It was once possible to commit difficult, rebellious and unconventional women to the asylum with only a GP’s signature. Not way back in the distant past either. This was Britain and it was practice until the 1950’s. The women, thus interred, were released only when the institutions closed down in the 1990’s. Regrettable social history which Maggie O’Farrell uses to great effect in her 4th novel. (Her 1st written by the way – she spent 10 years perfecting it!)
Esme is institutionalised in the 1930’s for …. no, for that would be giving it away …. is released in the 1990’s when her asylum is closed. A series of (un)fortunate events brings her to the home of her grandniece, Iris; a businesswoman with a complicated love life; a woman who, had she lived in Esme’s time would without a shadow of a doubt have met the same fate. Iris’s story isn’t the fascinating one, however, and, at times, the contrast between her opportunities and Esme’s is just too obvious. The real strength of the novel lies in the layers of Esme’s story which gradually unfolds through the narrative voices of both Esme and her sister, Kitty. Kitty, now suffering from advanced Alzheimers, can’t remember what she had for her last meal, although she does remember, with startling clarity, the events of 60 years ago, which led her to betray her sister …. The secrets are revealed, slowly but surely, in Kitty’s fractured and disjointed voice, although she only tells us the details which portray her in a light softer than harsh reality …. Esme provides the bitter detail.
And yet I found myself wondering whether Esme’s narration too is unreliable – not in a way which detracts from the injustice served her, but enough to wonder whether she really did have bipolar tendencies, which would have been recognised and treated in a different age. There are enough dubious incidents throughout her childhood to merit the question. Her surprising self-possession and focus upon release are also quite disturbing. Evidence of a real problem or a self-fulfilling prophecy?
There’s no doubt that Maggie O’Farrell has written a powerful, outrage-inspiring and disturbing book. Esme’s stolen life is upsetting. So too, the society of the 1930’s. As is the cavalier attitude of the 1990’s social services. These threads of outrage and sadness run throughout the novel, from the first page to the last. And that ending achieves something I would have thought impossible. It’s poignant and manages to upset me even more than before!
This is an excellent book group read. It’s not often that a page-turner inspires such a wealth of discussion. My group members also related the stories of those they knew who had been similarly affected by these draconian social policies. (And not all the victims were female ….) A number of group members took the book away for a reread. Now that they know what happens, they want to reread and savour …. which is as good as recommendation as there can be and an endorsement that O’Farrell’s 10 years were years well-spent!
P.S Let’s hear it for the 2007 Good Housekeeping Novel of the Year!
P.P.S Recommended for those who loved this, Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture.
I just put a book by O’Farrell on my TBR list….After You’d Gone. Have you read this one?
Yes. After You’d Gone is very, very sad. You’ll need tissues for your tears. That said, it’s tremendous!
I loved The Vanishing At of Esme Lennox. Did the ending really end like I think it did? I don’t want to spoil it but am wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me as I read what Esme did. Did she really? New to this book club online thing. Love to read not sure how to figure out which is the next read and therefore the one that will be discussed.
Welcome chloemaye … and apologies for misleading you.
I’m not running an online book group as such – the posts marked “Book Group” are logs of my real life book group discussions. But don’t let that stop you joining in here. Our next discussion is “The Secret River” by Kate Grenville, followed by “The Good Life” by Jay McIllerney.
As for Esme … yes, I think she did!
I just finished this one and really would have liked to have a group discussion on it!
I really enjoyed this book. I think it would be a good film, as well. And sitting on my TBR stack is After You’d Gone.
A word of advice – have a box of tissues to hand as you read “After You’d Gone”!
I discovered your site as I was looking for reviews for “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.” Just finished the book in one reading on a LOOONG flight from Dulles to SFO. First, the book: to me, quite powerful, touched on so many discussable issues, didn’t moralize, didn’t avoid the consequences of our actions, either. Amazing that I could feel so much for these characters, developed so sparingly.
Now, more: your site interests me so much. I have spent much of my life as a teacher, high school humanities, then televised humanities courses. Now I’m living the life of my dreams, retired early, lots of time to myself as I commute between farm in Kentucky and our new home in SF. Back to YOU…I need structure in my life, in my intellectual and creative life, and I see your blog/web site as one that effectively marshalls your creativity and seems to channel and push your thinking along creative lines. That is why I developed my own blog. Anyway. Your blog inspires me and gives me ideas. I appreciate this so much. Thank you, thank you. Liz
I just finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and I am completely confused. SPOILER ALERT!!!! Did she really kill Kitty at the end? And Robert, Esme’s son that Kitty raised, was actually Iris’ father? If someone could please let me know through my email. I hate devoting so much time to a book and then not understanding the outcome.
My interpretation was yes, on both counts.
i just finished reading this book. no one is answering kolleen’s question and i would like to know too! especially if kitty was killed at the end.
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SPOILER – Read no further if you haven’t read the novel
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robert is esme’s son and iris’ father.
Sorry to frustrate you, Lucy but I answered Kolleen by email so as not to put the spoiler on the blog.
But I will now seeing as you have asked also. Those who do not wish to know how I have interpreted the ending, read no further.
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SPOILER – Read no further if you haven’t read the novel
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I believe Esme took her revenge.
I finished this book last night whilst in work, and was left completly dumbstruck by what happened at the end – i’m so glad I found this site to see I was not the only one!!
Albeit the book was fantastic, working in a supported living environment with people who, like esme were put into these awful places for no real reason, it was touching to read and at the same time incredible haunting – well done Maggie O’Farrell, an absolute triumph!
Kate
I read “The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox” also and like most of you, I too was shocked by the ending. Esme actually killed Kitty?? How? It didn’t even seem like anything happened.
I loved the book but I would like to know what’s going to happen next with Alex and Iris!
fatima,
My impression was that Esme smothered Kitty with one of the sofa pillows–the one she carefully replaces (middle of page 240 through page 241)..
I loved this book too! I was searching all morning to find the answer and/or opinions to the ending. I believe Esme killed Kitty in the end but I actually had to reread the ending 3 times for it to sink in! Wow what a great book – so well done. Another fabulous book along the same lines is An Inconvenient Wife – the author escapes me now but it was fantastic also. Happy Reading to all. Thanks for posting this topic.
What about the ring? Was that what was missing from the box of Esme’s possessions taken at the asylum check-in? Did I miss something?
When she gave birth the baby was wrapped in a green blanket and the nicer nurse said she would keep it for her. That was the cloth she was searching for in the box, I think.
Hi All,
I, too, was struck by the novel…picked it up randomly in an airport and I’m soooo glad I did. I, too, read the ending over and over — but I’m still not sure. There’s the idea that the sun did not come a second time and Esme was waiting for that, but she rang the bell anyway. And the confusion over which sister was standing and which was sitting. Amazingly subtle like trying to catch snowflakes.
There is another scene I’d like to ask about. It’s the horrible scene when Kitty does actually go to the “home” to see Esme and peers into a padded cell seeing the swathed creature moving slowly against the wall. If that was Esme, and I assume it was, how she managed so much dignity when Iris met her and thereafter is a testament to her character.
Another oddity….for me….we don’t know for sure until she actually gives birth that she’s pregnant. Or, rather, I suspected it could have happened, but only after the fact.
And, thanks for the opportunity to interact with others who’ve read the book. I couldn’t wait to get home from vacation to try to find such a blog.
Carole
Here’s my interpretation that addresses some of the above. (SPOILERS!) Esme used the pillow she had been handling to murder Kitty. The significance of one sister sitting, one standing is that it was Esme standing — for once she had the power, Kitty was in the more helpless position, particularly because of her Alzheimer’s. As for the horrible state Esme was in when Kitty went back to see her, I believe that was right after she had the baby taken away from her. I guess she recovered somewhat over the years. Something I wondered about was why Esme ran away to Russia in reaction to Kitty having caught her and Alex. I’m guessing the author was trying to show that Kitty disrupted yet another family member’s life, but it’s not as if Kitty acted on what she saw. It was just an embarrassing moment — why run away?
I have two alternate interpretations–first, it was IRIS that went to Russia, not ESME. Esme was institutionalized. And the significance of one sister sitting and the other standing was a reference to how, in their family portrait when they were children, Esme had to sit because she was so tall and Kit was standing. It was reversed in the final scene.
I sincerely hope that “The Vanishing Act of Esme…” is not a true story because it is so haunting. From my perspective, it seems Esme sometimes escaped her loveless existence with her family by these “hallucinations.” A child whose mother avoids physical touch – how awful. Trapped in a family whose emotional dimensions are as deep as an insects’ would have driven anyone to occasional madness. What was really appalling to me was when Kitty discovered Esme had a child. Surely she must have realized then that Esme had been raped by the man who’d wanted to marry Esme and rejected her (Kitty). Thus the reason for her emotional turmoil (rape) on that fateful night. Instead, this monster (Kitty) is jealous because Esme actually had sex and she, who was married had not yet done so. Such a person who is so devoid of empathy did deserve whatever wrath Esme handed out. While the ending is so vague, in my imagination, I hope Esme got some justice!
When Esme goes through the box of belongings taken from her at the assylum, she is looking frantically for a piece of green material that she thinks is probably wool. She says that they promised to put it in the box for her. I read the whole book looking for that piece of material and I clearly missed it. Did anyone figure out what it was? It’s driving me crazy!
Oh, incidentally, in response to Raquel, I’m pretty sure Kitty thought that Esme had voluntarily had sex with Jamie, because she’s angry that Esme knew what to do while she, Kitty, didn’t (page 219 paperback). One doesn’t need to understand the mechanics of sex to be raped. I’m giving Kitty the benefit of the doubt here – I think it gave her reason to believe that Esme had wronged her. If she had really understood what Esme had gone through, she would have to have been a monster to leave her there. Mostly, I think, no one loved Esme enough to find out the truth of anything.
The green cloth was a part of her baby’s blanket when he was torn away from her after birth. It’s her remnant of that reality.
Oops, sorry. The missing green cloth was the swaddling blanket. That would have been my guess but I missed the detail.
Im confused as to why Esme was making note of the razor when she was in the bath at Iris’s place and why her name was on the papers as the relative to Esme while she was lockd away.
I think Kitty was jelous about James and that he must of knew the baby was his when he went to viset her. I dont think she realised Esma was raped.
And I just dont understand why her parents never went to see Esme they did’nt seem to care about her at all.
I am so relieved to find this blog! After I read it I couldn’t believe the book was over and I still had so many questions. Nearly all of them have been answered on here, but I did wonder …
Jamie, the boy that raped Esme, later meets the baby boy and says “The son, the heir”. At least I think it was supposed to be Jamie saying it. So I’m wondering, did he see that the baby looked like him and know it was his baby?
Also, this is a much more trivial matter, but are we supposed to believe that Kitty and her husband never had sex, and if so, why not? Was he just so uneducated on it that he didn’t know how, or did he simply have no interest in sex? I thought that part was very curious
I loved this book and can’t wait to to re-read it. I agree with previous posters who said that it would be a fantastic movie!
It is quite possible that Kitty’s husband was actually homosexual – there was very little understanding or knowledge of homosexuality in Kitty’s time. In the scene where Kitty’s husband makes an advance and then stops, I believe this is where he was expecting to feel some sort of anticipation or lust, but found none, to his confusion. He would have been educated enough about sex. He was not interested when Kitty was explaining it as the doctor explained to her – instead he just moved to sleep in another room.
i’m just after reading t
hi everyone
just finished reading “Vanishing act of Esme…”what a beautiful read it was.It took me less than 24 hours to finish it up- really unputtable.Yes the end seems ever so vague and elusive and, like some had to read it twice just to make sure i understoond it right.
SPOILER
Esme kills her sister.What an act. Still that does not compensate what Kitty did to her.
Esme was perfectly all right a bit rebellious, bizzare, but inteligent woman so ahead of her times…
Such a beautiful story, highly recommended.
XXXX
I just finished the book. As a practicing psychotherapist in the 21st century, the conditions, while not new for me to hear, where nevertheless shocking. I actually felt Esme’s pain, and it shed new light on mental illness and hospitalization.
I am actually not sure if she had a serious mental illness (such as the schizophrenia she was diagnosed with in the book) or some other form, or maybe none at all and a dissociation from herself from the childhood trauma and then the rape.
Kitty on the other hand was doing only what she could. In the time they were in, life was completely different than today’s socitey. Had Esme gone on with her strange and erratic behavior, it is likely Kitty’s “chances” would have been ruined. This is not a justification. Kitty still likely was the one who sealed Esme’s fate.
The only part I did not love was the ending. I don’t think Esme needed to kill Kitty, or that Robert had to be her son. Obviously I am not the author, nor can I change a book, but from the moment Jamie came into the story, the reader knew who he would love, and when she turned hime down, who he would take anyway he could. I am actually not sure why he was sent away, does it mean people knew about the rape? His mother, who hated her so much?
Also, I missed why Esme stayed in Caulstone after she delivered Robert. Also, what did Duncan, Ishbel and Esme’s father say about Robert? It seemed bizzare that those reactions were absent. Didn’t people notice that she left town not even showing a pregnancy, but returned whenever with an baby who was nine months older than he should have been?
Thanks,
Daniel
Daniel: In our book group we read 1000 White Women
which also deal with a young woman being institutionalized against her will by a very wealthy and powerful father. It’s a fantastic book about strong women. The main character is offered a way out of the asylum and the adventure begins. If you haven’t read this one…it is just Fantastic
thanks for the site! I have much better insight into the book! I was confused at the end and now understand.
I feel that Duncan was gay.
I thought he was gay as well and that he only married Kitty to hide that. He used her and hid his “reason” for not being interested. He could also have been interested in her family money
To respond to some people’s comments: To Marcia-I do not think that Duncan was gay. In his day and age, if he was brought up in the high dignitary circles that he was, he most likely would not have come across the mechanics of sex in his daily conversations. He just didn’t know what to do, or was too embarrassed to try. To Gracie- When Jamie said “the son, the heir” I had believed he was speaking directly to Kitty, as in like “oh this is the son everyone has been talking about! I finally get to meet this baby boy, the heir to the [what was Duncan’s last name? I forget… Lockhart? Anyways…] throne” (or something similar to that).
And I just have to say… Poor Esme! Her circumstances totally sucked. I don’t even have any other words for it. That her family’s, as many others, sentiments were almost emotionally non-existant, is just terrible. If I didn’t get any postitive recognition or a hug or something from my family/friends regularly, I don’t know what I’d do!
I would also like to add that I thought the Alex/Iris/luke side story was mostly irrelevant to the plot. I mean, it did have it’s moments obviously, but I mostly skipped over whatever was going on in Iris’ life because I didn’t care. I wanted to hear what was going to happen to Esme and hear Kitty’s side of the story, etc.
I believe a sequel is duly in order here.
Savannah,
I think the Alex/Iris/Luke side story offered a kind of parallel to Esme’s own story and, on second reading, might be seen as a “like grandmother, like granddaughter” kind of tale as well as a contrast of Esme’s time to Iris’s. (as some of the other contributors have noted above).
PS, I just stayed up until 3:15 in the morning finishing the book after receiving it at 9:30 PM earlier. So sorry if my comments seem a little loopy or don’t make much sense. I usually am in bed by 10:45 so this is a stretch now!
PPS, my clock says it is 3:34 AM now, as opposed to the 12:33 PM postmark on the comments. 😀
I just finished “…Esme”. What a sad, sad story – and although fiction, could definitely have happened. Thank you to the people who cleared up the ending – I wasn’t sure if Esme had killed Kitty (thought what was it about the red rope-did she strangle her with it?). But now, yes – I think she smothered her with the pillow. And yes, the green cloth was the swaddling blanket. I think Esme could have gotten better revenge by telling Kitty in front of Esme and Alex what was done to her – and then let Kitty stay in that home alone and unwanted for the rest of her life.
To the poster, Daniel – well, no Robert couldn’t be Kitty’s son-that was the crux of the story. Kitty’s husband never had intercourse with her and in her “society”, she could not have had sex outside of marriage. Also, her chances were ruined anyway. She wanted Jamie-didn’t get him. Instead, ended up in a loveless marriage, betrayed the sister who did love her and stole her child. Esme stayed in Caulstone after Robert was delivered because her family had her committed against her will. They never allowed her release! The baby who was 9 mos old when Kitty brought him home would not necessarily be noticed. Women didn’t bring their babies out with them-nurses were hired to take care of them.
I don’t think Esme was mentally ill at all. I think she was a spirited, sensitive, intelligent, artistic girl who simply defied absurd convention. That was what was so sad-so many women committed to those horrible institutions just because they weren’t Stepford wives.
I can’t stop thinking of this wonderful book. Thank you, Maggie O’Farrell.
Lovely and haunting book! Maggie O’Farrell has given us a real gift with this novel. I too stayed up past my bedtime and read on and on until the wee hours of the morning. Esme was such a complex character and perhaps just a woman ahead of her time. How about Vanessa Redgrave as the newly released Esme? I think the flashbacks to India could be incredible.
What a book! By the way, has anyone else read The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean? Another very addictive book! Do not pick this one up on Christmas Eve or the festivities will have to wait!
Also loved the book but dreading the inevitable Hollywood version already….One last mystery remaining for me…Does anyone know what Kitty means when she says ‘I didn’t take it’ i(on pg 268 before Esme kills her) Is she referring to the baby or to the green material that wasn’t part of Esme’s belongings when she leaves Cauldstone? Help!
Kate,
My impression was that Kitty was referring to the baby. Kitty’s response to Esme’s, “Hello, Kit” is so emotional and her words pour out “without pause or reflection, as if she’s had them ready”. Not the sort of reaction you would expect over a swaddling blanket.
I think that Duncan was probably impotent. I find it hard to believe that even back then, a man wouldn’t know what to do, even if sex wasn’t talked about openly.
I still don’t understand the significance of the rope in the last scene. If Esme smothered Kitty with the pillow, then what did the rope do- was that to signal for the caregivers? If so, why would she pull it right after and thus give away her crime? I enjoyed the book except for the ending. I don’t think it was realistic that Esme would kill her sister, even after all Kitty had done to ruin Esme’s life. I don’t think she was ever really mentally ill, and certainly seemed very calm and “normal” during the couple of days she spent with Iris before she went to see Kitty.
Elizabeth,
My guess is that she wanted some time to pass. Kitty could have appeared to have fallen asleep in her chair and Esme might have then “discovered” that she was dead. She may have smothered Kitty when the sun went behind a cloud and darkened the room. Then she planned to wait for the sun to come out again and lighten the room for her to make her discovery. The sun never came out again, so she pulled the nurse-calling cord anyway. Esme must have thought that she could not leave the room and have her sister’s body found later, because she would immediately be suspected.
I have just read this book while on vacation. I re-read the last few pages several times until I was able to formulate and conclude that Esme smothered her sister, Kitty. It was very subtle and easily missed. What a powerful story! I am so glad that I came across this website and all of the opinions that were expressed. It helped me understand several issues that I had and I was glad that others shared those views. Words such as “haunting”, “incredible”, “emotional” were perfect adjectives used to describe. It was quite thought provoking and one of those rare novels that stays with you for some time.
I believe Duncan was impotent (or possible gay), because sex is not something that needs to be taught. It is instinctive and requires no education.
I am anxious to read After You’ve Gone. Thank you for the recommendations.
Although Kitty was a wretch for taking Esme’s baby and leaving Esme in the hospital alone, I dont not think that she realized that the baby was the result of the rape. Believing that she took the baby knowing about the rape is easy and fun to do for the drama of it, but is not an accurate assumption. From what I gathered from Kitty’s character throughout the book I think that if she had known about the rape then she would have felt some sympathy for her sister.
^ I agree with Amalee. I think it’s the fact that Kitty and Duncan didn’t even consumate their own marriage (which is why she couldn’t have a child) that if she DID know that Esme was raped, she would have felt sympathy for her sister.
Also based on the fact that Kitty is already guilt ridden as she betrays Esme (maybe without meaning to).
This is one of the many novels which have really moved me although I have to admit I didn’t like the writing style much, O’Farrell has talent in gripping her audience and not letting go.
I too was surprised Esme murdered her sister . It was such a quite backdrop instead of a moment of reckoning and redemption. It didn’t bring closure for me like it could have although I loved the book. Throughout the book Esme adored her Kitty while her parents and society rejected her. Her mother seemed depressed all the time and was emotionally detached and neglectful. Did anyone catch the part in the book about “what mother would let her baby crawl under a cart and die” or did I misread that part? I never understood if Esme accidently killed Hugo, did he die in his sleep or did he die from his mother’s neglect? (maybe I should reread the book too)
My take on the red cord was that it was a symbolic threat of Kitty’s power and ability to ring the nurses and doctors and have Esme taken away against her will at any moment. I too wondered if she used it to strangle…Esme’s character was impulsive and explosive. She was passionate, intelligent, creative and independent and clearly did not want to conform or be owned by 1930’s protocol for women. She also didn’t have parents interested enough to manage or teach her to channel her enthusiasm or sympathize with what she viewed as injustices of the everyday happenings of life that seemed to affect her more. Her character had a heightened sense of awareness to touch, smell, emotion, etc. Her sole support was Kitty who eventually became one of “them” but Kitty’s fate was not much better. She too was a prisoner of loneliness and her lifeline, as wrong as it was, was the baby. I think she felt guilty but rationalized her decision to not take custody of Esma (sealing her fate again) after her opportunity for release when she peeked through the window and saw her in such a graphic state of mental treatment. It frightened me to read about it.
I agree with the other bloggers that Kitty was a product of her environment and slowly accepted what society kept telling her was “abnormal behavior” and that she unknowing and naively sealed Estme’s fate when she answered the doctors question. It broke my heart when she found the unopened letters.
I think the mother of the boy new her son was a bad seed, recognized what happened and that is why she took Esme home and sent her son away. I too was confused about the part regarding the baby being an heir.
Anyone read it twice who can fill in the gaps?
This is a book that makes me so grateful, as a woman, to be living in America during this day and age. What a horrifying story, and very believable. This is book that will stay with me for a long time.
I think that Duncan was gay, as he seemed to be disgusted when Kitty got him to touch her.
I think Hugo died of typhus, as did the nanny, and I think when the women are saying ““what mother would let her baby crawl under a cart and die” they were not referring to anyone in Esme’s family, but to a woman in the asylum whose baby had died and who was inconsolable.
I was struck throughout the book by Esme’s hyper- sensitivity to touch, and thinking how torturous it must have been, especially for her, to be confined in restraints in the asylum. As a child, she seemed to be intellectually brilliant, and physically sensitive to her environment. Are these two connected in some way?
I couldn’t help but notice your analogy between the “intellectually brilliant” and “physically sensitive”. I think the two characteristics are very much linked. But I would add that “intellectually brilliant” is connected intimately to “emotional sensitivity” as well.
A book should be written to explore this link.
Hello, I just read the vanishing act of esme’ lennox. A truly stunnning and haunting book that leaves you lingering for hours. I think Duncan was gay. Seriously no straight guy (no matter how shy or “uneducated” he is) feels no lust for a pretty girl who is literally begging for it.
I also find it really ironic that Esme who was admitted to a mental institute came out relativly sane, and Kitty who was sane to begin is presented to us with a “mental disorder”.
This site has certainly answered many of my questions…however there is one thing I still don’t get.
At the end, when Iris finds Esme clutching at her knees , Esme says: The Sun, didn’t go in…The sun. It never went in again. so I pulled it anyway”
What is she referring to?
I was wondering about the importance of the blazer?? does their father tell kitty to wap them or something. where did she get the small one from, was it her old one or something?
Nancy,
I thought it was yet another example of how children can be cruel to someone who is different from them. Esme was an outstanding student with a background in “the colonies” (India). The blazer was probably switched with a smaller one and the name tag re-sewn.
Loved reading all of these comments. I, too, read this book in a short time. It was so compelling and wonderfully written. Loved it. I was also confused about the comment near the end, “The sun didn’t go in… the sun. It never went in again, so I pulled it anyway.”. Any thoughts? Can’t remember the last time I read and reread a book’s ending, then ran to the internet to find others’ comments…
I just finished this book over a few hours at the request of my mother. She read it quickly last week and wanted my thoughts on the ending.
It is beautifully written and so evocative of the time and period in which it takes place.
Esme was unconventional and extremely intelligent. These traits, combined with her post-traumatic stress from her brother’s and Ayah’s death and the time she spent alone with them, shaped her fate. Her restrictive and cold family life chafed against her spirit. She could not comply.
It is interesting that her sister, who complied wholly with her restrictive environment as best she could, also ends up with an unsatisfying and empty life.
Though she was not physically imprisoned like Esme, she is a prisoner of both convention and the betrayal of the sister she loved.
My mother felt that there was a further mystery regarding Alex and Iris. She wondered if Kitty’s reaction to their discovered embrace on the landing was meant as a clue that Alex and Iris were, in fact, brother and sister. I read over the parts regarding their childhood and as Alex’s father was named George, not James (or Jamie), that must have just been a misconception.
I too am puzzled about Esme’s remark about the sun not coming out a second time etc. but I think it’s clear what happened in the room when Alex and Iris were outside. Esme smothered Kitty with the pillow off the couch as an act of revenge for stealing her life.
It was an elemental act, perhaps years in the planning. I don’t think Esme would have felt any satisfaction in simply telling Iris the truth about her Grandmother and father.
A simply wonderful book. I can’t wait to read some of her others.
When Esme says that ” the sun didn’t go in…” was she refering to baby Hugo in some way. She held his body for days while the sun went in and out (rose and set). He was her brother. Kitty was her sister. Now Esme is the only “child” left.
This book made me want to talk to the author. It was definitely one of the most complex, mesmerizing mysteries I’ve ever read.
i finished the book last night after literally lusting after it every hour i missed out on a read. like many others, i had to read the last pages more than once. i convinced myself that Esme did not kill her sister. i guess she somehow fit my picture of earthly perfection to the best, despite the absence of justice in her life.
i figured that Duncan was impotent, and the shame of accepting the physical failing in that time was social suicide to say the least!
i agree with Mary Gail, about the sun not going in for Kitty as it did for Hugo. Part of me also believes that Hugo’s death changed Esme forever. We are not told that part of the story for nothing. the death of Hugo leaves Esme with a marked difference from the rest of her family. A sort of depth in death and life which her mother, father and sister can never comprehend.
Great book, i hope that one day, i can write something which leaves the reader awake as far into the night as Maggie left me.
Wow. What a powerful book! I found it at a secondhand bookstore for 60 pence, and it is one of the best literature purchases I have ever made.
I can’t help but feel sorry for Kitty. Considering her marriage, she would have had no knowledge of the term, much less the act, of rape, and I cannot blame her for assuming that Esme acted willingly with Jamie. Especially if she was already hurt that Jamie preferred Esme to herself.
When reading this, I also saw myself in Esme. It frightens me to no end to see the parallels and think that had I been born in this time, this book could very well have been about me.
The sun comment at the end also confused me, and reading it over and over hasn’t revealed much more. Esme was obviously waiting for something to happen with the sun, and when it didn’t she pulled the cord anyway. She knew that the nurses would come at the sound. Was she willingly giving herself up? Did she know that she could be punished for the act and not care, or did she think if she acted like she did nothing wrong, that she could get away with it? Either way, she got her revenge. Even though nothing can really bring back her wasted 61 years. It’s tragic when you think of who she might have become in today’s world.
i simply love the book..i read it in almost 6 hours just last october 31 ..for me,it is the best book i ever read this year and would love to read it over and over again..
this book is a gothic tale..a sad story of l0ss, jealousy,betrayal and seeking the truth..
though,many questions are left unanswered in the story’s final pages.
esme could have killed her sister,smothering her with the pillow but i just can’t take it to my mind what’s the use of the red cord?
esme is sane..she is not mentally illed..she may have been just affected by everything that had happen to her since she was young.the death of her ayah- jamilla,her brother- hugo and she was raped by the person she does not love – jamie dalziel..also she was not loved by her family..
it is such a haunting story that you would keep thinking abvout it even after you read it..unputtable..am looking forward to read other books by maggie.
Wow what a wonderful book. I couldn’t put it down. I simply cannot stop thinking about the story. I felt so connected to Emse. I have never known a book to have such an impact on me.
A haunting, deeply disturbing story that resonates with historical facts.
Although it may appear that Iris’ relationship to her stepbrother Alex, and her married lover Luke are mere backdrops to the grand theme of Esme’s betrayal (and ultimate resolution) by her sister Kitty (and their parents), I think the author is purposefully drawing a parallel between Iris’ independent, and “culturally acceptable” way of life in modern day society, and Esme’s similar type of independence back in the earlier, intolerant, restrictive, sexist, suffocating era which condemned Esme (Iris’ grandaunt) to a tortured, imprisoned “life” within an insane asylum.
Clearly Iris owning and operating a store all by herself would have been seen as “rebellious” and “mad” in Esme’s days for a woman. Furthermore, Iris seeking NOT to marry and instead continue to cavort in a series of relationships with married men, as well as her secret harboring of taboo love for her stepbrother Alex would have automatically cast Iris in the category as a “madwoman” and Iris too, had she been conducting herself as such in Esme’s younger days, and Iris, like Esme, would also have been confined to an asylum — against her will.
To me, the greatest tragedy for any human being is not so much the oppression of one’s freedom and the destruction of one’s innocence by one’s society, but the betrayal and abandonment by one’s own blood-related family — one’s primary “life source” and the entity from which one was biologically derived and thus, should have instinctively been unconditionally loved (and accepted) despite society’s oft-times “arbitrary restrictions”.
i just finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it.
i noticed the references to the curtain thread before esme kills kitty, and i was led to believe she strangled kitty… did anyone else think this or am i being extreme??
I really liked the book, but the ending was a little too ambiguous for my taste, which is why I’m now on this website trying to confirm my inferences.
I think that Esme smothered her sister with the pillow, and that the cord had to do with calling the nurse, not strangling her. My confusion mostly had to do with the comment about the sun. Even after hearing it had to do with Hugo, I’m still not quite understanding what she meant.
I also believe that Duncan was either impotent or gay, because I agree with many others here that any heterosexual man with a sex drive could figure out the mechanics of intercourse on his own.
Finally, I don’t believe that Kitty knew that Esme was raped, because there were references to her being jealous that Esme had done it when she hadn’t. I do find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t have connected the dots on the time line of the conception of the baby and when Esme had her emotional breakdown though.
All in all, it was a fascinating read, and I’m looking forward to reading more from O’Farrell.
At the end of the book, I believe O’Farrell purposely emphasized two methods of murder to further the ambiguity, but my theory is that Esme smothered Kitty with the pillow, and the significance of the cord was that which connected to Kitty’s messing of the chair threads; maybe the narrator used the Kitty’s nervous tic with the chair threads to hint that she was wanting to pull the red cord to call the nurse.
About the sun thing, she says, “The sun, it never came back in again. So I pulled it anyway.”
I really think she meant it as a metaphor to her sister not visiting her at the institution and may be a confirmation of her killing Kitty; her sister was the only person that made her happy (sun) and after that one visit where Kitty took away her baby, she never came back, she gave up the relationship with her sister (pulling the cord).
I came onto this website looking for the answer to something that confuses me in the novel…
Since Kitty went away and came back with a baby who was a few months old already, wouldn’t she have changed his birthday to another date? So the date Iris tells Esme should have no meaning to the latter, or so it seems to me.
Haven’t read through all the comments, but based on professional experience, Esme surely has very high functioning autism or Asperger’s.
Loved the book.
That was exactly my thought, especially because of her fascination/anxiety with numbers.
Thinking the same as it’s the way she narrates using the senses touch and smell and hearing so vividly – hyper sensitive to sounds most would not hear as tuned out
It was the cushion she smothered kitty with – the red cord to call the nurses was a parallel to the class they were as they would have had bell pulls to call staff when she was younger so a logical link as she had been incarcerated with out her needing to explain how she new to raise the alarm ?
for goodness sakes people, her mentioning the sun at the end of the book meant that she was waiting to see the sunset again before getting the nurses involved because once she did that she knew she would be going away again to an institution where she would never have this type of freedom anymore.
that’s what it meant, in my opinion.
I agree.
Dolly
It has been years since I finished a book and immediately turned to page one to begin reading it again. This story is so awesome–and with the last paragraph, I understood the story and had to read it again! (Esme becomes a hero when she does that to her sister!)
I am thrilled to find this discussion on-going for two years!
This story could have happened in Florida in the same time period! Men could put their wives in mental hospitals with two signatures and the women were shut away for life–or until they were discharged decades later after a class action law-suit on their behalf.
What an amazing book! I read with horror what it was like for Esme to be in that ward for 60 years; incomprehensible to me. I ended up in one for just one night after forgetting to take my medication correctly and had some of the same feelings Esme had because I knew there was nothing really wrong with me; but you ARE locked in there! I saw all kinds of people with various mental illness’ and in my mind I said to myself that I must be on my best behavior or they would keep me longer. Seriously, one could go crazy if you stay in there too long. It is so sad. Unfortunately most of the staff is so used to working with people who cannot vocalize and have “normal” relationships that they too become jaded just like the caretakers in the book. So glad that Esme was able to have just a small amount of freedom at the end; but sorry that she killed her sister instead of perhaps forming a relationship with Iris and living out the rest her days enjoying some of the things she missed out on.
aspergers, no; PTSD, yes.
I’m glad to have found this site so we can share what we think happened at the end of this book. After reading all the comments, I still have one question in mind. What did Iris intend to say to Esme when she rushed back to the room?
“…she has to say to her, she has to say, please. Please tell me you didn’t.” (p. 243)
Does this mean that she saw Esme kill Kitty from the window?
And then when she entered the room to be with Esme,
“She cannot think what she was going to say.” (p.244)
So what exactly do you think she was trying to say to Esme? Thank you.
I read this book after publication 4 years ago, loved it and kept it on my bookcase. That I couldn’t quite remember the ending speaks volumes for the mastery and subtlety of the ending.
I just re-read the novel last night (still un-put-downable! Up till 3am). However it’s amazing how many deliciously subtle little clues are scattered throughout the text when you come back for a second reading after some time away to reflect.
For instance, the green material in the box that Esme searches frantically for when she is discharged from Cauldstone. Later in the book, in the scene where Esme’s child is removed, we are told ‘…she sees that all she has of him is the blanket, the green blanket, which has unwound in her hands, empty…’ And when Esme comes into Iris’s bedroom the morning after she (Esme) has seen the photo of her son (a concrete testament to the life into which he was taken from her by Kitty), and asks Iris if they can visit Kitty that day, Iris notices: ‘Is she wearing anything? She looks down. Her top half at least is dressed – in something green.’ Such a clever symbolism! This plot device so reminded me of the red coat conceit in the film Schindler’s List, it was that effective. As with SL, where the red coat is emphasised amidst a black and white movie, the description of something green is only given in relation to this pivotal episode of the novel, when Esme’s son is stolen from her as her very life has been stolen from her.
Throughout the book I was overwhelmed by the crushing sadness and despair that Esme, such a beautiful, caring child, utterly inquisitive, free-spirited and with such a vital thirst for life, was continually thwarted, curtailed, rejected, confined (often literally grounded); her spirit and expression of her self-identity were continually shriven, trampled and smothered by her family.
Look how much love she had for Hugo, and how she was obviously devastated by the trauma of his death and felt intense guilt at her own survival. The text implies that after Hugo’s death, her parents refused to dwell on this life-shattering tragedy, or contemplate the horror. It was heartbreaking to find Esme discussing his death (in that endearing way of a child, with rationality, but still trying to understand her own part in it) with the couple on the ship on the passage back to England, because the matter is never mentioned let alone addressed by her parents, and you can see that she is trying to make sense of and come to terms with an event that has been repressed by her family.
I think that besides the parallels between Esme and Iris (the contrast between how their similar natures and choices were tolerated by their respective societies), and the novel’s fundamental theme of what defines sanity as opposed to madness, we can also see that Esme’s life in the institution reflects her life beforehand: the loss of a baby (Hugo/Robert) and the curtailing of her personal freedom. The tragic repetition of history.
In spite of the fact that Esme smothered Kitty, I don’t feel it was done wholly for revenge. When she greets her sister and softly touches her head, I felt that the tenderness of their long-lost sibling bond was still there. Despite everything, despite Kitty’s betrayal, remember that Esme loved her sister very much as children; it was Kitty she screamed for when they dragged her off to the institution. Perhaps there was an element of mercy killing when she sees what has become of Kit, even though she responds to Kitty’s agitated stream of consciousness denials about her role in Esme’s incarceration: ‘But I know that you did.’
In fact, it’s a tribute to Maggie O’Farrell’s fully realised characters that I didn’t hate Kit at the end of the novel either, I felt sorry for her too because she lost her best friend as a result of the choices she was (wrongly) impelled to make in her time, in order to make good, and her ostensibly happy life was marred by the guilt at her role in Esme’s incarceration. Remember that women in the 1930s had no real choices for independent careers, and were expected to marry and bear children, particularly those of the upper classes. I think the author reminds of this in her opening quote by Edith Wharton: ‘I couldn’t have my happiness made out of a wrong – an unfairness – to somebody else … What sort of a life could we build on such foundations?’
Although this was a desperately sad story (more so because it really happened to so many women), I’m glad that this novel has helped to make manifest their reality, their truth and their very existence, which has been hidden from history. Depressingly, Esme was not unusual – a year after the novel was published, I remember this story in the news, about a girl falsely accused of stealing just 13p, who was institutionalised for 70 years and lost in the system until a chance discovery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2701392.ece
I don’t think I have ever been so affected by any other character in any other book as I have been by Esme; I doubt there is a more compelling character in contemporary fiction.
Finally, I too would love to see the novel made into a film, but please God let it be by someone who can pick up all the subtle nuances of the plot, with actors that can convey the depth and complexity of all the main characters, and not a Hollywood gloss-over that would do a great disservice to this outstanding literary novel.
Thanks to everyone for your insights and ideas about the many complexities of this book. I completely agree with all, this was an amazing book and I couldn’t put it down. Your comments helped me to form some opinions and ideas too.
I actually read it in French, as I am trying to improve my French. I was so confused by the end that I assumed I had missed some nuance in the language. I think I’ll now read it in English, because it is certainly worth a second or third read!
I have to study this book in depth for my coursework. Any pointers on 20th century British society’s treatment of those which are powerless?
Someone please let me know. At the end of the book when Kitty is saying, “i didn’t take it”, is this referring to the green piece of fabric? Or are they refering to the baby? I guess I thought they were referring to the fabric because they said “it”.
If Kitty did come across the green piece of fabric and took it. that completely changes my oppinion of her. This was Esme’s only reminant of her stolen child. I mean, how low can you go?
That is when me feeling sorry for Kitty ended.
some of my observations :
I also was clued in by the color of the pillow that Esme used to kill her sister. It was the description of Esme’s dress at the party.
also -“the sun didn’t go in” is when we finally get the clue that Esme feels responsible for Hugo’s death, and has carried that weight her whole life, also now taking responsibility for Kitty’s death.
I think it was wonderfull that the book leaves you guessing. That’s what makes it so wonderfull and keeps you thinking about it long after the last page is read.
I’m still wondering about the blazer in the story. it seems to me that Kitty tried to freak Esme out by exchanging her blazer for a smaller one. But am I correct in that assumption. How would she have done that exactly. Because i know that kitty was already resentful of Esme at this point in the story for being “odd” and was worried she would ruin her chances of meeting a boy and getting married. So it seems that Kitty found a smaller blazer and made it almost impossible for Esme to wear, wrote Esme’s name on the tag and told her it’s your blazer what’s wrong with you. kitty also I think betrayed Esme by making Esme sound crazy with the story of seeing herself on the beach and the blazer.
kitty told the psychiatrist this knowing she would be locked up. This discussion is so interesting. Thanks for all the insight. I agree that Esme smothered kitty with the pillow then was waiting for the sun to descend to pull the cord to call the nurses to let them know that Kitty was dead. I think all of a sudden Iris put the pieces together in her mind and realized that her father was Esme’s son and what Esme was going to do to kitty & that’s why she ran back to the room.
i also read Girl Interrupted several years ago which was somewhat similar. It was a true story about a young adult who was committed to an insane asylum.
Also I’d like to read the books Maggie OFarrel discussed referring to at the end’; the R.D. Laing book Sanity, madness and the Family and The Female malady.
I find the whole thing fascinating especially as i studied psychology in school.
One more thing I found a book discussion guide for this book online and i think some of the discussion questions are very interesting. i’d love to see people discuss it here.
Here’s the link
http://www.harcourtbooks.com/esmelennox/discussion_guide.asp
I’d like to read other similar books in this vein if you have recommendations. Finally i also read The Hand That First Held mine by the same author and really enjoyed it as well, it’s sad though. I’m going to read After I’d gone next.
Thanks so much for this discussion group!
Brenda
I found the book very compelling and completed it in just 3 hours! I will need to re-read it to understand some of the confusion I felt until I realised that the disjointed phrases were Kitty’s memories in her old age. I did not like the way the story was told in the present tense, nor the completely unnecessary use of blasphemy by the characters, which did nothing to enhance the book, but is sadly, too much a part of adult fiction nowadays. Yes, it’s a sensitive, heart-breaking story, and one I won’t forget.
Jean
I visited one of our local “long stay hospitals” just before it shut and I work with people who have lived there . If this book makes people see just a fraction of how life was and may be think about where we are now we can only move forward !
I saw that a few people were confused about Kitty taking the baby. I was a bit as well at first – I thought, how do people not realise that shes either gone away not pregnant and come back with a baby, or gone away and come back with a nine month old, not a newborn. But after rereading I realised that Kitty going to the hospital and being asked “What are you going to do about the baby?” and the birth were different occasions, possibly months apart.
I came to the conclusion that she went to visit Esme after a few months, was told about the pregnancy, and decided to take him. She then went away, claiming she was pregnant, until the baby was born – which was when she came back and took him. There may have been a few months difference then, when it didnt quite add up, but there are cases where a baby is born very early, or the mother doesnt show very much – they would be easily explained. The 28th birthday would have been kept, so Esme would recognise it.
I hope this makes sense, and might clear that issue up for some people!
I too immediately sought online for answers to my questions at the end of the book. Wow– haven’t read a book that quickly in a long time. I wanted the happy ending where Kitty coherently apologizes to her sister and Esme lives out her days with a close relationship with Iris and enjoying the small beauties of life. Oh and Iris & Alex get married and love eachother completely of course too. But, Maggie wrote a tragic tale that deserved a tragic ending I guess.
She definitely killed Kitty with the pillow, she has already done it and doesn’t want to remember it when we come back in the room on p.240 (hardcover). I think the “I didn’t take it.” refers to both the baby and the cloth. I too briefly thought that Alex & Iris were going to be blood related, but agree they definitely are not.
What a brutal story. Thanks to all who have posted here and shared their insights. I read this book for my book club and can’t wait for our discussion, but was so glad to find this blog for immediate satisfaction.
I agree that Kitty’s husband Duncan was either gay or impotent, in terms of the story I don’t think it matters which, the important thing was that Kitty was left in a sexless marriage, leaving her frustrated that she couldn’t bear the child that she so wanted, which led her to taking Esme’s.
Regarding Esme’s sanity, it likely that Esme wasn’t totalling ‘sane’, but no more insane than anyone else would be, having had to cope with looking after her baby brother for 3 days after he died from a tropical disease, along with losing her nanny who would have been a mother-figure to her, the lack of support and empathy from her family to help her deal with that, the rape, her incarceration and rejection by her family, and by far worst of all having her newly born baby taken away from her. The loss of her baby is the event that really drives Esme over the edge, the scene where her sister sees her pacing around in the cell indicates the tortuous time that she went through in the earlier years in the hospital, and I think that was enough information from the author to insinuate the horrors that she went through during this time. Here, as throughout the book, the events are explained with such subtlety, the author never needs to spell anything out. It is this writing style, along with a superb plot, that makes the book such a haunting and powerful read.
One of the best books I’ve ever read and which will play on my mind for days to come.
Hi Lizzy I really like your blog. Is there any chance of you putting a subscribe by email button on it. The RSS thing doesn’t work for me. Cathy x
I am presuming that Kitty’s husband was gay, hence her being too proud to admit it to herself.
Up at 4.36am just finished the book!
The comments have clarified a lot of things for me but like others I remain confused about – the blazer – what happened there?
Also, what did happen on the beach? Did she have some sort of halluincation and why?
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Although Esme kills Kitty at the end, which is tragic, I detect a note of optimism for Esme. I feel that “the sun didn’t go in so I pulled it anyway” was a metaphor that the world didn’t end for Esme when Kitty died – the sun kept shining and Iris was holding her hand (i.e protecting her unlike her family when she was 16) whilst she was taken away. I also took this as a sign of optimism for Iris that she was no longer going to have her decisions dominated by the men in her life and was going to plot her own course.
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Am I alone in thinking that the sun reference at the end is a reference to Kitty not coming back to get her at the asylum? As in, Kitty was her light. She adored her sister. She didn’t come back, so Esme took her out.
Also, I didn’t really get the feeling that Kitty had anything to do with the green blanket not being with Esme’s things. I assume the nurses took it and said they’d place it with the rest of her belongings. I don’t see a motive or any hint towards Kitty being involved.
I also wish that instead of killing Kitty, that Esme would have instead made some reference to Kitty being institutionalized now and lost in her mind, and then went on to bond with Iris. Maybe Disney will purchase the rights and that will be the ending to the movie. 🙂
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I also wish that Esme had not killed Kitty. I honestly can’t imagine my sister taking my child and leaving me in an institution for my whole life. It really does seem unforgivable. But I also can’t imagine the awkwardness of Kitty’s life being raised in an upper middle class family in that era and being so close to a sister who was socially awkward and didn’t fit in to those rigid structures. Kitty felt so betrayed that Esme had had sex with the man she liked while her own life and marriage were not what they seemed. Kitty doesn’t know what really happened. And Kitty would be a product of her parents and society and probably wondered if something really was wrong with Esme.
But what kind of a mother, father, sister, can hear her sister (Esme) screaming and screaming (after the rape) and not have compassion? not comfort? and instead drop her off and never think of her again?? (Not to mention the employees of the institution who never once listened to her)
I guess I believe that Esme experienced things on a much deeper level than most and also was deeply affected by spending three days with her dead baby brother in a room with her dead nanny. She wants to process this as a child but everyone shuts her up. Her family won’t let her be who she is. She is raped. Then she has to go through an even more painful experiencethan losing Hugo – losing her own baby. I think I would go insane if anyone ever took one of my babies from me. She clearly had some sensory issues to start with – but she was not crazy. In fact, she was likely more sane than those around her in that culture.
Here is my point. I wish that Esme had taken her intellect and courage and emotions and used that time in the institution to forgive and accept what happened so that the ending would have her re-united with Iris with time to really live – instead of acting out the revenge that is the result of the bitterness she feels towards Kitty.
I loved the parallel stories of Esme and Iris in different times. I loved the depth and duplicity of the characters in the stories.
Side note. I also think that Duncan was gay. At one point, in the night, he rolls over onto Kitty and she feels him reaching down but then he realizes that it is Kitty he is on top of and he says something like, “I’m sorry, I thought you were….nevermind” (I’m not quoting exactly) but my understanding was that he was involved in a gay relationship outside of his marriage and that the marriage was a cover up for this. What an awful thing for a person to do to a girl.
At any rate – it was a wonderful and compelling read. Bit by bit things were revealed. Beautiful writing. Excellent book.
I really loved the book and glad I read a lot of the comments here. I am still confused about a few things like the quote about “the sun” at the end and Jamie’s comment about “the heir.” I feel like those questions could be answered only by the author.
I am also confused about why Esme was left alone at her home in India when Hugo died, and those people ignored Esme at the gate when she tried to get help. Did people know that Typhoid was there and left them so they would not get sick, and it was just strange that Esme didn’t get sick?
And Iris and Alex’s story is very important to show the parallels of Esme and Iris’s life and to show their connection. And I think Kitty’s reaction when she caught Iris and Alex is due to two things: 1. She is slightly embarrassed that even her granddaughter can have a sexual relationship with her “step brother” and Kitty was not able to even in her marriage. 2. Kitty sees a bit of Esme in Iris in that moment. Especially since Kitty does not know about the rape and more than likely believes that Esme willfully had sex with Jamie, seeing Iris in a similar “scandalous” situation shows Kitty making a connection between Iris and Esme.
But overall a tragic but captivating read! And it makes me glad that I live in the 21st century where individuality is accepted!
I jut finished this book and, like others, had lots of questions which sent me to online review sites. (Glad I found this one.) This is the second book I’ve read by Maggie O’Flynn and I’m now a solid fan. I like the ambiguity of the ending, here. I love a story that leaves me questioning and makes me want to pick up the book again immediately to reread.
The “sun” comment at the end makes me think that Esme is realizing that Kitty will never be able to realize the wrongs she has done her sister — the dementia surely stole any capability she may have had to explain or feel remorse. (So the sun will never shine in Kitty’s intellectual thought again.) Esme has waited a lifetime for her sister to make things right. Now Esme realizes that Kitty can’t — not really — so she rings the bell. But the comment is also surely a metaphor for the time that Esme spent, basically in a hole, waiting for her sister, the one person in her family that she had some level of connection to, to save her.
Very complex. So many layers of meaning. Need to own this book so I can reread and lend the book out!
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I was really happy to find this discussion, as it helped me to see the different interpretations within the book. Despite everything Kitty did/didn’t do for Esme, she did have Iris noted as ‘the family member to be contacted about affairs pertaining to one Euphemia Esme Lennox’ (paperback page 35). This was definitely too little, too late, however I see this as the one thing Kitty did do for Esme, and for Iris – to bring them together and discover the truth about Roberts past. This book is an eye opener to the past, that has given me a true appreciation for what we now see as acceptable in these circumstances.