Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann.

           Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann.

" Houses, husbands, and midnight gin parties. Nothing's going to change. Not in any way that really matters. It will be like always."

This is post-war America, full of expectation and excitement for the likes of cousin Nick and Helena seeking The Great Gatsby life of endless parties and self-indulgence galore. Both women were married: Helena had sadly lost Fen after 2 months of marriage but remarried in haste and moved to Hollywood with its glitz and glamour whilst Nick married Hughes out of love and desire hoping to lead an exciting life. Yes, hoping!

The story interestingly, darts back and forth over two decades so you need to be on your toes and there are multiple narrators-in total five: Nick, her daughter Daisy, Helena, Hughes and Ed, Helena's son. There are overlaps which serve as reminders to the readers of the events taking place as well as indicating the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters. The characters are presented very much as a dysfunctional family, sad, lonely and unhappy. Too many lies, too many secrets.

Tiger House is central to the plot because this is where the main characters unite to spend their long hot summers entertaining, dancing to the blues, indulging in excessive drinking and flirtatious behaviour and endless rounds of gossip. With all this apparent excitement and the passion of the heat and moment, boredom and disillusionment destroy the fervour. And, of course a brutal murder. Klaussmann has cleverly used Wallace Stevens' poem Disillusionment At Ten O' Clock, a lament, to illustrate the monotony of life starved of imagination in the title and at the end of the novel. We see this disillusionment particularly in Nick who hides her feelings and is grossly unhappy at discovering her husband's betrayal. He was supposed to love her. Instead he made everything blank and turned her life gray. Excessive drink and one-night stands are the consequences. But does this fulfil her needs? Of course not. She hides her loneliness and unhappiness, admitting to making a mess of things. Badly damaged.

Ed is the creative one but as a paradox one can perhaps say that creativity could also lead to destruction. There's a fine dividing line between the two.  He is different and has a distorted and unhealthy view of life and love. He believes that love is brutal and sudden causing permanent damage. He is creepy, following people, listening into private conversations to educate himself about people and what's inside them. Hughes worries that there's something seriously wrong with the kid. His behaviour is psychotic and he is dangerous.

We are presented with a gruesome image of a mouse that he has trapped in the basement. He has crudely sliced it open and inserted a small toothpick which was sticking out of one of its eyes. If he does this to animals could he do this to human beings? That's the worrying factor.

1959 is a significant time because a violent murder is committed and witnessed by Ed. He then admits to having had some kind of inkling of the work he wanted to do in the future which sounds ominous doesn't it? He describes this murder as some "kind of joy

released, the closest thing to love."

Helena believes she is an innocent, easy prey  because of her vulnerability mistaken for her gullibility. She believed that the world was cruel to innocents like herself. She grows to hate cousin Nick, alias the Bitch and deludes herself into thinking that Nick has prevented  husband Avery from having contact with her. Avery supplies his wife with an abusive level of drugs to subdue her so that he can take advantage of her before abandoning her. Once weaned off the drugs she envelops herself into a boozy cocoon which basically has the same effect as losing touch with reality. She sees herself as a prisoner and she is trapped unable to escape.

I have the most sympathy for Hughes. His betrayal happens on the spur of the moment during the war. Three precious liberty days spent in London and a chance encounter with a lonely WREN called Eva destroyed his peace of mind and he was saddled with guilt at betraying his young wife.  " He had promised to love and protect Nick and instead he had betrayed her. He was disgusted." He blamed the war for turning everything upside down. He admits to having done things he isn't proud of but he does love Nick and asks for forgiveness. He is a strong presence in the novel and protective of his wife and daughter.

Nick also felt trapped. Hughes wanted life to be good and safe. She disliked the stuffiness and respectability. "Sometimes I want to rip my clothes off and go running down the street stark naked and screaming my head off." She wanted them to be different and saw marriage like jumping off a cliff. "They were not supposed to be careful people."

Another reminder of F. Scott Fitzgerald. There's an interesting discussion about monotony, that life isn't always going to be full of adventure or excitement. All the little things one has to do every day can make life tedious. And I suppose we are talking about getting the right balance here aren't we? They got it wrong and lived to regret it. Makes for powerful reading though…Don't you agree???

Publisher: Picador.   ISBN: 978-1-4472-1207-2

Disillusionment at Ten O'Clock.

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

None are green,

Or purple with green rings,

Or green with yellow rings,

Or yellow with blue rings,

None of them are strange,

With socks of lace

And beaded ceintures.

People are not going

To dream of baboons and periwinkles.

Only here and there, an old sailor,

Drunk and asleep in his boots,

Catches tigers

In red weather.

Wallace Stevens.

COPYRIGHT 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before reproduction of this article review.