A more benign residential institution was my boarding school. I’ve just written about my time there, in lieu of a review of Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s Terms & Conditions, HERE. I was not planning to read this book in one sitting, but I could not put it down and so I read it in one sitting.

What Maggie O’Farrell gives us is Esme’s story, which is a sad and infuriating one, and Iris’s story which has at least one sad element of its own. Neither of these women does exactly what people expect of them, and one of them has paid a price beyond belief for being independent and different. The characters are incredibly interesting and believable. There are historic family secrets, and modern dilemmas. O'Farrell has written beautifully, capturing both the emotions of the characters and the atmosphere and social mores of the time with both accuracy and occasional flashes of humor.

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Esme reaches out and laces both her hands round one of Iris’s. ‘You have come to take me away,’ she says, in an urgent voice. ‘That is why you are here.’ Iris studies her face. Esme looks nothing like her grandmother. Can it really be possible that she and this woman are related? ‘Esme, I didn’t even know you existed until yesterday. I’d never even heard your name before. I would like to help you, I really would—’ ‘Is that why you are here? Tell me yes or no.’ ‘I will help you all I can—’ ‘Yes or no,’ Esme repeats. Iris swallows hard. ‘No,’ she says, ‘I can’t. I . . . I haven’t had the chance to—’ But Esme is withdrawing her hands, turning her head away from her. And something about her changes, and Iris has to hold her breath because she has seen something passing over the woman’s face, like a shadow cast on water. Iris stares, long after the impression has gone, long after Esme has got up and crossed the room and disappeared through one of the doors. Iris cannot believe it. In Esme’s face, for a moment, she saw her father’s.” I read this book because I was high on O’Farrell’s memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. I knew her language fits me—it makes me feel all floaty and it makes my soul all happy. And as I said, I love crazy and I love loony bins—as any zealous ex-Psych major would. Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives. She hears trees crying as they leak rubber, tunes out conversation, and is the only blurry person in a family photo.

We do catch up with Esme after her 60 years of incarceration, through her great niece Iris. Iris’ story is set in contemporary times, it’s is very interesting too. I loved it. I won’t spoil what happens, suffice to say, the ending is something I didn’t expect, it shook me. Highly recommended. Let me know what you think of this one. This would be a great book for a group discussion. Esme's mother is an emotionally remote parent whose love is conditional upon her daughters conforming to the stereotype that she requires. Chiefly this involves marrying well - although Esme is a good student and excelling at academics she is not allowed to stay on at school or further her education as her mother believes it is kore important that a woman married well than has a career - or is happy. She is froM the "spare the rod and spoil the child" school of thought when it comes to punishment and will be cruel in dishing punishment out to Esme. She clearly favors Kitty. She endured some great losses as she had miscarriages and gave birth to a stillborn child as well as losing her only son Hugo. Esme's Father For Esme, ‘ This girl (Iris) is remarkable to her. She is a marvel.’ No doubt in Iris, Esme recognises the woman she could have been had she been born several decades later. That may also be why Kitty seemed to grow less fond of Iris as she got older. This is a complex and compelling story. It combines a historical exposè of mental health treatment with the modern dilemma of what happens to those people who were confined for the majority of their lives when there was nothing wrong with them other than they were an embarrassment to their families.The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is a novel by Northern Irish author Maggie O'Farrell, published in 2006 by Headline Review, concerning three generations of a Scottish family. Alex and Luke are both married men in love with Iris. Do you think this is why they so dislike each other? Is there a difference between their situations? Do you think Iris really loves either one of them? Why or why not? The ritualised publicising of a private relationship, the endless speeches given by men on behalf of women.” [weddings] I just finished my second reading (audio) of this novel. I am in awe of Maggie O'Farrell's ability to so deftly create a complex narrative with multiple story lines that weave seamlessly in and out of each other. It is very easy for me to get a bit lost with this type of novel especially on audio but I did not get lost once. I don't know how she does it but O'Farrell is the queen of multiple storylines showing off her talent here again with each narrator's story being equally vivid, compelling and spellbinding. and then she writes brilliant sentences which make me stop, reflect and admire:

THE AUTHOR: Born in Northern Ireland in 1972, MAGGIE O'FARRELL grew up in Wales and Scotland and now lives in London. She has worked as a waitress, chambermaid, bike messenger, teacher, arts administrator, and journalist in Hong Kong and London, and as the deputy literary editor of The Independent on Sunday.There are books that stay with us for a long time. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is one such book for me. What a powerfully, sad, upsetting, and unsettling story. I don’t know what else to say apart from “Maggie, you’ve done it again!”. Brilliant. If I could describe The Vanishing of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell in one word, it would be – “ disturbing ”. Imagine doing that for so long that it becomes an art. Imagine a situation in which you might require that of another human being. Imagine that human being is your daughter, your sister, even your patient. The idea tied my stomach in knots. I have not felt this level of wanting to smash into a cell and free someone since reading Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture. The Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare, c1610 ... ‘The man who wrote the greatest lines about love in all its forms.’ Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Considering all that Kitty has done, all that has happened to her, and the dementia she has suffered in old age, are you able to feel sympathetic towards her? She first had the germ of the idea at school, when an English teacher mentioned the existence of Shakespeare’s son, called Hamnet, who had died aged 11, four or five years before the the playwright wrote Hamlet. She remembers sitting in a chilly Scottish classroom and putting her finger over the letter “L” on her copy of the play (the two names “were entirely interchangeable” at the time). “The idea of this boy and of his name being used by his father just got under my skin. I could never forget about it.”I love haunting and intriguing novels and The vanishing Acts of Esme Lennox was exactly what I love. The opening of this novel reflects the simple beauty and power of O'Farrell's writing and I was immediately drawn into this story. did you know that two and a half thousand left-handers are killed each year using things made for right-handed people”. These are the profound words from sixteen-year-old girl Esme Lennox, a young girl who dared to be different, who dared to think and dream, who dared to want more from being a woman and who wanted to chart her own course in life, not the one her parents have predestined for her and not married to a man of her parents choosing. How do you think people’s attitudes towards unmarried mothers have changed since Esme was a young girl? How different would her life have been had she been able to keep her baby?