Transita publishes books for, and written by, the 45+ woman, a market that has been sadly neglected up to now. Despite the fact that Mariella Frostrup was so superior and dismissive when discussing this new venture on her book programme, Transita is doing nicely, thank you, and is now building up a very interesting catalogue.
One of their authors is Linda Gillard, who I remember reading years ago when she had a regular column in Ideal Home, portraying the ups and downs of family life, a page to which I turned as soon as I had the latest edition.
I have just finished reading the above book and am still trying to come to terms with it. My first thoughts are is that it is a huge leap forward in terms of writing and flow of language from her first Transita novel Emotional Geology, which I did not much care for. I found the heroine unsympathetic and the style of writing turgid and predictable with the odd four letter word slung in here and there, more out of duty it seemed to me than for any other good reason.
I wonder if that book was used as a practice run, one that Linda Gillard had had gestating for a long time and was just eager to get published and out of her system? This latest book is much more mature and so much better written. It is almost as if Emotional Geology had given her confidence in her abilities and enabled her to write such a good second novel.
BUT, and there is a but in all this - I found the subject matter disturbing. There is no attempt to gloss over the incestuous love between Flora and Rory and portray it as making them happy in any way, indeed it is made clear that this love brings nothing but sorrow. A reader coming to this book with no knowledge of its subject matter could read for quite a while before it is clear where the story is leading. Once you reach the point of realisation it will not matter, you will read on as by then Flora and Rory have a hold on the reader and you will want to find out what happens to them both.
I think this is an excellent book and one that has stayed with me and made me ponder and think. However, I found the ending morally ambiguous. Without wishing to give the plot away, it seemed to me that the conclusion was reached that love was all that matters, and the fact that one of the main characters who had been portrayed as a man of integrity, seemed to collude in this incestuous love continuing down the next generation, made me feel very very uneasy.
