I took a punt on Susan Butterwieser’s Junction of Earth and Sky looking for something absorbing but untaxing in the summer heat. The blurb promised a novel spanning six decades and two continents, comparing it with both The Paper Palace and The Dutch House, neither of which sprang to mind for me. Butterweiser’s debut begins with a British woman who arrives in America, alone, in 1942, before taking up the story of her granddaughter, living out of her car and running drugs with her boyfriend in the 1990s.
Normal is so far away that when Marnie stumbles upon it, she feels like she’ll break apart.
Alice becomes part of her best friend’s family when she lost her mother, falling in love at the age of fourteen just as German air raids begin to hit the Sussex coast where they lived. She and her friends were evacuated, finding themselves separated. By the time she’s sixteen, Alice is in the US, eventually settling in Maine where she brings up her son alone. Sonny grows into one of those boys who are perpetually in trouble, a violent drunk, none of which changes when he becomes a father after a one-night stand with Denise. Alice takes Denise in after a particularly severe beating, devoting herself to giving Marnie the kind of upbringing of which Denise is incapable. They adore each other, Alice taking Marnie to England on the one trip she makes back to the country she still thinks of as home. Her grandmother’s death is a hammer blow to Marnie who loses her way, seemingly following in her father’s footsteps.
Marnie rolls over and squeezes her stuffed dog. Her mother is back home, safe, not upset, and alone.
Butterweiser’s novel tells Alice and Marnie’s stories through several timelines beginning in 1940, flitting back and forth, a style which felt uncomfortably disjointed to begin with. The narrative settles down into a series of vivid yearly episodes unfolding Marnie’s life and the difficulties posed by her chaotic parents. Alice and Marnie are both engaging characters, the bond between them touchingly depicted. Alice does her best to provide Marnie with the security a young child needs, conscious of her own struggles with Sonny. By the time the novel ends in 1999, much has changed for many of the characters, but the family that embraced Marnie as a child has endured, and she has a future she can look forward to. I enjoyed Butterwieser’s novel, unjudgmental in its portrayal of parental dysfunction while quietly underlining the importance of family and stability. Its blurb served as a reminder that publishers’ comparisons often say more about what they think will sell than reality although that’s not to say it’s not worth reading in its own right..
Manilla Press London 9781786583468 320 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
This looks like a ‘might read’ rather than a ‘must read’, but it’s on order at our library, so I’ll look out for it when it comes in.
I’d say that nails it. It fulfilled its distracting purpose for my heat-challenged brain.
Heat? We’ve only had one day …
You’ve had more practice in Spain – 23C and a light breeze, that’s my ideal!
Fair point!
I am with Margaret. Sounds like a “might read.”
Good choice! One for when you want something of too taxing.
Sounds a nice read, with slight vibes of Queen of Dirt Island
Definitely an appealing relationship between Marnie and her grandmother.
I like books with intergenerational bonds. This seems like it could have been quite bleak, but the relationship between Marnie and her grandmother sounds lovely.
It is, indeed. Both of them have tough lives but they’re surivors.
This sounds like it has strong characterisation. Interesting.
Yes, it’s a shame about that jerky narrative style although it does settle down further into the book.
I like the premise and I very much liked your review of it! It’s so nice to be reading your reviews again. They are so succinct and yet tell me so much about a novel.
That’s so lovely to hear. Thank you! Having written for print way back when, I’m used to word counts and try not to exceed 500 for reviews.
Interesting that neither of the major blurb comp titles comes to your mind; sometimes I think those comps are pulled from jacket copy (and sometimes I think jacket copy feels far removed from the book too) heheh.
I sometimes feel that the person who wrote the blurb copy read an entirely different book from the one I read.
Interesting, several timelines sounds like a lot, but the UK and US connection and the war years setting does appeal.
Those timelines didn’t make for a smooth read to begin with, too much chopping and changing, but the way she handles her themes and the story itself saved this one for me.