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A review by pgchuis
The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up, as I thought the last third picked up significantly. Lovell and Hannah have a row and then a couple of days later Hannah disappears. The story is told in alternating chapters from Lovell's point of view (as he reports her disappearance, copes with their children, Ethan and Janine, and eventually comes clean (to an extent) about their quarrel) and from Hannah's (as we discover why she disappeared).
I couldn't decide whether this book was meant to be a mystery or a study of a relationship, but for most of the time Lovell went round being obtuse about how his actions affected Hannah and Hannah seemed to be a bit bored and unhappy with herself and her life in a low-level way and it got rather tiresome. Towards the end, however, as things reach a crisis with Janine and Hannah decides too late that her life isn't so dreadful after all, it comes together and makes more sense. I think we are meant to conclude that Hannah married Lovell on the rebound and has never forgiven him for not being Doug. She takes the risks she does with Jamie (and she has plenty of chances to walk (or drive!) away) because she thinks they can recreate the feelings she had with Doug, but of course it all ends badly. I'm not sure what we were meant to do with the backstory of her having been a spoilt trust fund kid and thus unable to view working for a living in a "normal" middle class way...
The strongest strands for me were the reactions of Janine and Ethan to their mother's disappearance and the fears Janine harboured that Lovell might have had something to do with it. These sections were very sad and rang true for me. I especially enjoyed the fact that they hated making the scrap book.
I couldn't decide whether this book was meant to be a mystery or a study of a relationship, but for most of the time Lovell went round being obtuse about how his actions affected Hannah and Hannah seemed to be a bit bored and unhappy with herself and her life in a low-level way and it got rather tiresome. Towards the end, however, as things reach a crisis with Janine and Hannah decides too late that her life isn't so dreadful after all, it comes together and makes more sense. I think we are meant to conclude that Hannah married Lovell on the rebound and has never forgiven him for not being Doug. She takes the risks she does with Jamie (and she has plenty of chances to walk (or drive!) away) because she thinks they can recreate the feelings she had with Doug, but of course it all ends badly. I'm not sure what we were meant to do with the backstory of her having been a spoilt trust fund kid and thus unable to view working for a living in a "normal" middle class way...
The strongest strands for me were the reactions of Janine and Ethan to their mother's disappearance and the fears Janine harboured that Lovell might have had something to do with it. These sections were very sad and rang true for me. I especially enjoyed the fact that they hated making the scrap book.