Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French.

               Oh Dear Sylvia by Dawn French.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, I was once lost but now am found, was blind but now I see."

This is French's second novel, ambitious but dark. The writer presents us with multi-narrators who are linked to Silvia, a 60 year old who is in a coma after falling from her balcony. She has sustained a serious head injury and is in a critical condition. The million dollar question is did she fall or was she pushed? Had she been drinking? What was her secret? Why did she reject those she loved?

Her family Ed, Cassie, and Jamie have been rejected by Silvia and monologues delivered at the side of her hospital bed reveal the true extent of why she wanted to protect them and in doing so, reject them. Of course, her family remain in total ignorance of this and grow to hate her. They harbour grudges and it creates insecurities. Her son Jamie signs up out of rage and is sent to Afghanistan where he is almost killed. He writes a scathing letter to Silvia telling her how he hates her, a letter that Cassie, his sister reads to Silvia. It is shocking how much hatred he bears her particularly when she is fighting for her life. It has taken Cassie a lot of courage to face her mother and forgive her.

Cassie was thrown out when she became pregnant as a teenager and refused to have any contact with her mother once Willow was born. Over the years she is desperate to understand why her mother abandoned her when she most needed her.

 Sister Jo has promised her late mother that she will protect her younger sister and she has lived her life in Silvia's shadow a little resentful of her sister's self-centred attitude. She refers to her as being thoughtless and insensitive.  She feels useless and a complete failure although she does try some pagan ritual, a celestial gathering as she calls it. She hopes that the angels will purge her of her "toxic anger and bitterness", frowned upon by the hospital authorities in order to try to bring Silvia back to full consciousness. It will cleanse and vitalise her sister.

"Shower this wretched invalid with your healing vibrations, envelop her in your protective love, and let her body glimmer with light and health."

 She brings in animals believing they have inherent powerful healing qualities. She hides a chihuahua in her handbag, a hamster and a stick insect. Desperate tactics. She is so desperate she will try anything, even sneaking in a male stripper gyrating to Tom Jones' "You can leave your hat on" to celebrate Silvia's 60th birthday along with a Miss Piggy cake! Weird. But that's Jo. Does it work??

Winnie is her primary caregiver, a Jamaican nurse who symbolises goodness and who confides in Silvia as she checks her breathing equipment or washes her. She is there to support the family and finds friendship with Silvia's ex.

Cat is the femme fatale, a G.P. who is also a drug addict, in awe of Silvia with violent tendencies. She is married to Philip, also a doctor but it's a sham of a marriage and she is physically abused. Cat becomes infatuated with Silvia and they have embarked on a lesbian relationship with tragic consequences. This is where the story gets a bit messy and the police get involved. Certainly worth a read but remember what I said, it's rather bleak most of the time.

"It's only at the very edge of life and death that we truly live." Try and work that one out.

Publisher: Penguin.  ISBN: 978-0-141-04635-8.

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.