The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell

8 of us met to discuss our feelings about this book.

Surprisingly most of us had read this book before, and not one of us had remembered much of the story told. Perhaps it is a subject that brains choose not to retain. it is, after all, heart-rending.

The mystery of how so many of us had read the book before was cleared when Hilary showed us her book -10 years ago, I shared this book when I was given World Book Day copies to distribute.: 

We really enjoyed reading this book and those who had read it before felt it was a different reading experience the second time read. Why? We couldn’t put into words. Are we more aware of mental health issues? did we focus on different aspects of the situation? does the second read come with more understanding? Whatever it was we felt it was not wasted time (even for those of us who rarely re-read books). 

We spent time discussing whether the action taken at the very end of the book was justified. Given the circumstances with which it came about, we mostly felt it probably was. 

Of the characters: 

Esme was quirky, spirited, traumatised, misunderstood (in a terrible way) and absolutely didn’t deserve what happened to her and how she was subsequently treated. We were left angry and horrified by her story. 

Iris was a wonderful woman put into a very difficult situation and we felt sorry for her for that, but we also felt ‘proud’ of her for the decision she made when faced with a very human dilemma. 

We loved the construct of the story – how it developed the characters, how it went back and forth to the past and how dementia was portrayed. There were surprises at every turn. 

The story showcases the cruelty of the past. We did question whether it really is in the past, or whether what happens today can be equally as cruel to people like Esme. One of our members recalled a Woman’s Hour guest telling the story of her son who, through no fault of hers, was in a similar (more modern) predicament to Esme and, she said, there is seemingly nothing she can do to get him out of the situation.

This led us on to the subject of the closure of institutions and how people have been treated in the past vs. today and the language and the attitudes toward people who just don’t fit with the social norm. Certainly, what happened in the past was often very wrong but, we wondered, is what happens now much better? 

Would we recommend this book? Most definitely we would, and suggest you read it twice!

Our next book was selected from three recommended by a friend. All three are books written by her author friends. It was a difficult choice so we decided to go for what we hope will be a ‘light-hearted’ good read: The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner by Giles Waterfield which we will discuss at 8pm at The Hundred on Thursday 27th October.