It's a terrible admission but I very rarely read novels. In fact, the last one I read cover to cover was Ann Widdecombe's ACT OF TREACHERY about three years ago. However, one of the guests I regularly invite on to my 18 Doughty Street show is the journalist and novelist Dave Hill, who also writes an excellent blog called Temperama. He's written several best selling novels, and in a rash moment before Christmas I told him I'd read his latest tome called THE ADOPTION. Well, true to my word, I've just finished it.Now I hope he won't take this the wrong way, but THE ADOPTION is a book which could have been written by Ann Widdecombe. It's similar in content, style and tone to Ann's novels. It revolves around familial relationships and the traumas sudden changes bring to an established family environment. Jane and Darren have three children, but at the age of 44 Jane can't conceive. They decide to adopt and three year old Jody is brought into the family. Jody's mother was an alcoholic and couldn't cope with her. She's a withdrawn child who barely speaks at first.
The book tells the story of how Darren and Jane envelop her with love and how their other three children react to the new situation. Jane is a woman with many insecurities, while Darren is a man who seems to let little trouble him. He provides the stability Jane craves, but at the same time it annoys her. They seek counselling to help their own relationship and their difficulties with their new child.
The story ends with a visit from Jane to Jody's birth mother Ashleigh. Their conversation gives Jane closure and enables her finally to feel that Jody is truly hers.
I have to say I rather enjoyed the book. As with Ann Widdecombe's ACT OF TREACHERY I hadn't expect to. I like to read about real lives rather than fictional ones. My fiction normally only extends to novels with political plots or the horror works of James Herbert - now there's an admission...
My only slight issue with the book was some of the dialogue, which jarred a bit. The conversation between Darren and Jane seemed to be dialogue which made them sound totally unlike a couple who had been together for the best part of 20 years and were deeply in love. At times they sounded more like acquaintances. Too many sentences were laced with each other's names - something in my experience just doesn't happen in private conversations between people as close as Darren and Jane were meant to be. But it's a very small quibble.
All in all I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to you. You can buy THE ADOPTION for £5.59 HERE.
7 comments:
That's an interesting review, Iain. I know of the book and have read excerpts but haven't had the overview until now.
Iain, I haven't read this, but will consider doing so. Might I be so bold as to recommend Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky? It is v good.
I tend to prefer Dave's work with Slade personally.
Blimey, a book with pages. That's more like it. Except it's a novel. And I only read historic novels or ones about Zeppelins or the Royal Flying Corps in WW1 - such as the beautifully researched series by Chris Davey of Hertford.
This is a real book isn't it - not a CD?
Auntie Flo'
Must you reveal the ending?!
Is this by way of a apology to Dave for your suggestion that he had said he might vote Tory?
Adoption is a concept that sounds so good, and small scale, almost a private act; actually it's a node, a social boiling point loaded with all the culturally dermined attitudes that ever got to clash.
It occurs when the undefended young are denuded of their natural protectors and delivered into the hands of those who are judged (and sometimes self-judged) to be suitable. Not a private act at all, and not necessarily a timelessly good one. The cruelties of the removal of entire generations of Australians, or North Americans, to other cultural hands, are documented. 50 years ago young women in our own society were cruelly treated by social norms that demanded a male breadwinner; now the gender of the supporting parents is more contentious.
What adoption lays bare are the structures of transmission of culture, inheritance of wealth, and responsibilities between adjacent generations; in societies where half and step relationships are the norm, and where there are so many young people needing adoption, how we ensure this civil and loving duty is undertaken is a measure of our society's and our own idea of the good.
I thought it was very shameful, what was said recently, over who can adopt;
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