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Promise of Happiness
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307 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
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About the author
Justin Cartwright
49 books48 followersJustin Cartwright (born 1945) is a British novelist.
He was born in South Africa, where his father was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail newspaper, and was educated there, in the United States and at Trinity College, Oxford. Cartwright has worked in advertising and has directed documentaries, films and television commercials. He managed election broadcasts, first for the Liberal Party and then the SDP-Liberal Alliance during the 1979, 1983 and 1987 British general elections. For his work on election broadcasts, Cartwright was appointed an MBE.
Cartwright had a wife, Penny, and two sons.
He was born in South Africa, where his father was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail newspaper, and was educated there, in the United States and at Trinity College, Oxford. Cartwright has worked in advertising and has directed documentaries, films and television commercials. He managed election broadcasts, first for the Liberal Party and then the SDP-Liberal Alliance during the 1979, 1983 and 1987 British general elections. For his work on election broadcasts, Cartwright was appointed an MBE.
Cartwright had a wife, Penny, and two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
January 4, 2016
The Promise of Happiness is a blandly irritating upper-middle class book that tells the blandly irritating upper-middle class story of a blandly irritating upper-middle class family. So much about this book falls flat that I almost don't know where to start. How about that the novel strives for a level of psychological realism but hinges on an event that is singularly unbelievable? Or maybe the fact that all of the radically different characters have the exact same inner voice? (Throwing in a 'like' or ten for the younger characters doesn't cut it). Gavin also found the sudden shifts from third person to first person to be an incredibly pretentious affectation. He believes that literally anyone could perform it. He thinks that he might try it too. Has he managed it yet? Not quite, he'll have to try a little harder. There, now I've done it.
The part that really, really annoyed me though was Blech! I am done with this book
The part that really, really annoyed me though was Blech! I am done with this book
March 7, 2009
This was truly awful – like being cornered at a party by a seedy old man with a tendency to repeat himself. He has five characters whose point of view he writes from, but they’re glove puppets and never come alive as real people, all spout his rather rancid and jaded world view. It’s not even well written either – he has a tin ear for dialogue and an odd habit of dropping meaninglessly into the first person at random points. Plot? He forgot to include one. Avoid at all costs!
April 26, 2008
I loved this book--a crazy, dysfunctional family (yes, another one) but Cartwright is such a good writer that it is not formulaic. I need to read more by him--he's not well known in the States.
March 10, 2020
The author is clearly competent, and knowledgeable of literary things , but I'm just not convinced that the whole family would be so into quoting from the classics. I also found the whole maddona/whore/saviour caricatures of the children really quite tiresome. Couldn't wait to get to the end to start another book! But the writing is poetic, and vocabulary wide, earning it another star! 🤣
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February 5, 2009Winner of The Hawthornden Prize for Literature, The Promise of Happiness is not Justin Cartwright's first brush with literary acclaim. He's been short listed five times for the Whitbread Novel Award (which he won for Leading the Cheers), once for the MAN Booker Prize, and has received other prizes. That Cartwright remains little known Stateside, even though his name "is frequently mentioned alongside authors [in England] like Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Kazuo Ishiguro" (New York Times), is a cleft that should be mended by his latest work. Compared to McEwan's Atonement and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, The Promise of Happiness is, at heart, a novel about the intricate emotional dynamics of families. Though a few reviewers pick at thin characterizations and a surfeit of narrators, even the detractors concur that Cartwright is an extremely talented writer who deserves a wider readership.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
August 3, 2009
I just love it when I find a great new (to me) writer. Justin Cartwright's prose is eloquent, his plotting like following a familiar road map to unexpected places, and his characterizations well contrived.
The story bends around the central character of Juju Judd, convicted felon, beloved daughter, sister, lover. Her single act of mis-guided love has diverted the lives of her father and mother, brother and sister. But not entirely. Each one has managed to make questionable decisions all on his or her own; the fact of Juju's more egregious mistake seems always to overshadow their own foibles, casting her into the role of sin-eater.
Best of all is the very Englishness of it. In no small way Cartwright has taken a laser to the very ethos of being English. English sensibilities and standards are giving way to the 21st century.
The story bends around the central character of Juju Judd, convicted felon, beloved daughter, sister, lover. Her single act of mis-guided love has diverted the lives of her father and mother, brother and sister. But not entirely. Each one has managed to make questionable decisions all on his or her own; the fact of Juju's more egregious mistake seems always to overshadow their own foibles, casting her into the role of sin-eater.
Best of all is the very Englishness of it. In no small way Cartwright has taken a laser to the very ethos of being English. English sensibilities and standards are giving way to the 21st century.
May 15, 2018
This was more than a good read; this was storytelling and philosophy for the late middle aged ( or do I mean “old”?).
The substance of the story lies in relationships and secrets. Sometimes the secrets that are carefully housed within us are in fact already common knowledge to those closest to us, creating a complex tangle of emotions.
I am drawn to stories that involve intrinsically good people doing the wrong thing. The difference about this book is that it challenges the reader to consider the nature of our character: does our character evolve throughout our life ie do we simply suffer from the results of an error of judgement?
The author speaks to my generation like no other. His use of language and humour is superb. This is indeed an intelligent novel.
I truly miss these characters now that I have finished the book.
The substance of the story lies in relationships and secrets. Sometimes the secrets that are carefully housed within us are in fact already common knowledge to those closest to us, creating a complex tangle of emotions.
I am drawn to stories that involve intrinsically good people doing the wrong thing. The difference about this book is that it challenges the reader to consider the nature of our character: does our character evolve throughout our life ie do we simply suffer from the results of an error of judgement?
The author speaks to my generation like no other. His use of language and humour is superb. This is indeed an intelligent novel.
I truly miss these characters now that I have finished the book.
December 10, 2015
Disappointing, Cartwright is often compared to Ian McEwan or Jonathan Franzen, in my opinion he's not in their league at all. This had the same introspective examination of the ordinariness of a British middle class family with all their angst and foibles but there was no tension. I didn't care for or about any of the characters. The dialogue was excruciating why did he have each young character say 'like' all the time? There was something odd going on with a shifting point of narration, intermittent break outs into first person, most disconcerting. Overall a tedious read not like a McEwan or a Franzen at all.
August 25, 2016
More of a 3/12 stars, because there were aspects that I really appreciated. In particular, the meditations on cruelties and injustices in the US justice system: although Ju-Ju was an annoying character --why does everyone in the family think she's so amazing? -- and she is far from a moral beacon, she didn't deserve the harsh treatment she got. The writing is very good, and the characters are relatively distinctive, and I suppose I don't mind that I didn't particularly like any of them. I think my reservations about the book have more to do with wanting more depth out of the characters.
June 5, 2024
“He fears that after the baby she is going to turn into something large and moist and demanding.”
Oh man some of the descriptions of the Peruvian wife to be, were so funny I was having a rare time laughing away at them.
Someone needs to enlighten me and tell me the point of introductions to books which merely act as a series of spoilers, including telling you the ending?...Surely a wiser publisher would put such a thing at the end?...and a wiser reviewer would learn to read introductions lastly…if at all…The weird thing is that there's also a “reading group” section, which pretty much repeats what is in that intro, though there is also some interesting bits n bobs in that.
This is how you write a good, quality novel, a lesson in entertaining and engaging writing, great, convincing characters which pull you in and don’t bore you to death like so many created by his white, late middle-age, middle-class contemporaries. This was hugely enjoyable and caused a lot of laughs and is easily the best novel I’ve read by Cartwright so far.
January 29, 2020
When their eldest and favoured offspring in imprisoned in New York for Art theft, the Judd family imploded. Two years on, with the approach of her release date, their lives might now return to normal.
It is only as we start to hear from each family member that we realise that those temporarily lost lives are perhaps not worth fighting for.
Disappointment is a difficult emotion to read about, and you might need to be of a certain age to realise the full implications of it in this novel. You can even sympathise with the difficult Charles, who has never come to terms with the forced removal of the basic tenets of existence as he viewed them. But it’s Daphne who has the hardest deal, her keep calm and carry on approach feels so meaningless here.
The Promise of Happiness is an enjoyable and worthwhile read.
It is only as we start to hear from each family member that we realise that those temporarily lost lives are perhaps not worth fighting for.
Disappointment is a difficult emotion to read about, and you might need to be of a certain age to realise the full implications of it in this novel. You can even sympathise with the difficult Charles, who has never come to terms with the forced removal of the basic tenets of existence as he viewed them. But it’s Daphne who has the hardest deal, her keep calm and carry on approach feels so meaningless here.
The Promise of Happiness is an enjoyable and worthwhile read.
April 22, 2024
For a relatively short book, this took a while to read. I'm not wholly sure why - the writing was generally of high quality, I felt the author brought his small family cast to life with their similar but distinct personalities, and there were moments of insight and provocative aspects which genuinely made me think.
Alas though it was a three and a half type read for me. I didn't really warm to the plot of a family reconvening for the wedding of the oldest son and the return of a daughter after release from prison. For all that there were aspects to draw you in for all most of those involved, at times there were some pretty ridiculous moments, and also some dull sections that failed to hold my interest. Even with some drama, some wit, some twists.. it was mainly quite mundane a plot.
Alas though it was a three and a half type read for me. I didn't really warm to the plot of a family reconvening for the wedding of the oldest son and the return of a daughter after release from prison. For all that there were aspects to draw you in for all most of those involved, at times there were some pretty ridiculous moments, and also some dull sections that failed to hold my interest. Even with some drama, some wit, some twists.. it was mainly quite mundane a plot.
May 27, 2020
This book was sold to me under false pretences. From the blurb it looked like a lovely English crime thriller about art theft. It turned out to be full of drama but of the family kind, and worse, of the philosophical kind, not my normal cup of tea . Halfway through I realised I was loving the characters and sucked in totally by the plot, and by the end I was crying uncontrollably - although I've also cried watching The Office.
June 23, 2023
Picked up this quaint book in the bookshelf of my hotel. I am still marvelling in the fact, through the 300 odd pages, not much really happened at all! Albeit a, somewhat, interesting retrospective narrative that was a little hard to follow at times. Felt very closely to the dysfunctional family, especially Ju-Ju. I think I will read another of his books :-)
May 30, 2017
The story opens with the sad solitary figure of Charles Judd walking along a beach in Cornwall, as he has done every day for the past four years. We don’t know the reason, yet, for his sadness and self imposed exile but as the narrative unfolds there are many clues embedded in the text for the reader to understand his predicament. He knows he is losing his vitality and is becoming preoccupied with the state of his marriage and the emotional void he is feeling. Daphne Judd, his wife, has stood by him through their difficulties and they have formed a relationship that if not the most exciting then at least it has been a marriage that has served him well, sustaining him and their three grown children, who have with varying degree of success, taken their places in the adult world. While his children all have their lives ahead of them while Charles Judd has only memories.
Nature’s great trick - the ageing process - has taken away his athleticism and mobility, his involvement and engagement with the workplace, and has removed stimulation and, amongst other things, any opportunity for meeting anyone likely to offer him any further extra marital sex. He remembers with a pang of regret ‘the last uninhibited fuck he had with a young woman, a trainee in the office, and for a few weeks they had fucked blithely in the office after hours. He was happy and so was she.’ Gratefully she said, ‘ I had never met anybody like you. And you just loved fucking me. It made me feel so good.’
Returning from his walk and his musings he sees his wife, Daphne, preparing the evening meal in the kitchen and ‘he pauses to watch her and in that instant he sees not only her but himself yoked in ghastly outline to her.’ he shuns such close intimacy.
The feminist movement has passed by Daphne Judd who seems happy playing a subservient role within the family, determined to provide her husband better fare by going on culinary courses. She is firmly of the opinion that it is the men who are the movers and shakers, 'Deep down we have been conditioned to believe that somehow men have been granted custody of the life force.' She is subservient in all manner of ways and has an “Old School’ view of life - an anachronism in a modern world - she is appalled by girls wearing rings in their noses, ‘and wonders if lesbianism can just be a phase in someone’s life.’ Daphne ponders the situation and ‘thinks it possible that in extremis some women confuse the companionship that exists between women with sexual love.’
Charles Judd is now retired and we learn that left his employment in London under difficult and embarrassing circumstances and the novel is a reflection on his withdrawal from the world of work and retreat into gradual old age. Throughout he provides us with anecdotes, both with funny and angry intent, and offers a series of reflections on contemporary society and an anatomical survey of middle class marriage, and what it means to be retired in the modern world.
The story gathers pace and we discover that his brilliant daughter, an art historian of some distinction, has been brought down by unfortunate series of events, and whilst she has been languishing in an American prison, possibly unfairly sentenced for unknowingly being part of some art theft, her father has sentenced himself to a self imposed exile. He is sure she has been victimised. But her impending release provokes the family into preparing for some imminent reconciliation. The reason middle aged men are obsessed with younger girls and become so desperate is that they have a terrible sense of time running out and that makes the sex so exciting and so acute.
Justin Cartwright writes with verve and insight, and sees the flaws in many a marriage, and how couples paper over the cracks, and addresses many matters that I am sure resonate with other ‘happily married men’ reflecting on the challenges of being a loving and loyal husband.
Nature’s great trick - the ageing process - has taken away his athleticism and mobility, his involvement and engagement with the workplace, and has removed stimulation and, amongst other things, any opportunity for meeting anyone likely to offer him any further extra marital sex. He remembers with a pang of regret ‘the last uninhibited fuck he had with a young woman, a trainee in the office, and for a few weeks they had fucked blithely in the office after hours. He was happy and so was she.’ Gratefully she said, ‘ I had never met anybody like you. And you just loved fucking me. It made me feel so good.’
Returning from his walk and his musings he sees his wife, Daphne, preparing the evening meal in the kitchen and ‘he pauses to watch her and in that instant he sees not only her but himself yoked in ghastly outline to her.’ he shuns such close intimacy.
The feminist movement has passed by Daphne Judd who seems happy playing a subservient role within the family, determined to provide her husband better fare by going on culinary courses. She is firmly of the opinion that it is the men who are the movers and shakers, 'Deep down we have been conditioned to believe that somehow men have been granted custody of the life force.' She is subservient in all manner of ways and has an “Old School’ view of life - an anachronism in a modern world - she is appalled by girls wearing rings in their noses, ‘and wonders if lesbianism can just be a phase in someone’s life.’ Daphne ponders the situation and ‘thinks it possible that in extremis some women confuse the companionship that exists between women with sexual love.’
Charles Judd is now retired and we learn that left his employment in London under difficult and embarrassing circumstances and the novel is a reflection on his withdrawal from the world of work and retreat into gradual old age. Throughout he provides us with anecdotes, both with funny and angry intent, and offers a series of reflections on contemporary society and an anatomical survey of middle class marriage, and what it means to be retired in the modern world.
The story gathers pace and we discover that his brilliant daughter, an art historian of some distinction, has been brought down by unfortunate series of events, and whilst she has been languishing in an American prison, possibly unfairly sentenced for unknowingly being part of some art theft, her father has sentenced himself to a self imposed exile. He is sure she has been victimised. But her impending release provokes the family into preparing for some imminent reconciliation. The reason middle aged men are obsessed with younger girls and become so desperate is that they have a terrible sense of time running out and that makes the sex so exciting and so acute.
Justin Cartwright writes with verve and insight, and sees the flaws in many a marriage, and how couples paper over the cracks, and addresses many matters that I am sure resonate with other ‘happily married men’ reflecting on the challenges of being a loving and loyal husband.
November 11, 2024
Ghastly on every level. The characters were all utterly dislikable. The author seems both misogynistic and racist. Depressing all the way through. Stereotypes abound. Literary affectations throughout. Just an awful book.
June 1, 2009
This got a lot more interesting at the end. It should make for a great discussion as it doesn't seem to be crystal clear how everyone ends up. Characters truly are all despicable, and with the possible exception of the mother, doomed to be miserable!
Possible Plot Spoiler: The author made a strong suggestion of incest between the brother and sister. No one else in the book group wanted to "go there," but why did the author write it to suggest such a possibility?
Possible Plot Spoiler: The author made a strong suggestion of incest between the brother and sister. No one else in the book group wanted to "go there," but why did the author write it to suggest such a possibility?
August 10, 2016
I'm really happy to be done with this.
September 16, 2017
I wish there was a sequel. I want to know more about what happens to these characters.
June 9, 2021
I think Justin Cartwright is a considerable writer. This is a very different kind of book to 'Masai Dreaming' or 'The Song Before It Is Sung' - and there is nothing remotely uplifting in those stories, either. How could there be, given the subject matter, respectively, the Holocaust, and the disastrous failed assassination attempt on Hitler.
This is a smaller scale drama, about the manifold ways people feel trapped, when the need for escape is not easily justifiable to a watching world, and when the price of escape is unthinkable, and anyway, what would 'escape' even mean?
Ju- Ju has been trapped literally, physically, in prison. Her father, Charles Judd, the eternal but fading star of his own marriage, conscious of his own fading personal strength, power and allure, is rendered dislocated by the horror of his child's predicament and his inability to solve it, together with a deep unexpressed rage at the ignominious circumstances of his retirement.
He can't complain of the unjust way he was dealt with - and it was unjust, but many years before, he'd had sex with a junior colleague, Jo, a brief office affair. The new business owners learned about this and used it to blackmail him, leveraging to get rid of him on the cheap, following a ruthless business takeover.
It gradually emerges there are parallels here with what has happened to Ju-Ju and the circumstances of her conviction for an alleged art theft.
But is her father's shame centred on his disloyalty to his wife, the patient and good natured 'drab' Daphne, or is it, not only the impotence of his rage, or the unendurable thought that the younger woman, Jo, had never actually fancied him or wanted sex with him...that he had forced himself. Been 'a pig?' Charles no longer sleeps in the same room with Daphne, or thinks about her at all, except with a kind of affectionate, irritated resignation, or guesses what she knows.
Meanwhile their younger daughter Sophie has been trapped in her own prison of rebellion, dysfunctional relationships, and drug dependency. She has nearly died once, saved by the timely intervention of her mother. But in response to her sister's impending release from prison, Sophie has been taking stock and has decided to reclaim or impose order in her life. But can she, will she manage to stay free of the drugs?
The son of the family, Charlie, collects big sister Ju- Ju upon her release, brokering all family communications, but Charlie has a problem of his own, about to enter into a marriage he doesn't want. A baby is on the way and there is no way out, not for a decent man. And Charlie prides himself on his decency. It's a 'male wobble', a former girlfriend tells him. 'Don't be a prick'. But the mother of the coming baby no longer interests him at all. She has glamour, he has money, but they have no common ground. Charlie finds himself (too late) faintly repelled at his fiancee's limited interests, designer goods and handbags and bleached mustache, her earthy, primal, even somewhat animalistic beauty. What will be left, he wonders, once the looks go as they inevitably do? Charlie is something of a philosopher, but it's not going to save him from this marriage, and all he can hope for now, he tells himself privately, is to be a good father. This marriage, so eagerly seized upon and appropriated by Daphne as an occasion to celebrate the regathering of the family, is for him-and perhaps for Ana too, who knows what her feelings are - a 'prison' term pending, doomed before the wedding is done.
I read this as a story about legal justice versus natural justice, sex when it is versus love, and the everlasting price that can be paid for one single mistake, in the case of Charles, Charlie and Ju-Ju, the penalties in consequence of 'obeying the call of the blood- and sleeping with the 'wrong' person.
It's about disappointment with life. The promise that falls short...presumably the reason for the title, and a theme that it shares with another, famous novel, 'Promise At Dawn,' by Romain Gary.
But who can say anything was promised in the first place? Where does anyone get the idea that they are owed happiness? Ju-Ju has learned a lot in prison about the utter chaos and violent desperation of other people's lives.
Enjoyment was not the word, and I didn't deeply relate to any one of the characters. But I did stay engaged and interested, and I was sufficiently absorbed to sit up very late to finish reading.
This is a smaller scale drama, about the manifold ways people feel trapped, when the need for escape is not easily justifiable to a watching world, and when the price of escape is unthinkable, and anyway, what would 'escape' even mean?
Ju- Ju has been trapped literally, physically, in prison. Her father, Charles Judd, the eternal but fading star of his own marriage, conscious of his own fading personal strength, power and allure, is rendered dislocated by the horror of his child's predicament and his inability to solve it, together with a deep unexpressed rage at the ignominious circumstances of his retirement.
He can't complain of the unjust way he was dealt with - and it was unjust, but many years before, he'd had sex with a junior colleague, Jo, a brief office affair. The new business owners learned about this and used it to blackmail him, leveraging to get rid of him on the cheap, following a ruthless business takeover.
It gradually emerges there are parallels here with what has happened to Ju-Ju and the circumstances of her conviction for an alleged art theft.
But is her father's shame centred on his disloyalty to his wife, the patient and good natured 'drab' Daphne, or is it, not only the impotence of his rage, or the unendurable thought that the younger woman, Jo, had never actually fancied him or wanted sex with him...that he had forced himself. Been 'a pig?' Charles no longer sleeps in the same room with Daphne, or thinks about her at all, except with a kind of affectionate, irritated resignation, or guesses what she knows.
Meanwhile their younger daughter Sophie has been trapped in her own prison of rebellion, dysfunctional relationships, and drug dependency. She has nearly died once, saved by the timely intervention of her mother. But in response to her sister's impending release from prison, Sophie has been taking stock and has decided to reclaim or impose order in her life. But can she, will she manage to stay free of the drugs?
The son of the family, Charlie, collects big sister Ju- Ju upon her release, brokering all family communications, but Charlie has a problem of his own, about to enter into a marriage he doesn't want. A baby is on the way and there is no way out, not for a decent man. And Charlie prides himself on his decency. It's a 'male wobble', a former girlfriend tells him. 'Don't be a prick'. But the mother of the coming baby no longer interests him at all. She has glamour, he has money, but they have no common ground. Charlie finds himself (too late) faintly repelled at his fiancee's limited interests, designer goods and handbags and bleached mustache, her earthy, primal, even somewhat animalistic beauty. What will be left, he wonders, once the looks go as they inevitably do? Charlie is something of a philosopher, but it's not going to save him from this marriage, and all he can hope for now, he tells himself privately, is to be a good father. This marriage, so eagerly seized upon and appropriated by Daphne as an occasion to celebrate the regathering of the family, is for him-and perhaps for Ana too, who knows what her feelings are - a 'prison' term pending, doomed before the wedding is done.
I read this as a story about legal justice versus natural justice, sex when it is versus love, and the everlasting price that can be paid for one single mistake, in the case of Charles, Charlie and Ju-Ju, the penalties in consequence of 'obeying the call of the blood- and sleeping with the 'wrong' person.
It's about disappointment with life. The promise that falls short...presumably the reason for the title, and a theme that it shares with another, famous novel, 'Promise At Dawn,' by Romain Gary.
But who can say anything was promised in the first place? Where does anyone get the idea that they are owed happiness? Ju-Ju has learned a lot in prison about the utter chaos and violent desperation of other people's lives.
Enjoyment was not the word, and I didn't deeply relate to any one of the characters. But I did stay engaged and interested, and I was sufficiently absorbed to sit up very late to finish reading.
September 18, 2024
The Promise of Happiness
by Justin Cartwright
Mainly 3 but rising to 4 stars in places.
.
This won some acclaim back in the mid 2000’s and it’s true, Cartwright can produce powerful and intelligent prose, put together with a masterly and complex feel for chronology. But it fails to engage the reader because it lacks that essential ingredient for any good book… a cast of sympathetic likeable characters who deserve the time and effort it will take you to read their story. In this book they are all either regretting, complaining, worrying, or obsessing about the past and Iikely future paths their lives have taken and are about to take. This all makes for a fairly downbeat read.
.
It also feels a bit dated; bursting with middle-England privilege, which of itself is not a bad thing any more than gritty urban poverty is; but it’s really hard to feel too much empathy for this bunch of complaining affluent victimhood.
.
Even the rather tweely named Ju-Ju who does actually suffer, becomes insufferably self-indulgent while she fights her demons. Her universal popularity in the book ironically seals her fate as an unfavourable character to the reader.
.
It’s also wordy and abstruse in parts, (words like nibelung and maquisards for example, hardly even uncommon knowledge) and the author seems obsessed at times with pages of minutiae about food ingredients or flowers. Things are described at such painful length that I almost literally lost the plot as my mind wandered. To be balanced, there are some very thoughtful and incisive observations made about humanity and relationships too. I think the tone and subject are more accessible to the older parent reader cohort, one I inhabit.
.
There’s a Franzen or Byatt tome lurking in Cartwright if he gets his act together; a potentially impressive author who, in this case at least, hasn’t quite found his voice. He’s piqued my interest and I’ll try another one of his books and then move on if nothing’s changed for the better.
by Justin Cartwright
Mainly 3 but rising to 4 stars in places.
.
This won some acclaim back in the mid 2000’s and it’s true, Cartwright can produce powerful and intelligent prose, put together with a masterly and complex feel for chronology. But it fails to engage the reader because it lacks that essential ingredient for any good book… a cast of sympathetic likeable characters who deserve the time and effort it will take you to read their story. In this book they are all either regretting, complaining, worrying, or obsessing about the past and Iikely future paths their lives have taken and are about to take. This all makes for a fairly downbeat read.
.
It also feels a bit dated; bursting with middle-England privilege, which of itself is not a bad thing any more than gritty urban poverty is; but it’s really hard to feel too much empathy for this bunch of complaining affluent victimhood.
.
Even the rather tweely named Ju-Ju who does actually suffer, becomes insufferably self-indulgent while she fights her demons. Her universal popularity in the book ironically seals her fate as an unfavourable character to the reader.
.
It’s also wordy and abstruse in parts, (words like nibelung and maquisards for example, hardly even uncommon knowledge) and the author seems obsessed at times with pages of minutiae about food ingredients or flowers. Things are described at such painful length that I almost literally lost the plot as my mind wandered. To be balanced, there are some very thoughtful and incisive observations made about humanity and relationships too. I think the tone and subject are more accessible to the older parent reader cohort, one I inhabit.
.
There’s a Franzen or Byatt tome lurking in Cartwright if he gets his act together; a potentially impressive author who, in this case at least, hasn’t quite found his voice. He’s piqued my interest and I’ll try another one of his books and then move on if nothing’s changed for the better.
December 11, 2018
I've given this two stars instead of one because it had the potential to be really interesting. I love books about the intricacies of family relationships. The writing is just not good enough, though. The dialogue is horribly stilted in places - mainly because the author tends not to use contractions, so it all sounds very lumpy. Just not how people actually speak. The other major problem is that all of the younger characters say 'like' in virtually every line of dialogue - really jarring. Charles Judd is obnoxious - a really nasty character. One of the scenes that really disturbed me (without giving too much away) was the way he encouraged a woman to take the blame for his bad behaviour. The Judds are a smug, snobbish family. Most of the time that didn't bother me too much because families can be smug as a group, so the portrayal didn't seem too unrealistic, but the snobbishness towards those they see as a lower class to themselves is pretty unappealing. A difficult one to rate as I wanted to carry on reading all the way through but felt it should have been a lot better. I don't think I'll read anything else by this author.
June 19, 2025
This book definitely was not my cup of tea.
We're following a family of 5 from the UK as they navigate the aftereffects of having Juliet Judd (the favoured 1st born of the 3 kids) locked up in prison for 2 years for being involved in a art crime.
This completely breaks the family and sets them back mentally in many ways.
Sophie (sister to Juliet) deals with it through sleeping with a man twice her age and drug use.
Charlie (brother to Juliet) deals with it by moving to America and starting an online sock business.
Charles (father) deals with it by mentally unraveling
Daphne (mother) deals with it by ignoring reality and busying herself with floral arrangements at her local church.
This book was a bit confusing at many points and the descriptions of the fathers thoughts towards Juliet were borderline incestuous.
One thing I did enjoy was the descriptions of stain glassed windows, which led me down a mini art history lesson on Tiffany windows and the beautiful uniqueness of them.
Spice: 🌶.75
Profanity: 🤬🤬🤬.25
We're following a family of 5 from the UK as they navigate the aftereffects of having Juliet Judd (the favoured 1st born of the 3 kids) locked up in prison for 2 years for being involved in a art crime.
This completely breaks the family and sets them back mentally in many ways.
Sophie (sister to Juliet) deals with it through sleeping with a man twice her age and drug use.
Charlie (brother to Juliet) deals with it by moving to America and starting an online sock business.
Charles (father) deals with it by mentally unraveling
Daphne (mother) deals with it by ignoring reality and busying herself with floral arrangements at her local church.
This book was a bit confusing at many points and the descriptions of the fathers thoughts towards Juliet were borderline incestuous.
One thing I did enjoy was the descriptions of stain glassed windows, which led me down a mini art history lesson on Tiffany windows and the beautiful uniqueness of them.
Spice: 🌶.75
Profanity: 🤬🤬🤬.25
July 17, 2020
Once in our lifetime (for others maybe more), we come upon something that leaves quite a large impact in our lives which as a result makes it harder for people to live through it. This what this book is all about, The Judd family, a family of 5, have lived almost a simple english life, however certain things in life had altered their life forever! The star child juju was sentenced to jail for a crime in the eyes of her family she is not guilty for. The story begins two years after juju was sentenced in prison in which she served her time and was released. the story centers around how the family try to accept her back and prepare to see their daughter once again and hoping nothing has changed her. Its beautiful touching story of reality, written with raw feelings and surprisingly quite funny too.
I hope more people try to read this book!
I hope more people try to read this book!
August 1, 2019
I so enjoyed this book, right from the start. Each of the characters was well depicted and the effect of Juliet’s incarceration on each one was very interesting. Daphne was the only one for whom I had no sympathy and yet, at the end, she was the one I most admired. After a lifetime of appeasing all the family she says, ‘Charles can take himself to the Codfather or buy himself a Scotch egg or play golf with Clem, or do just what he likes. I am not going to live as though I am only here to make his life easy.’ Go, Daphne!
The only minor point of irritation was the inclusion of ‘like’ into all the younger generation’s speech, as if it was the only verbal quirk which set the two generations apart.
The only minor point of irritation was the inclusion of ‘like’ into all the younger generation’s speech, as if it was the only verbal quirk which set the two generations apart.
May 8, 2020
Story of a family in various stages of disarray, disintegration and rebuilding, intense love, sometimes ill-expressed between particularly siblings and father-daughter.
Much of the story is built around the imminent release of the daughter Ju-Ju from prison due to her role in what appears to be the sale of a stolen Tiffany window. The discussion of her incarceration and release begins at the first page or so, and then the reader is kept wondering, while learning more and more of the picture of the family, and the release doesn't happen until the last pages. Notwithstanding a goodly amount of disfunction, the characters are beautifully fleshed out, and the devotion to family despite all is endearing.
Much of the story is built around the imminent release of the daughter Ju-Ju from prison due to her role in what appears to be the sale of a stolen Tiffany window. The discussion of her incarceration and release begins at the first page or so, and then the reader is kept wondering, while learning more and more of the picture of the family, and the release doesn't happen until the last pages. Notwithstanding a goodly amount of disfunction, the characters are beautifully fleshed out, and the devotion to family despite all is endearing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2018
Now I love Justin Cartwright. He can write. And the book 'The promise of happiness' reads like a well written chick-lit. All happy endings are not chick-lit. And I don't mean the term disparagingly (though I think I can get away with it, being a woman).
The over emphasis on clothes, flowers and their way too detailed descriptions, weddings that read like an advertisement, Hermes and Kelly.. He can and has written better. If you love Justin Cartwright, maybe you should skip this. The only thing you'll lose out on, is liking him less.
The over emphasis on clothes, flowers and their way too detailed descriptions, weddings that read like an advertisement, Hermes and Kelly.. He can and has written better. If you love Justin Cartwright, maybe you should skip this. The only thing you'll lose out on, is liking him less.
November 28, 2018
I found this an enthralling read and looked forward to each chapter. I was introduced to this writer with his book about Richard the Lionheart which I also found intriguing. It is something of a paradox that I found the middle class characters a little self possessed but I did want to see what happened to them and this is where the book leaves you high and dry. He is a very good writer with a powerful intellect (which he likes us to know about). It is worth a punt and you feel he possibly has a great novel in him. Maybe he has written it and I ain't read it yet.
December 6, 2017
A daughter is soon to be released from prison after being found guilty of stealing some art work. The rest of her immediate family are preparing for her release. The book tells of each family member’s thoughts about the release and how they managed whilst she was inside. Lots of details about the intricacies of family relationships and how they each see themselves. Not an uplifting read. Lots of character self-analysis.
March 31, 2021
This touching story is about more than growing up and older, it is candid, charged with love, emotion, guilt and family dedication. I am moved having just closed the cover. Ju Ju is coming home having been in prison for two years. Her brother will collect her. Charles the elder hasn't seen his first born daughter in more than three years. A portrait of family life trying to pull together and calm a storm.
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