'Adele and Wendy and Jude did not fit properly anymore, without Sylvie. They had been four, it was symmetrical. When they went on holidays they shared two hotel rooms, two beds each. There were four places at the table, two on each side. Now there was an awful, unnatural gap.' (p71)
Charlotte Wood's The Weekend (2019) is the story of three friends, now in their seventies, coming together after the death of Sylvie. The women have been friends for decades and have been with each other through life's ups and downs. They gather for one last Christmas at Sylvie's beach house, to clear it out for sale and to remember her. Adele is an actress, who had brief fame a lifetime ago and now struggles to pay her way. Wendy was once an admired feminist academic, now widowed with distant children and an ageing unwell dog. Restauranteur Jude is used to being in control and as such doles out the tasks to the others ensure Sylvie's house is cleaned properly, although no one will meet Jude's exacting standards.
The three women could not be more different and it is a wonder that their relationship has survived for forty-plus years. Sylvie was the lynchpin that held the foursome together.
Each of the women grieves the loss of their friend in different ways and over the course of the weekend tensions rise, past slights and bitterness come to the surface. Will their relationship endure or will the fragile threads that bind them finally give way?
Charlotte Wood is a gifted writer, creating deeply real, flawed characters. She writes with wit and insight, offering an unblemished portrait of ageing, loneliness and grief. Even Finn, the ailing dog, is vividly portrayed. The Weekend is tightly written and able to be read in one sitting. It was such a pleasure to read a novel where all the lead characters are vibrant older women.
The Weekend has been longlisted for the Stella Prize. Wood won the Stella Prize in 2016 for her incredible novel The Natural Way of Things.