Plan B - Emily Barr

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In America, Plan B is the brand name for emergency contraception, and their tag line is "For when things don't go as planned". If ever there was a sentence to summarize this story, that would be it.

I like Emily Barr's books, although after a few you can start to predict some of the details because they all stick to the same vague formula. Each thus far has included a British girl with an relatively interesting ...
...non-British setting, and this one is no exception. Emma is a young stay at home mother with a 2 year old daughter, Alice. She lives in Brighton with her partner Matt, but he travels a lot with his job so often it's just the two girls together. For reasons of which she is not aware, he suggests a move to an idylic farm house in the south of France and promptly moves the three of them across the channel the moment Emma agrees that yes, in principle ... more

In America, Plan B is the brand name for emergency contraception, and their tag line is "For when things don't go as planned". If ever there was a sentence to summarize this story, that would be it.

I like Emily Barr's books, although after a few you can start to predict some of the details because they all stick to the same vague formula. Each thus far has included a British girl with an relatively interesting past spending at least some of the book in a non-British setting, and this one is no exception. Emma is a young stay at home mother with a 2 year old daughter, Alice. She lives in Brighton with her partner Matt, but he travels a lot with his job so often it's just the two girls together. For reasons of which she is not aware, he suggests a move to an idylic farm house in the south of France and promptly moves the three of them across the channel the moment Emma agrees that yes, in principle that might be quite nice. This is where we join the story - the book begins on moving day - but through conversations and memories and flashbacks we later get a glimpse of the history behind the decision, their relationship and the many other reasons that come together in a horrifying manner half way through the book. As secrets are revealed (or uncovered in error), Emma's world starts to crumble around her, and she realises that Matt, the man she once knew, loved and hoped to marry, literally does not exist.

There are moments as you start to read when it seems the story is going off at a tangent - there is a lot of talk about Emma's past, for example, in particular about her parents who were not involved with her childhood after the first couple of years. However as the story comes to its conclusion you see that everything said was said for a reason, that it all ties together, and that the way Emma treats her daughter is in fact a direct reflection of how her mother treated her. This is not the kind of book that hints at its ending from the first few chapters. The explanations of what Matt has been up to for the last couple of years are so horrifying that very few could predict it will turn out in the way it does, and it's not a run-of-the-mill story about a couple's problems. In fact, it borders on dangerously unrealistic and was saved in my mind only by the fact that I've read enough trashy real life magazines to know that this sort of thing happens - very rarely, but it does happen.

Despite this, I liked the book. It reads fluidly and interestingly. The observations of French village life and the characters is beholds are beautifully detailed, and the rawness of Emma's pain seems real. There are some very funny moments in a book that is not a comedy, and from the descriptions of the toddlers in the book, it is obvious that the author has spent much time in the presence of little ones (in real life she is a mother of 2)

The book is set all over the place - France, London, Brighton - and told from different viewpoints - Matt's, Jo's, Emma's. It has enough French in it for you to remember where it's set, but not too much that if you don't speak the language you'll be lost. Deep down this is a story about falling out of love rather than into it. At the same time it's about both independence - from a partner, a family, an old life - and dependence - on a support system, on yourself, on finding a routine despite the madness swirling around you.

This book seems to me to be the kind that would be perfect for a lazy winter afternoon, when you're tucked up on the sofa with a hot drink, listening to the rain outside and dreaming of having a year in Provence à la Emma. There are times when you might want to be her, and times when you most certainly would not, but through it all the setting remains intriguing. I read it lying on one of the beaches in Sydney's eastern suburbs which was also good, but I felt I could have lost myself in the story even more had I not been fighting off seagulls and ocean spray and ice cream drips, and it may have painted a more alluring picture of France for me had I not been in blazing sunshine somewhere on the other side of the world. It's a book that, despite the heartache and torment, paints a picture of a potentially more desirable world, and I feel I could have bought into that more had I been at home in the UK rather than living it up in Oz.

Recommended. Out now in hardback / airport edition paperback. Coming soon in regular paperback, and will no doubt be given away free with a magazine at some point in 18 months or so.
 

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