Every Day Is Mother's Day

Book Name : Every Day Is Mother's Day

Author : Hilary Mantel

What is it about : The two main threads of the story : Mother and daughter Evelyn and Murial grind out their claustrophobic lives in a suburban two-up-two-down where mysterious events took place - Murial became pregnant inexplicably, the kitchen and the spare room often being occupied by "Them" and became a no-go zone and Clifford Avon, the long-deceased father of Murial had secret scandalous deeds in the garden shed. Second interleaved thread of the story : Our concerned social worker / case officer, Isabel, had more than her fair share of frustration when dealing with the mother and daughter, and was at one point being forcibly locked up on the attic by the increasingly paranoid mother, Evelyn; Isabel's other pre-occupation was her dead-end adulterous affair with Colin, father of three, who at the very least helped her recover the lost case file from the now-famous Christmas party.

Some thoughts after having read the book : Sub-plots perfectly interwoven with mind-boggling contrast - on the one hand, a weird family of mother and daughter driving the Social Service workers mad with fear and on the other hand, our suburban History teacher Colin having a mid-life crisis and hoping to escape by having an affair with one of these social workers, Isabel, whilst his poor, rather big-feet unattractive wife was pregnant with their latest. Just as an example of the amusing yet spooky little episode in the story : Evelyn (the weird mother) went shopping for meat in her local butcher's and met up with her neighbour who knew about Evelyn's "side-profession" of being a Spiritualist/Medium-To-The-Other-World and proceeded to tell Evelyn that her Uncle Reggie passed away a few weeks back and the family could not locate his insurance policies and could Evelyn be so kind as to drop by the house and call up Uncle Reggie and ask him where he had hidden the policies ! 

Would I recommend this book to you : Tightly written with excellent scene-setting and insightful depictions of the suburban life. At times, the book appeared to be a mystery with inexplicable events, and at other times, chronicles of the hopelessness and aimless lives of our present society. The 30 pages or so set-piece of a drunken, boisterous and insult-hurling Christmas party, ending vaguely with a nude treasure hunt around the house (!), was for me the best-ever running commentary of how a gathering of inebriated adults slowly degenerated into a farce with the inevitable morning-after. Highly recommended !