Changes

The cover blurb tells us that in the US, this was an 'Oprah Pick' and that tells you much about what to expect. It's a classic Oprah story in that it details family emotions, has a huge chunk of trauma and is just that little bit 'worthy'. I'm in something of two minds about it. I have no doubt that it is beautifully written, and particularly in the opening scene describing Mum, Ricky's feelings as her son is born, incredibly moving. Although thankfully never having been in that awful situation, it at least feels psychologically realistic throughout. However, throughout the book , the main characters, Ricky, husband John, and two children, thirteen -year -old Paul and ten -year -old Elizabeth, known throughout by her nickname of Biscuit, and the less central characters, the twenty -three -year -old daughter of John's earlier relationship, Jess and random stranger, Gordie all infuriated me at some point.

On one reading, the characters are mawkishly self-obsessed and this is only partly justified by the terrible events with which the Ryrie family is faced with. One section of the book covers the period eight years previous to the baby's death which is supposed to represent a happier time, but even then the adult characters are prone to self-obsessive traits and are not wholly likablelikeable. In fact, one of my main gripes is that John and Ricky just don't seem to belong together. If I had believed more in their relationship, I might have felt more positively about the book.

One of their major faults as a family is not communicating after the death of baby Simon. What we get instead is a hugely complex and sophisticated internal dialogue that suggests that they are capable of expressing themselves and yet when they do open their mouths to each other, they just make things worse. This introspective approach leads to an inevitable problem for Cohen in that she is rather forced to rely on telling rather than showing.