The Story of Lucy Gault - William Trevor
The Story of Lucy Gault
Author: William Trevor
Edition: 2003 (Originally published in 2002)
Publisher: Penguin
# of pages: 228
Source: Amazon UK
Blurb: It is the summer of 1921 and eight-year-old Lucy Gault stays close to the glens and woods above Lahardane - the much-loved house that her family is being forced to abandon. She knows that danger threatens and the Gaults are no longer welcome in Ireland. Lucy, however, is headstrong and decides that somehow she must force her parents into staying. But the path she chooses ends in disaster. One chance event, unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults for years to come and bind each of them in different ways to this one moment in time, to this beautiful stretch of coast...
Opening line: "Captain Everard Gault wounded the boy in the right shoulder of the night of June the twenty-first, nineteen twenty-one."
My review: For the first time in a while, I wanted to reach into the book and physically slap the main character. Before everyone goes away with "uh oh, annoying protagonist approaching, abandon ship!" in their minds, I didn't want to slap Lucy for being obnoxious, but for grimly clinging to something stupid she did as a child. Yes, Lucy's "unwanted and unexpected" act of childish rebellion did tear apart her family, but after fifteen years or so have passed, you'd think she'd stop leaning on it as though it happened yesterday.
Seriously, Lucy. Cheer up!
Lucy's story starts when she, as a child, decided to run away to show her parents that she didn't want to leave Ireland, despite the threat of arsonists and the people poisoning sheepdogs, with other undoubtedly bloody events going on in the background. Still, she's eight years old, they aren't well known for their common sense. She runs off into the woods as she normally does but, as fate would have it, she trips on a rock and badly injures her leg, leaving her alone and stranded as she can't stand. Meanwhile, her parents discover she's missing, having thought she was with the other until they both meet up, and alongside the family servants, comb the beach where she's also known to play. Again, as fate would have it, Lucy left her cardigan on the beach and her parents immediately assume that the stress of the arsonist attack and leaving the country has caused her to commit suicide, so they leave the country, mourning their daughter's death.
But Lucy isn't dead, as she's discovered malnurished in the woods by the family servants, who take care of her and send the good news off to her parents. But as fate would have it, it's not that easy...
All in all, the plot's a little contrived as points due to the sheer amount of coincidences needed for the set up to work (and that's only taking into account the opening chapters!), but it's an enjoyable set up in its own way. It was kind of like watching a soap opera, with everything being incredibly melodramatic but executed well enough for you to ignore it for a half hour or so.
Unfortunately, after the very dramatic and high tension start (the book literally opens on a shooting - there's no build up to it, just a big BANG!), the book slows down. A lot of drama, especially relating to Everard and Heloise, Lucy's parents, is pretty much just addressed in an "oh, and then this happened - back to your regularly scheduled mundane life of [character]", which was almost infuriating given the head-on approach to dramatic situations that the start of the book had. The book does pick up dramatically once the set up for the second half is complete
I really can't help but compare this book to Atonement, mostly because I read Atonement again before picking up The Story of Lucy Gault which made their core similarities incredibly apparent. Although the plots are executed and resolved differently, they both revolve around a young girl who made a stupid, childish decision, which hurt the ones she loved and her relationships with them. In Atonement, however, Briony actually tries to redeem herself by actively doing something with her life rather than Lucy and her large amount of self-pitying (although in all fairness, Lucy can't exert herself physically due to Plot - however, this doesn't excuse how everything in her life loops around to what she did as a child. Everything.)
The writing style is pretty typical of the author, considering how he uses a very similar style in Felicia's Journey and Death in the Summer: most simplistic and with emphasis on laying down facts and concrete settings rather than wishy-washy descriptions most of the time. On the odd occasion Trevor does feel like getting descriptive, he comes out with some very nice metaphors and vivid scenery described in a few words.
I did enjoy this book, but all in all I think it's a forgettable read, the kind of book that touches you at the time but you come to forget about its impact on you sooner rather than later. I'd recommend it if you're interested in redemption stories particularly, in which foolish little girls grow up into regretful, lonely women, or if you're the kind of person who can stretch your disbelief long enough to ignore the utter coinky-dinks that take place to make the plot work.
From what I've read of William Trevor's other works, The Story of Lucy Gault seems to be one of his weaker works and I'd recommend Felicia's Journey over this if you've never read anything by the author before. If you enjoy(ed) William Trevor's other works, chances are The Story of Lucy Gault is also going to appeal to you, again due to the consistent writing style he has between novels.
Other notes of not much notability:
• Although 228 pages may seem relatively short, the edition I read suffered from that god awful Tiny Font™ that publishers seem to just be so enamoured with when publishing a "grown upt" read. Between a dim light bulb and the fact my reading glasses have disappeared into the ether yet again, this wasn't fun to try and read in the evening...but that's a specific complaint about the publisher's choices, rather than the book itself.
• I really can't comprehend what they were going for with this cover. I would totally overlook it in a book shop, as it's just so generic. The photo's nice, but it tells you nothing!
My rating: 3/5, 3½/5 if you don't mind some slow pacing