Of course, your expectations are always raised if something is hyped. But it's a book that leaves you wanting more. It ticked all the boxes: rounded characters – albeit no Huckleberry Finn or Garp or Scout. A decent plot. A period setting, with evidence of strong research. And fabulous writing – especially the drowning scene, which was vivid and shocking and tragic. But towards the end, I was skimming pages just to get to the finishing line.
And I never quite cared about any of the characters, apart from the delightfully sozzled mother, who was bumped off rather too soon for my liking. It was all trauma and anger and violence, there was no respite, or humour, or moments where things weren't basically bloody awful. So after a while, it started to feel just a tiny bit tedious.
Having said all that, she is a fantastic writer. Her evocation of 1950s Surrey is so intense you can almost smell the gin and freshly mown grass. The language is spare (my personal favourite) and transparent, rather than some fancy wrought-iron fence wrapped around the story – you can see right through it to the world she is describing.
I also have on my bedside table Gerard Woodward's I'll Go to Bed at Noon, The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood. All of which were poached from the strangely eclectic bookshelves at my parents' house.
I'm reading Gerard Woodward at the moment, and have just enjoyed a funeral scene when one of the characters empties a pot of blackberry jam into her spiteful sister in law's handbag. It's details like this that you suspect come straight from real life – I have met Gerard, and he is one of these rare people who doesn't feel the need to fill the room with the sound of his own voice. Though quiet, he has a strong, rather charming presence, and seems quite content to take it all in, making the odd remark here and there. But when you read his work, and the detail of his observations, you realise what he's up to. I suspect that he wouldn't miss a sneeze two rooms away.
Something else to work on in my own writing...
