Daunt Books |
When we came to know about the event, we placed our orders electronically and had the tickets downloaded and printed before our trip to London. I was certainly looking forward to hitting some bookstores while we were in London and the Bookshop Crawl happened to take place on my birthday. Hooray!
That Saturday morning, my girls slept in while I took my time to get ready. I was rather indecisive about which outfit to wear and whether to put on a dress. Whenever I am being fickle minded, I know I should simply settle on whatever I put on next without further ado. Later that evening I felt that I could have paid a bit more attention to some details for those picture moments. The cold weather looked to be warmer ( 4-12 degrees celsius ) and the prospects of a day spending at bookstores made it a brighter day indeed.
We started with London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury amongst some fifty participating bookshops.When I was at the London Review Bookshop around 11.30 a.m. , I met a young woman who was already onto her third bookshop. If we were taking part in the Amazing Race, we would have been eliminated.
Neal's Yard, London |
Happiness is holding a cup of steamy hot black coffee and sipping it as one braves the cold. Even though my boots were killing me after all that walking up and down the roads and in and out of the tube stations, coffee and books in the bag definitely kept my spirit up.
Invisible Ink written by Pippa Kelly click is
amongst my acquisitions from the Bookshop Crawl. I was drawn to it partly because the
protagonist is a lawyer. Though I have my reservations about becoming a lawyer
given another life, I have a tendency to read fictions involving a lawyer and
also fictions and non-fictions written by a lawyer.
Max Rivers has
it all – burgeoning career , a beautiful partner , an exclusive address in
London. But life is not perfect as he harbours a long buried secret from his
childhood. He has to take care of his elderly mother and feels overwhelmed by the declining health of his aging mother and the onset of
her dementia. He is very much weighed down by the guilt
he feels over the disappearance of his younger brother, Peter when they were
both children. Maxi’s dad walked out on the family when Peter was still a baby
and Maxi was five years old.
The story
unfolds through two narratives. Maxi as a child is narrated in the first person’s voice where as for Maxi's adult life, the narration
is in third person’s voice . Here is a flashback as Maxi waits for the ambulance to arrive.
As he sat on
the cracked, worn lino his legs grew stiff under her weight and, shifting
slightly, careful not to disturb her now that she’d finally drifted off, he
leant back against the table leg and shut his eyes. The house seemed to wrap
itself around him. The smells ,the creaks, the very texture of the air,
all seemed to be pulling him back, reclaiming him, and an image, a scene as
clear as crystal , came into his mind.
The
three of them are standing in the kitchen. Mum’s trying to brush Peter’s hair.
It’s all mussed up from where he’s been playing in the sandpit. She’s pushing
his thick fringe out of his eyes but he’s squirming away.
“ Stand still !”
Peter’s arm shoots out and shoves
her in the tummy. Max knows that
she’d kill him if he did that . Kill him! But instead all she does is scowl and
pull Peter closer. Max watches out of the corner of his eye as he kneels to
pack his satchel. The sight of the dog-eared covers of his books soothes him.
Nothing – nothing – can get to him today because it’s the last day of term. His
very last day at St Joseph’s. In September he’s off to the Grammar on the other
side of town. Where the big boys go – the clever ones that is .
Mum’s yanked Peter back so she can finish fiddling with his hair. “You’re not to go up
on the fields love because the grass will set off your coughing and we don’t
want that. “ He chews on his bottom lip and doesn’t answer. Max knows that
Peter will disobey Mum and like always he’ll get the blame. As if she’s reading
his mind, Mum says, “You ‘ll make sure that he doesn’t go up there won’t you Maxi?” He stands up and flings his
satchel over his shoulder. “ Maxi?” She’s let go of Peter and is staring at
Max, her eyebrows dipping into a V as she frowns.
“ Yes ,yes .”
“Because he’s
not been well Maxi.”
Doesn’t he know
it? Peter’s kept him awake with his coughing.
“ Maxi !” She repeats
loudly.
“ Okay Mum. I get the message.”
The story is
about a missing child and sibling rivalry. It is about how jealous Maxi had felt as a ten year old when his mother constantly fussed about his brother, Peter who was five years younger than him. In trying to suppress and conceal his past from his partner Eleanor, Max Rivers puts his
new role as a parent at risk.
The past is an integral part of us and it cannot be reversed nor forgotten. While we cannot re-write the past, we need the strength and grace to accept that the past cannot be changed but to move on.
Pippa Kelly's novel explores the complex emotions about loss, guilt and caring for an aging parent. The prose is well written and as the author cleverly mixes the narratives and in describing the conflicts that are within Max, the reader is offered images of how Maxi and his younger brother Peter used to play together on the trapeze and climbing into their hiding places. A commendable debut.
The past is an integral part of us and it cannot be reversed nor forgotten. While we cannot re-write the past, we need the strength and grace to accept that the past cannot be changed but to move on.
Pippa Kelly's novel explores the complex emotions about loss, guilt and caring for an aging parent. The prose is well written and as the author cleverly mixes the narratives and in describing the conflicts that are within Max, the reader is offered images of how Maxi and his younger brother Peter used to play together on the trapeze and climbing into their hiding places. A commendable debut.
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