The Way We Were (by Marcia Willett)

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I have very much enjoyed Marcia Willett’s novels over the past twenty or so years since I first discovered her writing. I’ve gradually acquired her books over the years, and am currently re-reading those which I haven’t read for a while. It’s almost ten years since I read ‘The Way we Were’, and I had entirely forgotten what it was about, so it was definitely time to re-read.

It’s a dual time-line story, as many of the author’s novels are. It opens in February 1976, A young woman known as Tiggy is setting out to stay with her best friend Julia. She says goodbye to her beloved grandmother, who hands her, at the last moment, a bronze model of Merlin as a child. It seems an odd gift, but her grandmother insists; it belonged to her grandfather, and she wants Tiggy to have it. This ornament - quite a bit one - recurs throughout the book, though we don’t learn its significance until the final chapters.

Tiggy considers herself an orphan; her mother died when she was young, and her father treated her so badly that they have cut all contact. So her friendship with Julia, which dates from their schooldays, is very important to her. They are more like sisters than friends, and Tiggy is godmother to Julia’s toddler Charlie. Julia also has twins, Liv and Andy, who are four at the start of the book.

The given reason for Tiggy’s long visit to Julia is that her fiancé Tom recently died in an accident, and she’s taking time away from her teaching job as compassionate leave. We soon learn that there’s another reason, something Tiggy doesn’t want her grandmother to know about…

The action moves forward to 2004, when Julia’s daughter Liv is the focus of the storyline. Liv is something of a free spirit, who doesn’t like to be tied down. She has been working with some old friends, helping them start up a hospitality business, and she’s clearly very successful as an organiser, planner and general visionary for this kind of thing. There’s a slight problem in that she and the husband Chris used to be an ‘item’, and his wife Val tends to be jealous and suspicious that they might be attracted to each other again. And Liv is aware of the temptation to become involved again, though she fights it.

There are quite a few characters in this book, but it wasn’t too hard to remember who was whom. I particularly liked Aunt Em; she’s Julia’s aunt (so Liv’s great-aunt) and is in her 70s in 2004, recently widowed, but still very lively. Aunt Em provides a listening ear and a great deal of empathy and wise advice to her relatives. Unable to have any children herself, missing her husband, she still manages to comfort and support both Liv and Julia in different ways.

There’s a kind of villain in the story - two, in fact, a mother and daughter called Angela and Cat. Angela is an old flame of Julia’s husband Pete, and determined to meddle in his marriage; not because she really wants him back, but because she likes to stir dissent. And Cat is simply nasty, despite being very young when we first meet her in the 1970s part of the story. I’m not sure I entirely believed in either of them; they feel caricatured, without any apparent redeeming features. They’re important for the storyline, but not realistic - at least, I hope not.

The writing is good, the dual time-line device working well. As with her other novels, Marcia Willett uses the present tense for the past, and the past tense for the present, which is a tad confusing, but it distinguishes the two time periods, even though they’re clearly marked with the years in question. There are secrets from the past; it’s clear early on in the 2004 part of the story that Tiggy is no longer around - we find out what happened relatively soon, so it’s not a shock when the story gradually unfolds in the 1976 section of the book, but still somewhat disturbing.

I didn’t like this quite as much as some of Marcia Willett’s other books, but it’s still a good story, one I was eager to finish. The last few chapters are quite tense, as characters discuss whether to reveal or hold onto secrets and connections from the past; whether or not to follow the wishes of someone no longer there. The final chapter is quite dramatic, and the ending very poignant.

Recommended if you like this kind of thoughtful women’s fiction, and particularly if you like this author, but it’s not (in my opinion) one of Willett’s best.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews