALITY:-

It took me months, rather than weeks to get into this book. It was partially to do with what I had going on in my life- I tried to pick this up when I was living in a hotel room, due to severe damage having happened to my flat. It was such a stressful time as every single day I had something significant to deal with; so much so that I didn't seem able to concentrate at the end of a day, so could indulge in a bit of television but nothing too taxing. Then, when I returned home I had the big clean up to do. Then, other stresses happened, and I devoted my time to writing (with some success- I'm now five short stories down, and a previous one's been published!)

But... I couldn't get into this book until I was 150 pages in, which is too long. I didn't think the present day part of the novel characterisation was that strong, and didn't like the way the book jumped from past to present (although these were clearly labelled). I nearly put it down and discarded it. Which would have been a shame. As this book got very interesting as we moved on, and even brought me to tears at the end.

This was a great study of what life was like under the communist regime that governed Eastern Europe until the late 1980s. You pick up the inequality and the lies (although really, don't they exist with all governments? It's just with this particular set-up they seem glaringly obvious) and the Big-Brother-Is-Watching-You nature of life, what with goons following people and reporting on them. This should serve as a warning to those who oppose free speech (which I don't) as I've seen inklings of this existing in the UK. I like how the author has dug deeper into peoples hearts and put the characters into context. For instance, there's an older lady who doesn't oppose the hard left regime. Why? Because she remembers the hard right Nazi regime and has no wish to go back to those horrors.

This was certainly a book which made you think, and address how circumstances and surrounding people, and the subtle manipulation by others can cause you to behave in a way you though you never would. Here, we have the central figure Laure who (spoiler alert!) momentarily believes the untruths she's fed, and doesn't trust in her love, the guilt eating her up for most of her life. Which is why this book is soooo sad.

Kočka the cat- there are male and female versions in the different time frames acts as sweet symbolism for love and unhappiness, and the book made me want to visit the Museum of Communism in Prague! I also found the puppets and their messages heartfelt, and the way they served as symbolism for the fact that we are all puppets at some time or another, in one way or another. We just have to be aware of who's pulling the strings, and discard them if necessary.

But, most hauntingly of all are the final lines in the book, which represent a life ruined; a life without her true love, who she betrayed:-

Clack, I loved him.

Clack, he loved me.

I will keep this in my bookcase for a while (and will overlook the proofreading errors- I picked up on three; words added/ words missed out/ a good old-fashioned cock-up.)  

The Museum of Broken Promises. And broken hearts.