Review: This Must Be the Place

Name: This Must be the Place
Author: Maggie O'Farrell
First Published: May 2016
Publisher: Tinder Press

My latest read took me on a journey to deepest Ireland via sunny San Francisco, a forest in Scotland, a yacht sashaying across the Swedish seas and a messy London flat. And that list isn't even exhaustive. The snippet of map on the front cover of This Must Be the Place doesn't lie – these characters like to travel.

I was drawn to Maggie O'Farrell after reading an old Guardian article she wrote about the process of writing. While her baby slept, swaddled in a sling, she would take to the keyboard and type until the young babe awoke. Impressive.

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell, sitting proudly in my armchair

This Must Be the Place pivots around two people. We follow the twists and turns of their lives, both before they meet and afterwards. Daniel is an American linguistics professor. He is kind, loud and flawed. Claudette is a half-French, somewhat reluctant movie star with a stuttering son and a shotgun. When we meet them they are living, together with a handful of children, in a secluded house in rural Ireland at the end of a long track punctuated with security gates.

Things change one day when Daniel hears the voice of someone he used to know through his car radio. He can't help himself – he has to find out what happened to Nicola Janks. He only knew her for a short time twenty years ago, so his newfound mission couldn't possibly upset the present-day apple cart, could it?

I loved following the trails of events in This Must Be the Place, jumping through time zones, globetrotting and witnessing situations through multiple viewpoints – the children, the friends, the lovers. This book is a great example of cause and effect: the life of a character can be altered by an event that happened years ago, in another country, before they were even born. A spooky thought!

Maggie's writing was atmospheric and accessible, and she captures fleeting moments and lingers on them in a way that you don't have time to do in real life. It felt indulgent. I classify this book as one to snuggle up with on the sofa!

This edition is currently on sale in Waterstones if you'd like to add it to your shelf.

Tales of luxury lost

Name: Babylon Revisited
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
First published: ‘Babylon Revisited’, 1935; ‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’, 1920; ‘The Lost Decade’, 1989
Published by: Penguin

This slim volume includes just three short stories written by Fitzgerald over a large time span, all of which contain themes of past decadence and reformed characters struggling to gain the trust of others. Fitzgerald is famous for his Tales of the Jazz Age, but these are tales of the post-jazz age; an era which hadn't yet dawned upon society at the time 'The Cut-Glass Bowl' was written. Fitzgerald is often praised for his eerie powers of foresight, and this tale is one such example.

Charlie Wales, protagonist of ‘Babylon Revisited’, is a recovered hedonist who now finds more comfort in the presence of his daughter than in alcohol. He has lived a clean and stable life for many years since his wife’s death, and wishes to reclaim custody of his only child from his sister-in-law, Marion Peters. Unfortunately, past events render Marion incapable of trusting Charlie, even though he does appear to be a sensible and loving chap. But it is easy to see why her suspicions are roused, as other less reformed jazz-age creatures are still on the scene, reminding her of troubled times.

 ‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’ opens with a different tone but the similar theme of luxury lost is instantly recognisable. The metaphorical ‘cut-glass age’ is historically placed alongside the Stone Age and Bronze Age in a satirical take on the decadence of this material. Mrs Evylyn Piper received the bowl from a jilted suitor who likened it to her because she was beautiful, hard and empty. But aside from this unflattering character statement, Evie, like Charlie, has seen the error of her ways and is on the verge of regaining the trust of her husband when an untimely occurrence gets in the way. We are not 100% sympathetic, but are able to feel the injustice of the situation, as these characters appear to be serving a penance for actions they long since committed.

'The Lost Decade' is a mere six pages long, so in summarising it I would probably give away a little too much. Let’s just say it fits in well with the other two stories. In my experience, you tend to know what you’re getting with F. Scott, but he does what he does extremely well and knows how to keep those pages turning.

 

One day you'll surely read this book

Name: One Day
Author: David Nicholls
First published: July 2009
Published by: Hodder
 
Considering the high expectations I had for ‘the book of the moment’,* I was slightly disappointed with the opening chapter of One Day. I wasn’t totally sure whether I was supposed to like Dexter or not, and I later experienced the same feelings towards Emma. But the novel swiftly became attached to my person at all times. 

We are first introduced to Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew shortly after they are introduced to each other: on the eve of their graduation. The novel ends the following morning, but the story of their lives is chronologically mapped out in between. The date is July 15^th, aka St Swithin’s Day, and the narrator revisits them annually on this date for twenty years.

At first sight the structure appears to be an idealistic one, but the tale is injected with a dose of grim reality from the off. Neither are propelled into their dream career and lifestyle; something that will strike a chord with the recent graduate and evoke past memories in the long-since-graduated.

The course of their lives run very differently - sometimes they are together, other times apart - and it becomes increasingly evident that these two people bring out the best in each other. Suspense gathers as you wonder if they’ll ever get together, and frustration ensues when coincidences prevent them from getting their mail or reaching the phone in time. This novel is the ultimate dramatisation of any question beginning with ‘what if...?’

But One Day is more than just a version of the classic tale of nearly-there lovers; Nicholls has turned this most basic of premises into a heart-wrenching contemporary story with its feet firmly in reality. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, as the narrative is as witty as the characters, yet strong emotions are somehow evoked without a hint of sugary language. This mixture of comedy and romance makes it readable for both sexes.

Nicholls perfectly captures the idealism and anxiety of the post-university period. Emma feels ‘as if a fire alarm had gone off in the middle of the night and she was standing on the street with her clothes bundled up in her arms. If she wasn’t learning, what was she doing?’  Dexter is slightly less anxious about his future; ‘He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph.’ On paper they are not exactly a match made in heaven, but this adds a further dose of reality. This realism borders on melancholy at times, but to me that was no bad thing. One Day does not view life through rose-tinted spectacles.

Dexter becomes a Russell Brand-type figure at his worst, while Emma is ever the down-to-earth librarian type, although reducing these loveable characters to types does them no justice whatsoever. They are perfectly rounded and their failings make them human. Dexter’s tragic flaw is his tendency towards excess; alcohol, drugs, and women, but Emma is struck by a tragedy of a different kind, without any prior warning or personal blame.

Is this a novel which speaks to a generation? Yes; the excessive consumption of alcohol will no doubt strike a chord with many, as will the question of what on earth comes next when education is all you have known since you were knee high to a grasshopper. I would heartily recommend this book to most people I know, and have already begun doing so. If you only read one book this year, chose this one.

*according to telegraph.co.uk