Love Songs and Lies (by Libby Purves)

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I have been enjoying re-reading my Libby Purves novels, and have almost reached the end. ‘Love Songs and Lies’ is the one I’ve just finished; I first read it in 2007. Thirteen years later I had totally forgotten the people and everything about the plot. So it was like reading a new book all over again, knowing in advance that I would like it.

Sally is the main protagonist of this book, which is told by her in the first person. We meet her at first as an Oxford University student in the 1970s, living with her friends Kate and Marienka. Kate is quite sensible and solid, with a long-term boyfriend. Marienka is unpredictable, self-centred, and mostly quite charming. They decide to move into a rundown house, and Marienka’s friend Max joins them. He is a hard-working student, and Sally falls for him…

The novel is essentially about Sally’s one-sided passion and its ramifications over the decades. The book is in three broad sections, the first featuring her friendship with Max - who treats her like a sister - and giving plenty of background. Sally’s parents are quite shadowy in the book, a kind Vicar and his wife who don’t entirely understand their daughter but offer her unconditional love and acceptance.

Max’s situation is rather different. His father died and his mother, Helena, has remarried to someone called David. David is immensely generous and funds Max through his university years and beyond. Max has two siblings: Susan, who doesn’t come into it very much, and Marty. Marty is the black sheep of the family who despises David, and has got into trouble with the law many times. Marty sings in a rock band and is regularly high on cannabis, or worse. When he discovers that Sally is a writer, they form a business partnership and she produces lyrics for him - the love songs of the title.

In the second part of the book Sally gets married. We don’t learn, at first, who the groom is although it soon becomes obvious. And it’s a strange kind of marriage, but it works. I was rooting for this partnership; having entirely forgotten the story, I hoped it would work out, that they would settle into a companionable love. It would be a spoiler to comment on whether that happens. Suffice it to say that the second half of the book ends on a tragic note, with Sally’s world crumbling around her in more ways than one.

The third part of the book starts about fifteen years later. Sally seems to be settled down, with a somewhat rebellious teenage daughter, and a kind, loving son a few years younger. And in this ending section, we see the problems that arise when truth is not brought into the open. There aren’t deliberate lies, despite the title of the book, but misunderstandings, and people allowed to believe things that are not true.

It’s a character-based book, primarily. Sally grows up both chronologically and emotionally between the second and third parts of the book, but it’s only towards the end that she sees clearly just what potential damage there is from not being open from the start with everyone involved.

There aren’t the deep, sometimes shocking issues that others of Libby Purves’ books have presented, but there are many decisions to be made. We see the world and its morality - or otherwise - through Sally’s eyes, and she’s quite innocent at the start of the book. She mentions, more than once, her Vicarage upbringing. There’s no suggestion that this is old-fashioned or wrong, more that it’s counter-cultural and in many ways healthier than the rebellion of many of her peers. Church music and buildings play their part in Sally’s life, offering healing and comfort when people fail.

I liked this book very much, and found it hard to put down towards the end. Definitely recommended if you like character-based women’s fiction with some depth.

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