Lily leaned up against her book bag reading Valley of the Dolls, which her mom permitted as long as Lily listened to her critique on the ubiquity of male domination and its impact on the daily lives of women.
Lily and Jane live with their parents in the grounds of the Rhode Island Catholic school where their father teaches science. Their mother blends her faith with a feminism and political awareness that raises a few hackles, determined that her daughters will grow into confident women able to hold their own against the patriarchy. Both are bright, Jane particularly so, tutored by a monk who had taken orders after working with Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project. When their mother dies, Jane’s rebelliousness gains full throttle while Lily finds solace with a boy whose own mother left when he was only six. Lily and the boy’s understanding of each other is profound, both sure of a bright future together. The boy is a football star heading for University of Michigan while Lily has won a place at Smith. One night, the summer they graduate high school, they row about Lily’s decision to go to a party the boy can’t attend, Lily’s concern about Jane’s predilection for drink and drugs outweighing her desire to stay at home. The events of that night overturn plans she had long assumed to be set in stone.
As the months passed, Lily suffered the loss of her mother quietly, while Jane’s loss led her to a place where hungry souls devour themselves. It went on like this for years.
Told from Lily’s point of view, Curtis’s novel is an immersive piece of storytelling whose overarching themes are morality, faith and redemption, within which she explores a multitude of ideas, encompassing social anthropology (her academic discipline), science, religion, feminism and politics to mention but a few. She writes with acuity and compassion, a difficult combination to pull off, but she does it with apparent ease. The raw ache of mother loss and its scars are depicted with an empathetic sensitivity through Lily, Jane and the boy, who is never named, while Lily’s decades-long guilt about the party and its fallout is portrayed with a clear-eyed observation. Hard to do it justice without giving too much of the story away but I found this novel both gripping and deeply moving. Looking forward to whatever Curtis comes up with next.
Bloomsbury Books: London 9781526683502 336 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
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I too am a bit anti-brouhaha. But having had a fair few failures recently, I’m in need of an immersive and gripping read. So I’ve reserved it at the library, where it’s due to arrive … in due course.
I hope you enjoy it. Much more serious than the blurb suggests.
I gathered so. That’s fine, if immersive enough.
It was for me.
‘There was also a worrying degree of brouhaha around it ‘ hahaha totally get this. But the historical detail here sounds fascinating.
Wouldn’t it be great to have superlative free blurbs not to mention accurate ones!
I also back off from hype – disappointed so many times! This isn’t one I would have picked up but you have changed my mind, it does sound impressive.
So often counterproductive. I’m glad I jumped in with this one.
The school campus setting and the Oppenheimer detail are irresistible elements, and I’m always drawn to books about faith/doubt and bereavement.
I think this one would suit you very well.
In the wake of my Windsor-Detroit “cross-border” reading, I’ve been taking special note of stories set in Michigan: this sounds like a good one!
It’s much more weighty than the slightly fluffy book I thought it might be. I think you’d enjoy it.
I like to read love stories, but this is something that caught my attention. Great review.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.