“Really, who would care about a family like theirs? Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note.”

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan is an evocative character-driven novel that revolves around an Irish immigrant family in a public housing estate in 1990s London. The novel follows the members of the Green family after ten-year-old Lucy Green is suspected of being responsible for the death of three-year-old Mia Enright. Ten years ago, Lucy’s family – her grandmother Rose who was the only person who displayed any affection toward Lucy and has since passed on; her reclusive grandfather John; her alcoholic uncle Ritchie; and her then pregnant teenage mother Carmel who is distant and never shown any concern for her daughter- relocated to London to avoid scandal. Lucy, who is described as having behavioral issues, is taken into custody and her family is subject to scrutiny from their neighbors, the press and law enforcement. The scrutiny and Lucy’s plight compel each of the family members to reflect on their own lives and the dysfunction within their family. unscrupulous tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to ingratiate himself with this disgraced working-class family of “bad apples” even resorting to isolating them from other reporters, hoping for exclusive content – their secrets, the scandals and any other juicy detail - that would help further his interest.

“There was darkness beneath or inside everything, and even beautiful things were irredeemable because they only acted to obscure but never to transform.”

Despite the short length, this novel is an immersive and emotionally heavy read. The bulk of the novel is presented through flashbacks from the perspectives of each of the family members - allowing us to explore the characters, their emotions, their personal tragedies and their regrets. Written in powerful prose, the novel explores several dark and sensitive themes with brutal honesty and insight – addiction and alcoholism, parental neglect and complex family dynamics and the death of a minor – to name a few. The characters are flawed and realistic, each with distinct trajectories. The focus of this novel is on the family members in the aftermath of the tragedy and the “mystery” behind Mia’s death and Lucy’s alleged involvement in the same might appear to be relegated to the background as we follow the characters’ individual journeys but the author eventually draws us back to present events and how the same impacts the each of the family members.

Needless to say, this is not an easy read. I did feel that the different threads of the story were not quite cohesively woven and rendered the narrative a tad disjointed but overall, I found this novel to be a compelling read that I would not hesitate to recommend to those who enjoy character- driven fiction.

I paired my reading with the audio narration by Jessica Regan whose outstanding narration enhanced my overall experience with this novel.

“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.” ( )

p. 103 " Theirs were ordinary human failings, tragedies too routine to be of note."

Growing up in the 1970's Waterford , Ireland, teen - aged Carmel unexpectedly finds herself unwed and pregnant. The family flees to a council estate in London to escape judgement. There, Lucy, the now 10 year old daughter of Carmel, is suspected of murdering a a toddler on this estate. We begin to learn the details of the family, the absent and withdrawn father of Carmel, John, her elder brother Richie, who has struggled with alcoholism for many years. Carmel's mother , Rose, has served as a mother to Lucy, but died a few years prior. This is not really a story about Lucy's possible crime, but rather an enthralling look into this family.

After a brief time away from her family, young Lucy is returned to them, with no definite findings as to who is responsible for the toddler's death. John, Carmel and Lucy return to Waterford, in search of healing the family. As Carmel thinks to herself with regards to Lucy p .214" She knew now that it did not work that way,that the things that you did or failed to do could not be erased by anything, not even love. But still they tried. The trying would be the life's work , they both understood this."

A deeply immersive and touching study of a family, that ends on a note of hope. ( )

Set mostly in the early 1990's, this is a book about the ways in which ordinary families find themselves on benefits and sinking fast in their emotional and social lives until a shocking event shakes them up and forces them to talk about their feelings and how they want their future to be.

An Irish family, the Greens, move to an estate in London to escape social judgements about a pregnancy and provide a new start for an alcoholic. Pregnant Carmel refuses to engage with her pregnancy or child and so Rose, her mother, takes over until she dies. And then the child, Lucy, is left in the hands of people who are incapable of looking after her. It is at this time that Mia,a young child also from the estate, is killed and the last person she was seen with was Lucy.

What frames this story is the involvement of a journalist from a tabloid newspaper who whisks the family away to a hotel and puts them up there to keep them away from other newspapers but also so that he has ample time to interview them, dig into their lives, and find out all their secrets. Whilst this family is vulnerable, they are not gullible and in their own ways fight back. We get flashbacks to Waterford in Ireland where we see their backstories and why they are like they are.

The story is not as black and white as this description may make it seem. Tom, the journalist, is troubled by what he is doing and suffers for it. He still manages to think only of the great story he can uncover, with his motivation being told he has done well by the editor. Always a dangerous motivation pleasing others. Nolan also describes the alcoholism very well - the on and off drinking, the 'I will only drink such and such a drink', the gradual sinking down until you are drinking non-stop and lost to those who love you. It's quite heartbreaking.

If you had to connect a weather to this book it would be a grey, cloudy day where the clouds go from white to black and every shade inbetween. It is only at the very end that you see a few beams of light pierce the overcastness wrapped around the family because how do you undo years of neglect that a child has experienced, especially a child in Lucy's position?

There is no great big, dirty secret to reveal about this family, just lots of small ones that are quite ordinary but accumulate and trap the inhabitants, passed on from one generation to the next. And so the newspaper pulls the story and Tom is left with nothing other than a little more loathing for himself.

The end of the book shows the family a few years later but we don't get to hear about Tom and I would have liked to know how someone of those times who was unable to see past his own experiences faired. Did he succeed in tabloid journalism or did it drive him to alcohol?

A really interesting look at a time in our not-too-distant past which is being played out in courtrooms at present. What lengths would tabloids go to in order to get a story? ( )

The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.

from Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Tom Hargreaves was a reporter who preyed human failings, spinning compulsive news stories for a tabloid magazine. He was onto the perfect story: a ten-year-old girl implicated in the death of a child. Her family had come from Ireland to London, the father and brother deadbeat alcoholics and the mother beautiful and depressed. Tom uses his honed skills to worm his way into their lives, his sympathetic appearance masking a heartless and analytical intention to spin their story into an explosive headline that would make his career.

The Green family is knit together by blood but not intimacy. Each is trapped in their own misery, like distant planets encased in icy tombs. Left out is the child who since the death of her grandmother has not been cherished or loved or touched. When she is taken by the police, her first thought was that finally, her inner evil has been discovered.

The novel takes us inside these ordinary people with their ordinary tragedies. A teenage girl deceived into intimacy, denying her pregnancy, shutting out the child, her dreams of being special gone. The father whose beloved wife cheats on him and leaves him, his second wife struggling to care for his broken family. The son who was never cherished, his desire to be liked leading to his hanging with drinking buddies at the bar and subsequent alcoholism. And the granddaughter, confused and angry and alone.

Yes, it is dark. The author takes us into these character’s thoughts, a sad place to be. But then she offers hope and healing and growth. We don’t have to be speechless and alone, they learn. “The trying would be their life’s work,” they come to understand, the trying to connect, to be open, to care, to love.

The novel left me thinking–What if. What if society could identify needs and provide therapy to heal ordinary human failings, the hurt and pain that builds defences and the anger that lashes out, too often leading to wasted lives or violence inflicted on oneself or others?

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley. ( )