Page 18 - Phonebox Magazine May 2016

Book Review
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a storyteller there for all to see. The full signi cance of the title gradually becomes clear – for elephants and for human beings. This is a book which it is impossible to put down!
seems to quicken. The plot unravels a complicated family portrait of love and rivalry between siblings which has come from observation of other people’s lives. The characters are all well drawn, some more likeable than others and the reader is aware of where their empathy should lie. However, this is turned on its head when Lucas looks for Edwina to apologies and return precious items that were apparently stolen, at the time Charlie, Edwina’s son, got the blame for the theft. Eclair’s ultimate sympathy lies with Edwina as the mother that has had to deal with her family’s problems and indiscretions all the way through her life and is now having to deal with giving up her home.
It is a ‘rites of passage’ story, but the ‘rite’ is selling your home as you get older and your family grows up rather than starting a life, turning this kind of story telling on its head.
Jenny Eclair proves herself to be a sensitive author, with real empathy for her characters. This is a ‘moving’, original book, in which the reader can lose themselves. Anyone who enjoyed ‘One Day’ or ‘Cutting with Stone’ would enjoy this book.
Thelma Shacklady
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
When police were called to an elephant sanctuary they found an older woman apparently trampled to
death by a female elephant and a younger woman lying unconscious nearby. This woman was taken to hospital where she regained consciousness, signed herself out the following day and disappeared. Subsequently she was identified as the wife of the owner, Thomas Metcalf, who was himself catatonic and transferred to a psychiatric hospital where he remained, while their three year old daughter grew up in the charge of her grandmother. Ten years later, Jenna, now thirteen, seeks help from a psychic to nd her mother and when that fails, turns to the of cer in charge of the original investigation, now retired from the police force and a private investigator.
This is how a quite remarkable novel begins and it continues, chapter by chapter, to ll in the details from the viewpoint of the various
Debbie Taylor
Moving by Jenny Eclair
characters involved. So Jenna, Serenity, the psychic, Virgil, the detective and Alice, the mother who disappeared, all relate their stories, gradually building up a complex picture. And throughout the various accounts there are the elephants.
Alice was in Africa, studying elephant behaviour, in particular the bond between mother and baby, and the elephant’s standard response to death, when Thomas visited the reserve where she was studying, because he had plans to set up a sanctuary for elephants which had been mistreated in zoos or circuses. Their attraction was mutual and several months later Alice travelled to America to join him. It was after they were married that she discovered her new husband was not the person she thought he was. How their relationship developed until the night of the tragedy is gradually revealed, interspersed with details from the present where Jenna continues her search for her missing mother.
This is a novel where details about elephant behaviour form a fascinating underlying theme while the more conventional character development is equally interesting. It shows Jodi Picoult on top of her form, her skill as
Yes, That Jenny Eclair! ‘Moving’ is her fourth novel and is based around the house of Edwina and her need to move somewhere smaller as she grows older and her family have moved on.
The first part of the novel used the idea of Edwina showing the house to a young estate agent, as he assesses the house for its value. They go room by room through this Victorian Villa, each one triggering memories of the family that grew up there and have now left. The novel continues with threads of this family’s story told by Fern, a family friend and by Lucas, who is Edwina’s stepson.
Edwina’s story is told with humour, as you would expect, but also tapping into the real emotion of the situation, her having to let go of all her family memories and wondering what to do with the furniture.
The novel moves at a good pace, it feels slow at rst as we get to know Edwina and her story, small pieces of information piecing together everything that happened to them. As we move on to other players in the story, the pace
18 Phonebox Magazine | May 2016