The second instalment in our book club where Andri and I read a chapter each to each other throughout is Emma Healey's debut in "Elizabeth is missing".
Maud is an elderly woman who is losing her memory rapidly and is obsessed with finding her missing friend Elizabeth. The story is told in the present in which the search for Elizabeth's whereabouts are untangled and in part flashbacks where another mystery, of family and of loss is unsolved and throughout the book lies a tangled story. Entwining both past and present makes for a tale where we question if we will ever find the truth of either mystery or if it will slip away with our heroin's worsening case of dementia.
Firstly this is very intelligently written book. The links between past and present blur making you desperate to solve the mystery before you get to the end because, well lets face it Maud is old.
It keeps you engaged throughout, reading into every little detail trying to piece together parts that may already be jumbled, it makes you question if Maud's truth is right or if she has lost any sense of reality altogether.
The parts where Maud becomes forgetful or confused are brilliantly written and as two people without dementia it gives you a real sense and understanding of the day to day life living with dementia. At points you can feel the real frustration of trying to remember things that are already slipping away. The way things are labelled, the way Maud carries out her daily routine reminds me very much of my nan at the end, telling the same old stories over and over again and I seemed to be the only one who had the patience to listen to them sometimes fifty times a day and still sit there smiling when she told them occasionally even back to back.
That's what makes part of this book so easy to relate to. There's going to be a part in all of our lives where one of our family or even eventually us is going to become forgetful and struggle, underneath the mystery it's a very touching tale of human mortality and the frailty of life.
An important part of the book was the bond between Maud and her daughter, the switch of the parental roles as Maud's need and desperation for closure in part drives her daughter away but also brings them closer together. You see the relationship between them develop over the course of the book, and though not always as idealistic as we'd like it to be, it never the less allows you to build a rapport and mutual respect for both characters.
You can really feel the pain from Maud's daughter over the struggle of re-adapting to this phase of life. This contrasted with Maud's nonchalance towards her daughters frustrations where she knows she has done something annoying as she notices her daughter rolling her eyes at her but just ignores it, seconds later Maud asks what she thinks is a sly question in her hunt for the truth. The real truth is its probably a question she's asked a hundred times that day already.
Maud losing the ability to be independent and her daughters struggle to find a place for her in her life leads to some important and difficult decisions that at some point we may all have to make.
There is another theme running through this book other than mystery and family, its of loss. The loss of a friend. Even though the only parts of that we get are through flashbacks we know that Elizabeth and Maud are close. They are so close in fact that through everything that Maud forgets there is one thing she does remember. Elizabeth is missing. Whatever happens, wherever she goes that thought keeps coming back to her either prompted by her notes that tell her so or by something someone says.
Though suffering with Dementia, Maud isn't crazy. We know it, she knows it, but the people around her treat her as though she is. Maud plays on this at times, always questioning the rules left for her, attempting to prove she can still do these things people around her say she cant do. Maud's quick thinking on trying to out smart those people and little tests she puts in place, make for at times a lighthearted, humorous read. Its brilliant, heart warming and softens the elements of the book which in areas can be saddening. Her descriptive comparisons as she fails to remember the names for every day items can actually have you laughing out loud. With this comes the mixture of emotions whilst engaged in this book, the severity of the mysteries along with the refreshing aspects of forgetfulness.
This has echoes of Guy Pearce in Memento where he struggles with short term memory loss and constructs a system to solve a mystery. Although massively different if you enjoyed that you'll love this.
If you are captivated by a book that will keep you guessing to the end, where you find yourself deciphering through every small hint, reading between the lines and where the Detective is as far from your stereotypical image of one, then you will love this book, as we did.
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