"Tiger, tiger" is a book about a relationship between a girl and a middle-aged man. For that reason I was worried before I started reading it that I would not be able to complete the book. However from the beginning I was hooked. The writing was superb. The author was able to conjure up the childish behaviour of a child effortlessly. And as she got older so did the way she behaved.
But then the relationship between Margaux with the aged Peter got frequently sexual (she was around 13 at this time) and the graphic content of this middle section did lead to a lull in the book for me. But I read through this wanting to get to the bit where Peter was going to commit suicide, as was cleverly mentioned right at the beginning of the book, but needing to know what triggered it. Although in the end there was no trigger but just a gradual build-up of depression and accusations that made him do it. And strangely the end isn't that sad until the author looks back nostalgically to the good moments they had together in the last couple of pages of the book before the afterword.
The "Tiger, tiger" title was clever. It had two meanings. Meaning 1 was a reference to a game that Margaux and Peter played when she was young and meaning 2 could reference the animal - the predator after its prey, like Peter in his grooming of the young child Margaux.
A challenging read but if you can get past the subject matter and the not-too-nice middle-section it can be rewarding such is the excellent writing style.
(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)
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