There are always two ways to interpret everything in life. All you need to do is pick the version that suits you better.
The Book in 3 lines
“A Tidy Ending” by Joanna Cannon is a wonderfully crafted thriller with the most surprising and quirky unreliable narrator. It seems to be multiple stories until it turns out to be just one. Joanna manages to get you comfortable on a rug she’s ready to pull when you least expect it.
Review
Joanna Cannon’s books were suggested to me during a creative writing class with the promise that any of her novels would be better than a master in voice and point of view.
Little did I know the above would be reductive.
Linda, the protagonist and narrator of this story, is a character impossible to forget. She has a traumatic and dark past, an abusive mother, a distant husband and no friends. She is socially awkward to the point of making the reader cringe, and each one of her experiences will make you pity her more and more.
There’s a scene in which she’s on a train and overhears two women talking and laughing. She eavesdrops, and when they mention a show she has also seen, she thinks it’s a good idea to become part of the conversation, and laugh at their jokes even when she doesn’t get them. The two eventually leave the couch, and Linda has a perfectly reasonable explanation for herself; one where she was about to make friends.
This is the type of character who’s telling the story. The book revolves around a serial killer operating close to Linda’s neighbour, as well as Linda’s obsession with the mysterious previous owner of her house, Rebecca; someone who’s living the life Linda desires.
This would be enough to convince me to pick up this book, but there is so much more to Linda and to the plot I can’t say for fear of spoilers. I’m writing this several months after reading the book, and dozens of scenes are still so vivid in my memory I can hardly let them go.
The ending; the very, VERY tidy ending, has left a mark in my right hemisphere.
Highly suggested.
Takeaways
Joanna Cannon is one of the very best at the art of putting the right details to paper.
Her characters are so strongly defined, and yet peculiar. Every single sentence is poured into the mould of their world-view, and Linda is one of the best first-person narrators I have ever encountered.
To convey such a precise, defined voice, everything is important. What Linda says is important, of course, but it’s only part of the picture. When she says what she says, to whom, and how she chooses her words are all equally important aspects of the character, like ingredients in a recepy.
For this reason, it makes perfect sense that Linda might use clichés in her inner speech, but Linda being Linda, she will twist them out of shape, to the point of being beautiful and almost unrecognisable.
The following is only one example, but there are multiple in every chapter.
I always looked at the eyes, because no matter how good of a liar, the eyes never are as deceitful as the rest of the faces.
By using different degrees of awareness between the narrator and the reader, Joanna creates a complex web of emotions, making us believe to always know what’s going on. The whole book is almost like a story told by a child about a subject they don’t really understand. We almost want to smile at Linda, nod at her ridiculous assumptions, but what does this say about us? Are we any better than the people who overlook her? Are we any better than the ones who take advantage of her?
Finally, Joanna throws us in the scene with Linda, allowing us to read life in the same way she does. By using the same, simple image multiple times in different contexts, we see the world just as Linda must see it. Nothing is a coincidence. Every detail is just another piece of Linda’s precious puzzles.
For example, in one beautiful scene, Linda is talking to her husband about a letter they received by mistake. Terry is not curious, doesn’t want to dive into the letter, or who the recipient—Rebecca Finchley—might be, so he keeps repeating the phrase “Not known at this address.”
By the end of the scene, imagining and craving the imaginary life of Rebecca, Linda states, almost resigned, that Rebecca’s life is not known at this address.
Conclusion
Five star for this amazing book. I just want to talk about it, so, please, if you read it, get in touch.
Alla prossima
PS, I should probably come up with a better rating system. Maybe 5 pizzas? I don’t know.