Thoroughly enjoyable. Claudia Hampton, a popular historian, lies dying in her hospital bed contemplating a tongue-in-cheek "History of the World." But what mainly emerges are memories of her own life, more vivid for her and the reader than the friends and relatives who visit from time to time. One theme dominates: her time in Egypt as a war correspondent in the 1940s and the great love of her life whom she met and lost there. Here, the writing is superb, with a compelling emotional immediacy and magnificent sense of place.* But interesting though the rest of Claudia's life is, it tends to pale beside these central chapters, hence the reluctant absence of the fifth star.

It also sets me wondering about the shape of the book as a whole. I have now read three of Penelope Lively's novels: her latest, CONSEQUENCES (2007); THE PHOTOGRAPH (2003), which I consider the best of the three; and this one, MOON TIGER, which won her the Booker Prize in 1987. All three are essentially romances. All feature independent women doing interesting jobs (writers, artists, academics). Despite their personal independence, the women are shown within the dynamics of families, in relation to a mother, a daughter, or (here especially) a brother -- only very occasionally a husband. Claudia, for example, is unmarried, but we hear of at least three men whom she has loved in different ways. She has a daughter, Lisa, who understands as little of her mother as she does of her; almost of equal significance to Claudia are her first baby lost in a miscarriage, and a Hungarian refugee whom she unofficially adopted. The family ties here vary from the almost meaningless to bonds so strong that they distort all other relationships. Lively's characters mostly forego the support of conventional values and religion; their main defence against the arbitrariness of fate is a strong sense of their own identity, and a very few special connections with others. Claudia protests that she is no feminist, but there she is wrong; Lively's books all come through as an exhilarating manifesto of the feminist spirit.

Lively's success resides less in her stories than in the way she tells them. I think the reason that I liked CONSEQUENCES less, despite the attractiveness of all its characters, was that the narrative began at the beginning and continued to the end. THE PHOTOGRAPH, conversely, begins at the end (with the discovery of a photograph of a dead woman) and works back to the beginning. MOON TIGER also begins at the end, but its action jumps around in much the way that memory does. It also has the delightful trick of occasionally describing the same event from two different points of view in quick succession. Besides, Claudia is so intelligent a companion and her History of the World notion is so amusingly bizarre that what might seem a depressing situation (an old lady dying of cancer, for heaven's sake) turns out to be full to the brim with life, love, and even laughter.

*[I came to this directly after reading two other works set at least partly in Egypt, Lawrence Durrell's ALEXANDRIA QUARTET and Michael Ondaatje's ENGLISH PATIENT. Lively's style is the most down to earth of the three, but no less vivid.]

"Moon Tiger" was my introduction to Penelope Lively's books, and I was delighted to read such a beautifully crafted book with stunningly alive characters. Simply fantastic.

Claudia looks back on her life as she lies dying in a hospital bed. Hardly an original concept, and in fact this would be an ordinary book, except for the writing, which is terrific. Lively proves equally fine in describing a trip behind British front lines in the North African desert, and a walk in the woods by a mother and her young child. The novel is rather unusual in that while it is almost entirely written in Claudia's voice, it occasionally, and briefly, employs the voice of her daughter and others - very effectively. Claudia is a very successful historian, yet her own daughter's inner life is as obscure to her as the inner lives of the figures she writes about. I enjoyed the romantic aspect of Claudia's tale, the lover who is killed in battle and whom "she mourns for the rest of her life" as one reviewer put it, but I do not believe this is what made the novel worthy of the Booker prize.

I love this book - it has wit and intelligence. I also appeals to the romantic in me. A tale of lost love in Cairo in 1941.

I am beginning to realize that I love books with these strong women characters. The characters themselves may be difficult to love but when added with the whole of the book it makes for wonderful reading. I especially liked the parts where 'Claudia' talks about how she viewed a situation and then someone else involved in that situation describes it. It gave the story a depth that sometimes is not available in a first person narrative.

An exotic novel about a love that haunts us from the grave to our own. Claudia's rendition of her affair in Egypt during a war, resulting in the loss of her great love and their unborn child, is depicted with an Englishwoman's genius of grammar, prose, and Latin-based mastery of the English language. Told through Claudia's story on her death bed between periods of consciousness, Penelope Lively distinguishes herself with the usage of narrative to describe a lifetime of mourning. Claudia mourns Tom throughout her adult and senior years as she lives a journalist's life in London, England. Lively's Claudia is a stubborn woman whose account of things, people, and relationships are rooted in her own view of the world. This is more than a romance, it is a look into the elements and pervasive condition of heartbreak over a lifetime. Tragic, humorous, and compelling. No wonder it was a Booker Prize - the most prestigious literary prize in the world for English language fiction.

This book was my introduction to one of the truly great writers of our day. Penelope Lively has written ten of the best novels of the last twenty years. This is but one. I recommend it highly. When you have finished you should move on to "Passing On" and then "The Photograph."

"I'm writing a history of the world. The whole triumphant murderous unstoppable chute-from the mud to the stars, universal and particular, your story and mine", so says Claudia Hampton, in her 76th year, as she lies dying. We all have books we can't put down, this is mine. This is the glorious book that I did not want to end, that I read in one sitting. I could not, absolutely could not put this book down. A ten star book if there ever was one!

Claudia is a character so rich, you feel her in your bones. You want to know her as your own. Claudia Hampton and her brother Gordon born of a comfortable family. Father died in his war, and mysteriously not much is known of him. Mother lived her life, she withdrew from the world. She lived for her roses, tapestry and unchangeable weather. Gordon and Claudia, sister and brother, wild, untamed as children, brilliant and wild and untamed as adults. They were self-involved and never needed an other person when they were together. The important people in Claudia's life are so well defined and characterized- they become the story.

Claudia became a write of books, history, and met her off and on lover, Jasper and father of her child, Lisa, when she was writing a book about Tito. Not one of Claudia's acquaintances or family approved of or liked Jasper, but that made him much more interesting, and, anyway, theirs was a sexual love-sex kept them together. And the fact that Claudia was beautiful and intelligent and such an asset. Men loved her and women approved of her. They never married, but they saw each other many times throughout their lives.

Tom Southern, the love of Claudia's life. She met him while she was a correspondent during the War in Egypt. Theirs was a love like no other. A sweet, short love, and one of the most memorable affairs.

Sheila, Gordon's wife. A woman to be put up with. A stable wife who said not much and did little else, but she kept their life together. A woman who mattered not to Claudia- someone to be tolerated.

Lisa, the child of Claudia and Jasper. Like neither her mother nor father and treated as such- like a neither. Shunted off to be brought up by her grandmothers a child who so wanted to be loved by her mother, and was, but the love was not spoken.

Laszlo, the child of a Hungarian, who was left homeless and family less after the Hungarian uprising. Claudia took him in and treated him almost as a son.

These the important people in Claudia's life. This strong, independent woman who had such contentious relations with family and friends. Penelope Lively, won the Booker Prize for this novel. And well she should! What a powerful, moving and beautifully wrought book she has written. Claudia Hampton, a literary figure not to be forgotten. Well done, Penelope Lively !prisrob