The House on Fortune Street: A Novel
by Margot Livesey
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Book Reviews of The House on Fortune Street: A Novel
Book Review: Four narratives to make one story
Summary: 3 Stars
Scottish-born writer Margot Livesey's new novel, The House on Fortune Street, tackles three issues in its structure: luck, love, and friendship, by mixing them in its four-part narrative--an interesting narrative for this work. In the first section, Abigail is the main protagonist and Dara is the secondary protagonist. I found it rather jarring as I moved into sections two and three, where Dara, without Abigail, is the primary protagonist. I felt as if I was reading three separate novels. The story comes full circle in the last section when Abigail once again takes over as the main protagonist.
In the first section, Abigail and Dara, are housemates to some extent. Abigail and her lover Sean live in the upstairs of the two-family flat on Fortune Street. Dara is renting the downstairs apartment. It's unclear exactly what is Abigail's profession, whether she is an actress or a theater manager. The two women seem direct opposites, which makes for an interesting friendship. Tragedy strikes near the end of the section; surprising, but not shocking.
The second section revolves around Dara's father, Cameron, his taste for young girls and Dara's childhood. It's creepy to watch this man, a husband and father, balance his need for Dara's best friend Ingrid and at the same time, not actually crossing the line into pedophilia. Cameron's interest in oogling and photographing Ingrid places him in an extremely vulnerable position.
The third section moves more into Dara's view of her friendship with Abigail and her involvement with her lover, Edward, a man who has another lover and child but continually promises to leave them for Dara.
The fourth and final section bring Abigail and Dara back together, with a more concentrated view of their life on Fortune Street and Abigail's need for Dara's friendship, although she doesn't realize it until it's too late. The catapult for Dara's tragedy in the earlier section is revealed. It's sad, but not horrifying.
One would surmise that Fortune Street is the main setting for Livesey's seventh novel but that's a fallacy. Sections one and four use the house as its base and it is the sight of Dara's tragedy. I was disappointed with overall storyline and resolution in The House on Fortune Street.
Armchair Interviews says: Unique presentation in this book.
Book Review: Luck and Loss on Fortune Street....
Summary: 5 Stars
Abigail Taylor and Dara McLeod meet at university in Scotland, where despite their differences, they forge a fast friendship.
Over the years, the friendship ebbs and flows, the emotional and geographical distances between them often magnified by these differences. Abigail becomes an actress and Dara becomes a counselor at a women's center, where the clients are often the victims of some kind
of abuse.
When many years later, Dara begins renting the downstairs flat in a house Abigail owns in London, the house on Fortune Street that symbolizes a great achievement for Abigail, their friendship seemingly grows closer. But events conspire to trouble their friendship and their relationship, while tragedy lurks around the corner.
We see the story unfurl gradually, from different points of view. First, there is Sean, Abigail's live-in lover; then Cameron, Dara's father; Dara brings her own perspective to the tale; while Abigail paints the final touches.
We discover that Abigail and Dara are not that different after all. They each suffered traumatic losses at critical points in her childhood. Abigail has never had a home...her parents were like gypsies---moving about, changing jobs, losing money, living hand-to-mouth.
They literally robbed Abigail of that foundation of belonging somewhere. Dara, whose father left the family without a word when she was only ten, suffers that loss of self-esteem that often accompanies such an event. Cameron, who seems cold and unfeeling to his daughter, has suffered his own traumas and has a secret fear that defines every action he takes.
When these underlying definitive events are gradually revealed, the final moments feel almost inevitable.
The House on Fortune Street: A Novel is a heart-wrenching saga of love, loss, secrets and betrayal---the ingredients of a
memorable story.
Book Review: Fatalism overshadows differing perspectives
Summary: 4 Stars
Told in four interconnected voices, acclaimed British writer Livesey's ("Eva Moves the Furniture," "Homework") latest tells a melancholy story of fate and character and how sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, while sometimes chance just smites a person.
Sean leads off. A bored Keats scholar working on his dissertation, he lives with Abigail in the upper flat of her house on Fortune Street. Downstairs lives her best friend, Dara.
Sean has begun to regret leaving his companionable wife for the flamboyant, ambitious Abigail, who has recently founded a theater and has asked him to pay rent. To make ends meet he partners with a friend to write a commissioned book on euthanasia. At first distasteful, the project grows on Sean, while an anonymous letter throws a spanner into his relationship with Abigail.
Sean's is the strongest, most captivating voice, at least partly because his section ends with a climactic event which shadows the other three voices.
The second section is Dara's father's narrative. He has a penchant for little girls that he sublimates in photography, like the much admired Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). But eventually his wife catches on and the family is shattered.
The third voice is Dara's. She never has a clue why her father left her and this abandonment has colored her life, including her hopeless relationship with a married father.
And the fourth voice is Abigail's. Her loveless childhood has taught her to be ruthless in self-preservation. Only the friendship of Dara and her mother punctuates her self-containment.
Livesey's subtle characterizations draw the reader on, as the multiple views reveal them in unexpected ways. Each section has a literary partner - Keats, Dodgson, Bronte's "Jane Eyre," Dickens' "Great Expectations" - which enriches the story and engages the mind. Still, the strong sense of fatalism in these character's lives casts a pall over the whole.
Book Review: A Book Or Writer That's Key To Your Life
Summary: 5 Stars
This book -- the latest by Margot Livesey -- is an astoundingly good read. It's structured around four narrators, Abigail, an actress who has steeled herself against love, her best friend, the emotionally wounded Dara who's in love with a married violinist, Dara's father Cameron who harbors an explosive secret, and Sean, Abigail's current lover who has left his marriage and cast his fate with hers.
"Everyone," claims Abigail, "has a book or writer who's key to their life." In her case, it's Dickens; for others, it is Keats, Lewis Carroll and Charlotte Bronte. For the literary minded reader, these comparisons produce yet another layer of intrigue and charm into this already riveting narration.
The book, at its core, is all about the complexities of love, particularly when the choices do not fall into neatly-colored lines. What if your love is inappropriate? What if it is hurtful? And how do we make and sustain connections and what happens when we fail?
Again from Abigail, speaking to her friend Dara: "We both had our lives fall apart when we were ten, but that only made you more determined to succeed. Whereas I ended up with the illusion that paying my dues as a child meant I'd be rewarded as an adult. But the truth is, and I see this all the time at the center, most people who get a difficult start in life continue to reap these difficulties..."
That line is the strength of the book and perhaps, also its one weakness. We see how the past reflects on the future and sometimes, the conclusions are a little too pat. (After all, many survive fractious childhoods with minimal difficulties). Still, in Margot Livesey's capable hands, the characters come alive in what, for me, was a real page-turner.
Book Review: Men, Can't Live With 'em, Can't Live Without 'em
Summary: 5 Stars
Dara McLeod and Abigail Taylor met at University and despite their differing outlooks on life and men, became friends. Today finds them living in an upstairs/downstairs duplex on Fortune Street in London's fashionable Brixton section which Abigail has inherited.
Regarding men, when Dara falls for a man, she falls. However, Abigail seems to believe men are meant to be changed, like shoes. But she falls for Sean, woos him away from his wife, but does not let him live with her for free, she charges him rent, because she does not want him to have any claim on her house.
Dara's father Cameron left home when she was a little girl. Dara never knew why and she's in London because she wants to be close to him. Cameron has a little secret. He likes little girls, however he doesn't act on his fantasies. Well, he did once, before he was shunned and had to move out. He took photos of one of Dara's little friends and this is a no no. He's sorry though.
Abigail betrays Sean, big surprise. Cameron can't bring himself to tell Dara why he had to abandon her and I couldn't bring myself to bed once I started reading this. Ms. Livesey has nailed these imperfect people and stuck in a wallapoluza of an ending I didn't see coming. She's able to both draw you into a story and a place, make you care about the people, make you want to shout at them at times, frustrated you, make you want to throw the book down. I did a couple times, but I picked it right back up, because this is one fine story that will stick with you for a long time after you've turned the last page.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene