I bought ‘Heat Wave’ by Penelope Lively in the midst of our summer heat wave in the UK. It was an impetuous buy absolutely brought on by the sultry, endless summer days. I was instantly drawn to the title and the gorgeous cover.
Heat Wave is the story of a family fragile and teetering on the edge of potential destruction. Pauline a writer is spending the summer at World’s End, her cottage in an unknown place in middle England. The neighbouring cottage is inhabited by her daughter Teresa, her husband Maurice and their baby son Luke. Maurice is a writer, and in the midst of a book with which he is increasingly preoccupied. This frequently takes him to London and his female copy editor. Pauline watches from the sidelines as her daughter begins to make the same mistakes in love Pauline herself has previously made.
The moment I started reading this I was aware of the unmistakable edge to it. There is a tenseness in the relationships, the weather and the situation which is brilliantly captured in Lively’s taut writing. From the outset, there is the promise of a building storm
It is immediately clear, there is little love lost between Teresa and Maurice. She does not trust him or like him. She tolerates him purely because of the fierce maternal drive to protect her daughter and grand son, but even she is rendered helpless as she watches Teresa fall into the same traps and destructive cycle she previously fell into. The story cleverly weaves in Pauline’s own difficult and untimely destructive marriage.
Heatwave captures the gut wrenching realisation of betrayal exquisitely. Like Anne Tyler, Penelope Lively has an eye for emotion and the ability to create a crackling tension which moves at just the right pace. Pauline recognises her impotence to prevent the inevitable as both events and the weather gather and intense pace .
“The summer has peaked, the year is tipping over. What became of spring? How can al this have come about in a few impetuous weeks? All his has happened under her nose. Pauline sees, and yet only now is she aware of the extremity of change. the landscape is unstable. It rush unstoppably ahead, locked into its impervious cycle.”
The weather and the landscape are used as vehicles to not only move the drama on but to capture the tension of the events about to unfold. As the sun intensifies in heat, so do the relational tensions.
“There is a day of such sledgehammer heat that no one ventures outside. And something curious happens to the wheat. It seems to hiss. Pauline keeps all her windows open, and through them comes this sound , as of some furtively restless surrounding sea”
The climax of this novel is perfect. As the summer erupts into an almighty storm, the drama reaches an unstoppable finale. Of course I can’t tell you what that is, you have to read it for yourself, but suffice to say it was for me the perfect ending!
If you want to know more about Penelope Lively, then do look at her excellent website. There you will find a comprehensive description of all her books, and there are lots of them. Also her interviews with various BBC programmes including Radio 4’s desert island discs (one of my favourite shows!).
This year has been the year of Miss Read for me. Next year I’m thinking could be the year of Penelope Lively, she has such an interesting back catalogue to immerse myself in.
Which Penelope Lively Novel would you suggest I read next?
