My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

This is a remarkable debut novel from a young and talented writer and is on my highly
recommended list.
Picture the scene: Trafalgar Square, togetherness as a family, the epitome of happiness. Jamie, 5 feeding the pigeons and his twin sisters, 10 twirling around amongst the pigeons and an abundance of laughter. When Jasmine stopped, Rose continued much to her mother's delight. A different scene. A deafening explosion, dad screaming Rose, Rose, Rose and then a family torn apart by anger, grief and guilt.
"Police found ten bits of her body." A terrorist bomb exploded, destroyed an innocent 10 year old and violated the remainder of her family beyond recognition. The world turned black, the future was bleak but in spite of this, Jamie narrates the story from an innocent, naive 10 year old's point of view. He simply cannot remember much about Rose and cannot grieve over her unlike the rest of his family.
"I don't remember anything about the day except a big bang and lots of crying."
He is affected indirectly by her death in terms of the devastating effect it has on his mother, father and sister Jas. "I can't do this anymore" and mum walked out. Father took to drowning his sorrows, seeking solace in a number of bottles of vodka or umpteen cans of beer. Five years of his life have been destroyed. Jamie and Jas became invisible. "It's like we're dead too," stated Jas. Neglected by those who should love and nurture them. A fresh start and the three move to the Lake District hoping to start again. The urn containing some of Rose's ashes is a constant reminder of the tragedy and whilst it remains on the mantelpiece, in the heart of the household it will control the family and feed their guilty consciences.
Jas changed her image drastically by cutting her hair, dyeing it pink and having her nose pierced, then almost refusing to eat.

Annabel Pitcher.

There is no denying the seriousness of the content but Jamie is a young boy into Superman and football with a sense of humour and this is the appeal of such a tragic story. So instead of being constantly depressed we are uplifted with his wry humour. After the funeral he asked Jas where Rose was and she pointed at the urn.
"How can a girl fit into something so small?" Delightful. For one of his birthdays Rose had left a book for Jamie next to the urn: "I got this strong urge to laugh when I saw it there, and imagined the urn sprouting legs and arms and a head and walking to the shop to buy a present." A gem.
The book also explores friendship, teenage love and bullying with both Jamie and his sister finding the Courage to Fly in a talent show about families sticking together.
Instead of being beaten Jamie ends on a positive note: he felt like the "luckiest, richest boy on the planet." You will understand this feeling when you read the novel and recognise, like the phoenix, the rebirth of hope and love.
Annabel Pitcher.


Copyright 2012. Permission to use this review must be obtained from the author.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Stranger From Lagos by Cyprian Ekwensi

Image
  image courtesy of Google images   Ekwensi was born in Nigeria in 1921. He wrote about the country and people of Nigeria-city life and life in the rural areas. Loko Towns and Other Stories was published in 1966. A Stranger From Lagos was one of the nine stories in that collection.   The writer explores the place of women in society. Lilian is trapped by social conventions. Her fiance treats her like a possession as if he owns her. It is written in third person to allow the writer's thoughts to merge with Lilian's. The protagonist is unable to speak to the stranger in public although it is obvious that there is a strong physical attraction between the two. If Lilian asserts herself she will go against social conventions (for females) and her reputation will be damaged through rife and unhealthy gossip. She will therefore be stigmatised as a loose woman. The story explores her inner conflicts in accepting these "conventions" or flaunting them as well a
Read more

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.

Image
                Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Book Review. "Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on." These apparently disparate case histories cover 1970, 1994 and 1979 involving girls who had either been murdered or had simply vanished into thin air. Private Investigator, Jackson Brodie, beautifully drawn but flawed through and through had spent 12 years in the Cambridgeshire Constabulary and before that the military police. Forty-five years of age and working on irksome or dull cases like Binky Rain and her missing cats when he becomes inundated with requests to solve three case histories of people who have been seriously damaged by crimes committed against their loved ones. "He was used to being a voyeur, the outsider looking in, and nothing, but nothing that anyone did surprised him anymore." There i
Read more

A Stranger From Lagos by Cyprian Ekwensi Final Part

Image
                                                                    courtesy of Google images Lilian uses her sexuality to liberate as well as attract the opposite sex. Ekwensi uses "wiggled." Lilian had just had her hair done and was wearing very large, loop earrings. This had been done for her lover's benefit. She was conscious of all the eyes watching the two of them. The writer uses the simile: she felt like something projected on a 3D screen for all Onitsha to view. We are told very little about the stranger other than that he was tall and good-looking. We are told he didn't feel embarrassed by all of the attention. He would ruin her reputation and he was well aware of this: he would scandalize her and then she would be left to the gossips. You get the sense that this has probably happened before. The dialogue here is disjointed. Mystery surrounds him but his desire to see Lilian is compelling: "I have wanted to see you" and he refers to his
Read more