4 Stars
The book is set on the shores of a Scottish loch where holiday-goers rent cabins. The duration is only one day, but days of pouring rain mean that people are again cooped up inside. Through twelve third person stream-of-consciousness chapters, the reader becomes intimately familiar with twelve characters, inhabitants of the holiday cabins. Family dynamics are revealed through the perspective of different family members; for example, a chapter may be devoted to a wife/mother and later another chapter will present the point of view of the husband/father or that of the couple’s child.
A portrait of life at different stages is presented. Young children, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged parents, and retirees all make an appearance. The inner lives of these characters are revealed: their unfiltered thoughts and concerns. A young woman, a feminist, is conflicted because of her sexual fantasies. An elderly woman is suffering from memory loss. Moody teenagers want privacy and time away from parents and siblings. A child has to face nighttime fears. Spouses want space from their partners.
What left me in awe is the authenticity of the various characters. Each emerges as a distinct personality. But what also becomes clear is that everyone is very self-absorbed, pre-occupied with his/her frustrations and worries. There is often little connection among family members, but the inhabitants of each cabin are also isolated from people in the other cabins. People observe their neighbours and pass judgment on their appearance or behaviour, but don’t interact with them.
Between the human chapters are brief interludes focused on nature, on what is happening around the humans. There’s a doe with her fawn on the watch for wolves, birds and small creatures staying sheltered and hungry because of the unrelenting rain, and ants closing entrances to keep rain out of the anthill. These sections emphasize that nature too has its concerns and evoke a feeling of timelessness.
Throughout the novel, there is a palpable sense of foreboding. In the first nature interlude, there’s a comparison between the sounds of water and the sounds of blood and air in the human body and an ominous ending: “You would notice soon enough, if it stopped.” The first human chapter has a woman running a long distance alone despite her having been told by her doctor, “there’s to be no more running. And if you really won’t take my advice at the very least don’t go far, don’t push yourself, don’t ever run alone.” Something terrible will happen; the question is who will suffer. Will it be the teenaged boy who goes kayaking and then realizes he might have gone too far as the wind and waves assault his craft? Will it be the teenaged girl who sneaks out to see a man illegally camping nearby? Why is a man hiding in the woods and watching from the shadows every night at dusk? And then one of the nature interludes ends with “There will be deaths by morning.”
Despite the somber tone, there are touches of humour. A woman’s thoughts wander during sex and she thinks, “you can’t expect a man to give you an orgasm if you keep thinking about particulates and genocides.” A woman describes getting married “like voting in that whatever you choose the outcome will be at best mildly unsatisfactory four years down the line.” A woman thinks she and her husband should have sex soon: “even when she doesn’t feel like it, it seems to be good for them, like oiling your bike chain, doesn’t have to be fun but it stops things falling apart.”
I know I’m not the
first to compare this book to Reservoir
13 by Jon McGregor (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2018/03/review-of-reservoir-13-by-jon-mcgregor.html). I found both novels totally immersive. And the last chapter grabs the reader and won’t
let go, even long after the book has been closed.
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