Big Brother by Lionel Shriver

Review by Cathy White

3 out of 5 stars

When successful businesswoman Pandora Halfdanardson picks up her brother, jazz musician Edison Appaloosa, from the airport to stay with her and her family, she doesn’t recognise him. This is because he’s put on a bit of weight since the last time she saw him. A 'bit' as in over two-hundred pounds.

On their arrival at the house, Pandora's fitness fanatic husband Fletcher is less than impressed and when it starts to look like Edison is going to outstay his welcome, he gives Pandora an ultimatum –her husband or her brother. Pandora, aware that her brother's weight could end up killing him, rents an apartment for them both while she supervises the strict diet and fitness regime she persuades him to do.

While the heft of the plot concentrates on Edison’s weight loss, this is merely the narrative that glues the novel together. The wider issues and themes woven through Big Brother are loyalty, marriage, family, relationships, jealousy, resentment, control, power struggles and whether one person can be or should be responsible for another.

None of the characters are particularly endearing. The nearest we get to someone likeable is Cody; Pandora’s step-daughter, although she can be so relentlessly nice you want her to rebel a bit like a normal teenager. Then again, her brother, Tanner, takes on the stereotypically rebellious teenager in this tale.

Shriver’s writing is flawless; each sentence is beautifully constructed and each word chosen with precision. However, the ending left me feeling so cheated I wanted to unread it to get rid of the disappointment I felt upon reaching the end.

This was a hard novel to give a star rating to – it would have been 4 or 5 out of 5, had it not been for the ending. 

Review of In Search of Adam by Caroline Smailes

Review by Cathy White

Rating: 5 stars

This book burrowed deep inside me, stayed with me, gave me nightmares. Fortunately for me – unlike Jude, who the novel centres around – I woke up from my nightmares.

Jude is six years old when she finds her mother dead from an overdose, along with a note that reads, "Jude, I have gone in search of Adam. I love you baby." 

This is the last time anyone tells Jude they love her. On Jude’s tragic roundabout, we trace her childhood as she grows up in a seaside town through the 80s with a raw vulnerability and a life a world away from sticks of rock, donkey rides, lycra and legwarmers.

In Search of Adam is a book without love, about a child without love. The cruelty, physical and mental abuse Jude receives is so unremittingly relentless you want to reach into the pages and make it stop. You especially want to reach in and punch out her neighbour’s brother. Oh, and her dad. And her’s dad’s girlfriend, Rita. You want to say ‘Hey Jude, take a sad song and make it better’, but the only thing that could make it better would be for her mum to come home with Adam.  Jude eventually discovers her mother’s diary where all is revealed but it’s not something Jude had ever anticipated.

Caroline’s writing style in this novel isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, as the short, stilted, child-like sentences echoing the pattern of Jude’s fragmented thoughts take some getting used to. But. You do get used to it. It. Just takes a bit. Of time. Caroline’s vibrant writing makes this novel a worthwhile compelling read and, ultimately, unforgettable.

Cathy White was born in London and in a previous life held a variety of jobs including legal secretary and literary agent’s assistant. In 2009, she left the city for the sticks, emigrating to the Kent countryside where she lives in an 18^th century ex-bakery with her boyfriend and cat. She blogs at www.cathywhite.co.uk, www.jog-blog.co.uk and www.planetveggie.co.uk.