Ordinary Human Failings

When a small child goes missing on a London housing estate, Tom, an ambitious young reporter with a tabloid, goes to gather information. Chances all, the tot will be found and it will all be a waste of time. He chats with the residents, who tell him about the problem family. So when the child is found dead and the daughter of that family is taken in for questioning, he's in the right place to get the family out of the estate and sequestered in a small hotel, where he can get his first big story. But as the drinks flow and Tom asks his questions, the stories he hears are not the ones he needs to get a scoop.

This novel follows the lives of the members of a small Irish family. They are not liked by their neighbors, and there are reasons show more for that, not the least of these being that once the girl's grandmother had died, there was no one to care about what she did, her mother intent on escaping the dead end that became of her once bright future, her uncle intent on drinking himself to death and her grandfather, sitting passively. Megan Nolan, who wrote the excellent Acts of Desperation, knows how to write with enormous empathy about people on the edge of society and here she has created a moving and thought-provoking novel. show less

The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.

from Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Tom Hargreaves was a reporter who preyed human failings, spinning compulsive news stories for a tabloid magazine. He was onto the perfect story: a ten-year-old girl implicated in the death of a child. Her family had come from Ireland to London, the father and brother deadbeat alcoholics and the mother beautiful and depressed. Tom uses his honed skills to worm his way into their lives, his sympathetic appearance masking a heartless and analytical intention to spin their story into an explosive headline that would make his career.

The Green family is knit together by blood but not intimacy. show more Each is trapped in their own misery, like distant planets encased in icy tombs. Left out is the child who since the death of her grandmother has not been cherished or loved or touched. When she is taken by the police, her first thought was that finally, her inner evil has been discovered.

The novel takes us inside these ordinary people with their ordinary tragedies. A teenage girl deceived into intimacy, denying her pregnancy, shutting out the child, her dreams of being special gone. The father whose beloved wife cheats on him and leaves him, his second wife struggling to care for his broken family. The son who was never cherished, his desire to be liked leading to his hanging with drinking buddies at the bar and subsequent alcoholism. And the granddaughter, confused and angry and alone.

Yes, it is dark. The author takes us into these character’s thoughts, a sad place to be. But then she offers hope and healing and growth. We don’t have to be speechless and alone, they learn. “The trying would be their life’s work,” they come to understand, the trying to connect, to be open, to care, to love.

The novel left me thinking–What if. What if society could identify needs and provide therapy to heal ordinary human failings, the hurt and pain that builds defences and the anger that lashes out, too often leading to wasted lives or violence inflicted on oneself or others?

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley. show less

"Really, who would care for a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note."

In a public housing estate in London a young child is found dead after being reported missing. The residents and neighbors immediately suspect a family of "bad apples," Irish immigrants, and in particular the 10 year old child Lucy, who seems odd and who is frequently neglected by the family. An unscrupulous reporter for a tabloid who happened to be in the area swoops in, and convinces the family to isolate in a nearby hotel during the investigation. He will pay their expenses, as well a some amounts of cash for exclusive information.
Despite this plot summary, the book is by no means a mystery or a crime novel. show more Instead, it is an exploration of the ways in which small tragedies and the secrets families keep can have great consequences for our lives. The book is well-written, and is quiet and thoughtful. I'm glad I read it, but I can't characterize it as outstanding. If the description appeals to you, it would probably be worth your while to read. show less

“Really, who would care about a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note.”

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan is an evocative character-driven novel that revolves around an Irish immigrant family in a public housing estate in 1990s London. The novel follows the members of the Green family after ten-year-old Lucy Green is suspected of being responsible for the death of three-year-old Mia Enright. Ten years ago, Lucy’s family – her grandmother Rose who was the only person who displayed any affection toward Lucy and has since passed on; her reclusive grandfather John; her alcoholic uncle Ritchie; and her then pregnant teenage mother Carmel who is distant and never shown any show more concern for her daughter- relocated to London to avoid scandal. Lucy, who is described as having behavioral issues, is taken into custody and her family is subject to scrutiny from their neighbors, the press and law enforcement. The scrutiny and Lucy’s plight compel each of the family members to reflect on their own lives and the dysfunction within their family. unscrupulous tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to ingratiate himself with this disgraced working-class family of “bad apples” even resorting to isolating them from other reporters, hoping for exclusive content – their secrets, the scandals and any other juicy detail - that would help further his interest.

“There was darkness beneath or inside everything, and even beautiful things were irredeemable because they only acted to obscure but never to transform.”

Despite the short length, this novel is an immersive and emotionally heavy read. The bulk of the novel is presented through flashbacks from the perspectives of each of the family members - allowing us to explore the characters, their emotions, their personal tragedies and their regrets. Written in powerful prose, the novel explores several dark and sensitive themes with brutal honesty and insight – addiction and alcoholism, parental neglect and complex family dynamics and the death of a minor – to name a few. The characters are flawed and realistic, each with distinct trajectories. The focus of this novel is on the family members in the aftermath of the tragedy and the “mystery” behind Mia’s death and Lucy’s alleged involvement in the same might appear to be relegated to the background as we follow the characters’ individual journeys but the author eventually draws us back to present events and how the same impacts the each of the family members.

Needless to say, this is not an easy read. I did feel that the different threads of the story were not quite cohesively woven and rendered the narrative a tad disjointed but overall, I found this novel to be a compelling read that I would not hesitate to recommend to those who enjoy character- driven fiction.

I paired my reading with the audio narration by Jessica Regan whose outstanding narration enhanced my overall experience with this novel.

“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.” show less

A very different book than "Acts Of Desperation", but she resists giving the crime fiction audience the satisfaction of a clear ending. For the rest of us though, we aren't all that interested in the story as much as the journey experiencing the emotions and empathy for these sad and frustrating characters. She has some great lines about relationships too peppered throughout. This is taking genre conventions and twisting them to her own ends.

Not the book I was expecting, but that's probably a me problem. Nolan's writing was incredible at painting portraits of characters that are fully fleshed out. Within just 200 pages, she presents a family who we understand with depth and complexity, we don't particularly like them as we acknowledge their flaws and their ordinary human failings.

Set mostly in the early 1990's, this is a book about the ways in which ordinary families find themselves on benefits and sinking fast in their emotional and social lives until a shocking event shakes them up and forces them to talk about their feelings and how they want their future to be.

An Irish family, the Greens, move to an estate in London to escape social judgements about a pregnancy and provide a new start for an alcoholic. Pregnant Carmel refuses to engage with her pregnancy or child and so Rose, her mother, takes over until she dies. And then the child, Lucy, is left in the hands of people who are incapable of looking after her. It is at this time that Mia,a young child also from the estate, is killed and the last person she show more was seen with was Lucy.

What frames this story is the involvement of a journalist from a tabloid newspaper who whisks the family away to a hotel and puts them up there to keep them away from other newspapers but also so that he has ample time to interview them, dig into their lives, and find out all their secrets. Whilst this family is vulnerable, they are not gullible and in their own ways fight back. We get flashbacks to Waterford in Ireland where we see their backstories and why they are like they are.

The story is not as black and white as this description may make it seem. Tom, the journalist, is troubled by what he is doing and suffers for it. He still manages to think only of the great story he can uncover, with his motivation being told he has done well by the editor. Always a dangerous motivation pleasing others. Nolan also describes the alcoholism very well - the on and off drinking, the 'I will only drink such and such a drink', the gradual sinking down until you are drinking non-stop and lost to those who love you. It's quite heartbreaking.

If you had to connect a weather to this book it would be a grey, cloudy day where the clouds go from white to black and every shade inbetween. It is only at the very end that you see a few beams of light pierce the overcastness wrapped around the family because how do you undo years of neglect that a child has experienced, especially a child in Lucy's position?

There is no great big, dirty secret to reveal about this family, just lots of small ones that are quite ordinary but accumulate and trap the inhabitants, passed on from one generation to the next. And so the newspaper pulls the story and Tom is left with nothing other than a little more loathing for himself.

The end of the book shows the family a few years later but we don't get to hear about Tom and I would have liked to know how someone of those times who was unable to see past his own experiences faired. Did he succeed in tabloid journalism or did it drive him to alcohol?

A really interesting look at a time in our not-too-distant past which is being played out in courtrooms at present. What lengths would tabloids go to in order to get a story? show less