A Austen-like beginning

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	• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O'Farrell Harcourt, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 50 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Review

Imagine being locked up in a mental institution for 60 years. Forgotten by your family. No visitors, no connection to the outside world. This was the life of Esme Lennox.

Iris Lockhart is Esme's great niece. She is contacted when Esme, now deemed harmless, is released by the institution. But is she harmless?

Throughout the book, the author takes the reader back in time, revisiting Esme's past through flashbacks and first person accounts through the eyes of Esme and her sister Kitty.

The flasbacks and change and narration is distracting at first, but it does aid in the telling of the story.

The author, Maggie O'Farrell, states that two of the books that influenced her life and her career were Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper, two works that revolve around a woman's spiral into mental illness. It is evident in reading The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox how influental these works were.

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Astonishing

This is an amazing book. One reviewer describes it as "predictable" but I found it anything but predictable. The injustice done to a young girl in a timeperiod when it was believed females suffered from a mental illness called "hysteria" is probably closer to reality than fiction. I like the way the author leaves it to the reader to decide if Esme has schitzophrenia or if is she totally sane. Anyone who doesn't believe Esme's story could really have happened to women decades ago should see the DVD "1940 Schizophrenic Patients & Mental Health Hospital History Pictures." I was caught up in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and although it is a work of fiction, it is truly horrible in a good, fascinating way. I couldn't put it down, and I thought about it a lot afterwards. This is a book about a life thrown away, and it makes me appreciate every day of my own life. I see my life differently today because of this book, and I cherish my freedom so much more after reading it.

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Predictable but good...

This was a very interesting, enjoyable read. It was a bit predictable in parts though.

A TERRIFIC STORY

I truly enjoyed this book. The spare prose and plot line left something to the reader's imagination. I look forward to reading more of this author's books.

A Austen-like beginning

I bought this book during an episodic book-buying binge, thanks to the promise that it held a haunting mystery inside its covers. Then, there was the beautiful jacket depicting in bold colors, a lovely unidentified girl. These enticements proved accurate.

Stripped of its catastrophes, the back story is about a colonial-born mother, perhaps from an earlier England, who is desperate to marry off her two daughters. One embraces her mother's ambition that she lead a traditional life and one rebels against the notion. Ultimately, this is the divide that undermines the sibling connection.

Although I recommend this book, I will mention a couple of annoyances: I found the author's use of the word 'vanishing' excessive at times as though she lacked confidence in the reader's ability to understand her book, but this is a minor quibble. Some of her sentences were stilted. I'm also not sure the parallels between Esme and the one-generation removed Iris had to be so strongly drawn.

Why recommend this book as only one of a few I pass on to close friends or family? There are two reasons for my recommendation. The first is the way in which the author weaves between three storytellers within the text, symbolic of the way in which relatives are entwined, including how one generation is a part of the next. On the other hand, this writing style may be off-putting because it can be hard to follow at times. However, I quickly acclimated to it and experienced the author's creativity.

The theme of the book is the act of vanishing. The main characters are not as we initially believe them to be and in this way pulls his or her own vanishing act. This message made me think about how most of us have a vanishing act of one type or another, though thankfully not as devastating as Esme's, but nonetheless, vanishing acts are a part of most of our lives as we are not always as we seem to be. A book that makes me think is one that I can highly recommend despite a few imperfections. Who among us does not hide, does not vanish?

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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