In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years.
Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face.
Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?
A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page.
This is an amazing book. One reviewer describes it as "predictable" but I found it anything but predictable. The injustice done to a young girl in a timeperiod when it was believed females suffered from a mental illness called "hysteria" is probably closer to reality than fiction. I like the way the author leaves it to the reader to decide if Esme has schitzophrenia or if is she totally sane. Anyone who doesn't believe Esme's story could really have happened to women decades ago should see the DVD "1940 Schizophrenic Patients & Mental Health Hospital History Pictures." I was caught up in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and although it is a work of fiction, it is truly horrible in a good, fascinating way. I couldn't put it down, and I thought about it a lot afterwards. This is a book about a life thrown away, and it makes me appreciate every day of my own life. I see my life differently today because of this book, and I cherish my freedom so much more after reading it.
I bought this book during an episodic book-buying binge, thanks to the promise that it held a haunting mystery inside its covers. Then, there was the beautiful jacket depicting in bold colors, a lovely unidentified girl. These enticements proved accurate.
Stripped of its catastrophes, the back story is about a colonial-born mother, perhaps from an earlier England, who is desperate to marry off her two daughters. One embraces her mother's ambition that she lead a traditional life and one rebels against the notion. Ultimately, this is the divide that undermines the sibling connection.
Although I recommend this book, I will mention a couple of annoyances: I found the author's use of the word 'vanishing' excessive at times as though she lacked confidence in the reader's ability to understand her book, but this is a minor quibble. Some of her sentences were stilted. I'm also not sure the parallels between Esme and the one-generation removed Iris had to be so strongly drawn.
Why recommend this book as only one of a few I pass on to close friends or family? There are two reasons for my recommendation. The first is the way in which the author weaves between three storytellers within the text, symbolic of the way in which relatives are entwined, including how one generation is a part of the next. On the other hand, this writing style may be off-putting because it can be hard to follow at times. However, I quickly acclimated to it and experienced the author's creativity.
The theme of the book is the act of vanishing. The main characters are not as we initially believe them to be and in this way pulls his or her own vanishing act. This message made me think about how most of us have a vanishing act of one type or another, though thankfully not as devastating as Esme's, but nonetheless, vanishing acts are a part of most of our lives as we are not always as we seem to be. A book that makes me think is one that I can highly recommend despite a few imperfections. Who among us does not hide, does not vanish?
