[There is a beautiful, light yellowish Gothic-inspired house sitting amidst some green trees.]
- Why did I pick this book up?
A few months back, I got some books at the bookstore on their infamous 3/$10 table. This was the last book from that pile. Honestly, I was pretty excited for it, but had left it til last because it was the longest, and I had read a ton of long books in the past few months.
It was also right before Christmas, and I knew that I would be able to go get some new books soon, so I figured that again, should read what I already own.
- Would I recommend why/why not?
As evidenced by my rating, I did not like this book. Typically, I would not recommend books I did not enjoy. So that goes for this book as well.
I would not recommend this book because it was asinine as hell, the big reveal and payoff was so not worth it, and the characters were dumb and annoying. Also the metaphors this writer used at times were actually goddamn insane and left me laughing in confusion. So I guess that could be a reason to read the book; have a laugh!
Actually, I recommend this book if you are wondering how NOT to write a book. If you have a kind of cool story percolating in your head, read this book first and ask yourself “is my story more interesting than this one?”
If the answer is “no,” then DO NOT WRITE A BOOK WITH THAT STORY. If it’s more interesting than Moving, it may not necessarily be a good book, but it will definitely be better and more interesting than Moving so that could be a great argument to convince a publisher to give it a go?
- Quick Synopsis **SPOILER ALERT FROM HERE ON, DO I EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT?!**:
So this story is told in a non-linear manner, and from three different point of views. I will give a brief overview.
The book starts with Edwina, an old lady who lives by herself in a big house that is quickly falling into disrepair. We learn that Edwina was widowed young, with two twins, Rowena and James. She remarries a man who has a son around the same age as her twins, Lucas. Her step-son hates her and his dad’s new family, which like, fair. He’s a damn child, he’s supposed to be childish. I’m trying to think of what details are relevant, because honestly there is a lot of tedium. I’d say Edwina’s section is the most interesting because she is an unreliable narrator by virtue of her impending dementia and also has some commentary on how shitty and hard it was to be an independent career woman in the “good old days”.
We realize that Edwina is essentially totally alone: her second husband has been dead for years, her daughter Rowena is estranged, and James is dead. We go through their sordid and twisted pasts; James was always a troubled and troubling child who goes to a boarding school and blows the whistle on a teacher who molests his students. This is not portrayed with nearly enough seriousness in my opinion. There is an “incident” that is alluded to the whole time, but we don’t know what it is, and other than knowing that James dies young, we do not find out any details at this point.
The next point of view is from a girl named Fern. She sucks and is my least favourite. She is some rich girl who goes to acting school and befriends/starts fucking James even though she is engaged to some boring military dude. She has a cousin who is also a rich girl and loves to party and do drugs. James goes to some posh party with this cousin, gives her drugs, and she dies from an accidental overdose. This, we discover, is the dreaded incident the book has been hinting at this whole time. James goes to jail for negligence or manslaughter or some shit, just as Fern discovers that she is pregnant and doesn’t know who the father is.
The last section is in Lucas’ point of view. Here, we discover that he is the reason James went to jail: he saw James give the rich girl drugs, and reported it to the police when she died. So, he was a good Samaritan realistically. Like, not a villain in my opinion. We also learn that his parents’ divorce affected him so terribly because his mother tried to commit suicide as a result, and this is the root cause for his hatred of Edwina and her children. We learn that James remained a drug addict after he left prison, eventually dying in Thailand from a drug overdose before he is thirty.
Lucas is now a grown-up and wants to atone/is tormented by guilt for his actions. So eventually he goes to Edwina and apologizes. We learn that Rowena is a lesbian (apparently that was what made her so ‘weird’ which as a queer person just gtfo also how is this Rowena’s only character trait other than being studious I’m over this book’s character development) and living in Australia, estranged from Edwina because she blames Rowena for James’ death. Edwina decides that she wants to reconnect with her daughter. The book thankfully ends.
- Overall brain gushings :
Readers, this book is actually insane. Also we don’t get any insight into the more interesting characters; the narration is told from the point of view of the three worst and most annoying characters in the book, which is saying something. Why don’t we get any actual insight into James? Or Rowena? So lame.
Also, the climatic betrayal/secret reveal is so underwhelming! I get it, blaming your step-brother for a tragic death and testifying in court for his criminal case is shitty, but it isn’t actually even that shitty. Particularly when James is sort of to blame for the socialite’s death! Why shouldn’t he experience some form of punishment? Just because he is a rich, handsome, white boy? NO! It’s not like Lucas then made James relapse and die of a drug overdose. If anything, Moving seems to make it seem like this outcome may have been inevitable and had nothing to do with Lucas. I get it family dynamics are complicated, and this was a messed up one, but by giving us so much of Lucas’ backstory and motivations, his actions as a boy are quasi-justified, and he comes off as a sympathetic character worthy of pity! So there isn’t even a good antagonist! And the whole “no one is totally evil” thing is a good concept, but to me did not read as interesting or rewarding. Get rid of the two tragic deaths at the hand of drugs and this story is not special or intriguing at all. And in fact, with the opioid crisis what it is today in North America, two deaths at the hands of drugs is sadly not very out of the norm, and I feel no sympathy reading about two rich kids accidentally overdosing when there is a much more real and unjust drug crisis happening in our very backyards. I’d rather read an interesting commentary on that!
[A hand holds the book Moving in front of a grey carpet and some old office supplies. The most interesting part of the cover is the tagline “A family home, filled with secrets. For Sale.”]
- What does it mean?
So apparently Jenny Eclair is like a celebrity author type lady that does the rounds on talkshows and has a really loyal following, and this book received a ton of reviews gushing about “the realistic characters” and the “layered” plot and the depth of the themes of family and betrayal that it discussed… So it could mean a lot of great things.
I really did not like this book, but I can still acknowledge that it is a book that highlights the sad fact that our relationships with people are largely based on our own perceptions, and that we get in the way of truly connecting with people because of resentment and a bitterness we are too afraid to face.
There were also some interesting meditations on what it means to have our identities constructed around memories and experiences when our memory and recollections start to fade. And even before our memories fade and warp, can they really be trusted? Are they ever unbiased? The answer is a clear no.
I would like to point up that I was, not to be too dramatic, shocked and appalled by the raving reviews online by readers for this book. I get that opinions vary, but I kept thinking, did we read the same book?!
- Favourite passages :
There are no such thing as favourite passages in this book, but what I present to you dear reader, is much more enjoyable; instead we have the most bat-shit metaphors and turns of phrases in this book! Seriously, some of these straight up made me uncomfortable!
This passage is actually the epitome of jaw-droppingly bizarre and terrifying and I actually had to put the book down, wondering what human, especially what human woman could write this:
She doesn’t know how Jill does it. She’s obviously besotted with Rob but she can still eat, whereas Fern can barely choke down three grains of rice at a time. Under the table, her vagina beats as if she has a spare heart tucked away down there.
Eclair, pg 175
EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!! What in tarnation is that paragraph?! A spare heart down there?! Also why are we moving from talking about her appetite to talking about her PULSATING VAGINA?! I know this was supposed to be sexy or like erotic or something, but I nearly died. As someone who has a vagina, and actually likes vaginas that are not my own, I found this description to make my skin crawl! Ew ew ew.
Sandra, who play the oldest Prozorova sister, doesn’t believe in using deodorant or shaving her underarms.
It’s a good job her dress has sleeves, thinks Fern. My mother might pass out at the sight of a lady exposing her underarm hair! She wouldn’t believe it; she’d think she was keeping a gerbil under each armpit.
Fern’s hands are shaking so much she can barely pin her hair into a bun, a bun which she has been practicing putting into place on a much more regular basis than her diaphragm.
pg 154
A gerbil?! I get it, this is meant to show that Fern’s mom is super judgemental and conservative, but could this scene have been written any more horrifically? There are just literally a million better ways to show this, or even to comment on a woman’s body hair, but I am so over Fern and her weird fucking narrative voice that is also judgemental but thinks she’s not, and is grossly horny in the most innapropriate moments. I’m no prude, but I’m tired of reading about her mean mom one second, and then how she can’t stop thinking about sucking cock! A literal quote!
Also, you should be practicing putting a bun in more often than a diaphragm! I get that this is supposed to be foreshadowing that Fern is bad with birth control, but Jesus, what a bad comparison and what a stupid way to foreshadow what turns out to be pretty important to the plot!
Also I’m done picking crazy passages because it would basically be me quoting most of the things Fern thinks or does, as well as some pretty choice passages from Lucas and Edwina.
- If you liked this (or my review), consider reading :
If you liked my review and want to read an actually engaging tale about family secrets and family stories, read Michael Ondaatje’s semi-autobiographical text Running in the Family. A book about memories, and how stories are changed by their teller, this is Ondaatje’s tour de force in my opinion. It also blends prose with poetry and photographs, making it a multi-layered text that changes every time you engage with it.
Another good read about family dynamics, the ties between siblings, and how trauma can affect a whole family structure, I cannot recommend On the Shores of Darkness, There is Light by Cordelia Strube enough. This book is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read, and is also Canadian literature, so that’s great!
Stay tuned for my next review, the much-anticipated new book by Margaret Atwood, The Testaments. Will I like this book? Will I hate it? Will it live up to The Handmaid’s Tale? The answer to all of these questions is NO! Read on to see why!
It's Lit Fam! 