Review of the novel My Ghosts by Gwendoline Riley
WRITTEN BY: Sanita Delić
The author skillfully offers the characters an apparent peace instead of psychotherapy, and ends the genesis of family behavior in each chapter with a dialectical negation without synthesis – there is no affirmation of the problem, and thus no solution.
Dialogue silence, avoidance of encounters and repression of trauma are just some of the themes that English author Gwendoline Riley introduces the reader to in her sixth novel My Ghosts . A tangled web of negative experiences from the past envelops the family of the narrator Bridge, who, from a distance, speaks primarily about her dysfunctional relationship with her mother. The harrowing experience after the divorce of her parents, Lee and Helen, ironically named Hen, is brought closer to us through the description of damaged family relationships, marked by intolerance and misunderstanding, which ultimately lead to a final separation and only occasional meetings. Instead of breaking the sinister family pattern, this separation perpetuates it, leaving behind an insoluble legacy that manifests itself in the form of past traumas, or “ghosts” that haunt Bridge and her sister Michelle.
The novel is divided into five parts. The first of them deals with the anecdotes of their father, which he retold to his daughters in an overbearing but solemn manner when they spent weekends with him. In their lives, he appears as an important formative figure who, as the narrator says, left a restraining effect, actually a numbing effect, regardless of all the energy he had . The next four episodes focus on carefully planned conversations between Bridge and her mother, which mostly take place long distance, mostly on holidays. However, the main part of the novel is dedicated to birthday encounters, which are presented in a tragicomic way. Now an academic in her forties, the narrator describes her mother as an arrogant person whom she never understood. He also says that she often did things for the sake of others, following well-established social norms - She loved rules, codes and unchanging expectations . Thus, as a child, Bridge learned that her mother only wanted questions to which she had ready answers, and all their subsequent correspondence, especially at birthday dinners, was based on the same principle. This rigidity while feigning common interests carved into their relationship insurmountable differences, so Bridge never gets a complete picture of her mother (and vice versa). When, after some time and seriously impaired health, Helen wants to change her relationship with her daughter, she begins a story about her difficult marriage to her father and the things he made her do . However, Bridge digresses from this painful topic, jokingly continuing to add to the list of psychotherapists her mother should visit. Later, she was proud that she managed to bypass this conversation with her cunning restraint .
Playing with the readers' attention, the author skilfully offers the characters an apparent peace instead of psychotherapy, and ends the genesis of family behavior in each chapter with a dialectical negation without synthesis - there is no affirmation of the problem, and therefore no solution. My ghosts remain mysterious until the very end, even after the death of Helen, who does not get a chance for a final confession. The expected melodramatic ending is absent this time, and the novel will only shed light on the unsaid - everything else remains for the reading public as good material for reflection.