The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life - William Nicholson

[Fran Cormack]

This book promised a lot.  And I had heard great reviews, so was really looking forward to getting started with it.  But, I’m afraid to say that I was left feeling a little underwhelmed.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book.  I did, and I’m currently now reading William Nicholson’s next novel, “All the Hopeless Lovers”.

 

However, I felt that the book spread the story too thin.  Across too many characters, and at times I found myself wondering where the initial story line had gone, which was, how would you react if a long lost lover came back into your life?

 

Laura is the central character, married to Henry and if the story line had remained a little more focused on developing these two characters I think a better book would have emerged.  As the story unfolds, you start to get a feel for how Henry is feeling in all this, but before you can begin emphasizing with him, the story moves on again.  Laura has the moral dilemma to deal with but I again had the same issue, in that as I tried to really get into the minds of the adult characters involved, the story would cut to, for me superfluous, chapters of children dealing with the “intensity of everyday life”.

 

In trying to capture the intensity of everyone, some of the intensity of the novel were lost.

 

This was my first taste of William Nicholson as a writer, and there was enough in his writing to get me to pick up his next book.  However, he needs to go some way before he becomes one of my great storytellers.