My Former Heart

by Cressida Connolly

'Unusual and brilliant It has similarities to Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child.' Deborah Orr, GuardianA beautifully written novel, which tells a story of love and loss through three generations of a family.When she grew up, Ruth would say that she could place the day that her mother had decided to go away. She didnt know the actual date, but she recalled the it was on the afternoon of a wet day, early in 1942, during a visit to the cinema. She thought she could even pinpoint the exact moment at which Iris had made up her mind to go, leaving her only child behind. Neither of them could have guessed then that they would never live together again.Spanning the second half of the last century, My Former Heart, Cressida Connollys mesmerising first novel, charts the lives of three generations of Iriss family, the mother who walked away from her child. Ruth will be deserted again, many years later, by a husband she loves, but not before she has had two children by him. She leaves London to live with her uncle, where she creates a new life for herself with another woman. And we follow the lives of her two children, trying to make a place for themselves in the world in the shadow of the family that precedes them.With its large cast of fascinating characters, this is an outstanding novel about families and their ability to adapt. It surely marks the beginning of long career as a novelist for Cressida Connolly.

Genres: Fiction, World War II, LGBT

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Cressida Connolly is a reviewer and journalist, who has written for Vogue, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian and numerous other publications. Connolly is the author of three books: The Happiest Days, which won the MacMillan/PEN Award, The Rare and the Beautiful and My Former Heart.

Reviews

[Rachel (not currently receiving notifications) Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Former Heart is the staggeringly eloquent debut of Cressida Connolly, an author whom I only discovered through After the Party, her subtle and highly atmospheric portrait of woman in the 1930s caught up in the midst of the rise and fall of Oswald Mosley’s regime. Women are again the theme in My Former Heart, specifically the many shapes and sizes in which they love and choose to live their lives as they navigate a path in a not quite perfect world. More than anything, however, this is a testament to the many ways in which a family can adapt and an embodiment of Elizabeth Strout’s idea of “loving imperfectly”.

Spanning three generations of one family, Connolly’s utterly absorbing story opens with an eight-year-old, Ruth, on a wet 1942 afternoon and a trip to the cinema with her captivating and capricious mother, Iris. When Iris catches a glimpse of her sweetheart (and not her husband) in a newsreel on screen it signals an end to mother and daughter living together. As a distracted Iris jettisons her daughter to the remote and bitterly cold house of her grandparents in Malvern it brings with it an often unhappy time in Ruth’s adolescence with the reward of an enduring bond with her Uncle Christopher.

The beauty of the story is evident is Connolly’s achingly perceptive prose and eye for capturing human life in all its guises. Her turn of phrase and objective look at Ruth’s and, by association, Iris’s and her daughters, Isobel and Emily, lives resonates with percipient observations on what it means to recover from broken hearts, parenthood and other missteps to rebuild ourselves. Charting musician Ruth’s marriage and its breakdown that ostracises her from her young daughters and the unlikely second love that wins her heart, hope radiates from the pages and brings a sense of deep satisfaction. As Iris gives birth to a second child and finds a man who wins her heart, the third generation of women encounters their own challenges in the complex matter of love. From a lascivious husband to experiencing motherhood, Cressida Connolly’s novel is a tour de force in exploring the vagaries of human life and love.

Subtle and endearing, Connolly never veers into wallowing in melancholy and the “make do and mend” attitude gives rise to a surprising sense of fulfilment for the reader. My Former Heart is a memorable journey whose characters will surely leave an imprint on even the coldest heart.

[Michael Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking in its scope, in just about 250 pages, Cressida Connolly gives us the complete lives of three generations of women from mother and separated child during the Blitz to the grand-daughters and their small children in the current day. Each and every character introduced is fully-fleshed from the main participants to all their paramours and in-laws and co-workers. You will not want this to end although it feels like just about the right length. The writing is smooth as velvet and touches on most topics of interest one might experience through life. If you only have time to read a few books, make this one of them. It covers everything. Highly recommended.
Thank you Sandra Davies for the suggestion.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had really enjoyed the previous book I had recently read by this author (After the Party), and I think I enjoyed this one even more. Here, we follow three generations of women starting Connin WWII in England and how they connect to their mothers and siblings and (often unexpected and unplanned) children. Connolly's writing is beautiful and captures both the mundane and profound moments of life.

[Carolee Luberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little English story.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow, in a good way, drift through a few generations of women's lives.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but was actually a bit underwhelmed by it!

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connolly writes beautifully....a wonderful portrayal of love in many guises. her characters become friends that I don't want to give up at the end of the book!

[Tolkien InMySleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cressida Connolly deserves a far wider audience than she seems to have. This novel is a masterclass in relating the feelings of desire, love and loss, across 3 generations of one family.

[Jan Hemphill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been trying to think back – what does the title mean? The ‘Epigraph’ at the beginning is a quote from Wordsworth about sitting on the banks with a dear, dear Friend, and “in thy voice I catch the language of my former heart...”
The novel charts the emotional life and other events of three generations of women, told from each of their perspectives, particularly in small details, but there is no sense of an expanding plot. What does it all mean? Where is it all going – nowhere structured, as lives are. I find it a little irritating, the style of the observer – it is happening but with no reaction or attempts at influencing it all. Beautifully written, observed (people and physical surrounds) and perceptive of characters that are real and developed.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combining the narrative of the lives of several generations of a family, and their inner woe’s of love and loss, this book is deeply engaging. She crafts the language so beautifully that she puts her finger on just exactly how things feel.
The big traumas of life, desertion, abortion, infidelity are dealt with in an accepting way which makes all the events that unfold, quite believable, as the characters absorb the various blows that come their way. Life then flows gently along again to a new situation. Ironing out the hiatus of emotions that seem to me pretty mush how life is. I liked the ending with its great sense of home and family, now matter how disparate.

[Christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written and I did enjoy reading it - it's very easy to put down and come back to later, if that can count as a recommendation - but I was left feeling that I had read a well-written synopsis for a much longer novel, or even a series. The author gallops through the history of three generations without fleshing out the bones of her story. As a result I didn't feel that I knew or could empathise with any of her characters. The blurb says the book "explores the varieties of love that shape a life" and indeed it does deal with many different types of love, I'm just not convinced that they are shown to shape lives . Nonetheless an enjoyable light read.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle, absorbing - makes it sound like tissue paper - and yet I was intrigued as to why I kept reading when there was no discernible plot, when the drama was so low key. Towards the end I decided that much of the detail, the description, was recognisable, relatable (not always a factor) because where it failed to be - which it did in the description of Ruth turning the house into a nursery - I quickly became impatient, but the mood of the book seeped into me, as Austen did when I was adolescent and rehearsing personalities.

[Jennifer Blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was well written, felt more like reading a diary or listening to rambling thoughts of your sweet old Grandmother or Aunt. No real plot or excitement, just the story of three generations of women and their lives. Enjoyable in the moment however, I feel it will be a forgetful book; one that I won't truly remember in a month's time other than to say that I didn't hate it.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A missed opportunity - Cressida COnnolly writes beautifully, but here she tries to cover too much ground. In writing about three generations of a family she gives glimpses of people we would like to know more about.

[Isobel Meikle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is beautifully written; wonderful descriptions and perceptive observations that made you recognise people, places and things. You are drawn into the lives of each of the three women.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love love this book!! Good read!

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good.