Handle with care

 

     In her new novel Drowning Rose Marika Cobbold shows what an insidious, corrosive emotion guilt can be, but as this is a beautifully balanced, perceptive work, she cleverly goes on to offer her central character absolution from the caustic culpability which has diminished her, and a means of living beyond the limiting, sharp-edged compromises which have become her modus vivendi.

    Eliza Cummings is an expert in the conservation of ceramics working at the V&A. There, and with the private commissions she takes on, she's concerned with preserving the imperfect from further harm, or restoring through repair, but while she makes fragmented things whole again, who can administer care and kindness to mend Eliza's own fractured life?

    For the past 25 years she has punished herself for the death by drowning of her schoolfriend Rose,  believing the fatal accident was all her fault - a belief compounded by the attitude of Rose's father, Ian, who happens to be Eliza's godfather, too. Now, out of the blue, she receives a phone call from Ian, summoning her to his home in Sweden; he is dying, and uncharacteristically wishes to make amends for his harsh treatment of her. While the call is yet another painful reminder of what happened so long ago, it also turns out to be an invitation to a more open-hearted, fulfilling future, but will Eliza be able to accept what Ian has to offer her?

   Marika Cobbold carefully assembles the chipped pieces of Eliza's existence, looking back to her time at boarding school and the close friendships, cliques, and jealousies which surrounded a seemingly charmed circle of girls - while others who didn't quite fit in were crucially left on the fringes - and moving on to the present day, her relationship with her adored former husband Gabriel and her tolerance of her self-pitying stepsister Ruth whose intrusive manner is trying, to say the least. But although Eliza has fashioned a fragile present from a broken past, this is not a gloomy book full of desperate, damaged people, rather it's a warm, compassionate and often very humorous story, atmospheric and with a lightness of touch to temper the serious subject-matter. It is, ultimately, an optimistic novel and it's a highly readable one, a mature piece by a writer whose gift for telling detail and the quirks of personality make her a great pleasure to read.    

Comments

[Margaret Powling]

My goodness, it's a while since we've had a new Marika Cobbold to look forward to! Having said that (sorry, cliche!) I enjoyed her early novels but not her later ones. This may be worth a try, though.

[Margaret Powling]

PS I left the comment above - about it being a while since having had a new Marika Cobbold - not having been aware of her novel Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers, which had totally escaped me.

[Elaine]

I have just started this and never having read any of this author before, was a bit tentative but it is shaping up nicely

[Cornflower]

I think this is the third of Marika's novels that I have read, and although this one has dark themes, it's not a dark book. Hope you'll enjoy it, Elaine.

[Cornflower]

I haven't read that one, but the new book was a welcome return to Marika's work for me.

[Elaine]

Will let you know in due course!!

[adele geras]

I'm ashamed to say that I've never read a Marika Cobbold before but the cover is enough for me. I love anything to do with ceramics and that cup is heavenly. Will try!