Maggie O’Farrell
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell alternates location and time frame between colonial India where two sisters, Kitty and Esme, were born and spent their early childhood; 1930s Edinburgh where the sisters grew up under the care of their grandmother, Kitty; and Iris in present-day Edinburgh.
The novel opens with Iris receiving a phone call concerning her great aunt, Euphemia (Esme). It seems the mental institution where Esme has been incarcerated for the last 60 years is closing down. Iris is contacted because she is listed as the next of kin. She is convinced there is a mistake since she had never heard of a great aunt and her grandmother had never mentioned a sister. Nevertheless, Iris decides to visit Esme and ends up taking her home over a weekend until suitable housing can be found for her. Meanwhile, Kitty, Iris’ grandmother, suffers from Alzheimer and exhibits memory lapses. She babbles incoherently about Esme refusing to release a baby.
Intermittent flashbacks peppered with the characters’ interiority reveal Kitty and Esme’s back stories in India and Edinburgh. Kitty, seemingly docile and well-behaved, subscribes to the social and gendered roles assigned to her. She looks forward to finding a suitable mate. Esme, on the other hand, has little patience for social expectations. She likes to read, wants to pursue her education, is outspoken, flaunts conventions, and has no desire for marriage. Unfortunately, that makes her attractive to an unscrupulous young man who violates her. As a consequence, Esme is carted away to the mental institution where she is incarcerated for over 60 years, unvisited and forgotten.
Esme is erect, calm, lucid, and courteous when Iris meets her. She has her wits about her. She discloses snatches of her past to Iris who then pieces together the reason for Esme’s incarceration and why her existence had been kept a secret. When Esme asks to visit her sister, Iris agrees to take her. The final confrontation between the two sisters with its tragic consequences indicates Esme knew all along who had orchestrated her incarceration.
This very powerful novel unfolds slowly as it reveals snapshots of the past through leaps in time and through the characters’ interiority. Iris’ interiority reveals the challenges in her own life and the horror she feels when she learns of Esme’s fate. Kitty’s interiority reveals her to be cruel, vicious, riddled with guilt, consumed with jealousy toward Esme, haunted by her past actions, and harboring a terrible secret. And Esme’s interiority shows the terror of being unjustifiably incarcerated and forgotten for more than 60 years.
The novel addresses the themes of rape, madness, violence, physical and emotional abuse, childhood abuse, hypocrisy, torture, sibling rivalry, Victorian asylums, and patriarchal double standards. It highlights the tragic fate of young girls and women who did not fit neatly into the mold society had assigned for them.
This is not an easy read because of the nature of the topics it addresses. But in the more than capable hands of Maggie O’Farrell, it is well worth the effort and is highly recommended.