This lovely book by Rachel Joyce takes a seemingly cold, compassionless marriage and uncovers its layers one by one with immense tenderness. In the process, she makes countless tiny observations about the moments of despair and desolation that most people encounter at some time or another, along with the little rays of hope and joy that appear every now and then, that propel us forward to the next step. Give me a sign... he said, maybe out loud, maybe to himself. He wasn't sure any more where he officially stopped and the outside world began. (p 107)
...As she walked toward the quay, the truth came as bright as a light snapping on through the dark. The reason she had stayed with Harold all these years was not David. It wasn't even because she felt sorry for her husband. She had stayed because, however lonely she was with Harold, the world without him would be even more desolate.In just a few neat words, Joyce manages to capture the way new and unexpected situations fray one's assumed boundaries, and how one's own motivations can suddenly and startlingly be revealed.
And here, in this poignant sentence she identifies both the pathos and the heroism of seemingly unremarkable lives that are simply lived, one day at a time, out of the spotlight:
The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time.And then this, which so perfectly sums up the not-quite-faith of so many thousands of people, and perhaps hints at why cathedrals, of all our religious buildings, are experiencing notable increases in visitor numbers as the nation's relationship to faith has undergone such significant changes in the UK:
He visited the cathedral, and sat in its chilled light, pouring like water from above. He reminded himself that centuries ago men had built churches, bridges, and ships, all of them a leap of madnes and faith, if you thought about it. When no one was looking, Harold slipped to his knees and asked for the safety of the people he had left behind, and those who were ahead. He asked for the will to keep going. He also apologized for not believing.This really is a book to savour.