Raking the Ashes by Anne Fine

                                                        Anne Fine   image courtesy of babelio.com

"In the end everyone gets to choose. And you can settle for emotional fog blurring the edges of failure. Or you can get out."

When you read this novel you get the impression that relationships are doomed!
Condemned for being too nice a guy, kind and amiable, one who never sees the bad in people, never fearing the worst, Geoffrey is deemed weak and useless by the feisty Tilly. She finally discards him, throws him on the rubbish heap as if he is a piece of garbage and lets him fester.

Tilly is strong, pushy and outspoken. She gets what she wants and is used to pushing people in and out of her life when it suits her. It seems incredible that these two people would stay together for so long before the final crunch! Polar opposites.
The novel focuses and refocuses on conflict mainly between Tilly and Geoffrey as well as his ex-wife, Francis and their two children, Harry and Minna. Fine tells us from the start that the relationship will not last by describing the "death rattle" that was always present. The story is not just unsettling, the outcome is shocking.

Tilly always seems to be plotting her escape and around 14 or 15 years later she finally succeeds.
"I was seduced along with him into living the lie."
Fine has explored the difficult role of the step-parent in many of her other novels. She describes the modern British family as a "mix and match" because of divorce and remarriage. For a step-parent the future can be a daunting prospect. Tilly shows kindness and consideration towards Minna  but it is a thankless task when she is constantly criticised by Francis or Geoffrey for interfering. It is not surprising that with all of the bickering and insecurities the children grow up with serious issues. Minna truants from school then gets pregnant. Harry steals then pumps himself with drugs. Tilly felt as if she were "some pleat in their family economy-there to be taken in and let out again just as it suited them."

Tilly likes to think that she lives in the real world of honesty and truth and criticises Geoffrey for living in a "comfortable and unthreatening cloud cuckoo land." When she works on the rigs as an engineer she "kicks men's butts." She is unable to remain faithful and admits to having one lover after another. She was constantly irritated by Geoffrey who adopted a "weasel way" of blocking discussion. She felt that he treated his children more like pets than children.

It's not surprising that Tilly snaps and reaches the end of her tether in planning his demise or her escape, whichever is the most convenient method to end it all. Her growing hatred seems un-natural and unhealthy considering his only fault is his weakness in her eyes. Out of the blue, a timid Geoffrey loses control and accuses her of feeding on other people's weaknesses.

"You have an evil gift for twisting what you know about people round into knowing how to upset them." And he is right. This proves too much for Tilly who wants OUT!
"I want to pack in this small life and pick another-Choose to be anything. Fly!" An idealist? Or just grossly unhappy? There certainly seems to be a void because she states that life is "worthless, pointless and drab" and that nothing matters anymore. She experiences extreme emotions from exhilaration to depression. Manic.

Over time she grew to despise Geoffrey then became poisoned by hatred. In her own words, the relationship shrivelled rather than thrived. When Francis dies, Geoffrey was close to bankruptcy so Tilly delayed the inevitable. Harry's wedding finally clinched it and once she had decided, there was no going back. She felt released and happy: no guilt to "live my own life and feel time my own again" was her natural right after years of sacrifice and misery.

She believed that Geoffrey had destroyed many of her good years from her late twenties to her early forties. Not only did she want to leave him for good, she wanted to make him pay with "interest." A pound of flesh. Ominous. Remember the saying "Revenge is sweet?" Tilly might be "blissfully happy" at the end but for Geoffrey, the penalty was a heavy price to pay.

Be warned. The ending is shocking and Tilly seems more like the persecutor than the victim. My final warning is don't cross swords with her. She is a dangerous woman.

Publisher: Black Swan    www.booksattransworld.co.uk  ISBN: 0-552-77285-2

Copyright 2013. Permission must be obtained from the author before reproduction of any of this review.


Comments

  1. Carol Naylor3 May 2013 at 07:44

    Thanks very much for sending through the Raking The Ashes review. I'm always fascinated by how people read the books.............I am very glad to be introduced to your blog and the other reviews.

    Writer Anne Fine.
    Abridged Version.

    ReplyDelete

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