Book Review: "A Quiet Life" by Beryl Bainbridge

I've had people tell me that I should try reading something by Beryl Bainbridge and so, here I am today - almost a decade after the first person suggested it to me and not actually doing it because of that at all. The reason I am reading this author is - you have guessed it! - it was cheap on the Kindle store! I'll be perfectly honest with you, I barely bothered to read the summary before I bought the book. I read that it was funny, it had some good reviews, but it was only after I had bought that I realised it was by Beryl Bainbridge and that brought back the memories of being told I should be reading her work.

The book starts off with a strange scene in which two siblings are dividing up things after their mother has died. They sit in a restaurant/café and talk about the past and how the sister doesn't want anything to do with the stuff that is apparently her share - including her mother's ring. This leads to the sister discussing how the brother was always the favourite in the family and how he was never disciplined and always allowed to do what he wanted when he wanted to. This is a horrible discovery for the reader who now wishes to go back and encounter what happened in that past. And trust me, there was a lot that happened.

First of all we have the father who suffers from a raging temper with a clearly unbalanced mind so much that it really does get in the way of him having a normal family life with his wife and children. Now, we know that suffering from madness and depression is difficult, but there is so little that is ever said about the people who have to live with them and therefore, have their lives thrown into this weird turmoil that is unpredictable and strange. The brother, Alan and his sister, Madge, are constantly getting upset from their father's strange behaviour. One of these behaviours is getting in his car and driving around the neighbourhood seemingly in the dark.

We then have the sister, Madge who is fifteen for the vast majority of the book and tells her mother one day that she's crying because she was running away from a German soldier that was hiding in the bushes and chansed her through the forest. However, when the parents meet with a minor character named Hilda, Hilda tells them this was not the case. In fact, Madge was walking and talking with a man who is thought to be a German prisoner of war. When confronted about it, Madge simply states that her version of events is correct and not Hilda's. However, this does put everyone on edge around her.

We have the mother, Connie who only married her husband for the money and now that he's bankrupt, there is not even that anymore. She very clearly does not love her husband and nor does he love her. She takes to strange behaviours of disappearing every evening and going somewhere that nobody knows. This is all happening whilst Connie and her husband are considering divorce and Alan's own relationship with his girlfriend, Janet, is not going well most of the time.

At the centre of the story we have the seventeen-year-old Alan who is nothing short of a character who thinks he is the only sane member of the family, the only one who wants to do normal-people-activities rather than be strange and aloof all the time. This is often confirmed by when his grandparents come to visit and they too, are not actually in their right mind either. It is definitely an odd state of affairs topped by a weird and unusual family dynamic but it works to make an often funny novel.

All in all, I thought that this novel was a nice read as a pick-me-up from some of the harsher topics I have been reading. And yes, I think that sooner or later I will have to pick up some more of Beryl Bainbridge's novels provided they are not too expensive for me to access. I thoroughly recommend this as a good starting point for reading this author and I hope you keep it in mind. I have had worlds of fun with this one.