The View On The Way Down - Review

Title: The View On The Way Down

Author: Rebecca Wait

Published By: Picador

ISBN: 978-1-4472-2469-3

Rare is the book that takes you in completely: you give yourself half an hour to read, but four hours later there you are, still curled up on the sofa and absorbed in its pages; you forget that at some point you have to break off to eat, sleep, do something perhaps a little more productive than getting lost in a world that is not your own. I can say without hesitation that Rebecca Wait's 'The View On The Way Down' was completely worth all those hours of 'unproductiveness'. It made me laugh, it made me cry. Simply yet beautifully written, the tale was in my thoughts long after I turned the final page.

'The View On The Way Down' is the story of the Stewart family: husband and wife Joe and Rose; their two sons Kit and Jamie; and younger daughter Emma. The introduction depicts an idyllic day at the beach: if ever there was a 'perfect' family, it would be the Stewarts. However, by the end of chapter one it is clear that this illusion has been long since shattered. Some fourteen years have passed. In that time, Kit has died. On the day of the funeral, Jamie left home, completely severing all ties with his home and family. Rose and Joe, consumed by their grief - and, in Joe's case, indomitable anger - at losing not just one but both sons, have essentially become strangers. At the centre of it all is Emma, now a chubby, awkward teenager trying to navigate her way in a society that only accepts the pretty and the perfect. Emma is, from the start, a real highlight of the book. In a world that has recently produced wet, limp damsel-in-distress females that have all the personalities of a toilet brush (Twilight's Bella Swann immediately springs to mind), Wait does a fantastic job in creating a protagonist with whom we instantly connect: I would defy any teenage girl to read this book and not recognise at least a small part of herself in the loveable, bumbling Emma. It is the actions of Emma that really propel the story along: devastated by problems at school and suffocated by her life at home, she sets out one day to find Jamie. Their subsequent meeting starts a chain of events that reveals both happiness and tragedy in equal measure. The story is divided into three parts, the second of which is the most difficult to read: written as a series of letters from Jamie to his estranged father, this is the section of the story where I found myself with tears in my eyes, holding my breath.           

Throughout 'The View On The Way Down', Wait deals with many dark themes: grief, depression, suicide. Yet the direct manner with which she handles this, as well as interspersing happier memories offered as anecdotes by various characters, means that this is not a heavy, difficult book. Her frank approach to these challenging issues make for engaging reading: the simple, total desperation conveyed in her handling of depression in particular is so strong that I believe any person who has ever suffered similar mental health problems would find it easy to relate. Every character deals with the loss of Kit differently. Wait does a stellar job in showing that, whilst the feeling of grief is universal, the way in which it manifests itself is rarely the same: Joe retreats into his shed, channelling the loss into practical, manual work; Jamie mechanically works his way through a menial job in a bookshop and, in the privacy of his flat, loses himself in elaborate games of Lego; Rose is intent on being the perfect mother to her daughter, determined not to let her down in the way she believes she did her sons whilst finding 'a curious strength in denying herself' the need to eat; Emma, by contrast, 'developed a kind of nervous reflex which involved eating everything in sight', as well as a later flirtation with hardcore Christianity.  

With her debut novel - written on evenings whilst she worked full time as a teaching assistant - Rebecca Wait sets the bar high. She is currently working on her second project: if it is anywhere near as strong as the first, we are certainly in for a treat.