Stealing Dad – Sofka Zinovieff / Exposure – Helen Dunmore
I love the programme Private Passions which is on Radio 3 at midday each Sunday. It is like Desert Island Discs but with more classical music than pop. The presenter is the composer Michael Berkeley who does an exemplary job interviewing the many very different people who come on his programme. There are some musicians but also lots of scientists, politicians, writers, artists, doctors etc. They are always interesting, sometimes fascinating and occasionally I am forced to stand quite still in the kitchen, stop preparing the Sunday lunch and focus entirely on what is being said.
Sofka Zinovieff is a writer of Greek heritage of whom I had never heard but later that particular Sunday I looked her up and quickly bought her latest book: ‘Stealing Dad.’ She had impressed upon Michael Berkeley that this novel was not autobiographical… but, well, some of it obviously was inspired by her own life. The child of a dysfunctional family, with a large variety of steps and halves, when her father died all the children were forbidden to attend his funeral.
Zinovieff takes this scenario and places it in the centre of her novel and then lets her imagination run riot. Who ‘owns’ a dead body? What are the rules and laws involved here? Funerals can be strange occasions; they are about the person who has died but surely they are for those left behind. Frequently they can be positive occasions, celebrating a life well lived and bringing together family members who may not meet often.
This book reminded me of another novel I read recently: ‘Homemade God’ by Rachel Joyce. Both have families with strange dynamics, and funerals where children appear to be left out of the picture. The resolutions to the story conflicts are different though, as of course is each family. As far as I can see there is only one other novel available by Sofka Zinovieff: Putney. I am very tempted.
And then there is ‘Exposure’ by Helen Dunmore who sadly died far too young in 2017. She left behind several volumes of poetry and a dozen excellent novels. Some writers place themselves firmly within a particular genre but others, like Helen Dunmore, find interest in a wide variety of subjects and settings. I have read her earliest offering ‘Zennor in Darkness’ and her last book ‘Birdcage Walk’ but I enjoyed ‘Exposure’ by far the most. The suspense created was such that I left the last couple of chapters until I was sure I would not be disturbed. I really did not know how the story would end.
The story is set in 1960 and Helen Dunmore correctly paints this picture in the drab colours of the 1950s. The sixties took several years to actually arrive! We are deep in the Cold War and suspicion of Russians and Germans was rife, indeed of anyone with a ‘foreign’ accent from Eastern Europe, then of course the Soviet Bloc.
All seems well in suburban Muswell Hill until a phone call begins the process of disintegration. Simon Callington finds his past racing up to meet him and threatening the safe, comfortable life that he felt was impregnable. There are secrets involved here and decisions have to be made: what to tell the children, how much should he share with his wife and in the end what is it better to leave unsaid, undiscussed, for everyone’s sake.
The plot is very similar to that of ‘The Railway Children’ by EE Nesbit, although Helen Dunmore has the freedom to use very adult material. In both cases the endings were so well written and emotionally tight that I was almost in tears.
Strong stuff … and great reading.
Enjoy your books.