A BOOK TO KEEP.
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I hadn't read any books by Jennifer Johnston before I bought this so I had no expectations, and this book came as a lovely surprise.
The main theme of the book is very serious and challenging, but the style is so good that there are flashes of fun and laughter which save it from being sad and dull.
When Sally's husband Charlie says that he is leaving her, she is shattered. Even though is is a womaniser and she knows it, she cannot cope with the loss and her thoughts retiurn to her life with her mother, whom she called 'Moth' which turned out to have been a prophetic name because her mother is ephemeral and her life ends far too soon.
'She must at some stage have had hopes and aspirations, but by the time I came into her life she lived under the shadow of a depression that came and went without warning.'
Sally has never known her father and her mother would never tell her his name, so 'my mother was mother and father to me; and I suppose you might say grandmother and grandfather, brother and sister ... when of course, she wasn't too preoccupied in making ends meet.'
Sally, who is a well-known actress, decides to visit her grandfather, who is a bishop with whom she has had no contact beyond the receiving of a card and cheque on her birthday.
Now that she feels so alone, she decides to go to see the old man and discovers that he has gone to watch her in all the plays in which she has acted.
The tension grows between them and one day he gives her a long letter in which he tells her all about her past.
Although if one has paid very careful attention, one can guess what he has to tell her, it still is an unwelcome surprise but it serves the purpose of concluding the story very well indeed.
The book is brilliantly written, and it is ahead of its time in challenging our comfortable mindsets.
I shall certainly buy more books by Jennifer Johnston having enjoyed reading 'Grace and Truth' so much.
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