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A review by jessreadthis
Across The Common by Elizabeth Berridge
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. That bastion of British Aunts is a formidable one to come up against. That is exactly what Louise does when she returns to her family home, The Hollies. Her marriage is changing, she's not sure how she feels about that. Louise also has childhood baggage that she hasn't sorted through and unpacked, mentally and emotionally. Returning home to the familiarity and routine of her aunts seems like the solution.
Returning home is bittersweet. Her aunts have aged. The house has aged. Evidences of time and the frugality of fixed incomes are too obvious to ignore. Yet her aunts cling to their pride, their ancestry, decorum, and way of life fiercely. As Louise begins to find chinks in their armor, humanizing them, she also discovers a settling in herself. When a letter from her father finds its way to her revealing a family secret never spoken of; Louise makes it her purpose to uncover the truth and bring healing to the family.
Though this sounds like a contemporary book. It really isn't. There are gothic undercurrents in the plot along with a darkness in the Victorian house's imagery. A few moments has me concerned that someone was lurking to do harm to Louise. Humor is interlaced in the sentences along with a sense of poignant nostalgia. This was my first Berridge and it won't be my last.
Returning home is bittersweet. Her aunts have aged. The house has aged. Evidences of time and the frugality of fixed incomes are too obvious to ignore. Yet her aunts cling to their pride, their ancestry, decorum, and way of life fiercely. As Louise begins to find chinks in their armor, humanizing them, she also discovers a settling in herself. When a letter from her father finds its way to her revealing a family secret never spoken of; Louise makes it her purpose to uncover the truth and bring healing to the family.
Though this sounds like a contemporary book. It really isn't. There are gothic undercurrents in the plot along with a darkness in the Victorian house's imagery. A few moments has me concerned that someone was lurking to do harm to Louise. Humor is interlaced in the sentences along with a sense of poignant nostalgia. This was my first Berridge and it won't be my last.