Novels No. 17 (LL335)

 

Lisa Jewell. None of This is True. Ebook download from TPL. USA: Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 2023.

Alix Summer is yet another (in my books this year) podcaster; she has wrapped up a series of interviews with successful professional women, looking for inspiration for a different project. A project that could vault her into the big-time. When by chance she meets Josie Fair on her forty-fifth birthday, Josie is the same age with the same birthday. Josie proposes that Alix interview her as a woman in progress of changing her life, rather than someone who's already reached her goal. Done deal; Alix is excited. Josie plans to re-shape her drab life that includes taciturn aging husband Walter and self-isolating daughter Erin. Disclosing her past and current circumstances is part of the process; Walter is kept unaware of the project.

Josie adores Alix and her surroundings where they record in Alix's home studio. Josie adores her new friend so much that she quietly takes a little souvenir away each session they spend together. This is the life she wants, although she doesn't like Alix's husband Nathan who, she learns, is a binge drinker on occasion, disappearing for a night or more with wayward friends. Alix deserves better, Josie thinks. As for Walter, Alix hears that he's controlling and rigid, so much older than Josie. Slowly the layers of Josie's repression peel away under Alix's guidance, with enough disturbing or unexplained incidents to create uneasiness. As Josie gains confidence, Alix experiences doubts—along with growing anger over Nathan's drunk behaviour. Josie's revelations about her life become uglier—there's another daughter, Roxy, a runaway; there's Pat, Josie's estranged, activist mom; and Brooke (popular name!), a school friend of Josie, long since out of touch.

The unleashing of truths becomes more and more macabre, some of it darkly creepy. And unexpected. People are disappearing. Alix is on the verge of leaving Nathan before everything implodes. The airing of the podcast segments seems not always in sync with where Alix is at the time, but it serves to make you think harder. Author Jewell is one of Britain's outstanding psychological crime authors, and she shines in plot, structure, characters, and suspense—if you don't mind a touch of gruesome.

Alix

▪ Her bio says: "Mum, journo, feminist, professional busybody and nosey parker, failed yoga fanatic, Queens Park dweller/lover." (19)

▪ But it is clear to Alix that Pat is actually a raging narcissist, and that no child of a narcissist ever made it out into the world unscathed. (70)

▪ Everything feels wrong: everything feels off-kilter. (169)

▪ It feels like Josie has taken Alix's normal and swallowed it deep down somewhere in her darkness. (186)

▪ "I hope Erin is OK. It's very scary thinking of her all alone in the night." (209)

▪ "He told a complete stranger about our sex life?" (231)

▪ "I think he's dead," she says to her mother when they're alone together in the garden later on. (271)

Josie

▪ "—I'm forty-five, if I don't break free of the past now, then when will I? It's time." (40)

▪ "I handed my life over to Walter when I was a child and never gave myself the chance to find out who I really am." (91)

▪ "And does he cheat on you? When he stays out all night?" (105)

▪ "We're forty-five, Alix. We can do better. We have to do better." (111)

▪ "It's happening, Walter. Whether you'd like it or not. I'm going to tell Alix everything. I can't live like this anymore." (130)

▪ "I let bad things happen. I didn't stop them. I just let it all happen." (162)

▪ "You either want my story or you don't. You can't have it both ways." (210)

Others

▪ "They were a strange family, I suppose you could say. I mean, Roxy was wild." (61)

▪ "But for what it's worth from my side—Jojo's got what you might call an elastic relationship with the truth." (139)

▪ "She's not who she makes out to be. Not at all." (199)

Emma Cline. The Guest. Ebook download from TPL. USA: Penguin/Random House, 2023.

Alex/Alix wins most popular name in fiction this year, ha-ha! But why are we following this drifting young woman called Alex, how do we find something relevant in her pointless life, her laissez-faire attitude? A year after arriving in the big city, it seems she's tired of being a hooker on call. Dom was one of her regulars who doesn't want to let her go, especially because she stole a lot of money and drugs from him at their last meet-up. So her fear of him, plus all the back rent she owes her roommates, are good motivators to move on, disappear. But where? Simon, another regular, invites her to spend August at his beach estate. Rescued, Alex adapts to living the high life and pleasing Simon the fitness addict. She expects it to turn into a permanent arrangement—until an ungoverned impulse sends her packing.

Reviewing and reinterpreting Simon's parting words has her believing he wants her to return for his Labour Day extravaganza party. Until then, a week away, Alex wanders the town's streets and beaches, seeking shelter and food opportunities. A week in an aimless life, but filled with daily encounters as she falls in and out of luck, the latter usually spurred by her own impulsive faux pas. Dom keeps calling her angrily, sounding like he knows where she is; Alex manages to avoid him. Every chance she gets, she swims, either at the beach or in a pool—this is country where every summer home has a swimming pool, and Alex samples quite a few thanks to temporary new acquaintances. It's all killing time until she's back with Simon in the kind of life she wants.

This woman spends most of her time out of touch with reality, anxious to build a supply of purloined pills and drugs, swallowed indiscriminately, apparently distant from her own feelings with no regard but selfish interest for each person she meets—she's a train wreck about to happen. Will she actually get to the party to reunite with Simon? The author builds a good case of suspense (and climax!) through Alex's cluttered life, but frankly, it's difficult to care about this vagabond who needs professional help.

Bits

▪ He lied more than she did. Alex had promised herself she wouldn't see Dom again. (15)

▪ Alex must have looked, to Simon, like a normal girl. (20)

▪ This was real, her and Simon. Or it could be. (25)

▪ "This wasn't how I wanted it to go," Simon said. (72)

▪ And really, it was nice, having a strange hand on her. She had never minded that part. (94)

▪ Alex was a sort of inert piece of social furniture—only her presence was required, the general size and shape of a young woman. (124)

▪ Like the time one of the men had slapped her and she smiled, not knowing what else to do. (143)

▪ "This is sort of dark," Alex said. Jack didn't respond. "Do you wanna check on your friend?" (231)

▪ A familiar feeling, a dim feeling she could conjure too easily. The times she knew, with certainty, that she did not exist. (243)

▪ The idea of Jack, unstable, vulnerable. What had he done to the girl? Or to himself. (259)

▪ Why had she never tried that before, tried just telling the truth? (284)