Consequences

CONSEQUENCES

by Penelope Lively

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2009

 

Date Read: June 8, 2022

 

Consequences is a novel about three generations of women who start out with bleak beginnings but end up leading rich, full lives. Critics have claimed that the “happy endings” for each of these women is implausible but I think in these complicated and uncertain times (another school shooting anyone? How about the war in Ukraine?), but I enjoyed the escapism Lively is peddling here.

 

With a rich structure and robust characters, Lively creates an intelligent and tactile experience where the reader is able to grow with these characters. Beginning with Lorna falling in love, against the wishes of her parents, with Matt, a stenographer and artist who is almost immediately sent off to war leaving Lorna pregnant and alone. Just after he leaves, Lorna is told that Matt has been killed. Molly is eventually born and Lorna falls in love, beginning again a new life.

 

The most memorable for me is Molly, a woman trying to make her way in England at a time when it wasn’t fashionable for women to be on their own. Further, Molly engages in an affair with her employer that results in her becoming pregnant. Although the father is deeply in love with her, Molly doesn’t share the same feelings. She cares for him deeply but knows that her future lies elsewhere.

 

So Molly makes the scandalous decision to have her child, Ruth, on her own, trusting that everything will fall into place in it’s own time. Only the smallest kerfuffle ensues about her being unwed but Molly brushes off each tsk and moves ahead, eventually meeting Sam at a poetry conference she organizes. His name is Sam, a mechanic by day and poet by night, and they are instantly smitten with one another. In due course, they are married.

 

Ruth grows up in a world full of art and love.  She wanders from one step to the next without really challenging the path presented to her. She begins dating Peter, with the next step they move in together and the next they are married. She is never confident she actually loves him but is simply letting life take it’s course. They eventually divorce and then Ruth meets the love of her life – a man living in the cottage where Lorna and Matt got their start, coming full circle.

 

Since this is largely a novel about love, Lively ran the risk of making this syrupy and cliché but I found each of these women’s experiences unique and intelligently thought out. Having been a fan of Moon Tiger, I had high expectations and those expectations were definitely met.

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