In this piquant mix of interlocking worlds, Haigh presents her inter-generational story with considerable panache and much psychological insight. The novel operates on many levels, but most effective is how the author surgically dissects the private inner lives of each member of McKotch family as they try to maneuver around their petty insecurities, their selfish mistakes and the assumptions they've made about each other over the years.
The novel begins in 1976 as the seeds of distrust are sown in Frank and Paulette's marriage, with Frank's career as a scientist taking precedence over Paulette's emotional needs and the needs of their three children, Billy, Gwen and Scotty. Indeed, this family seem to be beset by the greatest obstacle of all, that of dealing with Gwen's "condition," and her ultimate diagnosis of Turner's syndrome, a chromosomal irregularity that gives her the powerful build of an Olympic child gymnast but also prevents her from maturing into a fully-fledged woman.
While Frank is of the opinion that Gwen's condition is something that should be objectively and scientifically analyzed, maybe even cured with drugs and hormone treatments just like one of his lab experiments, Paulette holds fast to a type of willing self denial, refusing to hear the news and unwilling to alter the delicate structure of her current life with its summer rituals and illusions of permanence. It is clear however that the issue of Gwyn is complicated at best, her condition only adding tension to the other issues at hand. Gwen seems to take the news of her abnormality in her stride, creating a free and independent life for herself, free from her mother's obsessive and compulsive meddling.
When the story races forwards to 1997, we discover that Frank and Paulette have divorced and all that three children have gone their separate ways, Billy to New York and a life as a successful businessman, Scott into a mediocre career in teaching, while marrying hastily and disastrously to Penny a free spirited dope smoker, and Gwyn to a shy and diffident life working in the anthropology department at a Museum in Pittsburg.
The family makes attempts to keep in touch, but since the divorce they haven't been together for a while and in spite of their considerable reservations, the children have to managed to attend the occasional Christmas and New Year with Paulette. It is at one of these gatherings that much to everyone's surprise, Gwen announces that she will be going on a diving holiday in Saint Raphael. This revelation is not in itself not shocking, but when Gwen has an affair with Rico, a handsome dive instructor, various dramas ensue, especially regarding Paulette's over-reaction to her delicate and diffident daughter's compulsive life change. Overprotective to the point of being deceitful, Gwen's incipient independence far from the bonds of family is almost too much for her poor mother to bear.
In the midst of all of this, Haigh delves deep into the heart and minds of her characters, exploring the elemental, but also sometimes fleeting connections of blood and marriage where time becomes the enemy and where love and the possibility of it seems forever lost.
With each passing year Paulette becomes more aware of time's momentum and the destruction it has wrought and she`s constantly haunted by Roy's self-importance, and selfishness. The sexual investigator and the relatively unsuccessful breadwinner, Scott descends into black funk, a rich and unsatisfying blend of outrage and self-pity that threatens to overtake him and his marriage completely; Billy, when it comes to his family, opts for privacy with only Gwen knowing about Srikanth, his handsome and debonair boyfriend; and Frank is finally thrust into a competitive scientific field, but he realizes with a sense of panic that he's nearing the end of his productive years with the big genome discovery now somehow eluding him.
Dissecting her characters with scientific precision, Haigh presents all of their flaws and strengths in kaleidoscopic detail, getting right the heart of their inner lives and their loves. Although at times McKotchs are not particularly warm or appealing and they do make some selfish decisions, they remain totally fascinating in their inability to communicate with each other, with the cold reality of their condition affecting their bonds throughout much of their lives. Certainly this family's journey is one of acceptance, of themselves and of each other. All are sufferers and recipients of their own self-absorption even as they continue to be trapped between loyalty and affection. Mike Leonard August 08.
