Anne Fine's novels are usually aimed towards children or young adults (you know, what we used to call teenagers). Telling Liddy is one of her few books aimed at adults.
Published in 1998, Telling Liddy was dramatised on Radio 4, and this post is going to contain spoilers for it.
I said, SPOILERS.
Got it? Right. I'm going to start with a reiteration of the plot, since you need to know quite a bit of it in order to understand where I'm coming from. It's even better if you've read it before.
Telling Liddy focuses on four sisters, the Palmer sisters. Heather, an Ice Queen who works in finance, Bridie, a social worker, Stella, a housewife, and the titular Liddy, the youngest.
The sisters are close, much closer than most families. Every weekend is taken up with something or other. The narrative mostly focuses on Bridie, whose husband Dennis is often feeling neglected. Her two sons, Toby and Lance, are scarcely mentioned throughout the first half of the book - it's all about the Palmer sisters.
Stella is the one most often left out of the group. Although she's invited to everything, the others don't tend to "just drop by", with Stella. For years, she was the unnoticed one, the one who never really did anything special. Then she came into her own and bloomed as a housewife.
Heather is the one who really doesn't care. She attends just as many events as the other sisters, but seems to keep herself emotionally distant. All her relationships are with married men, another symptom of her refusal to get close to anyone.
Finally, we get to the youngest, Liddy. Flighty and spoilt, her home is in as constant a change as her mind. She buys furniture on credit, tiring of it before it's paid off and having Heather bail her out. She's just so sweet and charming that nobody minds.
Liddy has two children, Daisy and Edward, from her first marriage. No one's entirely sure of what happened there - Liddy's husband simply left one day. Still, the entire clan rallied around her, and Liddy has a new relationship now - with George.
The story opens when Stella tells Bridie something she's heard about George. Something rather unpleasant, involving a a trial for child molestation. The charge was decided to be "non-proven", but Bridie still feels that Liddy ought to be told, despite Stella's attempt to swear her to secrecy. She's rather dismayed to find out that Stella's known for over three months at that point. She's even more disappointed in her sisters when she realises that Heather has known for almost as long.
Caving to her sisters' desire not to rock the boat, Bridie decides to take Daisy and Edward out, separately, and exercise her social workerly skills on them. Satisfied that they are not being molested, she agrees not to tell Liddy - unless she and George decide to get married.
Liddy and George announce their engagement a few months later, and Bridie reminds her sisters of their deal. She and Heather make the call from Heather's office, feeling that anything else would be too big of a deal.
Liddy decides that her sisters must be lying and that Bridie must be to blame, despite her not having said anything on the call. Bridie grows ever more frustrated with her sister's refusal to even attempt to be fair - especially when she finds out that Stella is Liddy's new best friend. And that Heather has managed to dodge the blame as well.
Furious and frustrated, Bridie eventually calms down enough to make another decision. If her sisters don't stand up for her by the wedding, and if Liddy doesn't being talking to her again, she'll never talk to any of them again.
Bridie's puzzled over their reactions, though. She can understand Liddy being self-centred and spoilt enough to blame her, but not why Heather and Stella would go along.
Finally, with a little help from her coworkers, Bridie figures it out. Liddy - and the rest of her sisters - believe that she already owes Liddy something. Since Liddy, after all, stayed silent after the affair with Dennis which broke up her first marriage.
Upon learning of that, Bridie is almost surprised that she manages to forgive her sister and her husband. She's been a social worker for several years, after all, so she quite understands how hard it must have been for Liddy and Dennis to stay silent and not break up her marriage as well as Liddy's.
This realisation leads Bridie to a much more relaxed, and calm, conclusion. Namely, that her sisters are bitches. Especially when she realises that Stella made the whole thing up.
On the same trip in which she discovers Stella's little exercise in creative writing, Bridie also finds out George's real secret - his previous marriage and his daughter by another woman. She's even able to find the perfect wedding gift for her new brother-in-law - a picture of his child painted by the next door neighbour.
Stella and Heather are initially confused by Bridie's seeming forgiveness- that is, until they realise what the wedding gift shows - at which point, they begin trying to convince Bridie to tell Liddy, having, apparently, learned nothing.
The story ends with Dennis intending to leave Bridie, because of "what she's become" - conveniently ignoring the fact that it's almost entirely due to what he did that she's no longer a sweet, innocent girl who sees the best in people.
It's hard to know how to categorise this book. I think, in many ways, it reinforces Bridie's initial thoughts on secrecy, that it tears a family apart - proving that she was right all along, even though she didn't know. But, then, she's punished for that. Then there's the fact that cutting herself off from her sisters comes with many benefits for her relationship with her husband and sons, although at least part of that comes from Dennis' relief at being away from Liddy.
In many ways, my sympathies lie entirely with Bridie. Her husband and sisters treat her horribly, and then blame her for her reaction. The only characters who really seem to deserve her are her sons, who, fortunately, she ends up spending a lot more time with. I don't believe that Dennis, for instance, deserves any sympathy whatsoever - pretty much everything that happens to him, he's brought entirely upon himself, without ever accepting any of the blame.
I think what's interesting about the book is that no one's really likeable. Nothing's fair.
I'm going to leave it at that now, since I'm feverish and cranky.
Published in 1998, Telling Liddy was dramatised on Radio 4, and this post is going to contain spoilers for it.
I said, SPOILERS.
Got it? Right. I'm going to start with a reiteration of the plot, since you need to know quite a bit of it in order to understand where I'm coming from. It's even better if you've read it before.
Telling Liddy focuses on four sisters, the Palmer sisters. Heather, an Ice Queen who works in finance, Bridie, a social worker, Stella, a housewife, and the titular Liddy, the youngest.
Stella is the one most often left out of the group. Although she's invited to everything, the others don't tend to "just drop by", with Stella. For years, she was the unnoticed one, the one who never really did anything special. Then she came into her own and bloomed as a housewife.
Heather is the one who really doesn't care. She attends just as many events as the other sisters, but seems to keep herself emotionally distant. All her relationships are with married men, another symptom of her refusal to get close to anyone.
Finally, we get to the youngest, Liddy. Flighty and spoilt, her home is in as constant a change as her mind. She buys furniture on credit, tiring of it before it's paid off and having Heather bail her out. She's just so sweet and charming that nobody minds.
Liddy has two children, Daisy and Edward, from her first marriage. No one's entirely sure of what happened there - Liddy's husband simply left one day. Still, the entire clan rallied around her, and Liddy has a new relationship now - with George.
The story opens when Stella tells Bridie something she's heard about George. Something rather unpleasant, involving a a trial for child molestation. The charge was decided to be "non-proven", but Bridie still feels that Liddy ought to be told, despite Stella's attempt to swear her to secrecy. She's rather dismayed to find out that Stella's known for over three months at that point. She's even more disappointed in her sisters when she realises that Heather has known for almost as long.
Caving to her sisters' desire not to rock the boat, Bridie decides to take Daisy and Edward out, separately, and exercise her social workerly skills on them. Satisfied that they are not being molested, she agrees not to tell Liddy - unless she and George decide to get married.
Liddy and George announce their engagement a few months later, and Bridie reminds her sisters of their deal. She and Heather make the call from Heather's office, feeling that anything else would be too big of a deal.
Liddy decides that her sisters must be lying and that Bridie must be to blame, despite her not having said anything on the call. Bridie grows ever more frustrated with her sister's refusal to even attempt to be fair - especially when she finds out that Stella is Liddy's new best friend. And that Heather has managed to dodge the blame as well.
Furious and frustrated, Bridie eventually calms down enough to make another decision. If her sisters don't stand up for her by the wedding, and if Liddy doesn't being talking to her again, she'll never talk to any of them again.
Bridie's puzzled over their reactions, though. She can understand Liddy being self-centred and spoilt enough to blame her, but not why Heather and Stella would go along.
Finally, with a little help from her coworkers, Bridie figures it out. Liddy - and the rest of her sisters - believe that she already owes Liddy something. Since Liddy, after all, stayed silent after the affair with Dennis which broke up her first marriage.
Upon learning of that, Bridie is almost surprised that she manages to forgive her sister and her husband. She's been a social worker for several years, after all, so she quite understands how hard it must have been for Liddy and Dennis to stay silent and not break up her marriage as well as Liddy's.
This realisation leads Bridie to a much more relaxed, and calm, conclusion. Namely, that her sisters are bitches. Especially when she realises that Stella made the whole thing up.
On the same trip in which she discovers Stella's little exercise in creative writing, Bridie also finds out George's real secret - his previous marriage and his daughter by another woman. She's even able to find the perfect wedding gift for her new brother-in-law - a picture of his child painted by the next door neighbour.
Stella and Heather are initially confused by Bridie's seeming forgiveness- that is, until they realise what the wedding gift shows - at which point, they begin trying to convince Bridie to tell Liddy, having, apparently, learned nothing.
The story ends with Dennis intending to leave Bridie, because of "what she's become" - conveniently ignoring the fact that it's almost entirely due to what he did that she's no longer a sweet, innocent girl who sees the best in people.
It's hard to know how to categorise this book. I think, in many ways, it reinforces Bridie's initial thoughts on secrecy, that it tears a family apart - proving that she was right all along, even though she didn't know. But, then, she's punished for that. Then there's the fact that cutting herself off from her sisters comes with many benefits for her relationship with her husband and sons, although at least part of that comes from Dennis' relief at being away from Liddy.
In many ways, my sympathies lie entirely with Bridie. Her husband and sisters treat her horribly, and then blame her for her reaction. The only characters who really seem to deserve her are her sons, who, fortunately, she ends up spending a lot more time with. I don't believe that Dennis, for instance, deserves any sympathy whatsoever - pretty much everything that happens to him, he's brought entirely upon himself, without ever accepting any of the blame.
I think what's interesting about the book is that no one's really likeable. Nothing's fair.
I'm going to leave it at that now, since I'm feverish and cranky.
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