Nastiness in Scotland
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox starts in pre-independent India where Esme and her sister Kitty grow up raised by an ayah with little interaction with their emotionally distant parents.

The parents favor the sister Kitty - Esme is a bit of a wild thing. She falls into a pond, her ribbons fall out and she refuses to wear a hat in the Indian sun.

From the Indian start the novel goes back and forth in time and we gradually learn about the lives of Kitty and Esme, in India and Scotland which is the family’s home.

Kitty has an unhappy marriage and has Esme locked up in what was then known as an insane asylum. There Esme lives out most of her life for sixty years when Iris- the great grandchild of the cold parents of Kitty and Esme - learns of Esme’s existence.

Iris is pushed to take Esme when the insane asylum is about to be demolished, and from flashbacks we learn what has happened in the intervening years.

There are a couple of plot inconsistencies and some of the side characters, such as Iris’s married lover pipe in for no apparent reason.

There’s one particular horrific scene which was out of character with the rest of the story which is rather gently told.

Overall is an easy if not memorable read. ( )

Iris answers the phone one day to find that she is the family contact for her grandmother‘s sister, Esme, who she has never heard of and has been institutionalized for most of her life. From the points of view of Iris, Esme, and Esme‘s sister Kitty who is partially lost to dementia, O‘Farrell peels layer after layer from characters until their heartbreaking stories are laid bear. ( )

Maggie O'Farrell is becoming one of my favorite authors, and I'm happy to be delving into her backlist. This novel is about two sisters, Esme and Kitty, and the secrets they have kept. When Iris, in the present day, gets a call about a great-Aunt she's never heard of, she starts to discover the truth about her family's past. Esme has been in a mental institution for the past 60 years, and Iris never even knew she existed. The story is slowly revealed through Esme's memories, Kitty's memories (who has dementia), and present-day clues that Iris starts to piece together.

At first, I was a bit confused by the voice/memory shifts and timeline, but as I read I started to see the brilliance of how O'Farrell puts it all together and reveals the story.

I loved the exploration of women's lives just a few generations ago, the failures of the sisters' and mother/daughters' relationships, and the emotion of the novel. A great find at the end of 2023! ( )

Its been a long time since a book affected me like this one did. I can't quite put a finger on how I felt upon finishing it, but I can say it struck a chord- love it or hate it, it resonates like a good book should. ( )

Iris is a modern woman – coping with her job and her life which includes a married boyfriend.

Completely unexpectedly, she receives a call from a mental hospital telling her the hospital is being closed down and, as the only relative, she must figure out what to do with her Great Aunt Esme who has been hospitalized there for sixty years.

Iris has never heard of a great aunt named Esme. She had always been told that her grandmother, Kitty, was an only child. Unfortunately, Grandmother Kitty has Alzheimer’s and can provide no clues to the situation.

The story plays out through a dual timeline as we see Kitty and Esme as girls in India, with Esme increasingly being labelled a problem. We also see Iris coming to terms with her seemingly very normal great aunt as she invites her into her apartment (which was part of the home Esme lived in while a young woman in the States) and tries to determine what should be done.

There’s a thoroughly startling and satisfying twist at the end.

This is one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year, as it skillfully blends the messiness of a modern woman’s life with those of a woman’s lack of rights from the last century. ( )