August is a Wicked Month

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It’s also a fascinating insight into a woman’s interior life, her sexual desires and her hunger to live life to the fullest.

When the dad takes the boy for a week long summer camping trip, Ellen decides to go on holiday herself. Some readers might feel a sense of release in the honesty of this book; others might resent the needle pressed against the balloon. If you want to see how a masterful author can develop a character so real seeming that you want to befriend, help, and guide her, this book does that and more.

At any rate, this novel by O'Brien explores the psychology and neurosis of a youngish, attractive mother who's separated from her husband and goes a little crazy on her summer vacation alone. When the book opens Ellen’s husband offers to take their young son — who divides his time between both parents — on a camping trip to Wales.

I have only been this wrong about a book, once before, when I thought The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns was a “light romance.It left me with very mixed feelings about Ellen, whilst she was in France I wanted to go up on her, shake by the shoulders and tell her not to be so stupid but whilst in the UK I wanted to give her a big hug. It made me think about so much and I can see from having re-read the earlier sections that O’Brien had carefully plotted the entire story arc. An article published on the occasion of her 90th birthday ends like this: “There is still the hope too of one final book: “I do have one in mind but I’m not sure I have the energy or the existence to carry me through,” she says with a hint of regret. If you enjoy novels of the variety I mentioned earlier in my review, then this is definitely one you should read. This frees her up to enjoy her summer vacation from her job as a theatre critic by becoming “a sort of tourist doing tourist things” in London.