Earlier this month I shared with you that I was reading "Instructions For A Heatwave" by Maggie O'Farrell. I had been reading reviews of the book for about two weeks when I decided to just bite the bullet and buy it. In hard cover.
Within the first 30 pages, I was completely and totally hooked. The premise is that a British family - mother, father and three grown children - are all brought back together when the father mysteriously disappears.
All three children are living their own separate lives and return to their childhood to help their mother search and uncover clues.
Once all of the children are back under the same roof, old wounds are reopened and secrets start to spill out. This is my absolute favorite kind of book. Stories of deep, emotional, tortured souls.
There is the oldest child and only son, Michael Francis. Though he was a gorgeous baby he turned out to be a spineless man who knocks up a young girl, marries her out of guilt and then cheats on her.
Monica, the middle child, is the apple of their mother's eye. She and her mother have an almost psychic connection that allows them to have conversations without speaking. Monica is on her second marriage, though her siblings haven't mourned the end of her first marriage to a man they adored.
Aiofe, the baby of the bunch, is a good ten years younger than Monica and has fled the family to live across the pond in New York City. She's dating a chef who is dodging the draft (the book takes place in the 1970s) and she works full time for a famous photographer. Aiofe has many issues, the biggest of which is she can't read.
In addition to the salacious family drama, the other reason I devoured this book was O'Farrell's ability to create authentic, poignant moments. The way she describes her characters' emotional reactions to situations makes you feel like your heart is also breaking, or you are also disappointed or ashamed. For example, on page 136 she is describing the moment when Aiofe parts from her boyfriend at the airport in New York on her way to London to help her family. O'Farrell writes:
"They walked to the departure lounge, she clasped her arms around him until the last second, until she walked through the door. She found she wanted to close her eyes, as if to hold in the sight of him, scared that, if she filled her eyes with too many other things, she might forget what he looked like, might lose something of him."
See what I mean? We've all felt that.
I was completely sucked in to "Instructions For A Heatwave." I flipped from page to page anxious to see what new scandals would be uncovered. O'Farrell's writing is beautiful, truthful and moving.
This is the perfect book for a long plane, train or bus ride.
Next up, "Sisterland" by Curtis Sittenfeld!
What are you reading?
