Novel set in Bath (“..the trauma of the IVF experience..”)
- Book: Pieces of You
- Location: Bath
- Author: Ella Harper
Pieces of You by Ella Harper, novel set in Bath
It takes a bit of work to establish exactly where Harper’s novel is set because there is little indication of setting; it could really be anywhere in modern Britain today. This is because Pieces of You focuses almost entirely on the inner world of feelings, something it has in common with other examples of this genre. Most of the novel is written in first person from the perspective of the central character, Lucy, although Harper does give us alternative narrative viewpoints (Nell, Lucy’s sister in law and Patricia, her mother in law) which at times makes for a slightly jarring and disconnected reading experience.
At the start of the novel, Lucy is more than happily married to her soulmate Luke, despite the fact their eight-year marriage has been blighted by repeated failed attempts to conceive a child, including their full whack of IVF. The novel, however, begins on a high; Lucy has found herself unexpectedly pregnant without the aid of IVF and is guarding her secret closely, hardly daring to hope that she might actually make it through this time. Unfortunately, from that point it’s downhill all the way. Almost inevitably, Lucy begins to miscarry and while she is dealing with that disaster her beloved husband is involved in a hideous accident that leaves him in a coma. And that’s not all, believe me …
On the positive side, Harper manages to convey with some sensitivity the trauma of the IVF experience, and there are sections of the novel which are pleasing, mostly the flashbacks to happier times, before Lucy and Luke had embarked on their mission to conceive, but the rest of the novel is like overdosing on emotion and that emotion is unremitting misery. I found myself pondering whether Harper actually didn’t realise that you need light and shade to make a book work. If you slam a reader with one anguished event after another, the inevitable happens – you get hardened to the pain and you stop caring.
In all honesty, I didn’t care all that much about the characters anyway. I found her women supremely irritating. I’d like to hope that there aren’t many women around like these – women who let themselves be completely defined by the men in their life. Nell, drawn into an affair with a married creep, Cal, smokes because, according to him, it makes her look like Marilyn Munroe and Lucy obligingly rolls her eyes because Luke tells her she looks alluring doing so. Oh, please.
To be totally fair, Harper does try to add a little bit of hope at the end of the novel – someone must have given her a nudge, but it’s a case of too little, too late and it’s not really believable anyway.
So, if you have a burning desire to wallow in misery, go ahead, but you’ve been warned …
Ellen for the TripFiction Team
Please wait...
