In a Good Light

Clare Chambers

Random House 

Otago Daily Times, May 28th 2004

“You never get over a good childhood…”

These are the opening words of In a Good Light, and they neatly encapsulate the essence of Clare Chambers’ enchanting novel.  While the concept of being haunted by one’s past is hackneyed, it may sometimes be the only description of the way long forgotten incidents or people can resurface and redirect the flow of one’s life.   Such is the case for Esther Fairchild, who, at the ripe old age of  34 has no doubts about her future,  having devoted her life to caring for her quadriplegic elder brother Christopher.  Sharing a house with him, she is always available to assist him, and living rent-free means she can support herself in her chosen vocation (supplemented by waitressing) as a children’s illustrator.    She sees the two of them, herself and Christopher, continuing this quiet co-existence indefinitely, but her assumption that theirs is a mutually satisfying relationship is overturned when Chris announces he plans to marry their new housekeeper.   Then, quite by accident, she recognises a face from her past while visiting a local school, and she decides to track down her brother’s old-time sweetheart in order to sabotage his new relationship.

The narrative interweaves Esther’s current life with memories of herself and her brother’s haphazard childhood in a rural English village. With parents dedicated to providing help to those less fortunate (often at the expense of their own comfort), they grow up in an atmosphere of benign neglect, accompanied from time to time by sundry waifs and strays taken in by their mother and father.  Esther’s world is shaped by three main figures-her beloved brother, his girlfriend (and Esther’s idol) Penny, and Donovan, a boy of Christopher’s age who is regularly rescued from his alcoholic mother.

Chambers has created a vivid and realistic portrait of a childhood of glorious freedom, and all the intensity of emotion that I remember from my own (similarly chaotic) youth.  It is this narrative that forms the heart and soul of the novel, and was what captured my imagination.  Clothing this body is the stream of the present, which form a series a slowly unfolding coincidences that at first glance seem too neat and tidy to be believable.  But as the strands of past and present move together, converging on the accident which left Christopher paralysed, these seemingly random events are revealed to be directly linked to their childhood.

I found myself reminded of a slip knot, which seems impossible to untangle at first glance, but which can be undone by a simple tug of the cord-if you know the trick of it.   A thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing read, In a Good Light is a fairytale for the romantic child in all of us, but substantial enough to satisfy the analytic adult, too.