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sineadcstories 's review for:
The Witch Elm
by Tana French

I wish I could tell you exactly what rating I would give The Wych Elm by Tana French, but I don't think I could.
It took me the guts of two weeks to get through the first two hundred pages. Pages and pages were spent concentrating on something that had seemed so trivial and unnecessary. Considering that the novel follows the "lucky", superficial lad Toby, I guess that this narration style is fair enough.
After hitting the two-hundredth page, it all kicks off and I realised the importance of every single page up until then. The reader gets to know Toby in a way that makes you love him and hate him.
Toby is a guy who has never had many problems. He is popular, good looking and rich. Until his circumstances change drastically and alter who he is. Suddenly, Toby feels what it is to be misrepresented, confused, ignored and pitied. And when a seemingly random skull is found inside the titular wych elm, the detectives get involved.
I thought I knew the message French was going for. I thought this novel would be a comeuppance for middle-class ignorance. I thought that this book would be, essentially, annoyingly politically correct. And, yes, French discusses an array of important issues, all encompassed within the Hennessy family and their friends. Class, gender, sexuality, mental health and disability are all thrown into the spotlight. But most importantly, in my opinion, French highlights the inevitability of who we are regardless of circumstance.
Are we who we are due to nature or nurture?
This is definitely a book to delve into.
I wish I could tell you exactly what rating I would give The Wych Elm by Tana French, but I don't think I could.
It took me the guts of two weeks to get through the first two hundred pages. Pages and pages were spent concentrating on something that had seemed so trivial and unnecessary. Considering that the novel follows the "lucky", superficial lad Toby, I guess that this narration style is fair enough.
After hitting the two-hundredth page, it all kicks off and I realised the importance of every single page up until then. The reader gets to know Toby in a way that makes you love him and hate him.
Toby is a guy who has never had many problems. He is popular, good looking and rich. Until his circumstances change drastically and alter who he is. Suddenly, Toby feels what it is to be misrepresented, confused, ignored and pitied. And when a seemingly random skull is found inside the titular wych elm, the detectives get involved.
I thought I knew the message French was going for. I thought this novel would be a comeuppance for middle-class ignorance. I thought that this book would be, essentially, annoyingly politically correct. And, yes, French discusses an array of important issues, all encompassed within the Hennessy family and their friends. Class, gender, sexuality, mental health and disability are all thrown into the spotlight. But most importantly, in my opinion, French highlights the inevitability of who we are regardless of circumstance.
Are we who we are due to nature or nurture?
This is definitely a book to delve into.