The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell
Edinburgh, the present day. When Iris Lockhart receives an unexpected letter from Cauldstone psychiatric unit, she is bemused. The letter claims that her great-aunt is about to be released from the ward - but this is the first Iris has ever heard of a great-aunt. Her grandmother Kitty always said she was an only child. But was she really? As Iris gets to know the woman from Cauldstone, she begins to realise that there is more to her family history than she has ever known. In fact, a whole person has been erased from it. Maggie O'Farrell has enthralled me before, and this book was no exception. It's very good indeed.
When my mother read the blurb, it was with despair that she looked at me and said: "Is this another story about a woman being oppressed?" I could understand her dismay; there do seem to be a lot of books these days about the historic mistreatment of women - and it's even more sobering when you remember that they're all reflections of real female experiences. Her assessment in this case was not wrong either. Esme Lennox has spent sixty years in Cauldstone lunatic asylum, but when Iris meets her, she does not seem like a madwoman at all. In fact, the more O'Farrell reveals about Esme's fraught upbringing, the more we realise that this woman is no danger at all. She is a victim.
Much of this novel is set in Esme's childhood, first in the British colonies in India, and later in Edinburgh. In each scene, we see an Esme who refuses to fit the mould. She is boisterous, spirited, impulsive, a tomboy - everything a woman of her age should not be. Her parents try their best to clamp her down, to make her sit still and force her through lessons, to flatten her wild curly hair and dress her in proper skirts, to match her up with a suitable husband. (That means, a man who can control her.) Esme is feisty, and she knows her own mind - but she is not mad. As she struggles against each restraint that is put upon her, O'Farrell stirs in us a mixture of outrage and empathy. We are endeared to Esme - and she is treated grossly unfairly.
The treatment Esme Lennox endures is shocking, but she is not the only woman whose story this book tells. There is Iris, too. Iris is weary, harassed, and terribly alone (though she wouldn't like to admit it). She's got her dog, after all, and her step-brother Alex, who's been the only constant in her life since her father died. She's got Luke too, who says he loves her - but he has a wife, so nothing Iris has with him can ever really last. Iris Lockhart is not in a good place - so the last thing she needs is a bombshell like Esme Lennox appearing in her life. But of course, as O'Farrell weaves their tales together, both women experience a new and unexpected compassion.
But 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox' has a third woman in it. A woman who is fading away by the day, but whose side of the story brings everything into focus. Kitty: Esme's sister, Iris's grandmother. Kitty has Alzheimer's, and seems unable to recall or explain anything about her sister. Iris has plenty of questions - as do we! - but her every attempt to draw the truth out of her grandmother is a failure. Kitty's wandering mind is impenetrable. However, the memories do exist, deep down - and page by page, O'Farrell reveals them.
The sections of the novel narrated by Kitty were to me the most compelling of the whole book. O'Farrell's prose is astonishingly good. She shows us a mind that is flashing, flitting, melting between present and past. Every memory is a disconnected vignette, a snatch of vividness, a momentary lucidity - but every time we're within reach of the punchline, Kitty swerves away. Her movements are tangential, abrupt, confused: it's a powerful and extremely touching portrayal of dementia. Each time we were taken into Kitty's mind, I was spellbound; the snatched revelations took my breath away.
What O'Farrell does through Kitty's narration is probe the idea of forgetfulness. Forgetting is a theme in this book, and it surfaces in different guises. Kitty's genuine memory loss from Alzheimer's is only one facet of it: there's also wilful forgetting, shame-fuelled amnesia, conscious and complete erasure. None of the women in this novel remember everything. In truth, they are afraid to admit what they know. A lot has been buried, ignored and overlooked, and it's through O'Farrell's subtle but extremely sharp prose that it is all brought into the light.
'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox' was a spine-tingling novel. Masterfully woven and sensitively told, it reeled me in, made me care and then caused me to gasp aloud. It was at times dark and even sickening, but at other times touching and hopeful. O'Farrell is an excellent writer. I recommend this novel highly.
You can buy 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox' by following this link (I'll receive a small commission if you do):
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell
