An Imaginative Experience (by Mary Wesley)

Although I have found novels by Mary Wesley rather variable, I thought that this one was a delight from start to finish.

However, it is an unlikely story. The book opens with an almost surreal experience for Sylvester Wyke, the main protagonist of the book. He's sitting on a train minding his own business when it suddenly screeches to a halt, and a young woman jumps out. She runs across a field to a sheep which is lying on its back, and lifts the sheep back on its feet again... a bird-watcher gets involved too.

The plot which follows is almost reminiscent of a Shakespearean comedy at times - the kind where A falls in love with B who's really pining for C who turns out to be the twin brother of A, who's working as a steward for D unknown to anyone else...

During the rest of the book we follow the fortunes of Sylvester (a just-divorced writer), the girl Julia, and the bird-watcher Maurice. For good measure there's also Julia's mother, and Sylvester's bossy ex-secretary. Each has their own perspective on life and each other, and their paths cross frequently, sometimes without any of them realising it. There are coincidence galore - perhaps that's what reminded me of Shakespeare - but somehow it doesn't matter. In context it all seems to fit.

I found there to be quite a bit of humour in false assumptions that people make, and the resultant mis-communication that inevitably occurs. But it isn't a funny book as such. It's a light romance with an entirely satisfactory (if predictable) ending. Along the way there's some deep emotion as Julia's past is gradually unravelled.

I did like Sylvester! It's important to me to relate to a main character in any fictional book, and I sometimes find that hard when it's a man. But I'm an introvert; I don't like a lot of clutter around me, and I love to have the house to myself sometimes. Just like Sylvester. I could totally understand his growing frustration with his ex-secretary, who is convinced that he can't possibly manage to order his life without his ex-wife around.

Julia is much less like me as a person, but there are aspects of her life that I could relate to; for one thing she doesn't like noisy parties and loud music. Thoughts and conversations are interspersed, mostly from Sylvester's perspective. He wants to be a modern knight in shining armour, rescuing her from her past; but she, a modern and fairly self-sufficient young woman, doesn't think she wants to be rescued.

Overall I found 'An Imaginative Experience' to be a most enjoyable light read. The occasional bad language (Mary Wesley does seem to require at least a few obscenities in her books) doesn't detract from the story as it does - to me, anyway - with some of her others. The plot isn't meant to be entirely serious; the opening train-stopping section makes that quite clear. Yet there's enough that's deeply moving to make it well worth reading, and to linger longer in my mind than a lot of modern light fiction.

While this doesn't quite qualify as one of my absolute favourite novels, I would recommend it to anyone wanting a book for a flight or a holiday, or for a cosy afternoon with nothing too challenging.

Review copyright 2004 Sue's Book Reviews