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Vera has cabin fever. Confined with her thoughts in the concrete tower of a New York hotel, she is haunted by her mother's reminders of what she should have been, and the desperate choices she faced as an unprotected single mother. Elizabeth Jolley writes lucidly of betrayal and survival, loneliness and desire, and with compassion for the sad dislocations of love between parents and children. In Cabin Fever she again beguiles with her particular blend of humour and the serious, and a show more splendid array of characters. show lessTags
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We don't really move forward chronologically in this "sequel" to My Father's Moon. When we last left Vera, she was a single mother dealing with her own overbearing mother. The story bounced between Vera's present and her past. Cabin Fever is more of the same, only with more detail about the time period. In this installment Vera is in New York for a conference but for almost all of the plot we are in the past, when Vera is a new mother trying to make ends meet. She is still as sad and lonely as she ever was. It is at this point that we learn Vera's mother made Vera change her baby's name from Beatrice to Helena. We also learn more about the affair between Vera and Dr. Metcalf, a doctor she worked with at the hospital. Vera bounces from show more one live-in nanny/housekeeper situation to another until she lands at the Georges residence (enter sequel number three). Brother and sister live together and already have a live-in, Nora. Vera finds a way to stay in the house by filling another need of the household. I'll leave that bit unspoken. You just have to read it to find out... show less
Reading this second installment of Jolley's semi-autobiographical trilogy, I found myself increasingly drawn to its flinty protagonist, Vera Wright. Pregnant after a doomed affair, she resists her parents' offers of help. Vera is determined to struggle through alone, even when it means a rather grim existence dominated by menial labour. An interesting, though somewhat depressing, portrait of post-WWII English life.
This book continues Vera Wright's story of her struggle as a single parent after WWII.
It is builds on the previous "MY FATHER'S MOON", giving a greater insight into what happened to Vera after she left her nursing career and ended up at Fairfields.
TIme zones move around a bit in these books and much is told through memories.
Beautifully written.
I would recommend reading the three books together (My Father's Moon, Cabin Fever , The George's Wife).
It is builds on the previous "MY FATHER'S MOON", giving a greater insight into what happened to Vera after she left her nursing career and ended up at Fairfields.
TIme zones move around a bit in these books and much is told through memories.
Beautifully written.
I would recommend reading the three books together (My Father's Moon, Cabin Fever , The George's Wife).
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Readers of Jolley's last novel, My Father's Moon , will be swept by deja vu as they read this work, which deals with the same incidents in the life of narrator Vera Wright, a nursing student in London during WW II who has an illegitimate child by a married doctor. There is one difference, however, and it is considerable: while the earlier book seemed cool and detached, here Jolley creates an show more atmosphere of almost palpable sorrow and desolation that elicits the reader's empathy. Though the language is again restrained, here we feel the quivering emotions that Vera suffers to bring under control: her longing for her lover, who has died in the war; her panic about raising a child alone; her regrets about her aborted career; her conflicting feelings about her parents, who want to help, but from whom she resolves to remain independent; her maturing insights about the people who have loved and/or damaged her. Jolley excels in her portrait of this frightened, lonely, unsophisticated, heartbroken woman, bravely determined to save herself and her child. Narrated in a series of short, intense flashbacks by the adult Vera, who has come to a medical conference in New York City only to find herself emotionally incapable of leaving her hotel room, the novel conveys the claustrophobic grip of unbearably poignant memories, the essence of bereavement, and the resiliency of the human spirit. Psychologically acute and penetrating, this is Jolley writing with masterful power. First serial to the New Yorker. show less
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Author Information
32+ Works 2,126 Members
Elizabeth Jolley was born Monica Elizabeth Knight in Birmingham, England on June 4, 1923. She was educated privately until age 11, when she was sent to Sibford School, a Quaker boarding school. At 17 she began training as nurse in London and was exposed firsthand to the horrors of World War II. She emigrated to Australia in 1959 with her husband show more and their three children. Before becoming a full-time author, she had numerous jobs including nursing, housecleaning, and farming. She published her first book of short stories, Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories, in 1976, and her first novel, Palomino, in 1980. Her other works included The Newspaper of Claremont Street, Mr. Scobie's Riddle, The Well, My Father's Moon, Miss Peabody's Inheritance, Foxybaby, and The Sugar Mother. She died on February 13, 2007 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Vera Wright; Helena Wright; Eleanor George; Oliver George; Magda Metcalf; Jonathon Metcalf (show all 8); Nurse Peters; Hubert Peters
- Dedication
- For Leonard Jolley
- First words
- Once when I am sitting with Magda in her white and gold upstairs sitting room I tell her that I hope I won't get wrinkles and frowns all over my face.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It is both a short cut and a pleasant little walk. A remedy.
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- Reviews
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- Languages
- English, French
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
