November
20
This Picture of You by Sarah Hopkins
I apologise for the spasmodic reviewing on my part. I blame this book. Every time I sat to write the review I became flummoxed. Did I like it? Didn’t I? I remain unsure. My confusion left this review sitting here, in limbo for weeks……
I read This Picture of You and yes, finished it and sure, I enjoyed it – the author is good no doubt about it – but I was left with a yukky taste in my mouth having spent time with two pretty awful blokes.
The premiss of this book is all about the impact of memory and what we choose to remember and what we choose to forget. It is about Maggie and Martin, an artist and judge and their son, a successful lawyer. It explores their comfortable lives but when Martin is involved in an accident, things become unhinged, histories are revisited, secrets are revealed.
I will cut to the chase. Martin and his son are pretty bloody terrible, self-indulgent twats! Maggie was a triumph. Thank God for her. The storytelling is great and all the other characters are pretty interesting but on the topic of memory, well, let’s just say I just hope that eventually I can wipe these two men from mine. Posting this is my first step in that therapeutic process.
This has had great reviews so I say to you go into this book with open eyes and hearts and see what you think yourself. It is excellent book club fodder because it is the sort of story that will get the juices going.
So in closing, I am sorry, this is the best that I can do on this one ….see, told you I was confused!
Having just finished the book, and I agree with your assessment of the son Ethan, and to a lesser extent the father Martin. The father is at least more nuanced character. At first he seemed noble and sweet and a doting unselfish grandfather; but the more I learned, the less I liked him. The son was quite an unpleasant character ruled by othger parts of himself other than his brain ! I kept wondering why the women put up with these self-serving men. But as in ‘real-life’ “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing”. It’s easier to see what is on the surface and opt for safety and comfort, and ignore secrets and contradictions.
I thought the treatment of Martin’s dementia was very interesting, and the book was well written. Maggie and Lainie were fantastic characters. I mostly liked this book, but like you felt an ambivalence. It didn’t stop me reading it all in one day though!