Adept portrayal of complex characters

Maggie O'Farrell. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Maggie O'Farrell. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Maggie O'Farrell's depth of characterisation keeps the reader engaged, writes Jessie Neilson of her latest novel. 

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE
Maggie O’Farrell
Hachette 

By JESSIE NEILSON

Maggie O'Farrell is an acclaimed Irish writer, author of seven novels and past winner of the Costa Award. In This Must be the Place, she lays out a complex family history that pivots around the academic linguist Daniel and his second wife, reclusive film 

star and eccentric Claudette. While a student, Daniel glued words all over the walls, to try to "mine potential patterns in semantic amelioration and pejoration'', while Claudette was more likely to be found balanced languidly on the edge of a bathtub, elegant, with cigarette in hand. Both main characters are convincingly and amusingly painted.

Having fled the Hollywood scene, Claudette now holes up in a valley in remotest Ireland, and Daniel indulges her, knowing as he does her flights of fancy as well as her sudden turns of antisocial behaviour. When threatened she is prone to pick up a shotgun, so Daniel does what he can to keep her at ease.

In addition to this couple, there is an assortment of children from various relationships, nearby and also flung across the globe. Relationships and situations from the past come to preoccupy Daniel and he sets off to try to put some of his life in more coherent order.

The structure of this novel comprises a fair number of narrators, reaching across decades and continents. While it feels similar to the setup of a film with alternating perspectives and locations, it makes for a confusing plot and is dissatisfying. Some narrators enter the story and their relevance is revealed only at a later point. However, O'Farrell's strength lies in portraying the emotional complexities at the centre of people and their relationships and she shines the light on Daniel, Claudette and others when they are at their weakest.

While aspects of the plot and narrative style let this novel down, depth of characterisation usually keeps the story going. The main characters are those the reader is likely to invest in, and therefore, desire to follow through to the end.

Jessie Neilson is a University of Otago library assistant.
 

Comments

When you live with a woman who balances on the edge of a beigne with a cigarette holder because the doctor told her to 'stay away' from cigarettes, and pulls out a pump action shotgun, that's it, really. No one else will do.