I guess I should
begin with the usual “spoiler” warning – as this is a complex
narrative which is revealed in layers – therefore I will probably
end up giving at least some of the story away.
This is a
bitter-sweet narrative, populated with women who love deeply and yet
in various ways are suffering as a consequence. Although it takes two
to tango, this is the story of three generations of women, the men
exist only as the context for the women's lives and love.
The account of
Alice's grief is almost overwhelming – a testament to O'Farrell's
skill that she breathes such authenticity to her writing. But there
is a purity in the love, and the loss, of Alice, while the loves of
her mother and grandmother are more complex.
The patterning of
relationships across the generations, for example that all three
women have been swept up in a whirlwind of love at first sight,
raises questions about destiny – how much are we independent
actors, how much are the boundaries of our lives pre-defined? Perhaps
there are also questions of nature vs nurture within that too.
I am not sure if the
fact that I ended up worrying about who was feeding the cat is a
signal that I was distracted from the main narrative or a strength
because I was so drawn into the world O'Farrell was creating that a
starving cat was a genuine concern.
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