Jolley, Elizabeth. My Father’s Moon. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989.
Veronica Wright (Vera) is trying to find her way. As a mother to young Helena. As a daughter to an overbearing mother. As a nurse in war-torn England. As an unpopular student at a stuffy boarding school. She find solace in the little things, like the promise of a moon she and her father can both see, no matter how far apart they may be. We start at the end, when Vera is a single mother, but then weave our way back through Vera’s beginnings. At times, the story is disjointed and meandering; I think of it as chronologically schizophrenic. I didn’t care for all the jumping around. And. I didn’t care for Vera and her miserable personality. There. I said it. There is something so hopeless and lost about Vera’s spirit. She isn’t in touch with her feelings, doesn’t know when to laugh, is awkward around her peers, has been told she has no sex appeal, is ignored in most situations…Her relationships with fellow students, nurses and family are suspicious. Jolley drops hints about the true nature of them, but nothing is clear.
Quotes I liked, “That day she asked me what time it was, saying that she must hurry and get her wrists slashed before Frederick comes back from his holiday” (p 9), “There is something hopeless in being hopeful that one person can actually match and replace another” (p 53), “there are times when an unutterable loneliness is the only company in the cold morning” (p 69), and, last one, “The feeling I have of being able to reach out to take the sky in both hands is one of the most restful things I have ever known” (p 108).
Reason read: Jolley died in the month of February (2007). Read to honor her passing.
Author fact: Even though this was in the Australian section of Book Lust To Go, Jolley isn’t Australian. She was born in England and moved to Australia.
Book trivia: This is the first book in the Vera Wright Trilogy.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz (fiction)” (p 30). I’m not sure why My Father’s Moon is in this chapter. Technically, Jolley wasn’t Australian and the book doesn’t take place in Australia. Yes, she lived in Australia, began her writing career in Australia and made herself a name as a writer there…
~*LunaSea*~ 