Well-written, exaggeratedly depressing

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	• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O'Farrell Harcourt, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not quite the story I expected

I was drawn to this book because the language of the opening pages was terrific. And the title of the novel is a poignant allusion to Esme's 61 year time in an asylum. Even the way Esme taught her younger self to "disappear" was intriguing. But ultimately I was a bit disappointed by this book. I thought the inherent drama of this story would be in the present: how will Iris come to unravel the puzzle of Esme's imprisonment, what attempts will Esme reveal that she made to free herself of her predicament (oddly, I don't recall any attempts -- her fierce spirit of her youth broken so completely?). Instead much of Esme's story relates to her pre-asylum days and what led up to being committed. So we are cheated out of learning what actually happened in her days in the asylum, lessons learned about herself and the world. And in the present -- I expected to see a final scene of Esme's rage. It doesn't come. So for me the story was anticlimactic. Though I did read it with great interest because I kept hoping to get to that present day catharsis. What is the moral of the story? In some ways this reads more like a long short story than a novel. I didn't experience the transformation of the character. Esme's truer disappearance -- not just the physical disappearance from the world into an asylum -- is the disappearance of her free spirit as a woman who doesn't want to marry and who wants to choose her own destiny. That was the interesting theme for me. I wanted to see more how that disappearance happened on a day by day basis. instead, it was implied more than anything else. It's still a good book. Just not the book I thought it was going to be. That's my take on it anyway.

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A Wonderful Surprise

This book is such a great read. The intertwining stories and the ethereal quality of the characters makes it hauntingly brilliant.
O'Farrell writes extremely well, and she weaves the story of these Edinburgh women, their pasts and their emotions and sanity superbly.
I found it very hard to put this book down, and like many good books, I keep on thinking about it and the characters long after I finished it. I highly recommend this book to others. If you liked the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, you'll adore this book.

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quietly engaging

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox was quite a good read - the plot revolves around a young woman in the present time who discovers a long-lost great-aunt, someone whose existence was never mentioned by her family - through a narrative that weaves between the discovery and the aunt's early life the reader begins to put together the details of how the aunt came to be where she was - I found the writing style to be generally gentle but during passages describing the aunt's history there is an undercurrent of cruelty - author did a great job of leading the reader to the inevitable end without really hinting at the details - I highly recommend - book was a quick read but quite compelling.

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Well-written, exaggeratedly depressing

This is a well-written book with a family mystery at the heart. A story that starts out gripping and which should be hard to put down. I had never heard of the book nor the author when I bought it, but was intrigued by the blurb on the cover credited to the Times: "Almost ridiculously pleasurable."

After reading it, I believe the blurb should say, "Ridiculously over the top."

WARNING: ***SPOILER ALERT***

Let's see how many things the mystery lady of the book has to endure. Parents don't love her? Check. Beloved baby sibling dies in her arms (while she's home alone): check. Raped at age 16 by man her sister loves? Check. Committed to mental institution by evil parents and jealous sister? Check. Bears child of said rape? Check. Has baby stolen by jealous sister who used to be her closest friend? Check. Lives remainder of life (60 years) in institution? Check. I mean, how about piling it on a little!!! By my count, not one single nice thing happens to this person.

Oh, and let's not forget that the narrator (the mystery lady's granddaughter) just happens to be sleeping with her stepbrother.

Could someone in the world of this book please just be NORMAL??? Apparently not.

Because the writing is good, I give it 3 stars. But really I wouldn't recommend it to anyone to read.

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Indelicate Acts

Maggie O'Farrell's novel is a delicately told tale of indelicate acts. Young and single Iris has a love life fraught with taboos and an ordinary routine that preserves both her independence and her anonymity. When she receives a call from a local mental institution that she is the sole surviving heir of a great-aunt she has never heard of and who has been removed from society for sixty years, her life begins its slow unraveling. The institution is closing, and the mystery woman, Euphemia Lennox, has no place to go. Iris and Euphemia (who calls herself Esme) begin a fragile relationship as Iris struggles to juggle both her need for personal space and her guilt. Meanwhile, Esme has her own goals.

In fine, exact language, this slim novel unfolds through the fractured point-of-views of Iris, Esme, and Iris's grandmother Kitty, who suffers from Alzheimer's. The narrative is structured like a jigsaw puzzle, with bits of information judiciously offered until the whole picture is assembled. Unfortunately, the "secret" behind Esme's confinement and Kitty's guilt is a little too predictable, and the final act of the novel seems somewhat over-the-top and therefore not as satisfying as one might like. Still, O'Farrell's handling of the story and its issues is both evocative and authoritative.

Readers interested in the changing expectations of women may be intrigued by the author's premise that, while gender expectations may change over generations, women who rebel against society's rules still do so at personal cost. Because this book is not told in a straightforward narrative, casual readers may be frustrated trying to figure out what is happening, but readers of more serious fiction will find it both accessible and a quick read. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a good, but not great, book - the perfect book for an evening or two by the fire.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11

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