Grievance

by Marguerite Alexander

A moving novel about the relationships within families and between friends, told through the touching story of a young woman starting out on a new life in London, on a quest to escape the claustrophobia of her small hometown. Nora Doyle, a young Irish girl, has come to university in London. The promise of a loving and idyllic childhood was brutally cut short when she was forced to assume the responsibility of looking after her Downs syndrome brother while her parents, devastated by his birth, retreated into their collapsed lives. Only Nora gave her brother the love, care and attention he needed, but she had to endure the watchful eye of her bullying, dogmatic father and the resentment of her crushed, self-pitying mother. To escape the small-town claustrophobia of a Northern Ireland battered by political and religious divisions, Nora begins a new life in London. But instead of finding friends and caring adults to make up for her own lack of parental love and normal family life, she unwittingly becomes the obsession of her narcissistic lecturer and finds it hard to connect with her peers. Too late she realises that she can escape from her family, but her behaviour and relationships with those around her continue to be shaped by her upbringing. Written with sensitivity and a rare emotional insight, this is a richly woven story about how we make connections and what it is that severs them.

Genres: Fiction

386 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Sammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing you will notice about this book is that it is written in the present tense. i.e. "She opens the window and looks out" as appose to "She opened the window and looked out". This is not done often in fiction, and it makes it harder to read at first. As the story develops, you discover that one of the central characters has a thing for James Joyce - and then the writing style starts to make more sense, as I supsect the author shares the same obsession with him. For this story to work you had to know the inner thoughts of the characters, and that is delivered, but sometimes feels a little forced. All the same, I liked the story and the characters and was hooked by the end.

This story shared some themes with a book I read earlier in the year, The Third Child: A Novel. Young girl unhappy with family life escapes to university far away and has great difficulty integrating with the 'real' world, as well as letting go of what she has left behind. Except Grievance does a much better job it. For a start the family life she is so eager to escape is actually pretty bad, and the mistakes she makes when out on her own are believeable.

Overall a worthwhile read.

[Amanda Woolley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it interesting reading the "flashback" parts of this book about Nora and her family in Ireland and her relationship with her brother, who has Down's Syndrome. I would like to think we have come a long way in our attitudes and treatment of people with this condition.

Regarding the "present" parts of the story, while Nora is attending university, it just gave me the ick. Steve's thoughts and feelings regarding his student definitely crossed a line, never mind the fact that he tried to act on it.

It would also have been nice to have a bit more insight into what happened when Nora returned to Ireland as the story was left quite open.

[Cassidy Brinn]

Not the most elegant writing in the world but skillful treatment of its themes. There were two big ones: the naivete of liberal privileged intellectuals to blind themselves to the dirty human nature of the oppressed and the way our perceptions constitute our reality. She makes clever points about Irish literature and politics and works it into the story which is quite a feat.

The characterization was often frustrating - she seemed to dislike some of her characters too much to make them interesting, every detail and action was just proof of what a bad person they were. On the other hand the good character, Nora, was a smidgeon too good for me. Always so self-righteous, unfailingly brilliant. Yawn. Steve the professor was the most morally ambiguous and it was sometimes fun/tragic to see his absurdly skewed perception of the world and contrast it with reality, but ultimately he became just another pervy professor and his final move was so clumsy and so quickly squashed that the entire build-up of his sexual tension vs. her need for paternal warmth fizzled out in a terribly disappointing anticlimax.

[Nigel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that leaves one feeling extremely deflated. Although obviously intensely personal and heartfelt, the third person narrative is rather studied and distances the reader from the characters. The dual story strands, although linked by the central character Nora,seem to pull in different directions and don't appear to justify the denouement. Whereas the university life strand is more commonplace, the scenes of bitter family life surrounding bringing up a Downs Syndrome boy are both vivid and wrenching. Ambitious, intelligent and readable, but perhaps not as telling as it could have been.

[Mew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disjointed storyline and unbelievable characters. IT almost felt rushed at the end as though the author ran out of steam.

[Luzelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get into it