This novel has left me feeling quite conflicted.</p>
Set in the small town of Brownsburg, Virginia, the story begins in a slow, dreamy pace, which matches the peaceful, uneventful life of the townsfolk. It’s post-war America, and the country is blooming with wealth, progress and energy, but life in Brownsburg floats by as always: ladies attend church in their smart hats and dazzling white gloves, shopkeepers know your name and always smile, every day is happily the same, fading into warm, lazy evenings on the porch and, of course, no-one locks their door at night.</p>
Into this small-town paradise enters a stranger, Charlie Beale. The residents are politely wary of him but he charms them, gets a job, buys some land, and settles into a home of his own. </p>
All is far too relaxed and warm and fuzzy. Is anything going to jolt us out of this idyll? Then we remember the opening pages of the book where the narrator, Sam, warns us he has a story to tell, a story which people say must have left him damaged. What could possibly enter into this serene, sleepy town to inflict <i>damage</i>?</p>
Lust.</p>
Charlie Beale develops an infatuation with Sylvan. She is married to the arrogant, hideous and filthy-rich Boaty Glass. It is a loveless union and she is all too ready for the thrill of taking a lover.</p>
Once the affair begins, the novel crackles to life. Until then, it had threatened to become a repetition of chocolate-box scenes from small-town life. The story stumbles upon lust, lies, intrigue and abuse and the readers surely revel in it with a sense of gratitude. </p>
However, the sudden introduction of this fierce affair – and its consequences – does make the novel rather lop-sided. There is the feeling that the author spends too long in setting the scene and is then forced to cram all the ‘action’ into the latter half of the novel. </p>
There is also a narrative inconsistency. The story is told by Sam, who witnessed most of the events as a child. He is telling the story now, as an adult. However, he ventures to tell us how Sylvan felt about the affair, but he can’t possibly have known. He was only a six-year old at the time, and can have had no insight into Sylvan’s emotions. And she certainly didn’t confide in a child. So, the passages where Sam tells us precisely how Sylvan and Charlie felt are frustrating. Sam tells us that Charlie ‘hoped, so secretly, that he couldn’t even say it to himself, or even write it in his diary’. Well, how can Sam know it then? He awards himself a narrative omnsiscienece yet, at other times he says things like ‘you may wonder why and I’m telling you I don’t know.’ This inconsistency was jarring and frustrating. Sometime he claims to know the innermost thoughts of these adults and at other times he throws up his hands and reminds us he was only six and can’t possibly have known what was going on.</p>
If you can overlook the glitches in the narration then this is an entertaining read and evokes very well the cosiness and claustrophobia of small-town life.</p>
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<i>Heading Out To Wonderful</i> is published by Hutchinson</p>
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