For some reason I am always surprised by the role of sadness in Margot Livesey’s novels. This has much to do with her excellent character construction. She brings the reader into the minds of her protagonist, shedding light on their doubts and insecurities. The people she introduces become intimately known, making their tribulations all the more affecting. Having read “The House on Fortune Street,” I should, perhaps, have been prepared for the sorrows of “The Missing World,” a novel whose premise is dark.Hazel is crossing the street when she is hit by a car. Though she is not immediately affected, an hour or so later she winds up in the hospital in a coma. On the phone with Jonathan,her ex-boyfriend, she collapses. He is the one to retrieve her from her apartment and deliver her to the emergency room despite their recent history of animosity. Hazel awakes with no memory of the last three years, conveniently providing Jonathan with an opportunity to recreate the life they had together before things began to disintegrate.Parallel to Hazel’s disaster, Livesey introduces the reader to Freddie. Freddie is an American who has taken up residence in London, supporting himself by repairing the roofs of the British. It quickly becomes clear that Freddie is unlike many other roofers. Years before, on the verge of graduating from Stanford, he abruptly dropped out and left the country. He has survived by picking up odd jobs across Europe, trying to escape something long unnamed. Freddie’s work takes him to Jonathan’s house, where he is struck by Hazel’s beauty and the fragility of her condition. He senses she needs to be helped and becomes tangled in Jonathan’s complex evasion of the past.Finally there is Charlotte. She is equally as lost as Freddie, but her denial of her destitution intensifies her situation. Charlotte is a failed actress; she is behind on her rent, delusional about the scope of her charms, and prone to inviting herself where she is unwanted. Having exhausted every possible source of support, Charlotte winds up living with her disapproving sister Bernice, who has been hired as a nurse for Hazel.Slowly and precisely, all the characters that Livesey initially tracked individually manage to collide. Sexual attraction and indiscretion muddy the intents of the protagonists and the atmosphere of the story accrues elements of danger and the perverse. Despite the contrivance of placing all these characters within the same boundaries of exchange, Livesey does not let the plot devolve into a series of predictabilities. While rescue and renewal are achieved to some degree, little is resolved. The melancholy of these characters’ lives is more tangible in some instances than others.Charlotte’s life pulsates with destitution that she manages to diffuse with alcohol and a falsified self-importance. Heroism edges Freddie’s persona, but it emerges that little of what he does satisfies his own needs, leaving him incomplete. Hazel is the one to be most pitied. She, however, is the one into whose head Livesey provides little entry. I felt sympathetic toward her, but never felt I knew what made her tick as I did with some others.Suspense runs at a well-controlled rate throughout this enjoyable novel. The characters are etched with persuasive precision and their plights are convincing. The conclusion of the story contains premonitions of what might follow. The men and women of Livesey’s work pulsate with so much life that it is unfathomable to imagine their lives stop once the pages run out.
I liked it. Similar premise to Watson's Before I go to Sleep, but more artfully written. The characters were all real in that they were grey (and not just black or white); they were all complex and (with the exception of Jonathan) I liked parts of them all.I did not like that all of them came together. It seemed to contrived and convenient that they would merge in LONDON (hello, very big city) and have similar psychoses (I think both Mr. Early and Freddie have issues with leaving their home, clearly Charlotte and Freddie are both averse to work). I think some of the point of the novel is that we are all a bit alike (even though we can be vastly different), but the links between all these folks were too strong given that they started the novel as strangers.I loved the sex scenes between Hazel and Jonathan. They were certainly creepy, but nicely done (not overblown and over the top, just matter-of-fact from Jonathan's viewpoint). Mr. Early's comment: "helping. Not my subject. Can one person ever help another? Often I think the answer is a resounding no" parallels my thinking on the matter. Frequently people wait to be rescued or hope to save another (or convince them to cease self-abusive behaviors) when really we can only make choices regarding ourselves. Of course, this is the echoed moral of the novel. None of us can save another (even alas, poor Freddie cannot rescue Hazel), but we must be left to make our own choices and live with the results.Overall it was compelling, thoughtful and well written. Certainly worth the time.
What do You think about The Missing World (2006)?
This was the best book I've read about a complete a-hole. Jonathan's ex-girlfriend Hazel loses her memory of the past two years, and he (with complicity from her parents and best friend) agree to pretend that the couple never broke up. The author does a fabulous job transforming Jonathan from a sorry shell of a man who can't let go of his past into a controlling monster. I easily read this book in four days. I couldn't put it down. There were some fascinating side characters, like Freddie the African American roofer (living in London) with a masters degree from Stanford. Also, it was intriguing to think about the idea of changing your past by having others forget your mistakes. The book isn't particularly deep, and I couldn't relate well to any of the main characters, so it doesn't get 4 or 5 stars. I do recommend it as an entertaining, thought-provoking read.
—Diane16
Interesting premise, but did not quite live up to its promise. In the end, none of the characters were completely likable. Perhaps that was the point? It took me a few times of picking it up and putting it down until a long flight motivated me to finish. (Frustratingly, I was landing back in Hartford with 15 pages to go. When I got home, at 1:30 in the morning, I had to stay up, bleary-eyed, to finish). My one specific, nit-picky comment is that I wish the author used a bit more of the beekeeping/hive life metaphor.What she did use helped tie the book together and more would have been better.
—Alan
Hazel gets into an accident that results in partial-amnesia and seizures. Her ex-boyfriend Jonathan, who is still obsessed with her, sees an opportunity to get her back and takes her into his care. It's the ultimate second chance for the insurance claims-adjuster and beekeeper, but then things get complicated. Lives intertwine--there's the African-American roofer, Freddie, who'd rather lie on the couch than report to work--that is until he meets Hazel and senses something's not right in their household. Then there's sensible nurse Bernadette and her flaky sister, an aspiring actress who just can't catch a break--until she meets Freddie. And then there's Hazel's friend Maud who nurses a secret crush. This is a creepy novel with lots of twists and turns. There are many characters introduced and I'm not sure they're all necessary. Some plotlines seemed to be left unresolved or just dropped completely. I do respect that the author didn't present a tidy ending. But I didn't feel as satisfied with the resolution here as I did with Livesy's other book, The House on Fortune Street. Could be that since this is an earlier book (published in 1999), she just hadn't completely caught her stride yet.
—Jennifer Campaniolo
