Publisher: 1st February 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 4th Estate
Pages: 320 pages
Genre: fiction
My Rating: 3.5 crowns
Synopsis:
Margaret Bryce, deceased mother of twins, has been having a hard time since dying in 2014. These days - they're not exactly days - she visits her daughter Eva in Madrid, her daughter Rachel's family in Melbourne and her estranged husband Henry in Aberdeen. Mostly she enjoys the experience of revisiting the past, but she's tiring of the seemingly random events to which she repeatedly bears witness. There must be something more to life, surely, she thinks? And death?
Spanning more than seventy-five years, from 1945 to 2021, we join Margaret as she flits from wartime Germany to Thatcher's Britain to modern-day Scotland, Australia and Spain, ruminating on everything from the Piper Alpha Oil Rig disaster to Australia's Black Summer bushfires, from the Covid pandemic to Mary Queen of Scots' beheading, from the death of Princess Diana to in-vitro fertilisation.
But why is facing up to what's happened in one's past as hard, if not harder, than blocking it out completely? A playful, bitingly funny, poignant and deeply moving novel about complicated grief and how we remain wanted by our loved ones, dead or alive.
My Thoughts
A Country of Eternal Light attracted me for its unusual premise and the fact that I am a sucker for books where characters reflect on their lives - even if this one happens to be dead (or maybe especially so?)
Margaret is reliving memories of her life as her ‘spirit’ has not yet crossed over. She was just an ordinary person reflecting on some of the key moments and people from her life. Some of the themes are heavy and the author tries to balance it with humour - often from Margaret’s throwaway comments. It is undoubtedly a clever story with very clever writing. Yet for me, I came away not as enamoured with it as many others have. There are a lot of time jumps with short sharp snippets from the various aspects of Margaret’s life. On the one hand I understand this approach for logistical and reflective purposes. However, on the flip side, it never allowed me to dive in deep and become a part of this reflective tale. The clever ending is certainly emotional almost to the point of needing to go back and reread with now fresh and enlightened eyes.
A Country of Eternal Light is poignant, sad and bittersweet in that Margaret still feels something is missing. I recommend this unusual and meandering book to readers who like their stories to be unique and left of centre with a strong finish.
‘I’m not vain. Or I am, but I don’t want to be, because vanity working on a weak head produces mischief and inadvertantly leads to familial catastrophe. Did Jane Austen write that? Or something similar? I used to read a lot, when I had eyes, my weak head trained on the page. I’m less self-regulating now, maybe.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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