Title: UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Author: Joyce Maynard
Read: December 2021
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!
Book Description:
Drinking cost Helen her marriage and
custody of her seven-year-old son, Ollie. Once an aspiring art photographer,
she now makes ends meet taking portraits of school children and working for a
caterer. Recovering from her addiction, she spends lonely evenings checking out
profiles on an online dating site. Weekend visits with her son are awkward.
He’s drifting away from her, fast.
When she meets Ava and Swift Havilland, the vulnerable Helen is instantly
enchanted. Wealthy, connected philanthropists, they have their own charity
devoted to rescuing dogs. Their home is filled with fabulous friends, edgy art,
and dazzling parties.
Then Helen meets Elliott, a kind, quiet accountant who offers loyalty and love
with none of her newfound friends’ fireworks. To Swift and Ava, he’s boring.
But even worse than that, he’s unimpressed by them.
As Helen increasingly falls under the Havillands’ influence—running errands,
doing random chores, questioning her relationship with Elliott—Ava and Swift
hold out the most seductive gift: their influence and help to regain custody of
her son. But the debt Helen owes them is about to come due.
My musings:
Noone writes complicated relationships like Joyce
Maynard! I fell in love with her writing back in the 90’s when I read WHERE
LOVE GOES and realised, even as a young, hopeful and optimistic new mother,
that the initial starstruck era of first love would inevitably fade and fizzle
if there wasn’t a stronger, deeper foundation. In UNDER THE INFLUENCE, Maynard
once again lays bare the heart and soul of her vulnerable protagonist, Helen,
taking us on an unforgettable journey into the complexities of friendship and
love.
I immediately warmed to Helen, whose
unhappy and neglectful childhood has left her especially vulnerable for
attaching herself to the wrong people in her search for the unconditional love
she never had growing up. She didn’t find it in her husband, a relationship
that ended shortly after the birth of their son Ollie. Distraught, she turned
to alcohol, one of her estranged mother’s crutches, and it cost her the custody
of her small son. So when Helen meets the glamorous couple Ava and Swift
Havilland, she is at her most vulnerable and easily dazzled by their splendour.
As has been her habit in the past, she soon totally falls under the influence
of her new friends, turning to them for advice and considering their opinion above
all others when it comes to making decisions. So when she meets Elliott, a
quiet but endearing accountant and starts dating him, their low opinion of her
new boyfriend weighs heavily on her mind. The problem with this type of
friendship is that sometimes you don’t see how enslaved you have become until
it is too late ...
The book started with a strong sense
of foreboding and instilled an underlying sense of anxiety and dread as I
became more emotionally attached to Helen and privy to her most innermost
thoughts. I just knew that this couldn’t end well, but had no idea of the turn
of events that were to follow. Maynard is a true master of portraying
relationships and loyalties – between lovers, friends, families – that exposes
the very essence of our need to love and be loved and the price we often pay
for this. I particularly loved how Helen was brutally honest with the reader,
never making excuses for her behaviour, but giving full disclosure when it came
to sharing her thoughts. Some parts of this book broke my heart, as Maynard
always tends to do, others opened my eyes to the perplexities of trying to
start over, as Helen has to do.
Summary:
All in all, UNDER THE INFLUENCE was a multi-layered
and astutely observed story of love and friendship as only Maynard can tell it.
With particular insight into the complexities of different relationships, the
book took me on a true rollercoaster ride of emotions and spat me out –
heartsore and exhausted – at the end, but not without giving me a glimmer of
hope. A truly wonderful book that ticked all the boxes for me!
Thoughtful review, thanks for sharing.
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