I really didn't expect to enjoy this book. It's not one I'd have chosen, as it's more-or-less in the 'chick-lit' genre, but someone gave it to me. So in an idle moment I picked it up, thinking it would while away a few hours over the next week or so....
I was pleasantly surprised. This is a charming book, the first novel by Judi Hendricks. It's told in the first person by Wyn Morrison, a young women in her late twenties who lives in California in the USA. As the book opens, she's about to attend an interview at a job recruiting agency, and we quickly learn that she's having problems with her seven-year marriage to David.
The time-frame moves forwards and backwards in a way that could be annoying, but it's so cleverly done using Wyn's memories and emotions that I didn't find it disturbing at all. A picture slowly emerges of a girl with a pleasant childhood until her father dies suddenly in her late teens. She had a happy marriage to a good-looking and successful businessman who really wanted a wife on display, to further his career and look after him. Wyn doesn't have much idea what she wants for herself in life, but she's basically quite contented with her lot. She sometimes finds David's business lunches and entertaining a bit overwhelming, but goes along with them since she loves him and likes being married to him.
But David has changed. He doesn't want life to continue as it has done, and he becomes too friendly with another high-flyer in his office. Wyn believes all his excuses about staying late for meetings, so when he announces one day that he wants them to separate, her world is torn apart. She has no idea what to do, but starts by going to spend a couple of weeks with her best friend in Seattle.
The book is about Wyn gradually coming to terms with herself, thinking about what she really wants, and learning to make a stand about things that matter to her. I found her very believable, perhaps because her character is rather like mine: primarily wanting peace and harmony, quite prepared to go along with other people's plans and trust them rather than risk conflict. Which of course can lead to ostrich-like behaviour, withdrawing or hiding in order to avoid problems.
The style of the book is typically American, reminding me a little of Anne Tyler in the racy, fast-paced descriptions and conversations. In the first few chapters I felt a bit of culture shock since everybody appeared to spend their time rushing around, going out to eat, or buying takeaways, or - at best - heating frozen pizzas in the microwave. A far cry from my own experience of home-cooked family meals.
But Wyn does these things because she has plenty of money, and because it's the way she's learned to live in her marriage. At heart she's a home-lover, and her passion is baking bread. And here's where this book stands out rather oddly from similar novels - it contains recipes. Not a large number; I think there were four in all, as well as some general explanations about how to make yeast starters, and how to make 'real' bread rather than the plastic sliced stuff sold by supermarkets.
I wouldn't have believed it possible to include recipes within a novel without a break in the story, but somehow Judi Hendricks does it. They sounded so good that I was tempted to leap up and bake them, but by that stage I was finding the story so interesting that I didn't want to leave it. I learned a lot about bread, and was inspired to read more about baking as a result!
There's a bit of humour, too. Wyn's style is understated, with irony and some wordplay. She doesn't think a lot of herself, and is surprised when other people actively like her. Of course I was rooting for her to get together with the right guy. Yes, there's a bit of love interest, and one or two mildly explicit scenes towards the end, although they too were tinged with humour.
In addition, it's a thought-provoking novel. Wyn has never had a very good relationship with her mother; when she remarries, Wyn almost feels betrayed as she had always idolised her father. But gradually she learns more about her parents' marriage, and this perhaps more than anything else enables her to grow up and become an adult in her own right.
The strangest thing of all is that the whole book is written in the present tense, yet I didn't even notice until I was over half-way through! I think this is because the first page has a date at the top ('Los Angeles, 1988') so reads a little like a diary entry, and then after the job interview it launches into Wyn's reflections about the past. It's the first book I've read which works - really works - in this tense, without in any way being distracting.
Who would like it? Probably anyone who enjoys character-based novels without a whole lot of action. But I think it has a wider appeal than that, too. Not if your choice of reading is horror or thrillers, perhaps, but then again - it's not quite like anything I've read before, switching as it does between reflections on marriage, family life, careers.. and baking. I think it would be ideal for reading on holiday.
Recommended.
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