Lead Review (I’m Sorry You Feel That Way)

• Book: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way
• Location: London
• Author: Rebecca Wait

Review Author: Tina Hartas

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way is quite a tour de force of family dynamics, with astute observations around the interactions between the women. It is, though, a book that is hard to pin down in many ways because it fluidly travels through time and between characters. Much like members of enmeshed a single family, it is sometimes hard to understand where one person ends and another begins. This works well.

The novel opens largely with Celia’s story, a woman who doesn’t quite fit into society (now, where have we heard that before?). She accompanies her best friend’s boyfriend to buy an engagement ring and snaffles the man for herself. We learn fairly early on who this woman is in relationship to the main protagonists, Alice and Hanna. They are described as saint and sinner twins – not identical, that is important to know – but Alice is a young woman who takes people at face value, with no real agenda and of course often misses disingenuous machinations on the part of others. Hanna is quite machiavellian in the way she approaches life and seems to see things in terms of black and white. She huffs off to Kuala Lumpur after some mental health issues, only to return in time for Aunt Katy’s funeral.

There is also older brother Michael, who is the conservative influence in the family, married to Olivia who seems universally unliked. Their mother and father struggle with their own relationship and finally split which then takes dad down a new trajectory that the twins have to deal with. The relationship with mum is of course fractious, that goes without saying.

It is a well observed and readable novel that acutely portrays the relationships between the women in the family. It is written with humour and perception and feels like a thoughtful meander through this family as it evolves and changes over the years. It is a character driven novel that demonstrates the author’s light touch at bringing her characters to life.

The novel is set in London and clearly this city is a breeding ground for dysfunctionality. You will enjoy this novel if you have liked Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss, and The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson

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