It isn't until about two-thirds of the way into the novel that we are told what happened. His daughter would keep an eye on Clementine and Sam's two daughters and the adults would drink, eat and have fun. For Vid, in particular, life is to be enjoyed, kept simple, but even he finds it hard to forget the day that started with such innocence. Their home is palatial and their daughter is smart and adores reading. Cheerfully materialistic, Vid is a commercial electrician and Tiffany a former pole dancer who has turned her mind, successfully, to property development. The couple who host the barbecue, Vid and Tiffany, are, comparatively speaking, more robust and fun. Her lovely cheerful husband, Sam, is overwhelmed by anxiety and depression, while their stitched-up friends, Erika and Oliver, are forced to review the foundation of their lives. Moriarty is brilliant at her craft, all the time cranking up the suspense.Ĭlementine is so stricken by the incident she takes time off from her music to give public talks at libraries about how we can never be too careful. The chapters take us to the months, days, hours, and seconds even, before and after the incident. Crucially, the nature of the actual event is initially withheld from the reader, a device Moriarty successfully employed in Big Little Lies.
The three couples who attend the barbecue bemoan the role they played that day and wish – how they wish – they never went in the first place. The focus of Truly Madly Guilty is a Sunday afternoon barbecue in the posh suburbs where something happens – something really bad. But having suggested Trollope, Moriarty offers something more. Like Trollope, Moriarty is concerned with the texture and themes of everyday life. The closest writer I can compare her to is Joanna Trollope. Moriarty's preoccupations are more with the subterranean complications of those marriages.
The three couples at the centre of the story have established marriages where each partner knows their well-rehearsed lines. Moriarty certainly isn't writing conventional romances.
0 kommentar(er)
