Evans’ latest work of fiction continues, post-divorce, the story of the two black London-based couples with marital woes, whom we first met in her last novel Ordinary People. Michael is remarried to a vivacious singer Nicole, but that does not prevent him from pining after the lost Eden he had with Melissa. Damian has chosen to stay single but both he and Stephanie are worried about their teenage daughter Avril and her eating disorder.
The book opens with Cornelius, the Pitt family’s patriarch, whose house is “moulded around him”, leading a solitary life after his family leaves him one by one. He dies in a freak fire on the same night as the horrific Grenfell inferno. His wife Alice, “who left him slowly with many suitcases”, is secretly relieved that she would no longer have to put up with “taut” Christmases and “pressured” calls with the man who terrorised her family all their lives.
The wealth of characters and their tangential plotlines can be confusing but once you settle into the rhythm, the payoff is worthwhile
This book is about the yearning for a safe haven. Through the Grenfell tragedy and the characters in this story, Evans explores what it is like to be exiled and the various ways in which the characters seek refuge. Alice is fixated on going back to her homeland, Nigeria, chasing the childhood she left there. Perhaps that is a way of dealing with her abiding regrets about not protecting her children from their father’s abuse. Her daughters, for whom she has been the safe space from the vagaries of life, are reluctant to let her go. Avril’s eating disorder, in the wake of her parents’ divorce, stems from her unfulfilled wish for a place where she can feel peaceful.
Evans’ elegiac writing captures the intricacies of volatile relationship dynamics with a stinging turn of phrase. Damian observes how since his divorce he has lost his name and become “their father”, a common noun. Avril describes her chronic anxiety as a “quiet scream”.
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The wealth of characters and their tangential plotlines can be confusing but once you settle into the rhythm, the payoff is worthwhile. Besides the private ordeals that these characters face, the book also pans out to reflect upon the challenges of being Black in Britain.This astute novel bears witness to private and collective agonies.
