First of all a note about the chapter of twenty odd pages that starts the book. It seems that it has been inserted from an entirely different work when you read most of the story. But no. I always wanted to go back and re-read this introduction if I knew at the end what it meant. And that re-read was something else. An Anne Tyler classic.
The author does dysfunctional families like no-one else. Although the more you read about the Garrett family the more you understand that we are all like that. Not dysfunctional exactly but all the trials and tribulations that families suffer or enjoy. The book jumps through the years, first when Robin and Mercy have their three children, Alice, Lily and David, and their first real holiday in 1959 at Deep Creek Lake. Then a shock fast forward to 1970. The girls are grown and gone, and David is at college. This part is mainly about Mercy and her rented room to do her painting.
The jewel for me was less than twenty pages in the summer of 2014. Lily is now mid fifties and a nephew Eddie arrives. Just a wonderful conversation. And lastly in 2020 during the pandemic when David, now retired, and his older wife, the wonderful Greta, have visitors. Superb. So a perfect family drama if not a perfect family. But where are those?
The other three books I have read by this author were all OK, but this was not. Predictable and boring. Just all about tennis. Did this, did that. Not sure what kept me going, I did skip the descriptions of each match she played. Would have been a much better book if it had actually looked back on Carrie's career but it just ploughs on forward. To the next match, and the next.
In my review of Susie Boyt's The Small Hours I wrote "Once in a while I find a book that just glows with superb writing and emotional insight". Her Love and Fame I described as "full of wit and clever and precise writing. The words just flow from the page". For The Normal Man I added that it was "so well written with great humour and wit". Reading Loved and Missed I noted that "this earlier novel is exceptional". Then Only Human was very readable and well written".
"The Last Hope of Girls" is Susie Boyt's third novel and equally good as all her others. Martha seems a little lost, but through her father, a famous and successful novelist, she is offered the job as resident caretaker of some top floor apartments being refurbished on Oxford Street. Hers has six rooms, mostly empty. Her father is famed in real life for giving nothing away: "Was writing about the ins and outs of unhappiness, with so much elegant relish, was it just a little bit cruel?"
Martha has a friend in Stella, their conversations are perfect. However, as the book progresses, we begin to hear more about Martha's brother Matt, a little older, but addicted to drugs. And all that entails. The author pulls no punches: "Almost anything you did for an addict just helped the illness along". Here are six terrific pages halfway through the book that prove how helpless they are. Martha's mother tries, but is that doing more harm than good? Fortunately, Martha does have her own relationships, there is still a lot of pleasure and laughter in her life. But what I liked more than anything was that the prose just glides off the page. Just like her other books. How is that? I have only one of Susie Boyt's novels left to read and I cannot wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment