The Essence of the Thing Madeleine St John

The Essence of the Thing  Madeleine St John

Overview:

The Essence of the Thing, which charts the anatomy of a break-up, is a sad story but readers are more than compensated by the warmth, wit and insight that is characteristic of St John’s writing style.
 
Nicola and Jonathon have been together for six years and live in a charming flat in London’s Notting Hill. When Nicola dashes out to the shops for cigarettes she returns home to find a stranger in her sitting room. He looks and sounds like Jonathon but when he announces he no longer wants to be with her, well, she’s not quite sure who he is. Reeling from rejection she must make plans to move out. The trouble is she still loves Jonathon and is utterly confused by his actions and consequently in a state of extreme shock.
 
Anyone who has suffered the unpleasant experience of being unceremoniously and unexpectedly despatched by a lover or spouse will likely see some of their own experience acutely reflected in the pages of The Essence of the Thing. “Love is only a kind of insanity” says Jonathon (p.208) and Madeleine St John does a wonderful job of unravelling the incomprehensible emotions that accompany the most acrimonious aspects of splits-ville.
 
The Essence of the Thing was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 1997. While there’s none of the heady romance of The Woman in Black (1993), the great pleasure of this book, apart from St John’s intelligent and beautifully expressed observations about the human condition, is watching Nicola regain her independence and rebuild her life. Will Jonathon realise he’s made a mistake and beg for her forgiveness or will Nicola move onto bigger and better things?  Despite the danger of falling into clichéd romantic territory, St John manages to bring that extra special something to The Essence of the Thing, making it an entertaining and intelligently written meditation on the nature of love. And not a machete or a toppling ladder in sight.

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Sincerelyours

And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!