The Lives of Women

by Christine Dwyer Hickey

Following a long absence spent in New York, Elaine Nichols returns to her childhood home to live with her invalid father and his geriatric Alsatian dog. The house backing on to theirs is sold and as she watches the old furniture being removed, she is taken back to a summer in the 1970's when she was almost sixteen and this small out-of-town estate was an enclave for women and children while the men are mysterious shadows who leave every day for the outside world.

The women are isolated but keep their loneliness and frustrations hidden behind a veneer of suburban respectability. When an American divorcee and her daughter move into the estate this veneer begins to crack. The women learn how to socialise, how to drink martinis, how to care less about their wifely and maternal duties.

While the women are distracted, Elaine and her friends find their own entry into the adult world. The result is a tragic event that will mark the rest of Elaine's life and be the cause of her long and guilt-ridden exile.

Insightful and full of suspense, this is an uncompromising portrayal of the suburbs and the cruelties brought about by the demands of respectability.

Genres: Fiction, Irish Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction, Ireland

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2015

About the author

Christine Dwyer Hickey is a novelist and short-story writer. Her novel Tatty was short-listed for Irish Book of the Year in 2005 and was also long-listed for The Orange Prize. Her novels, The Dancer, The Gambler and The Gatemaker were re-issued in 2006 as The Dublin Trilogy three novels which span the story of a Dublin family from 1913 to 1956.

Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story competition, she was also a prize winner in the Observer/Penguin short-story competition. Her latest novel, Last Train from Liguria, is set in 1930’s Fascist Italy and Dublin in the 1990’s and will be published in June 2009.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a Dublin suburb, the book spans several decades. The woman at the center of the story is Elaine Nichols who leaves home as a teen, and returns from New York as a woman in her early 50's. She comes home to care for her elderly father, a wheelchair-bound former judge.

In this novel, suburbia is a desert, a place devoid of life, culture, and joy. We don't learn many details of Elaine's life until the last 25 or so pages. She has had a career, but a lonely life. There is a sense at the end of the book that it has been a life curtailed by her unhappy childhood, and unloving mother. And perhaps, tragically, it has been a life that was wasted because of thwarted relationships, and a life in exile.

[Ellie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given a review copy by the publishers after showing an interest. I thought the premise of the book sounded interesting and it definitely lived up to my expectations.

This is in a sense a coming-of-age novel, but it is also a retrospective. We are introduced to the character of Elaine who has returned to her family home to care for her father, after the death of her mother. We are made aware that Elaine hasn't been home for quite a while, and hasn't had much contact with them either because of something that happened in the past. Told through alternating past and present chapters, what happened in the past is slowly revealed, although it was left slightly open about what did happen and certain things were speculated but never directly answered, which I liked.

Called The Lives of Women the author reflects on how a young girl perceived the role of women in her small community, and how they interact with men. The men generally headed off to work each morning, whilst the women led more secretive lives. And the women had to keep secrets for fear of being shamed in society. The arrival of an 'artistic' American and her more causal attitude led to afternoon drinks parties, and growing sense of confidence, which I thought was to be dampened by the events later.

Overall this is a very enjoyable read. Difficult to not give too much away and spoil the story for other readers. Enjoy!

[Edgar Boekdrukker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek heeft me met een naar buikgevoel gelaten dat me nog dagen zal bijblijven. Het is meesterlijk geschreven, en het contrast tussen de tegenwoordige tijd voor volwassen Elaine en de verleden tijd voor tiener Elaine creëert twee verhalen die doorheen het boek samen worden verwoven. Er wordt vaak heel subtiel verwezen naar de uiteindelijke wending van het verhaal. Soms is het ook opmerkelijk hoe bepaalde confronterende onderwerpen heel terloops worden vermeld, terwijl rond de clue van het verhaal heel lang een sluier blijft hangen. Een echte aanrader. 4 sterren omdat het begin wat traag gaat (hoewel dat hier echt nodig is).

Tip: niet lezen in de pauzes op je werk want naar het einde toe is het boek moeilijk neer te leggen.

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found this book very well-written, the characters exceptionally 'real', and due to the nature of EBOOKS, couldn't go back to clarify a few 'clues', I needed to revisit, at the end. Hopefully there will be more novels from this accomplished writer.

[Thea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a book where as I read it and as I finished it, I thought "is that it?" That sounds harsh, and I don't think of this as a bad book, just underwhelming. It's very well written and I easily set myself into the rhythm of reading it and found it easy to finish. It's a true page turner, if only because its voice is so easy and smooth. But the story and the characters were all lacking. The story was about nothing, really -- which, actually, would have been totally fine because it wouldn't have set up expectations around the BIG SECRET that you get literally in the last ten pages of the book. Or, if the secret was something essential to the plot, I would have preferred it earlier to get a sense of why it mattered so much. It was left largely unresolved and the fact that the book ends with "THE END" demonstrates that even the editor was like, "ah, this isn't a strong ending so we should probably make that extra clear."

I also didn't really feel for any of the characters, except for maybe Elaine's parents, but there was such light glimpses of them. I guess I just wanted the book to be bigger, because what is there is so promising and has such potential for beauty. Ah well, maybe I'll check out her other books.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elaine, dispatched in haste to New York in the wake of an unspecified scandal when she was sixteen, returns home to Ireland for the first, for her mother’s funeral thirty years on. The chapters alternate between then and now, and the story of her teenage years in the suburbs unfolds.
Christine Dwyer Hickey shows as always, her gift for examining dysfunctional family life, missed chances, suppressed emotion, loveless marriages, pressure of keeping up appearances, lack of forgiveness and of course the demon drink. This is not the darkest of her books, but the enchantment is in the suspense leading up to it, rather than the final reveal.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the often elegant writing I found myself skip reading many pages, desperate for something to happen. When it did, right towards the end, it left me with so many unanswered questions that I felt dissatisfied. A read that for me didn't really fulfill its potential, I'm afraid.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ending a little abrupt for my taste, otherwise a very well constructed story that sheds light on what it meant to be a woman in Ireland in the times of the Magdalene laundries...

[Bren · Rating 4 out of 5]

cried multiple times. the main character has the same birthday as me. amazing

[juul · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stars!! the beginning was a little complicated, as you didn’t know much and the writing was a little vague, but the further you read, the better you understand what they’re talking about, and at last, the reveal of what terrible thing they did, though it really was with no terrible intentions. it was really a page turner and i enjoyed from beginning to end!!!

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A slow building novel where nothing much happens until the very end where we find out that so much had happened. Lovely gentle writing. It explores the female characters in great depth while drawing only sketches of the male characters who come and go. It's about childhood friendships and the choices/mistakes we make in childhood that mark us for life. I'm enjoying my run of Irish novelists.

[Snoakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. It's a dual narrative with chapters alternating between past and present, set in a stifling suburban cul-de-sac. Both strands slowly edge towards revealing the tragedy that changed everyone's lives.

I love this structure in a novel. The writing is excellent and the characters well-rounded and believable - particularly the middle-aged Elaine in the present.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the prose was outstanding. Relationship dynamics interesting and compelling. However there were way too many characters to keep track of and the ending was not satisfying. It was a little confusing with the time back and forth. I wanted to like this book but only enjoyed some of it.

[Sof · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book just doesn’t have an ending.

It has a small explanation? For the point of the whole bloody thing? But no ending in sight.

Sad, because it was perfectly paced and suspense was done perfectly. And then the bomb never goes off.

So in short, this is a faulty bomb of a book.

[Srawanthi Turumella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based in the Irish-suburbs of 1970's where women were left to do the household work while the men went off to work and earn money.

This story is about Elaine Nichole, a middle aged woman, who has has returned from New York after 34 years, after an exile.

She comes back to aid her ill father and reminiscences about the past when she was sixteen years old. Her friends and her coming of-age, her experiences, her absentee parental affection, discovering secrets and following the tragic incident.

The story kept me on tight grip from the first page. But, the plot doesn't twist till the end. The chapters keep shifting between her present and past, which builds up the suspense. But, in the end you are left with unanswered questions.

I guess, I have to re read again, to possibly find the answers as there were an amount of characters with particular physical description. Hopefully, I find it! Fingers crossed.

A very keen and observatory details that we seem to notice but don't make a mental note of are mentioned throughout the book; is what made this book interesting to read.

[Jennifer Lawler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christine flexes her storytelling muscles with aplomb in her new novel The Lives of Women. Switching between past and present the story unfolds through the eyes of both teenage and adult Elaine Nichols. Chef Elaine has returned from New York to her family home to help nurse her ailing father after her mother’s death. It is not a comfortable setup as Elaine’s relationship with her parents is distant and strained following the mysterious tragic events of a summer night back in the 1970s.

Memory by memory, 50-year-old Elaine begins to reveal the friendships and circumstances that brought an abrupt end to her youthful innocence. We meet Elaine’s teenage circle: troubled Agatha, effortlessly cool American Patty and her warm mother Serena, neighbours Rachel Shillman and Brendie Caudwell, and local boys Karl and Jonathan. All have a part to play in the events that unraveled their tight-knit circle.

The novel depicts the dull monotony of life as an Irish suburban housewife in the days when jobs were shelved once a woman married. The pervading sense of their mothers’ restlessness doesn’t go unnoticed by Elaine and her pals as they battle to prevent themselves from turning into their mothers.

Christine has done a fantastic job of honing in on that dangerous, delicate time between adolescence and adulthood. The terrifying truth in her novel is that it can all go so wrong so quickly when teenage emotions are left to run unchecked.

If you’re reading this wondering “What is it? What’s the thing that happened?!” then good! My work here is done.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book where nothing happens and then everything happens all at once. Props to the author because I didn’t actually see the ending coming - although the outcome of the incident is easy enough to guess from the hints throughout the book, I definitely did not guess how it would happen. But I think the reveal would have worked earlier in the book. That would’ve meant that the suspense lasted long enough to titillate but not grow stale and the fallout from what happened could have been expanded upon more, as well as more time spent on the actual event. That’s what would have improved the book for me.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling as the story slowly unfolds. I *loved* her turn of phrase - the idea of the dog farting and 'appalling the air' almost made me laugh out loud, and there were lots of other moments where I was nodding appreciatively at exactly the right word used to describe a situation. The character of Elaine was sufficiently intriguing, but I did want more at the end. I'm usually a fan of hanging endings, but this left a little too much to my imagination.

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book . It is not a thriller but in many ways it reads like one as you can't wait for what happens next. It covers Elaine's life from what caused her to to be banished from her home in Ireland at 16 years of age and her return some 30 years later. The writing is simple but the main characters are well developed and it is easy to picture them in your mind. This is my third book of the authors that I've read and I think that she is a terrific writer.

[Ava Macpherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were beautiful written, I had a clear understanding of Elaines guilt and her journey to New York. However, I did feel like the event that the book is written about was skipped over pretty quickly, which makes sense seeing as Elaine didnt want to focus on it too much, but I did feel like I didn’t know much more about Elaine once the book ended.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book extremely choppy. Withholding the major event until the end was frustrating to the reader. How can we sympathize with any of the characters if we don't what has happened. The mother daughter relationship was interested and heartbreaking.

[Della O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book by Irish author. very atmospheric and a mystery in the background that was mild and kept you thinking. Some characters pulled at the heart strings. What transpired was so sad. Some of the characters had to overcome huge barriers.

[Aoife O'Toole · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was a real disappointment after really enjoying Tatty and The Narrow Land. Far too much of the protagonist traipsing around being sad for so little pay off. The big reveal also revealed nothing and I was left thinking "is that it?". Not for me.

[All Tomorrow’s Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

hickey is an extremely talented writer, there’s no doubt about that. but this book was just meandering around, with no plot. the characters seemed faceless to me, i couldn’t even begin to imagine what they looked like because they weren’t described.

[Sheena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another well written story so different from the other two I have read. Poignant and telling re the unfulfilled lives of women at the time in deadly dull suburbia and the ignorance and shame of unwanted pregnancy, resentments that run deep and unspoken emotions.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teasingly written drawing you on to the end.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book is like watching moss grow. I dont even mean it as an insult: its a (seemingly) intentionally slow paced, bleak but beautiful piece of work.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irish author. Rather odd story

[Paul Lehane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't relate to the uninspiring characters..too dialogue driven & aimless for me..2.5 stars.

[Tanya Farrelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lives of Women follows the protagonist, Elaine, though two different time periods: summer/winter past and present. The present chapters are told in the first person, whereas the past chapters are told in the third, lending the objectivity to the narrative. Elaine returns from New York after an absence of many years to care for her elderly father. She is catapulted back to the past, recalling neighbours, and events that unfolded in her small suburban neighbourhood. In the opening we learn that something happened at the Shillman's house many years perviously. Our intrigue is piqued - but we remain in the dark as to that event until the very end of the novel. Christine Dwyer Hickey is a keenly observant writer. Her characters are absolutely believable. I would rate her on a par with laureate, Anne Enright. Fabulous story-telling.