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A review by rachaelbuchan
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
5.0
“This tranquil landscape apparently heaves with unrest. There is more here than meets the eye.”
This sentence could just as easily describe the domestic lives of our characters as it does the seemingly tranquil English countryside in Lively’s study of marriage, fidelity, motherhood and memory. Set during an uncharacteristically oppressive summer, the plot follows Pauline as her son-in-law’s affair forces her into a reconsideration of her own past.
There were some beautiful themes here that were teased out masterfully- that the present can wash over the familiar and feel immediately brand new, how distance does not mitigate pain but only changes how we feel it. We forget the summer as soon as the autumn chill creeps in, only to recognize its familiarity as soon as the days grow longer. Heat Wave is about these cyclical patterns of familiarity, how the past and present are inextricably wrapped together and forever imbuing each other with new meaning.
This is my first Lively but it definitely won’t be my last. This book was glorious. The events are set in stone from the beginning – and even the shock in the last few pages does not come out of nowhere – but the story never drags itself along to an inevitable conclusion. Instead Lively gives almost unbearably honest insight into the relationship between mother and daughter, husband and wife, and the past and present self. A really, really good read.
This sentence could just as easily describe the domestic lives of our characters as it does the seemingly tranquil English countryside in Lively’s study of marriage, fidelity, motherhood and memory. Set during an uncharacteristically oppressive summer, the plot follows Pauline as her son-in-law’s affair forces her into a reconsideration of her own past.
There were some beautiful themes here that were teased out masterfully- that the present can wash over the familiar and feel immediately brand new, how distance does not mitigate pain but only changes how we feel it. We forget the summer as soon as the autumn chill creeps in, only to recognize its familiarity as soon as the days grow longer. Heat Wave is about these cyclical patterns of familiarity, how the past and present are inextricably wrapped together and forever imbuing each other with new meaning.
This is my first Lively but it definitely won’t be my last. This book was glorious. The events are set in stone from the beginning – and even the shock in the last few pages does not come out of nowhere – but the story never drags itself along to an inevitable conclusion. Instead Lively gives almost unbearably honest insight into the relationship between mother and daughter, husband and wife, and the past and present self. A really, really good read.