The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore
| The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: An exciting debut set on the Isle of Wight which gripped me from the first page. It's an exhilarating exploration of the meaning of 'home' and 'family'. Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 336 | Date: February 2023 |
| Publisher: HQ | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0008506339 | |
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The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: she would never be able to leave him in charge.
Then Richard left them.
We hear about that time in flash-backs. Margo retreated to her bed and most of her calorie intake seemed to come from alcohol. Her sister, Alice, was about but had young twins to take care of so it was eleven-year-old Rachel who held the family together, cooking for them all, caring for her mother and working out where her supply of alcohol was hidden. She'd go on to become a lawyer, marry Gabriel and have two children of her own.
Dreamy Imogen became a playwright and when we first meet her she's become engaged to William Bradbury. 'Become engaged' is probably the best way of describing what happened: William proposed on a trip to Venice, Imogen didn't actually reply and everyone assumed that it was a done deal. Imogen was slightly perturbed that no one asked how she felt about it all. William, who refers to Venice as it rather than she, was more worried about the expense of it all. Still, he's a decent man, of whom her mother approves.
The youngest child was Sasha who was little more than a baby when her father left but probably the only contact with reality her mother had in her darkest days. She now works for a medical crisis centre, as does her husband Phil. Phil didn't hide his impatience with the Garnetts and he's increasingly being more than a little impatient (and controlling) with Sasha. Three adult children, all influenced by what happened when they were children, all struggling to find their place in the world, all suffering from the trauma of Richard O'Leary's departure from their lives.
This is Georgina Moore's debut novel but she's been an award-winning book publicist for more than twenty years. She's worked with top authors and it's no surprise that she's set such high standards for her own writing. She captures the claustrophobia of places such as the Isle of Wight, where everybody knows everybody else, their business and - worst of all - their history. The family home - Sandcove - is a character in its own right. The crumbling facade, patched in places but with an out-of-character state-of-the-art kitchen stands as a neat metaphor for the lives of its occupants.
The characterisation is excellent. I was particularly struck by how nimbly Moore handles what seems - on occasions - like a cast of thousands but they all come off the page well. The Garnett women are superb but it was William who touched me: he's a little prudish and almost out of his depth with the Garnetts. I so wanted everything to work out for him.
Moore's writing is superb:
Neglect hung in the creases of their old tailored suits.
People are finely observed, their essence captured in a few words. The story builds gradually as you piece together what has happened. Moore has a talent common to all the best authors: she trusts her readers. She feels no need to over-explain, confident that we'll work it out for ourselves. This would be a superb book from any author but it's exceptional from a debut author and I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.
If you enjoy short stories you might like A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy.
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