I realise I did not give a review to a book I read several books back.....Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud. I was particularly interested in this one because it features Charles Rennie Macintosh whose work I admire.
Set on the Suffolk coast Thomas Maggs is growing up. His father is the village publican, a man who when drunk, becomes violent. It is a house of atmosphere. Charles Macintosh (known as Mac) rents a property near the village with his wife. As the war begins rumours about him drift through the village. Thomas himself is worried when he forms a friendship with the couple and reads some of the art books with German words in them. Mac and his wife give Thomas paper, a set of watercolours and let him draw (his favouirte subject is ships). Thomas has a club foot and Mac has a limp - another connection, but as the rumours multiply someone reports Mac as a spy and the police come calling.
The story is a coming of age. Thomas learns about his father's past, first love, about war and what it can do to a small village. I did enjoy the book, however I found the ending confusing. It came too fast and I had to go back and read the last few paragraphs three times as I wasn't sure what was in Thomas' head and what was real. Maybe it's just me but the book as a whole was taken at a slow pace and then suddenly changed. It was interesting to learn about this side of Mac and follow Thomas' journey,
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman was a book I couldn't put down. When I was out I would be thinking 'when I go home I can get back to it.' Tom is a lighthouse keeper on Janus off the Australian coast and the town of Partageuse set between Perth and Albany. Tom meets Isabel, they marry and go and live on the island where the lighthouse is. A boat comes every three months with supplies but otherwise they are very much alone until there is leave due. Isabel suffers three miscarriages, the last two weeks before a boat is shipwrecked containing a dead man and a baby. Isabel wants to keep the baby. She is still grieving for the loss of her own. She persuades Tom not to signal about the boat. In the end he agrees, buries the body of the man and, because they have not told Isabel's parents of the last miscarriage, they present the child as their own when next on shore.
But Tom's conscience pricks. He meets the woman who gave birth to the child known as Grace (who they have named Lucy) and realises this was a lady he rescued from a drunk when on board the same ship before he met Isabel. Hannah (the real mother) is lost without her daughter. Tom cannot bear to see her grief and what it has done to her. Before they leave he leaves a note (unsigned) saying that her husband is dead but the child is safe. This begins a chain of events that eventually shatters the lives of several families as the truth comes to light.
This is a haunting story. It played on my mind. There is so much grief from so many parties, including the little girl, who by now was nearly four years old. Lives will never be the same. So, have the hankies ready but read it anyway.
Set on the Suffolk coast Thomas Maggs is growing up. His father is the village publican, a man who when drunk, becomes violent. It is a house of atmosphere. Charles Macintosh (known as Mac) rents a property near the village with his wife. As the war begins rumours about him drift through the village. Thomas himself is worried when he forms a friendship with the couple and reads some of the art books with German words in them. Mac and his wife give Thomas paper, a set of watercolours and let him draw (his favouirte subject is ships). Thomas has a club foot and Mac has a limp - another connection, but as the rumours multiply someone reports Mac as a spy and the police come calling.
The story is a coming of age. Thomas learns about his father's past, first love, about war and what it can do to a small village. I did enjoy the book, however I found the ending confusing. It came too fast and I had to go back and read the last few paragraphs three times as I wasn't sure what was in Thomas' head and what was real. Maybe it's just me but the book as a whole was taken at a slow pace and then suddenly changed. It was interesting to learn about this side of Mac and follow Thomas' journey,
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman was a book I couldn't put down. When I was out I would be thinking 'when I go home I can get back to it.' Tom is a lighthouse keeper on Janus off the Australian coast and the town of Partageuse set between Perth and Albany. Tom meets Isabel, they marry and go and live on the island where the lighthouse is. A boat comes every three months with supplies but otherwise they are very much alone until there is leave due. Isabel suffers three miscarriages, the last two weeks before a boat is shipwrecked containing a dead man and a baby. Isabel wants to keep the baby. She is still grieving for the loss of her own. She persuades Tom not to signal about the boat. In the end he agrees, buries the body of the man and, because they have not told Isabel's parents of the last miscarriage, they present the child as their own when next on shore.
But Tom's conscience pricks. He meets the woman who gave birth to the child known as Grace (who they have named Lucy) and realises this was a lady he rescued from a drunk when on board the same ship before he met Isabel. Hannah (the real mother) is lost without her daughter. Tom cannot bear to see her grief and what it has done to her. Before they leave he leaves a note (unsigned) saying that her husband is dead but the child is safe. This begins a chain of events that eventually shatters the lives of several families as the truth comes to light.
This is a haunting story. It played on my mind. There is so much grief from so many parties, including the little girl, who by now was nearly four years old. Lives will never be the same. So, have the hankies ready but read it anyway.
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