My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts."
----Author Unknown
Someone might have said a million dollar thing without taking any full credit. Clare Dowling, an Irish writer, charmed us with an incredible story that brilliantly features a disoriented family in the light of Christmas and New Year's eve, in her new book, A Special Delivery .
Synopsis:
Aisling Brady is miserable. So is her husband Mossy. The three kids are too. Yet nobody dares say a thing. Instead, the Bradys keep their heads down and grimly look forward to another miserable Christmas in Dublin. What Aisling doesn't know is that - this year - they will get the most unexpected gift of all. One that will bring joy and heartbreak, hope and a string of sleepless nights. As their world is turned upside down, questions have to be asked. But are the Bradys ready to face the truth about themselves? And what each of them has done?
Why did I read this book in the wake of a New Year? Well, sometimes reading heartbreaking stuff can touch us quite deeply thus leaving us happy and pleased and it's sometimes good to learn about family values once in a while and what better way than reading about an unhinged family life. Clare Dowling enthralled me with her perfect story about an imperfect family. Like every year, this Christmas also started distastefully for the Bradys but a sudden Christmas gift delivered or their doorstep changes the course of their miserable lives and the author kept us in dark about the reason for their miserable situation till the middle of the story. Sounds like a regular family trying to stay afloat for another Christmas in their own home in Dublin, either stressing about lights on their porch or the usual petty stuffs. This family includes a mother, named, Aisling and her husband, Mossy and four children among which some face drug addiction and some are involved in teenage pregnancy drama. Yes, the issues sounds heavy and grim, but still the mother who happens to be the root of her family holds her family tightly through the storm, despite of her inner turmoils brought along with a shocking Christmas present from an unknown well-wisher.
The author portrayed these grim issues with ease and sensitively, thus also giving us a glimpse that how one holds onto each other or how one deals with these issues when living with their own family. Moreover, Aisling's depression was something that made me rooted for her till the very end. The author stripped Aisling's adrift yet perfect soul for us and that made me fall for Aisling's imperfect demeanor. We see the issues like teenage pregnancy from the affected girl's and her father's POV and that reminded me of the movie called, Juno. The Brady household has always been miserable, but we have no idea behind it's very reason, and the author makes no effort in the beginning of the story to shed any light on the mystery. Instead she keeps it tightly wrapped up with lots of confusions and sadness and eventually with the progress of the story, she peeled the layers of the mystery one-by-one.
Not only that the author layered her story with bits of humor here and there with her amusing and out-of-the-box character called Zofia, Brady's neighbor. Her absurd and whimsical demeanor completely leaves me amused. Moreover, the author wrote about Zofia with much passion and wit. Hence in a nutshell, I can declare that the characters were all flawed yet felt very poignant and realistic and I guess more or less their flaws made the story more interesting and alluring.
Family dramas can be very boring, but the way she represented the Bradys and their issues were brilliant and striking and all the while, I felt like I was standing right in the middle of Bradys in Dublin and watching them drifting apart yet trying to get a grip on each other. In fact the dialogues/ the narrative style of the author is free-flowing like a river and something that you can relate to. Every family has problems but every one deals their own drama in their own way and there's a lot to learn from the Bradys the way they handle their estrangement from each other. The prose with which the author told her story is eloquent and though-t-provoking, thus in every step, the Bradys forced me to think about their pathetic situation.
This author simply stole the show for me on the very first day of a year and I felt glad that I read this book on the wake of a new year, since the author made my heart filled up with contempt, joy and compassion and respect for my own family, with her intriguing novel.
Verdict: A must read for every one if you want to feel the warmth of a family values.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Clare Dowling, for giving me the opportunity to read and review her novel.
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