"Not just a bunch of middle aged women talking
about their husbands"
My first book of my 52 books in 52 weeks challenge is The Husband's Secret By Liane Moriarty. The novel tracks the impact of one tragic instant through the
lives of three families irrevocably tied together from that moment on. In the novel, the
protagonist Celia Fitzpatrick’s understanding of her comfortable and
structured world is thrown into turmoil when she discovers a letter written
from her husband to be opened upon his death. The letter unearths a horrible
secret from his past which not only affects Celia’s family, but two other families
from their small Sydney Catholic school community. It has been an easy novel to start my book reviews with and was overall an enjoyable, but not overly challenging read.
At the beginning of this novel I wasn’t glued to every word and wasn't desperate to read on. However Moriarty’s storytelling has a way of drawing you
in. I was unimpressed and skeptical even after the big reveal of the letter (I
called it a holiday read in my last post)
yet by the end I was easily caught up as the pace of the novel sped
towards a much anticipated climax.
At the beginning, the novel mostly felt like a bunch of middle
aged women sitting around talking about their husbands and children.
(Yep, this is what I imagined)
However I soon realised this novel is about much more. It raises serious questions of
whether justice for past crimes can ever be achieved. The novel makes you
question if one person’s life can be equal to that of another and whether a lifetime
of good deeds ever absolve one from the crimes of the past. It shows how hard it is to truly know those you are closest to and how easily the sense of stability and normality in our lives can disintegrate.
On a less serious note, this novel was set in Sydney’s North, my
hometown. It is quite a refreshing change to read about a character rushing
down a street that I drive down daily.
(This one to be
precise)
Great novels can
transport you anywhere in the world with a few carefully selected adjectives.
It is a different experience entirely being transported by Moriarty, only ten
minutes up the road.
This made me think. I realised that novels don’t have to be
placed in historically significant times or exotic locations to make an impact.
In fact I would contend it is harder to impress an audience when your novel is
centered on the everyday and the mundane; the picking up and dropping off of
children, the amount of butter left in your fridge, the Easter Hat Parade at
the local school. Moriarty does an excellent job of showing how emotional
turmoil and life changing revelations occur in everyday life, in the least glamorous
of places and that people have to cope with these changes all while trying to
maintain a semblance of normality.
Good bits
It was a good reminder that I should read more Australian
literature. I’ll be making sure to include more Australian books in my reading
list this year.
The plot is interesting and unexpected. As it progresses
Moriarty builds a palpable sense of foreboding as the plot progresses as you
feel that sooner or later past crimes must be paid for.
It had an epilogue! Not many serious novels have epilogues,
perhaps because its not cool among writer folk. It was nice to have a more solid
sense of conclusion that is often missing from novels what leave you guessing
at the end.
Not so good bits
I felt like I would have enjoyed this more if I was a
mother, or perhaps a Catholic. Some of the biggest themes in the novel centre on
children and the concept of ‘sin’. Having neither children nor ever sinned I
couldn’t possibly relate.
Joking aside it did feel like the book was tailored to a
specific audience that I wasn't a part of and although this feeling abated as the
novel progressed, it never quite went away.
The novel was not life changing for me. It didn’t force me to open my eyes to anything new or unexpected. I did end up liking the
novel more than I expected to but overall it felt a bit ‘soft’ for me.
It had an epilogue. Yeah I did say it was one of the good
bits but it did again leave me feeling the ending was a bit ‘soft’, as if the
author wanted to give us all a happy ending rather than a kick in the guts to
finish. Perhaps a kick in the guts is what all the cool writers are doing these
days.
Quotes that made me think
"What can you say or do to make up for a horrible incident? The
words ‘I’m sorry’ felt like an insult. You said ‘I’m sorry’ when you bumped
against someone’s supermarket trolley. There needed to be bigger words."
Rating
Three and a Half out of Five well-buttered hot cross buns
The next book
Book number two will be 'Room' by Emma Donoghue as suggested by Cat. It has been sitting ignored halfway down the list of books on my Kindle for about a year now so time to get reading!
Like the sound of the book? Buy it here on Amazon or at your local bookstore.
Please let me know what you thought of my review below please. Its my first time doing this since a year five book report so I am feeling rusty! Agree with me? Think I'm spouting a load of rubbish? Let me know :)
