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Don't Think a Single Thought
1960s New York, and Emma Bowden seems to have it all - a glamorous Manhattan apartment, a loving husband, and a successful writing career. But while Emma and her husband Jonathan are on vacation at the Hamptons, a child drowns in the sea, and suspicion falls on Emma. As her picture-perfect life spirals out of control, and old wounds resurface, a persistent and monotonous voice in Emma’s head threatens to destroy all that she has worked for...
Taut, elegant and mesmerising, Don’t Think a Single Thought lays bare a marriage, and a woman, and examines the decisions – and mistakes – which shape all of our lives.
Taut, elegant and mesmerising, Don’t Think a Single Thought lays bare a marriage, and a woman, and examines the decisions – and mistakes – which shape all of our lives.
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
February 25, 2022
I really enjoyed the writing but I wasn't completely convinced by the story or the way it was told. It wasn't until I got to the end and learned that it was based on the life of the author Sue Kaufman that the way Cambridge chose to tell this story made some kind of sense. A real life doesn't hold together so well, unlike fiction. There were lots of incidental deaths in the protagonist's life and I expected the story to come back and provide some answers or conclusion to them, but of course it wasn't able to do that. Instead it rather skittered around in time and sometimes point of view without really settling, and without much sense of place. I'd still be interested in reading whatever Cambridge writes next, because she was very convincing as an English woman writing about an American. (I listened to the audio book and it was beautifully read.)
July 15, 2019
This is really, really good. A lean, incisive writing style giving a switchback ride into the psychology of a woman with a damaged childhood. Actually blown away by how well written this slim novel is. Reminded me constantly of both The Group and Valley of the Dolls. But also Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women.
Recommended.
Support this small publisher who has a talent for picking up the diamonds big publishers over-look.
Recommended.
Support this small publisher who has a talent for picking up the diamonds big publishers over-look.
August 1, 2019
Seductive and Stylish
There’s not a spare ounce of wordy flesh in this gem of a novel. Light enough to slip in your handbag but no light read, it will grip you like a steel hand in white Jackie Kennedy gloves.
It’s New York in the 1960s and 70s. Outwardly living a life of enviable privilege and luxury, even enjoying literary fame and success for a while, Emma is haunted by ghosts of a disturbing childhood, sleeping away the afternoons in an Equanil-fuelled haze while husband Jonathan pursues his high-powered medical career. The death of a child close to her holiday villa awakens memories that can’t be banished. More mysterious child deaths follow, drip-fed almost casually into the narrative as if to keep us on high alert. Can we trust Emma’s version of events? Can she trust them herself?
In a sense the writing reminded me very much of the great Barbara Comyns. Like Comyns, also a great stylist, Diana Cambridge relays terrible events in direct, matter-of-fact, pared down prose. This lack of dressing up, or emotional preparation makes the facts all the more startling somehow.
Meanwhile, cool, self-absorbed Emma explodes the myth that the main character must be loveable. Emma is a hard person to engage with, but she keeps you with her all the way. The slightly distancing narrative style breaks another rule, yet does so magnificently, echoing Emma’s own emotional life. Later on in the story we do see her cool demeanour begin to crack, but even the displays of emotion are not to be fully trusted. Stunted by childhood experience and drugs, it’s almost as if she’s playing a part.
I was lucky enough to read an early draft of this novel before receiving an ARC copy. One of those rare novels that really does re-pay a second reading, the lack of hard conclusions only adds to its seductive quality.
Mainstream publishers and risk-averse commissioning editors could learn a lot from Louise Walters. Please… publishers, no more tea shops on the beach. Let’s have real, complex characters and intelligent novels that linger in our minds long after the last page is turned.
There’s not a spare ounce of wordy flesh in this gem of a novel. Light enough to slip in your handbag but no light read, it will grip you like a steel hand in white Jackie Kennedy gloves.
It’s New York in the 1960s and 70s. Outwardly living a life of enviable privilege and luxury, even enjoying literary fame and success for a while, Emma is haunted by ghosts of a disturbing childhood, sleeping away the afternoons in an Equanil-fuelled haze while husband Jonathan pursues his high-powered medical career. The death of a child close to her holiday villa awakens memories that can’t be banished. More mysterious child deaths follow, drip-fed almost casually into the narrative as if to keep us on high alert. Can we trust Emma’s version of events? Can she trust them herself?
In a sense the writing reminded me very much of the great Barbara Comyns. Like Comyns, also a great stylist, Diana Cambridge relays terrible events in direct, matter-of-fact, pared down prose. This lack of dressing up, or emotional preparation makes the facts all the more startling somehow.
Meanwhile, cool, self-absorbed Emma explodes the myth that the main character must be loveable. Emma is a hard person to engage with, but she keeps you with her all the way. The slightly distancing narrative style breaks another rule, yet does so magnificently, echoing Emma’s own emotional life. Later on in the story we do see her cool demeanour begin to crack, but even the displays of emotion are not to be fully trusted. Stunted by childhood experience and drugs, it’s almost as if she’s playing a part.
I was lucky enough to read an early draft of this novel before receiving an ARC copy. One of those rare novels that really does re-pay a second reading, the lack of hard conclusions only adds to its seductive quality.
Mainstream publishers and risk-averse commissioning editors could learn a lot from Louise Walters. Please… publishers, no more tea shops on the beach. Let’s have real, complex characters and intelligent novels that linger in our minds long after the last page is turned.
February 24, 2020
Don't Think A Single Thought is a novella at just 190 pages and whilst it is a work of fiction, the author was inspired to write it by the life of Manhattan author Sue Kaufman, who died forty years ago. Sue Kaufman's 1967 novel Diary of a Mad Housewife was adapted for film in 1970.
Diana Cambridge is a fine and extremely talented author. This, her debut novel is remarkably assured, and despite the shortness in length, there is a strength to this story that is powerful.
Emma is married to a wealthy and successful surgeon, they live a life of glamour, with a flat in Manhattan and holidays in the Hamptons. However Emma struggles with life; her fragile mental state, including flashbacks to her troubled childhood overpowers everything that she does. She's not a failure herself; having written a much acclaimed novel, yet her self-doubt and insecurity stops her from enjoying any success and casts a shadow upon her marriage.
The reader is only privy to Emma's own thoughts as the story is told totally from her point of view. This could feel flat, but in fact, adds a dimension of tension and suspicion to the narrative. It becomes clear that Emma is far from a reliable narrator, and the reader must judge carefully when listening to her voice.
One of the author's greatest skills is that she's conveyed every single one of Emma's increasingly troubled emotions so well, yet she doesn't write in the first person. The reader begins to feel voyeuristic, as though we really shouldn't be there. Emma's rawest of moments are so beautifully detailed, yet somehow, there is also a distance ... Emma often appears cold and quite heartless, but peel away at her many layers and an often frightened, confused and incredibly complex woman appears.
Set during one of my favourite periods; the 1960s, through to the 70s, the author's sense of place is intense. The glamour and glitz of the upper classes; the food, fashion and conversations of the highly privileged and quite self-absorbed characters within the book are refreshing, despite their obvious show of superiority and certainty of their special rights. The reader also meets some of the less fortunate too, as Emma recounts her early years and then meets up with her estranged sister later in the story. The absolute contrast between the high-living Hamptons and the trailer parks of the disadvantaged is so very well described, and adds yet another layer to the story.
Beautifully and compassionately written, Don't Think A Single Thought is an excellent depiction of flawed character and someone hiding within plain sight. Exquiste and a joy to read.
Diana Cambridge is a fine and extremely talented author. This, her debut novel is remarkably assured, and despite the shortness in length, there is a strength to this story that is powerful.
Emma is married to a wealthy and successful surgeon, they live a life of glamour, with a flat in Manhattan and holidays in the Hamptons. However Emma struggles with life; her fragile mental state, including flashbacks to her troubled childhood overpowers everything that she does. She's not a failure herself; having written a much acclaimed novel, yet her self-doubt and insecurity stops her from enjoying any success and casts a shadow upon her marriage.
The reader is only privy to Emma's own thoughts as the story is told totally from her point of view. This could feel flat, but in fact, adds a dimension of tension and suspicion to the narrative. It becomes clear that Emma is far from a reliable narrator, and the reader must judge carefully when listening to her voice.
One of the author's greatest skills is that she's conveyed every single one of Emma's increasingly troubled emotions so well, yet she doesn't write in the first person. The reader begins to feel voyeuristic, as though we really shouldn't be there. Emma's rawest of moments are so beautifully detailed, yet somehow, there is also a distance ... Emma often appears cold and quite heartless, but peel away at her many layers and an often frightened, confused and incredibly complex woman appears.
Set during one of my favourite periods; the 1960s, through to the 70s, the author's sense of place is intense. The glamour and glitz of the upper classes; the food, fashion and conversations of the highly privileged and quite self-absorbed characters within the book are refreshing, despite their obvious show of superiority and certainty of their special rights. The reader also meets some of the less fortunate too, as Emma recounts her early years and then meets up with her estranged sister later in the story. The absolute contrast between the high-living Hamptons and the trailer parks of the disadvantaged is so very well described, and adds yet another layer to the story.
Beautifully and compassionately written, Don't Think A Single Thought is an excellent depiction of flawed character and someone hiding within plain sight. Exquiste and a joy to read.
June 13, 2019
Don’t Think A Single Thought by Diana Cambridge is a captivating book. The main character, Emma has a successful husband, an apartment in the Hamptons and a flat in Manhattan, on the surface a charmed life, but from the first paragraph we know she is a troubled woman. She is a writer with limited success, struggling with self-doubt, and her life has an aimless quality at the outset of the novel. Her wealthy lifestyle contrasts with a troubled childhood in care and the author presents a complex character to the reader. Right from the start, we are asking ourselves about the child, another pupil at her school, that fell over a cliff and died. Her death had a profound effect on Emma and the back story slowly reveals this. Meanwhile, she tells her publisher about her past and the death of the child. Her zealous publisher, spotting a good ‘story’, encourages her to incorporate it as fiction into the novel she is writing, entitled “Manhattan Diary”. This leads to dazzling success as a writer, and she enters the bestseller lists. Her success is short-lived with the second novel receiving dire reviews. One critic describes their response to her novel as “who cares?” and we watch her struggle with her apparently charmed life.
The skilful writing puts us on guard about the main character. Throughout the book, you learn that the main characters grasp on reality is tenuous and you feel you are watching the events of the novel through a hazy filter. There are several mysterious child deaths and throughout you know that Emma’s version of events is unreliable. As the novel progresses different versions of the past are presented to us and it has a beguiling mysterious quality to it that keeps you hooked in right to the end.
The main character is complex and the writing is so skilful you form a bond with the main character, needing to know what happened in her past, what will happen in her present and how will her life end up? The writing reminded me of Anita Brookner’s novels. The writing is crisp and spare, and throughout is a sense of foreboding. The main character stayed in my mind long after finishing the book, and I recommend it to any reader.
The skilful writing puts us on guard about the main character. Throughout the book, you learn that the main characters grasp on reality is tenuous and you feel you are watching the events of the novel through a hazy filter. There are several mysterious child deaths and throughout you know that Emma’s version of events is unreliable. As the novel progresses different versions of the past are presented to us and it has a beguiling mysterious quality to it that keeps you hooked in right to the end.
The main character is complex and the writing is so skilful you form a bond with the main character, needing to know what happened in her past, what will happen in her present and how will her life end up? The writing reminded me of Anita Brookner’s novels. The writing is crisp and spare, and throughout is a sense of foreboding. The main character stayed in my mind long after finishing the book, and I recommend it to any reader.
September 1, 2019
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
There are plenty of adjectives to use for this book - taut, elegant, lean, pressured, compelling, horrifying, sharp, fascinating, vicious - but no combination really seems to do it justice. The prose is pared back but still utterly immersive. The style is sharp, witty and deceptive. And the main character - Emma Bowen - manages to be distant, self absorbed and unattractively fragile, yet still utterly compelling.
The novel opens with Emma and her husband - high flying surgeon, Jonathan - on holiday. The death of a child from a neighbouring family casts a pall on what should be an idyllic retreat, not to mention casting shade on Emma herself. But the reader is already aware that things are far from right with Emma. What follows a is lean, engaging narrative that follows Emma's temporary climb to success and flashes back to her troubled childhood, before coming to the only conclusion that would have paid off all that careful preparation.
There's something of the sociopath about Emma, not a reliable narrator by any measure. She drifts between distractions, alternately enjoying the visible markers of success - the luxury apartment, designer clothes, delicious, gourmet meals, and the leisure time - the sheer amount of time she has to just do what she wants or simply think about herself. People are treated by her as distractions in the same way her fleeting hobbies or interests are. Add a measure of narcissism to the previous distraction. The entire book sees Emma acting the part she believes she's meant to play. She achieves success in many ways, she gains all those markers of importance she believes she's owed, but ultimately she's empty as a person. She has no idea who she really is as person, she accepts no responsibility for herself or her actions. She forms no real connection with people and in fact has difficulty seeing them as being as real and valuable as she is herself. Ultimately she has learned to echo the right responses to get by and when she missteps,she retreats into depression or an overly emotional reaction, once again to draw attention and sympathy to her. All of that should make her thoroughly unlikable - and she is - but her story is completely addictive.
And then, casually dropped into the narrative at various points, are the dead children. Many dead children, who fall or drown or suffer breathing difficulties. One of the underlying themes of the book is what happens to lost or abandoned children? What adults grow out of the neglected and emotionally abused ones? It's uncomfortable and claustrophobic, and perhaps a tiny bit frustrating because Emma's viewpoint seems to be that there is nothing to be done - those children will become ill adjusted adults who are unable to develop empathy (a view given lie to by a sub plot).
The reader's expectations are skilfully played with - is it suspicious that so many dead children occur around Emma? Is it something she notices more or is more sensitive of due to her past? It's a sinister sub plot especially given Emma's lack of guilt over other reprehensible acts...
But as the MC floats through the narrative in tranquilliser fuelled haze, seeking to be the most important person while not valuing others equally, the reader is also invited to question how she could have become a different person. How she keeps making the same decisions over and over again, and just where that leads. Are we all just the sum of our mistakes?
This is an incredibly clever novel about success, failure, emotional distance and mistakes. Highly recommend for anyone who likes a quick, fast paced and engrossing literary read.
There are plenty of adjectives to use for this book - taut, elegant, lean, pressured, compelling, horrifying, sharp, fascinating, vicious - but no combination really seems to do it justice. The prose is pared back but still utterly immersive. The style is sharp, witty and deceptive. And the main character - Emma Bowen - manages to be distant, self absorbed and unattractively fragile, yet still utterly compelling.
The novel opens with Emma and her husband - high flying surgeon, Jonathan - on holiday. The death of a child from a neighbouring family casts a pall on what should be an idyllic retreat, not to mention casting shade on Emma herself. But the reader is already aware that things are far from right with Emma. What follows a is lean, engaging narrative that follows Emma's temporary climb to success and flashes back to her troubled childhood, before coming to the only conclusion that would have paid off all that careful preparation.
There's something of the sociopath about Emma, not a reliable narrator by any measure. She drifts between distractions, alternately enjoying the visible markers of success - the luxury apartment, designer clothes, delicious, gourmet meals, and the leisure time - the sheer amount of time she has to just do what she wants or simply think about herself. People are treated by her as distractions in the same way her fleeting hobbies or interests are. Add a measure of narcissism to the previous distraction. The entire book sees Emma acting the part she believes she's meant to play. She achieves success in many ways, she gains all those markers of importance she believes she's owed, but ultimately she's empty as a person. She has no idea who she really is as person, she accepts no responsibility for herself or her actions. She forms no real connection with people and in fact has difficulty seeing them as being as real and valuable as she is herself. Ultimately she has learned to echo the right responses to get by and when she missteps,she retreats into depression or an overly emotional reaction, once again to draw attention and sympathy to her. All of that should make her thoroughly unlikable - and she is - but her story is completely addictive.
And then, casually dropped into the narrative at various points, are the dead children. Many dead children, who fall or drown or suffer breathing difficulties. One of the underlying themes of the book is what happens to lost or abandoned children? What adults grow out of the neglected and emotionally abused ones? It's uncomfortable and claustrophobic, and perhaps a tiny bit frustrating because Emma's viewpoint seems to be that there is nothing to be done - those children will become ill adjusted adults who are unable to develop empathy (a view given lie to by a sub plot).
The reader's expectations are skilfully played with - is it suspicious that so many dead children occur around Emma? Is it something she notices more or is more sensitive of due to her past? It's a sinister sub plot especially given Emma's lack of guilt over other reprehensible acts...
But as the MC floats through the narrative in tranquilliser fuelled haze, seeking to be the most important person while not valuing others equally, the reader is also invited to question how she could have become a different person. How she keeps making the same decisions over and over again, and just where that leads. Are we all just the sum of our mistakes?
This is an incredibly clever novel about success, failure, emotional distance and mistakes. Highly recommend for anyone who likes a quick, fast paced and engrossing literary read.
July 21, 2019
This is a stylish and original novel in which Emma Bowden’s outwardly glamorous and successful life (epitomised by her obsession with fabulous food and high fashion) is revealed as a fragile illusion. During a summer at the Hamptons she witnesses a drowning which transports her back to a childhood of emotional deprivation and trauma and she comes to see her life as dogged by accidents in which she is never sure if she might have played a part. A successful spike in her writing career is only a temporary salve as it is swiftly followed by failure. Despite warnings from her emotionally distant husband (a career-driven surgeon) she continues to self-medicate until neither she nor the reader can trust the reliability of her own narration except for that one fateful incident she can never escape.
Emma is not an easy character to relate to and the tautness of the writing may not appeal to all, but I admired the absolute consistency of the voice as portrayed by Diana Cambridge and look forward very much to what she – and Louise Walters Books - will come up with next. Well worth reading.
Emma is not an easy character to relate to and the tautness of the writing may not appeal to all, but I admired the absolute consistency of the voice as portrayed by Diana Cambridge and look forward very much to what she – and Louise Walters Books - will come up with next. Well worth reading.
September 22, 2019
Emma Bowden is a troubled character, a Manhattan socialite housewife haunted by a tragedy that happened in her childhood. The author of Don’t Think a Single Thought, Diana Cambridge, has, she tells us in the novel’s acknowledgements, been inspired by the work of the Manhattan author Sue Kaufman and, I’m guessing, her most famous novel, Diary of a Mad Housewife, first published in 1967. The protagonist of that book is married to a man called Jonathan, and Cambridge has taken the bold step of giving her character Emma’s husband the same name, inviting comparisons between the stories of the two women.
Certainly in both books the husband/Jonathan is the breadwinner who sees his wife primarily as a housewife/attender to his needs at home/decorative when required. Anyone who has watched the US TV series MadMen knows just how successful middle-class men in New York behaved towards their wives in the sixties, and how long and hard the road to anything approaching liberation for women. Cambridge opens another window on the effect of that environment on a woman who is already vulnerable because of her early life experiences. Emma Bowden descends inexorably into a depression from which she cannot be rescued by the trappings of worldly success.
Cambridge tells the story in the third person and this contributes to both Emma and Jonathan remaining enigmatic characters, difficult to like. We cannot really know them any more than they truly know one another, but we can feel their pain.
Don’t Think a Single Thought is a well-constructed and carefully-layered story, a sad slice of the history of mid-twentieth century marital relationships. It left me with a shiver and a feeling of relief that we live now, not then.
Certainly in both books the husband/Jonathan is the breadwinner who sees his wife primarily as a housewife/attender to his needs at home/decorative when required. Anyone who has watched the US TV series MadMen knows just how successful middle-class men in New York behaved towards their wives in the sixties, and how long and hard the road to anything approaching liberation for women. Cambridge opens another window on the effect of that environment on a woman who is already vulnerable because of her early life experiences. Emma Bowden descends inexorably into a depression from which she cannot be rescued by the trappings of worldly success.
Cambridge tells the story in the third person and this contributes to both Emma and Jonathan remaining enigmatic characters, difficult to like. We cannot really know them any more than they truly know one another, but we can feel their pain.
Don’t Think a Single Thought is a well-constructed and carefully-layered story, a sad slice of the history of mid-twentieth century marital relationships. It left me with a shiver and a feeling of relief that we live now, not then.
September 22, 2019
A really stylish and magnetic story centred around a truly fascinating character, who seemingly had it all along but also had many demons which impacted the way she lived her life from childhood to adulthood, and no matter how many pills she took or therapists she talked to, it was never enough to set her on the path for a quiet life.
Set in the Hamptons it's a story of Emma who is plagued by ill health which would leave her in bed for days, unable to function normally and despite the best efforts of her husband and a move to the beach, it seemed nothing would ever make her life an easier one.
The story often goes back to Emma and her childhood, where she witnessed a traumatic event and had a poor relationship with her parents and as you watch over this character as time goes on, you get to see the struggles she has with herself, whilst wondering over her reliability as a narrator. There's always that unease about her as you see her struggle through, acting erratically and even when she gets back to writing she is plagued by events that she cannot shake out of her mind.
Her honesty as a writer earns her huge success and many fans but that success doesn't last forever, and the voices in her head start to get louder once more - is tragedy always going to follow her around?
I really enjoyed how involved you became as a reader with this book. The anxiety Emma suffers is brilliantly portrayed and by repeating the past is she just hoping that things will change in the end or is there no other way out for her? A sophisticated and engaging read, which I highly recommend.
Set in the Hamptons it's a story of Emma who is plagued by ill health which would leave her in bed for days, unable to function normally and despite the best efforts of her husband and a move to the beach, it seemed nothing would ever make her life an easier one.
The story often goes back to Emma and her childhood, where she witnessed a traumatic event and had a poor relationship with her parents and as you watch over this character as time goes on, you get to see the struggles she has with herself, whilst wondering over her reliability as a narrator. There's always that unease about her as you see her struggle through, acting erratically and even when she gets back to writing she is plagued by events that she cannot shake out of her mind.
Her honesty as a writer earns her huge success and many fans but that success doesn't last forever, and the voices in her head start to get louder once more - is tragedy always going to follow her around?
I really enjoyed how involved you became as a reader with this book. The anxiety Emma suffers is brilliantly portrayed and by repeating the past is she just hoping that things will change in the end or is there no other way out for her? A sophisticated and engaging read, which I highly recommend.
June 26, 2019
An intense, evocative read, where the main character slips under your skin and haunts you. Emma Bowden, a woman with a rich husband, staff, and an apartment in Manhattan seems to have the perfect life. But she is a woman carrying childhood trauma with her into a troubled and uneasy adulthood, along with other troublesome ghosts from her past that keep reappearing in her life. The book is dominated by her struggle to cope - to cope with the demons from her past, to cope with the decisions she has made, to cope with her actions. And her method of coping sees her life spiralling out of control so that we can never entirely be sure whether we are being told the truth or a perversion or misremembered version of it.
At the heart of Emma's struggle is the tension between who she is and who others, including her ambitious surgeon husband and her adoptive parents wish her to be - the perfect wife, the perfect child, and her inability to meet the expectations of others, as well as the way in which her self-confidence is shredded as her career implodes is one of the more well-crafted aspects of this book.
A rich, tightly weaved narrative web is deployed with art and skill, and even when Emma reminds herself that she should not think, because thinking paralyses her, Emma's fractured and broken childhood ensures that there are plenty of cracks for those thoughts to slip through. It is Emma, in her darkness, in her unreliability, in her descent into depression that makes this book disturbing and unforgettable.
At the heart of Emma's struggle is the tension between who she is and who others, including her ambitious surgeon husband and her adoptive parents wish her to be - the perfect wife, the perfect child, and her inability to meet the expectations of others, as well as the way in which her self-confidence is shredded as her career implodes is one of the more well-crafted aspects of this book.
A rich, tightly weaved narrative web is deployed with art and skill, and even when Emma reminds herself that she should not think, because thinking paralyses her, Emma's fractured and broken childhood ensures that there are plenty of cracks for those thoughts to slip through. It is Emma, in her darkness, in her unreliability, in her descent into depression that makes this book disturbing and unforgettable.
September 3, 2019
I glanced back through this book before writing my review, having entirely convinced myself that it was written in the first person – and was then surprised to see that it wasn’t, but that’s the impression it creates. It’s extraordinarily intimate, desperately painful, and has an intensity of emotion I’ve rarely encountered – but at the same time, there’s a haziness and imprecision about its characters and events, as if seen through a veil. I have a passion for unreliable narrators, but this was unlike anything I’ve read before – time becomes fluid, years pass unnoticed, events are reinterpreted and become distorted.
Emma lives a life of immense privilege, with a surfeit of material possessions, but an absence of love: she has a creative talent, but constantly balances on the edge as depression takes a grip, her reactions numbed by the drugs she depends on. Her life started rather differently – a deprived childhood, an “accident” that had a profound impact on her life, a foster family she couldn’t wait to leave behind. Death rather stalks her – that early event becomes clear, the others remain less precise when seen through her distorted lens.
Emma doesn’t just draw your eye – she mesmerises you. She’s difficult to engage with, to grasp firmly – but she has you with her from the first page to the last, unable to look away. There’s a cast of supporting characters, all strongly drawn – her husband, her agent, her friendships and relationships, her siblings, the domestic staff – and outside Emma’s increasingly isolated existence with its echoes from the past, life goes on. Every encounter is seen through her eyes and from her perspective. Material facts are hinted at, left with a question mark attached – others are clear, but then disappear behind Emma’s smoke and mirrors.
The sense of time and place is exceptional – 1960s and 1970s Manhattan and the Hamptons, the parties, the fashions, the food, the fashions. The writing is exquisite and compelling – taut and spare, never a word wasted. And the book is short – but it’s as long as it needs to be. I thought it was simply wonderful – one of my books of the year.
Emma lives a life of immense privilege, with a surfeit of material possessions, but an absence of love: she has a creative talent, but constantly balances on the edge as depression takes a grip, her reactions numbed by the drugs she depends on. Her life started rather differently – a deprived childhood, an “accident” that had a profound impact on her life, a foster family she couldn’t wait to leave behind. Death rather stalks her – that early event becomes clear, the others remain less precise when seen through her distorted lens.
Emma doesn’t just draw your eye – she mesmerises you. She’s difficult to engage with, to grasp firmly – but she has you with her from the first page to the last, unable to look away. There’s a cast of supporting characters, all strongly drawn – her husband, her agent, her friendships and relationships, her siblings, the domestic staff – and outside Emma’s increasingly isolated existence with its echoes from the past, life goes on. Every encounter is seen through her eyes and from her perspective. Material facts are hinted at, left with a question mark attached – others are clear, but then disappear behind Emma’s smoke and mirrors.
The sense of time and place is exceptional – 1960s and 1970s Manhattan and the Hamptons, the parties, the fashions, the food, the fashions. The writing is exquisite and compelling – taut and spare, never a word wasted. And the book is short – but it’s as long as it needs to be. I thought it was simply wonderful – one of my books of the year.
June 28, 2019
Elegantly written, an engaging and beguiling novel centred around Emma, the most unreliable of narrators, a woman struggling with life and the effects of a complicated childhood, full of mystery and unanswered questions. Throughout the novel I felt a little distanced from Emma, yet at the same time I was totally hooked and keen to unravel her troubled past and discover the truth.
December 6, 2019
It started well and I was intrigued, but I found it difficult to sympathise with Emma. Ironic, considering I write books with unlikeable people all the time! Perhaps because the writing style felt removed from her, too passive and observational for me to feel invested in her. Some lovely moments of observation though. The writer knows how to take a snapshot of a moment in words.
July 29, 2019
This is a truly incredible novel. It is like nothing else I have read this year. In fact it is like nothing else I have read in a very long time.
It has a quality to that seems to transcend it's setting. It feels very much grounded within it's timeframe, chiefly 1960's / 70's USA, and yet it's message and impetus are so up to date and relevant.
The book is centred on Emma a women who seems 'perfectly packaged'. Intelligent and a skilled writer, she is stylist, beautiful, and married to a brilliant doctor. Money is clearly not an issue; maids and Picasso's are standard in Emma's life.
And yet Emma's life is a struggle, a continual struggle to deal with events of her past and their longtime impact on her mental health. Her life is a roller coaster where significant, and sometimes seemly insignificant events cause her to spiral back into deep depression.
We see Emma living without truly occupying herself. She is intelligent woman, successful in her own right but depression robs her of her ability, time and again, to take control of her own life. There is a continual trend of deferring to her husband Jonathan, asking him wittingly and unwittingly to take control when things get too much.
Unable to understand Emma's fragile mental health, Jonathan dresses up her world in money and treats. New clothes, a nice hotel, good food; all designed to smooth the road and maintain, at least superficially, the calm equilibrium of their privileged life.
A sterile world of maids, therapists, bought in meals, new clothes and expensive kitchen gadgets is created to cocoon, protect and maintain.
Until the problem is too big.
Until Chanel and a nice holiday stop working
Emma's past is complex. Without giving spoilers her whole early life, and indeed beyond, is filled with loss and misplaced guilt. A young life filled with trauma is slowly revealed, Cambridge expertly shifts our sympathies and makes us question.
For the sands of this story are continually shifting. For someone in the depths of a depression isn't always the most reliable of narrators, and it is up to us, the reader, to piece together Emma's fragmented story. A process almost akin to that of a therapist.
And yet what treatment would we prescribe ? Where exactly does the trouble lie?
Within this story there is a continual avoidance of emotion and not just on the part of Emma. Difficult emotions are continually bubbling under, never confronted; all wrapped in a frosting avoidance.Emma is our key focus but other friends and acquaintances reflect the pattern.
Diana Cambridge presents with stark and devastating accuracy a pervading lack of understanding. And most shockingly a continual and woefully inadequate level of treatment.
Emma is repeatedly given means of escape, ways of blunting the edges, but never true support. Every time something happens that brings Emma to the edge of confronting emotion or past experiences, someone offers her a shield. Be it a holiday, a dress, a blank cheque, a pill.
This novel raises questions about the wider societal experience of and reaction to mental health. It reflects the knee jerk reaction to create immediate calm, offer temporary balm and paper over cracks. It reflects with pinpoint accuracy and terrible consequences a wider inability to truly listen, to understand and to encourage confrontation.
The style of the prose reflects the protagonist; alternating between calm and chaos but with an veneer of sophistication and chic. The style is sparse, understated but also devastating.
There is an unnerving, but powerful feeling of the protagonist moving away from you and coming back into sharp focus as her life and mental health ebbs and flows.
This is a novel that is painfully relevant, to yesterday, to today and beyond.
It is a warning, dressed up in couture and sleeping pills. And one we all need to hear.
November 5, 2019
I loved the look of this book from the outset, the cover is incredibly striking, but crikey – that blurb is right up my book alley! What I loved even more was, when I read it, it went way beyond my initial expectations in terms of both plot and genre.
Emma Bowden is a wonderfully enigmatic protagonist, and I would go as far to say that in terms of complexity, she is now one of my all time favourites. The novella is told in the third person, but yet you feel it is Emma, as a writer telling you her story as she wishes it to be told. The unreliable narration is evident throughout, but rather than being annoying, it somehow adds to the charm. Emma is painted as a very vulnerable woman, but as the reader you are left to guess just how much of that is true, and how much is an adopted persona for the readers sake. This novella’s true strength lies with the words not said, and this technique is incredibly powerful.
Structurally, it flies about in time, back and forth, an exciting and tumultuous ride which you stick with, because Emma as a character, draws you in and refuses to let go. Her story is full of holes and intrigue and what she says never quite rings true; it’s the type of book that I love to finish, and then re-open on page one, because I am sure that there is so much that has been cleverly woven into the narrative that I missed the first time around.
There is so much going on with this novella and it ticks so many boxes. A main character who garners suspicion and sympathy in equal parts and who you never quite feel you get to the crux of, all alongside an expansive and intriguing story with a range of curious characters. Most important are the falsehoods and hints of stories untold. With most books you are told what happens. With this one, you are kind of thrown a bone of what potentially happened and your imagination gets to play with it. It all feels so glamorous and yet so murky all at once. Even the pretty pink cover, with the magazine style ‘cut outs’ covering up something faded in the background supports the idea of Emma’s words simply being a façade.
This is one exciting release, and one which I will be keeping a tight hold of!
Emma Bowden is a wonderfully enigmatic protagonist, and I would go as far to say that in terms of complexity, she is now one of my all time favourites. The novella is told in the third person, but yet you feel it is Emma, as a writer telling you her story as she wishes it to be told. The unreliable narration is evident throughout, but rather than being annoying, it somehow adds to the charm. Emma is painted as a very vulnerable woman, but as the reader you are left to guess just how much of that is true, and how much is an adopted persona for the readers sake. This novella’s true strength lies with the words not said, and this technique is incredibly powerful.
Structurally, it flies about in time, back and forth, an exciting and tumultuous ride which you stick with, because Emma as a character, draws you in and refuses to let go. Her story is full of holes and intrigue and what she says never quite rings true; it’s the type of book that I love to finish, and then re-open on page one, because I am sure that there is so much that has been cleverly woven into the narrative that I missed the first time around.
There is so much going on with this novella and it ticks so many boxes. A main character who garners suspicion and sympathy in equal parts and who you never quite feel you get to the crux of, all alongside an expansive and intriguing story with a range of curious characters. Most important are the falsehoods and hints of stories untold. With most books you are told what happens. With this one, you are kind of thrown a bone of what potentially happened and your imagination gets to play with it. It all feels so glamorous and yet so murky all at once. Even the pretty pink cover, with the magazine style ‘cut outs’ covering up something faded in the background supports the idea of Emma’s words simply being a façade.
This is one exciting release, and one which I will be keeping a tight hold of!
November 7, 2019
I read an early version of this book and received a free copy of the audiobook, however all opinions are mine and mine alone.
Don't Think a Single Thought is an extraordinary portrayal of depression and what living with it is like. In the opening pages, I thought the narrator, Emma, might be suffering from ME, and I still wonder whether there was an element of physical illness interlinked with her struggles with mental health. Emma is an unreliable narrator at her best. She makes no effort to deliberately deceive the reader in her portrayal of the events, but rather she herself is not always certain how events in her past, immediate or distant, unfolded. It leaves the reader not sure what to trust and what actually happens, which means that the story resonates long after it has come to an end. The ending was not altogether surprising, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way.
I particularly liked the descriptions of food in the story. At first, they seemed like simply another way to setting the scene - 1960s Manhattan for the most part - but the more we learn about Emma's childhood, the more the interest in food and the tangible awareness of what she's eating makes sense. It's a sure sign that the author truly understands the psychology of her main character and uses many layers and narrative techniques to paint a vivid picture of a gifted, yet troubled woman.
Cambridge brings with New York of the past to life in vivid colours and it serves as a fabulous backdrop for a story that shows mental health can affect us all and that privilege is not a guarantee of happiness.
Don't Think a Single Thought is an extraordinary portrayal of depression and what living with it is like. In the opening pages, I thought the narrator, Emma, might be suffering from ME, and I still wonder whether there was an element of physical illness interlinked with her struggles with mental health. Emma is an unreliable narrator at her best. She makes no effort to deliberately deceive the reader in her portrayal of the events, but rather she herself is not always certain how events in her past, immediate or distant, unfolded. It leaves the reader not sure what to trust and what actually happens, which means that the story resonates long after it has come to an end. The ending was not altogether surprising, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way.
I particularly liked the descriptions of food in the story. At first, they seemed like simply another way to setting the scene - 1960s Manhattan for the most part - but the more we learn about Emma's childhood, the more the interest in food and the tangible awareness of what she's eating makes sense. It's a sure sign that the author truly understands the psychology of her main character and uses many layers and narrative techniques to paint a vivid picture of a gifted, yet troubled woman.
Cambridge brings with New York of the past to life in vivid colours and it serves as a fabulous backdrop for a story that shows mental health can affect us all and that privilege is not a guarantee of happiness.
September 24, 2019
I hardly know where to start with this novella. It's only 175 pages but it packs a mighty punch. I read a few pages before bed one evening and when I woke during the night, and again the next morning, I found this story was on my mind, such was the impact of it right from the off.
Emma Bowden is a Manhattan woman, chic, well-groomed. She keeps up appearances as a perfect surgeon's wife to Jonathan. Yet scratch the surface and there is much more beneath. On a break in the Hamptons she has a slight altercation with the three children of a family who are playing on a beach. When one of those children later drowns in the sea, the parents wonder if Emma had any part in the incident. This is not as crazy as it sounds as we slowly discover that Emma has a past that makes her rather unstable. However, this is only the beginning and the drowning of the boy only serves as a catalyst to send Emma spiralling ever deeper into an internal despair.
Don't Think A Single Thought is a most fascinating read, looking at the human psyche, anxiety and the effects of a person's upbringing on their entire life. It's mostly set in the 1960s and 70s but we are given insights into Emma's past and it's quite clear that it's been a rocky road to the poised lady she has become.
Emma is a very unreliable narrator. Not only does she change the story to suit herself, which we can see happening, but she honestly has difficulty recalling whether certain events really happened or not and the lines between reality and fiction are blurred, ironic for a writer, which is what Emma is. It's a very worrying situation to read about and frankly it was also completely compelling. I actually started to wonder if events had really happened or not!
She's intrinsically flawed but admits it and she is surprisingly honest about her own failings and her opinions, such as her feelings about an overweight woman. She's not always the easiest woman to like but I found I sympathised, and indeed empathised, with her.
Diana Cambridge has applied some masterful plotting in this book and I thought it was so clever how things began to dawn on me without having them spelled out. She's written such an interesting character in Emma, one which I found myself drawn back to time and again. I thought this was an extremely accomplished debut and I'm excited to see what she does next.
Emma Bowden is a Manhattan woman, chic, well-groomed. She keeps up appearances as a perfect surgeon's wife to Jonathan. Yet scratch the surface and there is much more beneath. On a break in the Hamptons she has a slight altercation with the three children of a family who are playing on a beach. When one of those children later drowns in the sea, the parents wonder if Emma had any part in the incident. This is not as crazy as it sounds as we slowly discover that Emma has a past that makes her rather unstable. However, this is only the beginning and the drowning of the boy only serves as a catalyst to send Emma spiralling ever deeper into an internal despair.
Don't Think A Single Thought is a most fascinating read, looking at the human psyche, anxiety and the effects of a person's upbringing on their entire life. It's mostly set in the 1960s and 70s but we are given insights into Emma's past and it's quite clear that it's been a rocky road to the poised lady she has become.
Emma is a very unreliable narrator. Not only does she change the story to suit herself, which we can see happening, but she honestly has difficulty recalling whether certain events really happened or not and the lines between reality and fiction are blurred, ironic for a writer, which is what Emma is. It's a very worrying situation to read about and frankly it was also completely compelling. I actually started to wonder if events had really happened or not!
She's intrinsically flawed but admits it and she is surprisingly honest about her own failings and her opinions, such as her feelings about an overweight woman. She's not always the easiest woman to like but I found I sympathised, and indeed empathised, with her.
Diana Cambridge has applied some masterful plotting in this book and I thought it was so clever how things began to dawn on me without having them spelled out. She's written such an interesting character in Emma, one which I found myself drawn back to time and again. I thought this was an extremely accomplished debut and I'm excited to see what she does next.
August 23, 2019
Thank you to Louise Walters Books for kindly providing an ARC of this title and to Diana Cambridge for writing it. All opinions are my own.
A beautifully written novella, telling the story of one glamorous woman's battle with secrets in her past, and the effect it has on her life. Emma Bowden, a successful writer, married to a rich and successful, loving husband, struggles to come to terms with life events. The ability to over analyse everything and plant the seeds of doubt in our own minds is a curse many of us suffer, but for Emma, the mental strain of this burrows much deeper. Dogged by depression and existing on self -medication, can we really trust her version of events? Outwardly, she has it all; but looks can be deceiving. The demons she carries with her taunt her with self-doubt, as she desperately tries to hold it all together.
I enjoyed Diana’s writing style of less is more. Not a single sentence too many, but sufficient to describe, in detail, the pain and mental exhaustion of merely existing for her main character. A big story in a small book. Bravo!
A beautifully written novella, telling the story of one glamorous woman's battle with secrets in her past, and the effect it has on her life. Emma Bowden, a successful writer, married to a rich and successful, loving husband, struggles to come to terms with life events. The ability to over analyse everything and plant the seeds of doubt in our own minds is a curse many of us suffer, but for Emma, the mental strain of this burrows much deeper. Dogged by depression and existing on self -medication, can we really trust her version of events? Outwardly, she has it all; but looks can be deceiving. The demons she carries with her taunt her with self-doubt, as she desperately tries to hold it all together.
I enjoyed Diana’s writing style of less is more. Not a single sentence too many, but sufficient to describe, in detail, the pain and mental exhaustion of merely existing for her main character. A big story in a small book. Bravo!
December 3, 2021
This was an intriguing read with a most apt title. Don't Think a Single Thought makes the reader think deeply. The main character's problems are deep-seated and intense. A seemingly perfect life is not what it appears. Money and trappings do not solve emotional issues, childhood trauma, or insecurities. A disturbing thread follows Emma Bowden as she negotiates her way through her inner turmoil and those around her struggle to deal with the fallout. A well-crafted story that challenges the reader.
June 24, 2019
This slim, elegant novel is a delight. I loved the way Diana Cambridge is able to show her protagonist, Emma, as living in a bubble while life streams on around her. And, of course, the dolls that Jacqueline Suzann writes about are relevant here. I was also reminded of Alice Munroe’s short story Child’s Play, which rather like Don’t Think A Single Thought, documents the effects of childhood events carried into adult life. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, written in a spare and fluid style, and recommend it to all.
October 19, 2019
Absolutely delectable book. A breath of fresh air in a market driven (it feels sometimes) by formula.
In its opening chapters I immediately felt hints of Harriet Lane, Capote and F Scott Fitzgerald, although the writer has her own unique style, and these comparisons are a compliment.
Stunning debut.
In its opening chapters I immediately felt hints of Harriet Lane, Capote and F Scott Fitzgerald, although the writer has her own unique style, and these comparisons are a compliment.
Stunning debut.
November 22, 2019
1960s New York: Emma Bowden lives the glamorous Manhattan lifestyle - swish apartment, with fabulous views; a loving, surgeon husband; and a successful writing career. Surely she has everything? What more could she want?
But Emma's background and upbringing have left their mark, and one summer, while Emma and her husband are on vacation in the Hamptons, a young child drowns in the sea and Emma may have been involved in some way. If only she could remember what really happened...
Old wounds are reopened, and Emma, who has been barely holding on to the facade of a normal life, starts to spiral out of control, as the voice in her head cannot be ignored.
Don't Think A Single Thought is, quite simply, outstanding and one of the best books I have read all year. There are only a handful of books I would describe using the word I am about to use and that word is classy! Yes, Diana Cambridge, your book is definitely classy!
This is so beautifully written, and I knew straightaway I was going to love it. The words flow off the page and it would be very easy to soak up its deliciousness in one glorious sitting - especially, since it runs to under 200 hundred pages - but I did not allow myself to do this. In fact, I managed to eke this book out over a week, taking flavoursome little bites each time I picked it up in order to prolong the reading pleasure. There is so much to enjoy and speculate on in these pages!
Emma Bowden is the most unreliable of unreliable narrators you will ever encounter. Her chaotic past, with a mother who could not cope, has left an indelible mark that cannot be washed away, no matter how much champagne she douses herself in.
Her adoption, at a young age, has done nothing to dispel her inner feelings of disquiet, indeed her adoptive parents' manner of upbringing has only increased Emma's belief that she is ultimately undeserving.
It is no wonder Emma does not know how to live a normal life. What even is normal? Her bouts of depression are hardly a surprise.
It is easy to think of Emma as a boozed up, pill-popping, bored Manhattan socialite, playing at being a writer, while being unable to appreciate the good fortune she has, but she has learned that it is necessary to play at life. It is easier to play a role than to delve into her own dark reality and her husband is complicit in this. He likes the image Emma can project of the ideal wife - the beautiful, chic, enchanting, writer wife than can aid him in his ambitions. I could not like his selfishness, arrogance and inability to understand his wife's real fragility - if only she would follow her therapist's advice, all would be well.....don't think a single thought....just go with the flow...it is all so easy.
Except, it is not easy. It takes a lot of effort for Emma to play the part required and it becomes increasingly difficult for her to keep the facade in place. Emma is deeply unwell and although she seems to recover from her bouts of depression, each new set back threatens to destroy her.
There is an intriguing question that runs through this novel, that cannot be ignored. Emma is such an unreliable narrator that we are never sure whether or not she is guilty of being directly involved in any of the tragic events that set her off in a downward spiral. There is always a whiff of suspicion about her actions and it is impossible to know the truth from her account, as she can never remember what actually happened. I could not rid myself of the feeling that there was more to each unfortunate death than there appeared to be on the surface, and her own past did nothing to dispel this impression. There was always a shade of American Psycho tied up with her Bell Jar thinking that fascinated me, but maybe I am reading too much into this. I leave you to draw your own conclusions!
Update 22nd November 2019: I have just been luck enough to finish listening to the audio book version of this wonderful book and it is glorious!
The audio version complements the printed word wonderfully. The narration of Samara Naeymi is so completely convincing that she brings Emma Bowden alive and perfectly matches the Emma in my head. She brings out Emma's frustration and almost sensual relationship with clothes, food and beauty in such a way that you can almost feel, taste and lose yourself in them as much as Emma does in her early years - while at the same time, being able to express Emma's decline and loss of interest in all the things she used to enjoy about life too. Outstanding work!
This has made me fall in love with Diana's book all over again, and appreciate the clever way she tells Emma's tragic story in the pages of the book. I cannot praise this book enough.
I highly recommend the audio book, even if you have already read the printed version - if you have not read it, then get to it as soon as you can, because this is going to become a modern classic. Literary fiction at its very best.
But Emma's background and upbringing have left their mark, and one summer, while Emma and her husband are on vacation in the Hamptons, a young child drowns in the sea and Emma may have been involved in some way. If only she could remember what really happened...
Old wounds are reopened, and Emma, who has been barely holding on to the facade of a normal life, starts to spiral out of control, as the voice in her head cannot be ignored.
Don't Think A Single Thought is, quite simply, outstanding and one of the best books I have read all year. There are only a handful of books I would describe using the word I am about to use and that word is classy! Yes, Diana Cambridge, your book is definitely classy!
This is so beautifully written, and I knew straightaway I was going to love it. The words flow off the page and it would be very easy to soak up its deliciousness in one glorious sitting - especially, since it runs to under 200 hundred pages - but I did not allow myself to do this. In fact, I managed to eke this book out over a week, taking flavoursome little bites each time I picked it up in order to prolong the reading pleasure. There is so much to enjoy and speculate on in these pages!
Emma Bowden is the most unreliable of unreliable narrators you will ever encounter. Her chaotic past, with a mother who could not cope, has left an indelible mark that cannot be washed away, no matter how much champagne she douses herself in.
Her adoption, at a young age, has done nothing to dispel her inner feelings of disquiet, indeed her adoptive parents' manner of upbringing has only increased Emma's belief that she is ultimately undeserving.
It is no wonder Emma does not know how to live a normal life. What even is normal? Her bouts of depression are hardly a surprise.
It is easy to think of Emma as a boozed up, pill-popping, bored Manhattan socialite, playing at being a writer, while being unable to appreciate the good fortune she has, but she has learned that it is necessary to play at life. It is easier to play a role than to delve into her own dark reality and her husband is complicit in this. He likes the image Emma can project of the ideal wife - the beautiful, chic, enchanting, writer wife than can aid him in his ambitions. I could not like his selfishness, arrogance and inability to understand his wife's real fragility - if only she would follow her therapist's advice, all would be well.....don't think a single thought....just go with the flow...it is all so easy.
Except, it is not easy. It takes a lot of effort for Emma to play the part required and it becomes increasingly difficult for her to keep the facade in place. Emma is deeply unwell and although she seems to recover from her bouts of depression, each new set back threatens to destroy her.
There is an intriguing question that runs through this novel, that cannot be ignored. Emma is such an unreliable narrator that we are never sure whether or not she is guilty of being directly involved in any of the tragic events that set her off in a downward spiral. There is always a whiff of suspicion about her actions and it is impossible to know the truth from her account, as she can never remember what actually happened. I could not rid myself of the feeling that there was more to each unfortunate death than there appeared to be on the surface, and her own past did nothing to dispel this impression. There was always a shade of American Psycho tied up with her Bell Jar thinking that fascinated me, but maybe I am reading too much into this. I leave you to draw your own conclusions!
Update 22nd November 2019: I have just been luck enough to finish listening to the audio book version of this wonderful book and it is glorious!
The audio version complements the printed word wonderfully. The narration of Samara Naeymi is so completely convincing that she brings Emma Bowden alive and perfectly matches the Emma in my head. She brings out Emma's frustration and almost sensual relationship with clothes, food and beauty in such a way that you can almost feel, taste and lose yourself in them as much as Emma does in her early years - while at the same time, being able to express Emma's decline and loss of interest in all the things she used to enjoy about life too. Outstanding work!
This has made me fall in love with Diana's book all over again, and appreciate the clever way she tells Emma's tragic story in the pages of the book. I cannot praise this book enough.
I highly recommend the audio book, even if you have already read the printed version - if you have not read it, then get to it as soon as you can, because this is going to become a modern classic. Literary fiction at its very best.
February 16, 2022
'Don't Think a Single Thought' by Diana Cambridge (Louise Walters Books, 2019) is a fascinating and captivating look at a woman's life as it spirals further and further out of control.
November 21, 2023
This book is so well written, I loved reading it. And I love short novels! Not a single superfluous word.
I had never heard of the writer Sue Kaufman, whose life this story is based on and there isn't much biographical information available - possibly because of the way she died - so I'm unsure how much is the product of the author's imagination, but it's a very beguiling read. It paints a very clear picture of 1960s New York.
I'm now keen to read Kaufman's best known work, Diary of a Mad Housewife.
I had never heard of the writer Sue Kaufman, whose life this story is based on and there isn't much biographical information available - possibly because of the way she died - so I'm unsure how much is the product of the author's imagination, but it's a very beguiling read. It paints a very clear picture of 1960s New York.
I'm now keen to read Kaufman's best known work, Diary of a Mad Housewife.
November 27, 2019
Sorry but I was not keen
June 26, 2019
If I could, I would give this novel six stars. It’s a spare, elegant, thoughtful story – no padding, no waffle – that follows the life of Emma Bowden from neglected child into an apparently privileged adult.
Throughout the story runs the thread of her troubled past, and the deaths of several children that haunt the pages. Emma enjoys some success as a writer, but it always comes at a cost, while her husband’s career as a doctor flourishes. Self-doubt, pills and depression dog Emma’s footsteps.
The writing has a dreamy quality, yet is also scalpel-sharp. Another reviewer makes a comparison between this novel and Anita Brookner’s writing, but the writer brought to my mind was Jean Rhys, who shared Diana Cambridge’s ability to get under the skin of a character while leaving many questions unanswered.
I first read this story in draft form, and I have to say it is a book that pays re-reading. In spite of its brevity and being a quick read, there are many layers of meaning and suggestion. It is that finest of things, a very “literary” novel that involves the reader and keeps them reading intently until the final page.
Throughout the story runs the thread of her troubled past, and the deaths of several children that haunt the pages. Emma enjoys some success as a writer, but it always comes at a cost, while her husband’s career as a doctor flourishes. Self-doubt, pills and depression dog Emma’s footsteps.
The writing has a dreamy quality, yet is also scalpel-sharp. Another reviewer makes a comparison between this novel and Anita Brookner’s writing, but the writer brought to my mind was Jean Rhys, who shared Diana Cambridge’s ability to get under the skin of a character while leaving many questions unanswered.
I first read this story in draft form, and I have to say it is a book that pays re-reading. In spite of its brevity and being a quick read, there are many layers of meaning and suggestion. It is that finest of things, a very “literary” novel that involves the reader and keeps them reading intently until the final page.
December 26, 2019
I do love a story about unreliable characters, the ones that make you doubt whether they are mentally healthy or not, whether if YOU are healthy or not... Emma is that weird-yet-magnetic protagonist in this story.
She has everything. A husband, money, a successfull career, but she also has a burden that's been following her throughout her life - tragedy. She seems to be cursed by it. Everytime she's getting her things together, something happens and triggers her mind back to the bottom of the well, back to her secrets, back to the darkness.
"The guilt and pain never went away. Sometimes she forgot it for a while. Especially when she was in love. But that didn't last, either."
I liked the way the author showed us so elegantly the two sides of the glamorous life of the elite society. Not everything shines once you get inside their houses with the Victorian furniture, the expensive jewelry, the beautiful sights.
The chapters are short and the writing style is so light, you can't stop reading it. Like I said, Emma is one of those characters you can never guess what is she going to do next.
I would have liked to get more in-depth details about her life as a teenager and the process she went through once she started to be part of this eccentric side of the society.
An enjoyable, fast paced, engaging read to enjoy if you're interested.
She has everything. A husband, money, a successfull career, but she also has a burden that's been following her throughout her life - tragedy. She seems to be cursed by it. Everytime she's getting her things together, something happens and triggers her mind back to the bottom of the well, back to her secrets, back to the darkness.
"The guilt and pain never went away. Sometimes she forgot it for a while. Especially when she was in love. But that didn't last, either."
I liked the way the author showed us so elegantly the two sides of the glamorous life of the elite society. Not everything shines once you get inside their houses with the Victorian furniture, the expensive jewelry, the beautiful sights.
The chapters are short and the writing style is so light, you can't stop reading it. Like I said, Emma is one of those characters you can never guess what is she going to do next.
I would have liked to get more in-depth details about her life as a teenager and the process she went through once she started to be part of this eccentric side of the society.
An enjoyable, fast paced, engaging read to enjoy if you're interested.
March 16, 2020
Emma Bowden epitomises glamour and a perfect life, but appearances can be deceiving.
More of a novella than full length novel, Don’t Think A Single Thought packs a powerful punch as Diana Cambridge shows the reader into Emma’s mind with unnerving precision. Emma is a woman who appears to have everything and yet is haunted by her past, by the voices in her dreams and her present fears, so that I found her equally distasteful, hypnotic and disturbing. Indeed, Emma could be said to represent something rotten in the heart of modern society.
Emma is so very obviously shaped by her past, and the drip feeding of information about her is quite creepy and shocking. Her refusal to think about previous events illustrates perfectly how we redefine ourselves, create false memories and delineate our identities. The psychology behind Emma’s character is very unsettling and made Don’t Think A Single Thought feel quite Hitchcock thriller like in many ways, especially as some of the events are seen through the prism of Emma’s depression so that we are unsure how guilty or innocent she is.
However, Emma is also created partly by the patriarchal society in which she lives. I found her therapist’s and her husband Jonathan’s behaviour towards her quite insidious but pitch perfect in describing the wealthy American life of the 1960s and the role women had – or rather, were given. Diana Cambridge generated swirling feelings in me as I read. I didn’t like Emma and Jonathan, but as their relationship was explored and uncovered I was compelled to observe them until I felt as complicit in their behaviours as they are. From finding Emma superficial initially, I realised how brilliantly I was being manipulated by Diana Cambridge’s writing, making me respond to Emma much as Johathan does, until I was shocked and saddened by Emma’s life and rather contemptuous of my own early reactions. Diana Cambridge controlled my responses through intelligent prose that is sparse, sharp and sinister.
Don’t Think A Single Thought explores self-deception, guilt and truth hugely effectively. The balance of power in marriage, the nature of love, family and parenthood and the fickle world of society make this book utterly fascinating. Emma’s mental health seemed to me to be a universal theme that might apply to any one of us in any situation, making for a salutary and affecting reading experience.
Don’t Think A Single Thought is an intelligent and captivating insight into modern life, mental health and marriage. I found it absorbing, fascinating and very unsettling. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
More of a novella than full length novel, Don’t Think A Single Thought packs a powerful punch as Diana Cambridge shows the reader into Emma’s mind with unnerving precision. Emma is a woman who appears to have everything and yet is haunted by her past, by the voices in her dreams and her present fears, so that I found her equally distasteful, hypnotic and disturbing. Indeed, Emma could be said to represent something rotten in the heart of modern society.
Emma is so very obviously shaped by her past, and the drip feeding of information about her is quite creepy and shocking. Her refusal to think about previous events illustrates perfectly how we redefine ourselves, create false memories and delineate our identities. The psychology behind Emma’s character is very unsettling and made Don’t Think A Single Thought feel quite Hitchcock thriller like in many ways, especially as some of the events are seen through the prism of Emma’s depression so that we are unsure how guilty or innocent she is.
However, Emma is also created partly by the patriarchal society in which she lives. I found her therapist’s and her husband Jonathan’s behaviour towards her quite insidious but pitch perfect in describing the wealthy American life of the 1960s and the role women had – or rather, were given. Diana Cambridge generated swirling feelings in me as I read. I didn’t like Emma and Jonathan, but as their relationship was explored and uncovered I was compelled to observe them until I felt as complicit in their behaviours as they are. From finding Emma superficial initially, I realised how brilliantly I was being manipulated by Diana Cambridge’s writing, making me respond to Emma much as Johathan does, until I was shocked and saddened by Emma’s life and rather contemptuous of my own early reactions. Diana Cambridge controlled my responses through intelligent prose that is sparse, sharp and sinister.
Don’t Think A Single Thought explores self-deception, guilt and truth hugely effectively. The balance of power in marriage, the nature of love, family and parenthood and the fickle world of society make this book utterly fascinating. Emma’s mental health seemed to me to be a universal theme that might apply to any one of us in any situation, making for a salutary and affecting reading experience.
Don’t Think A Single Thought is an intelligent and captivating insight into modern life, mental health and marriage. I found it absorbing, fascinating and very unsettling. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
May 2, 2020
This is a beautifully constructed book. As I read it, I felt I was being slowly wrapped in a python's coils, being pulled relentlessly into the centre of Emma Bowden's life. Each time I felt I'd learnt something about her, a tighter coil created another layer. The structure (which uses flashback chapters, a construct that I often find annoying) works better here than I've ever seen, with each flashback actually carrying the narrative forward. The way we slowly learn another piece, another piece, another piece of the childhood act that haunts Emma for the rest of her life is really well handled. It's hard to know at the end whether the first version or the last version is what actually happened--Emma is an unreliable narrator.
The writing is also beautiful; other reviewers have commented on the elegance of the spare, cool prose. To me, it's classic short story prose and the book IS short, barely more than a novella. Still, a slim volume can be a relief: something you can read in a couple of hours rather than ploughing through 900 pages of often bloated novels over more days than you really want to spend with the characters. (That said, I did occasionally miss a richer drawing of the settings. I know Manhattan well, so I filled it in, but I found that sometimes what I was imagining as I read was secondhand, pulled from films, perhaps.) Perhaps because of the coolness, the slightly removed tone, I found myself fascinated by Emma rather than emotionally engaged with her, though I loved the style (and stylishness) of the writing.
As the author notes, Emma's life has close parallels with the life of the writer Sue Kaufman. The details of the latter's life I read after I'd finished the novel (I found a detailed article by Diana Cambridge herself). Dates, main events, and aspects of character tally with Emma's. In a way it's a re-imagining of Kaufman's life, and a rather dark re-imagining at that. I found it an absolutely compelling read.
The writing is also beautiful; other reviewers have commented on the elegance of the spare, cool prose. To me, it's classic short story prose and the book IS short, barely more than a novella. Still, a slim volume can be a relief: something you can read in a couple of hours rather than ploughing through 900 pages of often bloated novels over more days than you really want to spend with the characters. (That said, I did occasionally miss a richer drawing of the settings. I know Manhattan well, so I filled it in, but I found that sometimes what I was imagining as I read was secondhand, pulled from films, perhaps.) Perhaps because of the coolness, the slightly removed tone, I found myself fascinated by Emma rather than emotionally engaged with her, though I loved the style (and stylishness) of the writing.
As the author notes, Emma's life has close parallels with the life of the writer Sue Kaufman. The details of the latter's life I read after I'd finished the novel (I found a detailed article by Diana Cambridge herself). Dates, main events, and aspects of character tally with Emma's. In a way it's a re-imagining of Kaufman's life, and a rather dark re-imagining at that. I found it an absolutely compelling read.
February 24, 2020
Don't Think A Single Thought by Diana Cambridge wanders in time, exploring and revealing the life of Emma, a successful New York writer. Responsable for one (or is it many?) deaths over the years, the story follows her mental health as she self medicates with slivers of pills.
This is exquisitely smooth writing, and it packs a heavy emotional wallop. This book is full of the thoughts Emma's not supposed to think: the lies she tells herself to keep her head up, smiling and functional, answering society's needs with grace and charm. When the thoughts become too many, and too dense to keep at bay, the veneer of Emma's perfect life becomes flawed, cracks that perfect manicures and designer clothes can no longer hide. Don't Think A Single Thought explores the turmoils of an intelligent woman's mind and shows us, one piece of history at a time, how the outcome could be no other.
Superbly crafted, insightful, and touching upon existential questions, Don't Think A Single Thought is a book that will stay long with you after you've put it down.
This is exquisitely smooth writing, and it packs a heavy emotional wallop. This book is full of the thoughts Emma's not supposed to think: the lies she tells herself to keep her head up, smiling and functional, answering society's needs with grace and charm. When the thoughts become too many, and too dense to keep at bay, the veneer of Emma's perfect life becomes flawed, cracks that perfect manicures and designer clothes can no longer hide. Don't Think A Single Thought explores the turmoils of an intelligent woman's mind and shows us, one piece of history at a time, how the outcome could be no other.
Superbly crafted, insightful, and touching upon existential questions, Don't Think A Single Thought is a book that will stay long with you after you've put it down.
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