What I am reading in February
What Could Be Saved
Liese O'Halloran Schwarz
Artist Laura Preston lives alone in Washington DC. On Wednesdays, she has lunch with her ageing mother Genevieve, who is slipping into dementia. Her older sister Bea lives on the other side of town, busy raising teenage boys. Their father Robert is dead. Their brother Phillip disappeared forty years ago when the family lived in Bangkok.
Years of anguish, years of wondering if they could have done more or better, are brought undone when Laura receives an email from a stranger claiming that Philip has been living with her recently deceased father. In a mildly comic moment, the daughter declares she needs Philip gone as she needs to sell the house and settle her father’s affairs.
Ignoring Bea’s warnings, Laura heads straight for Bangkok, desperate to see for herself this man who claims he is her long-lost brother. It seems Bea’s concerns are ill-placed; the DNA test proves this man is their brother. But the delight of this novel is how this one simple truth uncovers a litany of lies and deceits and reveals a family that doesn’t even know itself.
This exquisitely written novel carefully interweaves the past and the present; from the geographically and culturally removed experience of life as expats in Bangkok to the order and predictability of an establishment Washington family. The servants whose English may be flawed but whose understanding is not. From America immersed in the Vietnam war through the massive cultural shift that came after. What Could be Saved is an elegant blend of mystery and family drama. It’s cleverness lies in the intricate web of love and deceit, leaving no character entirely blameless. It is filled warmth but beware its bite as Schwarz turns an unwavering eye on her characters, on white privilege, gender relations and power. A rich and rewarding page-turner.
Liese O'Halloran Schwarz
Artist Laura Preston lives alone in Washington DC. On Wednesdays, she has lunch with her ageing mother Genevieve, who is slipping into dementia. Her older sister Bea lives on the other side of town, busy raising teenage boys. Their father Robert is dead. Their brother Phillip disappeared forty years ago when the family lived in Bangkok.
Years of anguish, years of wondering if they could have done more or better, are brought undone when Laura receives an email from a stranger claiming that Philip has been living with her recently deceased father. In a mildly comic moment, the daughter declares she needs Philip gone as she needs to sell the house and settle her father’s affairs.
Ignoring Bea’s warnings, Laura heads straight for Bangkok, desperate to see for herself this man who claims he is her long-lost brother. It seems Bea’s concerns are ill-placed; the DNA test proves this man is their brother. But the delight of this novel is how this one simple truth uncovers a litany of lies and deceits and reveals a family that doesn’t even know itself.
This exquisitely written novel carefully interweaves the past and the present; from the geographically and culturally removed experience of life as expats in Bangkok to the order and predictability of an establishment Washington family. The servants whose English may be flawed but whose understanding is not. From America immersed in the Vietnam war through the massive cultural shift that came after. What Could be Saved is an elegant blend of mystery and family drama. It’s cleverness lies in the intricate web of love and deceit, leaving no character entirely blameless. It is filled warmth but beware its bite as Schwarz turns an unwavering eye on her characters, on white privilege, gender relations and power. A rich and rewarding page-turner.
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