Mothering Sunday – Graham Swift (2016, 132 pages)
Despite being so short, this is a heartbreakingly beautiful tale. Its focus is one day – Mothering Sunday in 1924 – when the orphaned Jane Fairchild has the day off like all housemaids, but no home to go to.
“All over the country, maids and cooks and nannies had been ‘freed’ for the day, but was any of them – was even Paul Sheringham – as untethered as she?”
Paul Sheringham is her aristocratic lover at a neighbouring house, and they take advantage of the staff absence to meet, possibly for the last time as he is soon to be married.
“In any case she was getting ready to lose him. Was he getting ready to lose her? She had no right to expect him to see it that way. Did she have any right to think she was losing him? She had never exactly had him. But oh yes she had.”
The romance between the two is brilliantly evoked, as there is a real sense, although nothing is said, of how deeply they feel for one another while under no illusion that their relationship will endure.
“As if he wished her to know, she would think later, that on this special upside-down day he had placed himself, lordliest of the lordly as he could be, in the deferring role. He had … offered her his house, opened its door for her obediently on her arrival, then undressed her as if he were slave”
There is much foreshadowing of the events of the day and we know that something hugely significant occurred, something which changes Jane’s life forever.
“As if the day had turned inside out, as if what she was leaving behind was not enclosed, lost, entombed in a house. It had merged somehow – pouring itself outwards – with the air she was breathing. She would never be able to explain it, and she would not feel it any the less even when she discovered, as she would do, how this day had turned really inside out.”
Mothering Sunday is more plot-heavy than a lot of novellas, and it is incredible how much Swift packs into such a short space without the story ever feeling constrained or curtailed in any way. At the same time, he is brave enough to leave a huge part of the story unanswered, as things sometimes are unanswered in life.
“We are all fuel. We are born, and we burn, some of us more quickly than others. There are different kinds of combustion. But not to burn, never to catch fire at all, that would be the sad life, wouldn’t it?”
Captivating and brilliant.
However, you may not find it so – I urge you to read Lucy’s very funny review of Mothering Sunday here.
madame bibi lophile recommends 
I thought Mothering Sunday was pretty much perfect as well. Since then, I’ve read some of Swift’s other books and I haven’t enjoyed them nearly as much – his writing in Mothering Sunday was concise but still extremely evocative. I’m about to read Lucy’s review and I’m sure it will make me laugh (one of my favourite reviewers on an Australian tv show absolutely LOATHED this book, especially the-wandering-around-the-house-nude bits.
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I’ve only read a few Swift – I read Last Orders when I was about 19 I think, and then Waterland but I’ve not read any others. Unfairly, I tend to lump him, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes together as these Booker-prize beloved, older white male, coldly intellectual types who I can’t read too much of, but in recent years they’ve all mellowed a bit – or I have – and I enjoy them more. I liked Barnes’ Sense of an Ending and McEwan’s On Chesil Beach (and there’s another McEwan coming up in this novella project). I was surprised I enjoyed Mothering Sunday as much as I did 🙂
The extended nudity in someone else’s house was a problem Lucy highlighted too 😀
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Having sworn off Graham Swift who never seemed likely to match Waterland for me, I read this one thanks to friends raving about it and loved it. Lucy’s review is a hoot, though!
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Absolutely – this drew me back to Swift when I wouldn’t really have bothered usually and I thought it was so impressive.
Lucy’s review is great 😀
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I loved this book. Put it up as book of the week at work around mother’s day and got a complaint about the saucy cover…
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Oh dear – it’s art! I hope your colleagues enjoyed the book nonetheless 🙂
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:))) It’s amazing how people can have such different responses to a book!
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It keeps bookish life interesting 🙂
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I’ve only read Last Orders by this author, which I liked but didn’t love. This one, however, sounds more my cup of tea – the premise definitely appeals, as does the era.
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This is a bit of a departure for him in many ways – the length, the focus in a female character. I thought it was warmer than I’ve found him too, less distancing. I hope you enjoy it if you read it Jacqui!
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so funny to see the contrast between your and Lucy’s views – isn’t that such a brilliant aspect of book blogging! 🙂
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It really is 🙂
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Aha! You can’t add this one to my list since it’s already on it! It’s odd, though, every review of it makes it sound different. Helen’s is the one that pushed it on my list – https://shereadsnovels.com/2018/05/09/mothering-sunday-by-graham-swift/ – and yours would have made me consider it, whereas Lucy’s has me shuddering in horror… I’m not sure how quickly I’ll prioritise it… 😉
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Helen’s review is excellent, I agree that I felt I knew the characters despite the short space.
Maybe that’s the strength of Mothering Sunday, that there’s enough to it, shown not told, that means everyone experiences it differently. However it does leave itself open to the fact that some of those experiences won’t be good ones!
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