Elsewhere in Success
Fremantle Press, $24.99 pb, 254 pp, 9781921888540
Elsewhere in Success by Iris Lavell
Louisa and Harry are both haunted. Louisa’s ghost is Tom, a son who took his own life. Harry’s spectres are no less troubling for still being alive; a failed marriage and unknown daughter pluck at his mind, are ‘imprinted on him’. These baby boomers, portrayed in alternating third-person chapters, are poorly matched against contemporary societal challenges, and possibly each other. Ex-soldier Harry’s increasing solitude is underpinned by yearning for the wartime social ideal of mateship, and life apart from women, while Louisa is in thrall to the ‘woman’s fantasy’ of shopping.
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Comment (1)
I'm on chapter nine of her book right now and am really loving it. It is very well written and I like the way she has drawn her characters.