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A review by geowilmer
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
4.0
Mothering Sunday bases a lot of its initial set up between the unspoken moments, instead Swift creates a world in which you feel utterly immersed and frustrated at the characters lack of action; nobody acts on their internal feelings, similar to that of Normal People.
It captures a post war sadness with tentative tip toes around death, loss and love, and the surviving youth living up to the expectations of their parents. A thought that I had whilst reading this, is that, all of the characters must have loved so greatly before the First World War, that now they're too scared to express it again. That classic British tripe of lack of expression!
The plot shifts later in the novel to a significant moment, that grips the reader, contrasting greatly to the slow pace of the language that went before. Swift uses flashes forward to where the reader finds our heroine and ultimately accesses some likability, and (although short-lived) happiness.
It engages class, social politics and feminism in the form of sexuality, equality and education. I started reading this novel feeling slightly disconnected to the people in the world, but as it progressed I couldn't help but want them to get the ending they deserved.
It captures a post war sadness with tentative tip toes around death, loss and love, and the surviving youth living up to the expectations of their parents. A thought that I had whilst reading this, is that, all of the characters must have loved so greatly before the First World War, that now they're too scared to express it again. That classic British tripe of lack of expression!
The plot shifts later in the novel to a significant moment, that grips the reader, contrasting greatly to the slow pace of the language that went before. Swift uses flashes forward to where the reader finds our heroine and ultimately accesses some likability, and (although short-lived) happiness.
It engages class, social politics and feminism in the form of sexuality, equality and education. I started reading this novel feeling slightly disconnected to the people in the world, but as it progressed I couldn't help but want them to get the ending they deserved.