SWIFT writes slowly! Wish you were here is the story of the Luxtons, a dairy-farming family in rural England
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TITLE: Wish You Were Here
AUTHOR: Graham Swift
PUBLISHER: Picador
After Vera, the wife and mother dies of cancer, Michael, the father, is left to raise two boys, Jack and Tom.
The mad cow disease that hit some farms came and went - and Michael was coping.
Until his wife died, that is.
After the father commits suicide, the running of the family farm, Jebb Farmhouse, is left to the older of the two boys.
It is Jack's voice that tells the story and the real story begins when Tom's body comes back from the war in Iraq for burial.
Tom had chosen the relative comfort and seclusion of the army over the madness of home. It was he who was taken along by his father to kill, in an act of mercy, the family dog, Luke.
It's here where the emotionally-troubled father tells his son that he hopes someone would have the decency to do the same for him when his time came.
His eventual suicide was a declaration that no one was there to do the dastardly act for him. Jack goes on to marry Ellie, the girl from the farm next door.
But the Merricks are themselves not without flaws.
The wife and mother, Alice, left the family suddenly, leaving old Jimmy Merrick to raise Ellie on his own.
Merrick would die soon after Luxton had blown his brains out, leaving a mark on the tree that stopped the bullet as it escaped through the back of his head.
After he returns from his younger brother's funeral, Jack is contemplating suicide, with the same gun that his father used to kill himself.
But Jacko, as Ellie calls him, is of the view that suicide is messy - it creates a lot of work for those left behind. So he will take Ellie with him; shoot her first.
But as he prepares for their fatal end, Jack has a vision of his brother, Tom, that blocks the door where Ellie is supposed to enter the home.
When Ellie eventually returns home, instead of Jack's gun she has an umbrella pointed at her.
The gun lies in the umbrella stand.
As Ellie bathes herself , Jack is left to agonise over how to get rid of the gun and the cartridges.
It's a good, well-written story, but develops at a very slow literary pace. - ©makatilemedia
Sad story of a tragic family
SWIFT writes slowly! Wish you were here is the story of the Luxtons, a dairy-farming family in rural England
----------------
TITLE: Wish You Were Here
AUTHOR: Graham Swift
PUBLISHER: Picador
After Vera, the wife and mother dies of cancer, Michael, the father, is left to raise two boys, Jack and Tom.
The mad cow disease that hit some farms came and went - and Michael was coping.
Until his wife died, that is.
After the father commits suicide, the running of the family farm, Jebb Farmhouse, is left to the older of the two boys.
It is Jack's voice that tells the story and the real story begins when Tom's body comes back from the war in Iraq for burial.
Tom had chosen the relative comfort and seclusion of the army over the madness of home. It was he who was taken along by his father to kill, in an act of mercy, the family dog, Luke.
It's here where the emotionally-troubled father tells his son that he hopes someone would have the decency to do the same for him when his time came.
His eventual suicide was a declaration that no one was there to do the dastardly act for him. Jack goes on to marry Ellie, the girl from the farm next door.
But the Merricks are themselves not without flaws.
The wife and mother, Alice, left the family suddenly, leaving old Jimmy Merrick to raise Ellie on his own.
Merrick would die soon after Luxton had blown his brains out, leaving a mark on the tree that stopped the bullet as it escaped through the back of his head.
After he returns from his younger brother's funeral, Jack is contemplating suicide, with the same gun that his father used to kill himself.
But Jacko, as Ellie calls him, is of the view that suicide is messy - it creates a lot of work for those left behind. So he will take Ellie with him; shoot her first.
But as he prepares for their fatal end, Jack has a vision of his brother, Tom, that blocks the door where Ellie is supposed to enter the home.
When Ellie eventually returns home, instead of Jack's gun she has an umbrella pointed at her.
The gun lies in the umbrella stand.
As Ellie bathes herself , Jack is left to agonise over how to get rid of the gun and the cartridges.
It's a good, well-written story, but develops at a very slow literary pace. - ©makatilemedia
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