by Manjit Handa
Most of us, it seems, are born to work and work more and then accumulate a desired amount of wealth (some succeed and some do not) and then enjoy that accumulation of wealth, blow it up to eventually retire. Holly Krauss is no different.
She is a successful businesswoman, always on the go. She takes care of all the bills at home and at the office. Her husband, an artist, sits at home, waiting for the right break and the right platform when he is going to make it big. In the meantime he dabbles with his art work at few places and helps with errands in the house. With the piling bills and he not working, Holly, just as any young wife (she is twenty seven), gets anxious and worked up. Infatuated with the personality of an artist, she hardly understands their likes; she is actually baffled with him: “He always said he’d do it in his own time. Sometimes this meant he wouldn’t do it at all. Deadlines passed. . . I hated it so much that I felt itchy and crackly with rage when it happened.” With her reservoir of patience drying up, she even suggests to him that he could try being a successful plumber.
But there is something else she does. Mostly shouldering responsibility for the economic/financial quarters in the house, she also takes liberties with enjoying her life the way she wants. Young and attractive, she makes friends effortlessly, sometimes good ones, other times ending up at places she should not be. What with the fact that she is married. She hangs out late in pubs and has a one night stand with Rees. He stalks her ever since, perhaps because of the kick he derived out of the act or there is something more he wants from her?? But he keeps saying she was a tiger in bed.
Then Holly fires Deborah from her company for a trifle, not even giving her a chance to recover; she meets with her company’s middle aged client called Stuart. He introduces her to more troubles that include her mindless shopping at an art gallery and a date with Stuart and his buddies/poker players. They are six men and she the presiding woman. She ends up losing at the game and now she owes a huge amount of nine thousand pounds to Vick Norris which she could possibly never pay. The amount keeps increasing with each passing day and suddenly a smooth going life is in a rut.
Dean, the messenger of sorts from the poker group terrorizes and threatens her and once even pees at her house. What a plight for Holly! She would never in her dreams have thought of such consequences. And most of all her husband, the dear Charlie, who cared for her so much that he finally loses patience. In league with Meg (Holly’s dearest and loyal of friends), he takes her to the doctor and Holly is declared suffering from bipolar affective disorder. A perfect trap to kill her and get away with the case of suicide! Meg, the loyal Meg, rescues Holly from a deplete house in Suffolk where Charlie had planned to leave her (or declare her) dead. Order is restored as Charlie is sent to jail and we are happy with the poetic justice.
For a seasoned reader it is easy to perceive who could possibly be responsible for Holly’s misery. More important, are the questions that will preoccupy him/her.
What are the lines of demarcation when you are married? Is it ok to have a one night stand once in while? Will it ever be forgiven? Then knowing it all, why do people still get into the trouble? Is it the escape Holly so badly craves from this life that drives her to a gang of gamblers or merely her nature, just a flaw? There will be various answers and counter questions. We could keep going.
Quite beautifully, the author changes the voice of the narrator. First it is the mind of Holly that speaks, then Meg. In this opportunist set-up, each one gets a chance. But it is more about reallocating, I think. If Holly was actually persecuting happiness, then soon she becomes the persecuted. If she is the light and life of every party and everyone looks up to her positive energy even in her office, Naomi rightly puts it in the end, “Everyone was doing fine until Holly came along.”
It is all about the perspective. And Nicci French proves it structurally by looking through each one’s. And because Meg is Holly’s dear friend, she would never look at her that way.
The author presents us with every perspective and each equally convincing.
More convincingly Nicci tells us that when we err, it is solely our responsibility; there might be times when someone could rescue you, but that will not always be the case. Holly recounts her experience: “When I was a little girl I used to go on long walks with my father. Whenever we got to a fence or a wall, I would clamber up to the top, and he would tell me to jump down into his outstretched arms. I never hesitated. Even when it was high up I would throw myself forward and know he would catch me. . . Then he left and I was flying through the air but there was nobody who could save me anymore, nobody to catch me when I fell.”
Well, even the places from where she fell had changed. Wall is one thing and virtue another. Good book with great psychological insights, worth a read.
================
Catch Me When I Fall
Nicci French
A Penguin Book
ISBN 0-14-301418-8 | Pgs. 300
