World's End

We recently had unseasonably warm autumn days in Sydney where it felt as though summer had returned. To counter the climate, I reached for a book that has been on my shelf for many years, Penelope Lively's Heat Wave (1996) and was transported to World's End, a cluster of cottages in the rural Oxfordshire. 

Pauline Carter is a 55-year old book editor who has escaped London for the summer. She goes to her cottage at World's End and spends her days editing a medieval fantasy novel for an anxious debut writer. In the neighbouring cottage is her daughter Teresa, with her husband Maurice and their infant son Luke. Pauline sees her daughter and grandchild daily, and in observing her daughter's marriage she sees Theresa is set up for the same unhappiness she experienced.

Maurice is fifteen years older than Teresa and they seemingly have little in common. He is an egocentric writer working on a non-fiction book about tourism. Each weekend he is visited by his publisher and copy editor and they journey to various touristy places - county fairs, miniature worlds, a 'Robin Hood experience' - to fuel his work. He has little interest in his child and his work often takes him back to London.

Pauline can see the tell-tale signs of Maurice's infidelity. She experienced it with her own husband Harry, an academic who repeatedly had affairs. She wants to talk with Theresa about it, but can see no way to start this conversation. As she watches her daughter's marriage, she frequently casts her mind back to life with Harry - the arguments, compromises and promises. Pauline wants better for her daughter. While they don't speak of what is happening with Maurice, they have an unspoken understanding.  Maurice is also aware that Pauline is wise to his antics. 

As summer progresses, the tension increases between Pauline, Maurice and Theresa. Lively brilliantly captures the claustrophobia of being in a remote place as the walls come in - here the combines are thrashing the wheat fields that surround World's End, getting ever closer. The oppressive heat wave is the perfect back drop to the implosion that is destined for this family. As a late summer storm arrives, the novel concludes in a dramatic climax. 

I really enjoyed this novel. In just 215 pages, Lively has crafted a perfect depiction of simmering familial tension. 

Penelope Lively is the Booker Prize winning author of Moon Tiger (1987), The Road to Lichfield (1977), According to Mark (1984) and many more titles. I particularly like her non-fiction works. My review of Penelope Lively's memoir, Oleander Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived (1994) is also available on this blog.