I have now finished my third Adele Geras in a month and can't wait for her next to be published so I can lay my sticky fingers on that one. At this rate I will now have to raid the junior section of the local bookshop and start reading all that Adele has written for them too.
I have already blogged about Hester's Story and Facing the Light and now here I go with Made in Heaven . All these three books have one thing in common, they take place at a gathering - in Hester's Story arriving at a theatre to produce a ballet; in Facing the Light in a country house to celebrate a birthday and in Made in Heaven the gathering is that of a wedding. Only difference this time is that the wedding is at the end of the story and instead of the characters already being in one location, this time they are scattered but all working their way towards the coming together. That sounds all very convoluted, but as I am feeling fairly brain dead as I have been at home all day dealing with The Man who has come to Fix the Washing Machine and The Man who has come to Fix the Television Aerial you will have to forgive me.
Zannah and Adrian are getting married. Zannah has been married before, to Cal, and has a daughter, Isis. Her first marriage was a youthful one, in a registry office with little or no ceremonial and this time she is determined to do it properly. All her life she has planned her traditional wedding even designing her own dress, knows what flowers she wants, how the reception will be and her second wedding day is going to be perfect.
All is not plain sailing however. Adrian has an overbearing mother, Maureen, who is determined that she is going to be involved in organising her son's big day and, as Zannah is no pushover, there are frictions and irritations. Adrian is also not too keen on his future stepdaughter, Isis, and would like to see her sent to boarding school. Cal, Zannah's first husband, distrusts Adrian who he views as a typical, flash merchant banker, charming on the surface but not so nice underneath. To make matters even more complicated, Zannah's sister Em is in love with Cal and has been yearning after him ever since he became her brother in law. Maureen discovers that Zannah's Great Aunt Charlotte has actually served time in prison on a charge of fraud of which she was totally innocent and had it proven so, but is horrified at the thought of marrying into a family that has a convicted criminal in its midst.
Phew you might think, here is a real cauldron of emotions and angst bubbling away here and how are all these strands going to be sorted and what is going to happen and gosh it is complicated.
BUT, that is not all. The two families are to meet for a wedding lunch, to get to know each other and the book opens with Zannah's parents, Joss and Bob driving to Aunt Charlotte's house where this is taking place. Joss and Bob have been married a long time, are fond of each other and have settled into a comfortable, established routine. If it has never been a passionate love, it has been a happy one but lately Joss has begun to feel that Bob, who is an archaeologist, has no interest in her thoughts and feelings or the poetry she writes, for which she is beginning to gain a reputation and respect. Joss is happy as she has a secret life she does not share with her husband and which she dwells on in private '...putting Gray aside and out of her mind could be almost pleasurable; like denying yourself a piece of chocolate when you were longing for one'.
So the scene is set, the characters are introduced to us one by one, and then Adrian's stepfather arrives and everything changes. Joss turns pale, rushes from the room and has to leave the lunch without explanation, and nobody knows why he has had this effect on her.
Well, I think the reader will guess why and then you can sit back and watch the story unfold, all the characters criss crossing with one another, secrets uncovered, pettiness and lies and unrequited love abound with everything leading to the day of The Wedding.
Adele is enormously skilled at portraying the interactions between her protagonists and getting the reader totally involved in the story from the very first page. She writes with such ease and facility and the reader is drawn in so that you really care about them and are eager to know how it is all going to turn out and if there is going to be a happy ending. If you want to see what happens you will have to buy a copy of this excellent book to find out. Do - you will love it but be warned, put aside an afternoon to read it straight through because once you start you will not be able to put it down.
Now I understand that A Hidden Life is being published in a few weeks so bang goes another Saturday afternoon...
