The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
(Headline Publishing)
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is set in Edinburgh and India, spanning a period from the 1930s to the present. The book explores the relationship between Iris Lockhart, a young woman living an independent life in 21st Century Scotland and Esmé Lennox, the estranged great-aunt Iris didn’t know existed until she receives a letter out of the blue, informing her that she is named on legal papers as the official contact person for her grandmother’s sister.
This message sparks Iris’s curiosity and, although initially reluctant to become involved, she visits her aunt in the psychiatric institution where she has lived for 60 years and which is now being closed down, making her homeless. From this point, the book delves into the pasts of both characters and their families, moving back and forward in time, through various phases in their lives.
I was struck by the way in which Maggie O’Farrell brought out just how different it was to be a child, particularly a girl, in the 1930s. Descriptions of Esmé’s troubled and rebellious childhood in India and Edinburgh paint a frightening and often cruel picture of the way in which children’s opinions and desires were often disregarded in the past.
O’Farrell makes subtle references to similarities in the personalities and circumstances in the early lives of both characters, and the book twists and turns in such a way that I was kept wondering throughout if a solution could be found to the characters’ immediate difficulties which might also, in some way, atone for misdeeds carried out against Esmé in the past.
I felt drawn to both Esmé and Iris and realised this was most likely because my Scottish childhood in the 1950s and 60s spanned both cultures of Presbyterian severity and the revolutionary 1960s. Through the familiarity of the characters and scenes I was drawn into the plot as if I were part of the story. This is a "can't-put-it-down" book, and I recommend that you clear at least two evenings and let yourself be immersed in its story.
Recommended by Jeanette Harris, General Manager
June 2008
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