GIVEAWAY: 5 copies of Summer Heat: CYPRUS
A moving story set in ARIZONA / SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
27th March 2025
The Long Delirious Burning Blue by Sharon Blackie, a moving story set in ARIZONA / SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
A tale of self-discovery for both mother and daughter
The Long Delirious Burning Blue by Sharon Blackie is a haunting and deeply moving story of how domestic abuse and alcoholism can have long-lasting effects on everyone involved. It also explores the complexities of family relationships, particularly the fraught and tumultuous bond between a daughter, Cat Munro, and her mother, Laura.
Set alternately in the misty Highlands of Scotland and the arid desert of Arizona, the story starts with Laura’s upbringing in a dysfunctional family, where she is forced to live with her cold and unfeeling aunt from an early age. This backdrop meant she was desperate to leave home and marry as soon as possible, and she falls for an unsuitable fisherman who, despite initial good intentions, starts to use his fists on her to alleviate his frustrations.
Laura finally feels strong enough to leave him, taking Cat with her but she eventually succumbs to depression and the appeal of the bottle overwhelms her. Cat’s life is subsequently marked by emotional turbulence, her life coloured by the shadow of her difficult relationship with Laura, a woman who remains both fiercely independent but emotionally distant.
Through Cat’s eyes, the author unravels the tension between mother and daughter, showing how their differences have shaped and complicated Cat’s own understanding of herself. Their relationship is far from simple, and the narrative deftly illustrates how love, resentment and yearning can coexist in ways that are sometimes painful and hard to reconcile.
Cat herself finally leaves home for a new life in America, where she works in an unstimulating career and has an equally unstimulating relationship. Her fear of flying is ironically her saviour as she makes the decision to learn to fly. Being up above the desert, with just the cerulean sky for company, she finds an inner strength she didn’t know she had. This not only leads to self-revelation but also to a more satisfying personal life.
The novel is a delicate balance between emotional exploration and character-driven storytelling. Cat’s internal struggles, her efforts to understand her mother’s behaviour and her own attempts at forging a path separate from Laura’s shadow are written with a subtle, poetic intensity. The prose is sharp and introspective, allowing readers to feel the emotional and psychological landscapes of the characters. The sense of isolation that Cat feels is palpable, as is her yearning for connection and understanding, particularly with her distant and sometimes cold mother.
However, what makes this story truly stand out is the nuanced treatment of the mother-daughter relationship. The reader sit with the discomfort of unresolved conflicts, the ambiguity of love and the weight of generational trauma. This lack of a neat, tidy ending adds to the novel’s emotional power, as it mirrors the often messy, unspoken realities of family dynamics.
The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a beautifully written, emotionally charged novel that examines the intricacies of family relationships, the struggle for identity and the search for meaning within the often painful dynamics between mothers and daughters. I just wonder if the in-depth descriptions of learning to fly were so necessary.
Val for the TripFiction Team
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