Reviews

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

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_cecilie_'s review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

I was reading while listening to this on a very, very long train ride and just needed something to take my mind off the fact that I was still hours away from home and it was getting cold and dark. Let’s just say that I accidentally picked a truly wonderful novel to combat both boredom and discomfort.

While the story was more complex and less feel-good than I expected, I found myself preferring it. The narrative is told to us, in my case it was quite literally told to me, by an old woman, Jane Fairchild a popular author, who is reminiscing about a particular Mothering Sunday in the early 1920s when she was a young maid in the English countryside. The novel may be advertised as an erotic love story in which Jane and her upper-class lover Paul play equal parts, and especially in the beginning Paul does get mentioned a lot, but it really is Jane’s story about her life through the years, hinting at her career, affairs, marriage and legacy, but staged around one day that changed her life. It is quite ironic and I’m sure a purposeful choice that the only part of Jane Fairchild’s autobiographical information that we are privy to in detail is the one event in her life which she states she has never talked nor written about. That she talks about it to ‘us the reader’ who is a non-entity is very poetic, almost like we are the priest in a confessional or rather a little mouse listening in from under the seat.

The story in itself is less of a story and more atmosphere-centric, a person’s testimony connecting short vignettes of their life with detailed descriptions of a beautiful but bittersweet day that unbeknownst to the reader ends in tragedy. The short-lived and even taboo love story between heir and maid might seem like an erotica trope but is portrayed quite believable and more matter of fact that romantic, Jane herself even stating that through the years their relationship as friends became much more important than their relationship as lovers. Also, the mental image of Jane as a young woman, strolling completely nude through an old dignified country mansion in which she neither lives nor works and which is blessedly empty was surprisingly not objectifying and on the contrary quite charming. Also old Jane is a hoot, she seems so real somehow and I was really interested in all the titbits she shared throughout.

venusverti's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Thank you Graham Swift. Thank you for Jane, for Paul, for language, (your love of it), the voice, that pace, your framing, those flashbacks, the lies, the truth. That terrifyingly blunt, heart shattering line!! *chef's kiss*. I last read Mothering Sunday for University, and all I could remember was loving this book; I couldn't remember why. Figured I'd pick it up again to remember, a short read for my annual leave. Immediately I felt at home and all of my love came flashing back, in everything I have just thanked Mr Swift for. Not only is Mothering Sunday a great easy read with history, with romance, with tension and plot, it is also a critique on language, on tales, of storytelling - blurring the very lines I was reading, those lines between fiction and reality. So cleverly done. Although this was a small book, it's words and power were mighty. I will be reading more Swift very soon!