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The Way the Day Breaks
Set in Yorkshire in the late 1980s, The Way the Day Breaks is a novel about family, love and mental illness.
They are a close-knit family: we see them around the dinner table and follow them on car-trips over the dales, off into France. They discuss nature, speculate on the future, dream up get-rich schemes, laugh, quarrel and try to hold together.
But there is a darker current. Dad is changing: his schemes become wilder, his behaviour more erratic. The family find it increasingly harder to understand: sometimes it seems that he may be beyond help.
His eventual breakdown has effects that resonate throughout the decades.
As formally inventive as it is narratively rich, the story is told through dialogue between the family and, twenty years later, the reflections of the youngest son, Michael, as he tries to make sense of his father's life and his own.
The Way the Day Breaks is a heartfelt, moving and brutally honest account of the effects of mental illness on all who are forced to live with it.
They are a close-knit family: we see them around the dinner table and follow them on car-trips over the dales, off into France. They discuss nature, speculate on the future, dream up get-rich schemes, laugh, quarrel and try to hold together.
But there is a darker current. Dad is changing: his schemes become wilder, his behaviour more erratic. The family find it increasingly harder to understand: sometimes it seems that he may be beyond help.
His eventual breakdown has effects that resonate throughout the decades.
As formally inventive as it is narratively rich, the story is told through dialogue between the family and, twenty years later, the reflections of the youngest son, Michael, as he tries to make sense of his father's life and his own.
The Way the Day Breaks is a heartfelt, moving and brutally honest account of the effects of mental illness on all who are forced to live with it.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 27, 2023
2 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 23, 2023
It can never be satisfied, the mind, never
Wallace Stevens, The Well Dressed Man With A Beard
Love I'll have to put the hazards on if we go any slower.
Then put the hazards on Sinclair.
Really love, it'll be something and nothing.
Are we having another breakdown?
Please dad, not again.
No nobody's, it's just, your mother's just fussing for a change is all.
Are we going to make it?
Enough of this you lot, doubting me again it's, will be something worked free in the back if it's anything.
The Way The Day Breaks is the debut novel from David Roberts, and the 5th from , a publisher co-founded by Neil Griffiths, the person behind the designed to encourage creative risk-taking by small, independent presses.
Griffiths own most recent novel, the stunning As A God Might Be, featured a middle-aged man, Proctor McCullough, who decided to leave his life behind and build a church. And this novel begins with a similar idea being expressed.
We are immediately placed, in the opening lines, mid-conversation, in a car, with Sinclair, his unnamed wife, a school teacher [an interesting narrative choice to leave her unnamed], and their three children, Helen, Christopher and Michael, in a car returning from a family summer camping holiday. The scene is relayed in unpunctuated and unattributed dialogue, a style continued throughout this strand of the novel:
but we're not going to be, are we though.
Why ever not is the thing isn't it really, what's stopping us. Think of the benefits think big, think. Think about it, the tax breaks and, well, there must be more to it than that. I can't believe I've been wasting, not wasting my time so much as, can't believe I've only just thought this one, started thinking this one through.
Stop it Sinclair, please really, it's beginning to hurt.
I once laughed so much I was nearly sick and it never did me any harm.
Not when you were driving you didn't. Concentrate really, you need to concentrate on the road.
But whereas Proctor's epiphany was spiritual, theist if not conventionally religious, Sinclair's is a madcap business idea (shades of Sir Clive?), motivated by a vague sense that there will be tax breaks involved and perhaps donations as well.
Bear with me love all I'm saying is, this car our vehicle. Behold! My Ford Escort Mark II estate, in whom I am well pleased. This way, if it were to happen that it does become a shrine or a temple, some place of pilgrimage is all I mean. If it does become a place that people want to leave donations then this way, with the car up and running it wouldn't be like, as if we'd have to stay confined, wouldn't be like Stonehenge or the Blarney Stone or I don't know, Walsingham having to stay in the same place would it now. This way we could, if we want to go to the Pyrenees then the pilgrims can follow in our wake, gift currency wheresoever we may be.
Other references in the car conversation, e.g. to Scott and Charlene's wedding in Neighbours*, and a later plan to poison the nascent church's rivals with meringues made from salmonella-riddled eggs, place us in the mid-t0-late 1980s and geographically in, or returning to, Yorkshire, and the novel has a strong sense of time-and-place (that the first car scene ends with an over-heating engine and concerns as to whether the car will make it up a hill was particularly personally resonant of car-based holidays in the 1980s).
*
This sense of time and place is added to by a second narrative strand, by Michael, who was almost eight in the opening chapter, looking back on his childhood, told in the style of a stream of reminiscences:
I remember lying in bed thinking why me why do these things always happen to me. I remember waking up on Saturday mornings I would wake up the earliest out of everyone, would wake up come downstairs with the screentest still going some girl playing noughts and crosses with a clown. I remember it would be Open University until the cartoons. I remember thinking how funny it would be to trick everyone and put salt in the sugar.
And the formal inventiveness of the narrative style is further developed by a third strand, which appears to be drafts of the family Christmas round-robin written by Sinclair's long-suffering wife, replete with alternatives / potential options andcrossings out:
Well, here we are. Another year, and older again aren't we all? It seems to me they pass more quickly each time, days so full and barely sometimes with a chance to think, and here I am feeling like it might have been yesterday, the day before yesterday that I was letting you know (of) last year's news.
That it is three years since they have all been at school even now surprises me some days. They continue to do well there. Christopher is starting to think about what subjects he will be taking at GCSE, and seems quite set on/excited by the prospect of dropping French. He is growing at a rate 11 of knots, will soon enough be taller than his father. Helen continues to get very good reports, seems already to be thinking of her future. We tell her she is too young for all of thatbut will she listen, and hopefully she does listen. Michael spent much of the year obsessing over carnivorous plants but seems now to be moving on. It was the mantis shrimp last week, cryptozoology the week before. Who knows what will become of it all/where we will be in another five minutes.
Sinclair's schemes - another is an attempt to corner the market in dark matter - initially amuse the reader as much as they, on the first journey, did his wife. But they gradually take on a darker hue, as we realise this is a story of mental illness, and its effects on both the sufferer and their family. His behaviour on the car journeys becomes increasingly reckless; from the conversations we realise his family duties are being neglected; references to mental illness infiltrate Michael's memories (I remember that Peter Sutcliffe was a schizophrenic remember BONKERS BRUNO LOCKED UP). And his wife struggles to explain what Sinclair is up to in her round-robins.
Sinclair is yet to return to work / takes it / I take him day-by-day / how to / if only I could get him to do more while I am out at work / I do wonder sometimes what he does with his days (what I would do if faced with days such as his / days and days such at those he has), how he manages to contain himself from, not gin in the morning, so much as the idea, the entertained notion of gin in the morning. But is it / can it be / is it just a case of trying to get through this.
And the final section of the novel is written directly by Michael, preciously obsessed with knowledge as a child, as we see the lingering effects of his father's illness on his own mental wellbeing. Present-day Michael is a poet, and Sinclair also wrote poetry. Griffiths' As A God Might Be took its title from Wallace Stevens, , and Sinclair and his wife have, as their shared poem, Stevens' , whose opening and final words are both particularly resonant to the story:
A brilliant book, formally-inventive, highly evocative, and an exploration of family and illness that combines humour and bleakness, and which is, above all, moving.
Wallace Stevens, The Well Dressed Man With A Beard
Love I'll have to put the hazards on if we go any slower.
Then put the hazards on Sinclair.
Really love, it'll be something and nothing.
Are we having another breakdown?
Please dad, not again.
No nobody's, it's just, your mother's just fussing for a change is all.
Are we going to make it?
Enough of this you lot, doubting me again it's, will be something worked free in the back if it's anything.
The Way The Day Breaks is the debut novel from David Roberts, and the 5th from , a publisher co-founded by Neil Griffiths, the person behind the designed to encourage creative risk-taking by small, independent presses.
Griffiths own most recent novel, the stunning As A God Might Be, featured a middle-aged man, Proctor McCullough, who decided to leave his life behind and build a church. And this novel begins with a similar idea being expressed.
We are immediately placed, in the opening lines, mid-conversation, in a car, with Sinclair, his unnamed wife, a school teacher [an interesting narrative choice to leave her unnamed], and their three children, Helen, Christopher and Michael, in a car returning from a family summer camping holiday. The scene is relayed in unpunctuated and unattributed dialogue, a style continued throughout this strand of the novel:
but we're not going to be, are we though.
Why ever not is the thing isn't it really, what's stopping us. Think of the benefits think big, think. Think about it, the tax breaks and, well, there must be more to it than that. I can't believe I've been wasting, not wasting my time so much as, can't believe I've only just thought this one, started thinking this one through.
Stop it Sinclair, please really, it's beginning to hurt.
I once laughed so much I was nearly sick and it never did me any harm.
Not when you were driving you didn't. Concentrate really, you need to concentrate on the road.
But whereas Proctor's epiphany was spiritual, theist if not conventionally religious, Sinclair's is a madcap business idea (shades of Sir Clive?), motivated by a vague sense that there will be tax breaks involved and perhaps donations as well.
Bear with me love all I'm saying is, this car our vehicle. Behold! My Ford Escort Mark II estate, in whom I am well pleased. This way, if it were to happen that it does become a shrine or a temple, some place of pilgrimage is all I mean. If it does become a place that people want to leave donations then this way, with the car up and running it wouldn't be like, as if we'd have to stay confined, wouldn't be like Stonehenge or the Blarney Stone or I don't know, Walsingham having to stay in the same place would it now. This way we could, if we want to go to the Pyrenees then the pilgrims can follow in our wake, gift currency wheresoever we may be.
Other references in the car conversation, e.g. to Scott and Charlene's wedding in Neighbours*, and a later plan to poison the nascent church's rivals with meringues made from salmonella-riddled eggs, place us in the mid-t0-late 1980s and geographically in, or returning to, Yorkshire, and the novel has a strong sense of time-and-place (that the first car scene ends with an over-heating engine and concerns as to whether the car will make it up a hill was particularly personally resonant of car-based holidays in the 1980s).
*
This sense of time and place is added to by a second narrative strand, by Michael, who was almost eight in the opening chapter, looking back on his childhood, told in the style of a stream of reminiscences:
I remember lying in bed thinking why me why do these things always happen to me. I remember waking up on Saturday mornings I would wake up the earliest out of everyone, would wake up come downstairs with the screentest still going some girl playing noughts and crosses with a clown. I remember it would be Open University until the cartoons. I remember thinking how funny it would be to trick everyone and put salt in the sugar.
And the formal inventiveness of the narrative style is further developed by a third strand, which appears to be drafts of the family Christmas round-robin written by Sinclair's long-suffering wife, replete with alternatives / potential options and
Well, here we are. Another year, and older again aren't we all? It seems to me they pass more quickly each time, days so full and barely sometimes with a chance to think, and here I am feeling like it might have been yesterday, the day before yesterday that I was letting you know (of) last year's news.
That it is three years since they have all been at school even now surprises me some days. They continue to do well there. Christopher is starting to think about what subjects he will be taking at GCSE, and seems quite set on/excited by the prospect of dropping French. He is growing at a rate 11 of knots, will soon enough be taller than his father. Helen continues to get very good reports, seems already to be thinking of her future. We tell her she is too young for all of that
Sinclair's schemes - another is an attempt to corner the market in dark matter - initially amuse the reader as much as they, on the first journey, did his wife. But they gradually take on a darker hue, as we realise this is a story of mental illness, and its effects on both the sufferer and their family. His behaviour on the car journeys becomes increasingly reckless; from the conversations we realise his family duties are being neglected; references to mental illness infiltrate Michael's memories (I remember that Peter Sutcliffe was a schizophrenic remember BONKERS BRUNO LOCKED UP). And his wife struggles to explain what Sinclair is up to in her round-robins.
Sinclair is yet to return to work / takes it / I take him day-by-day / how to / if only I could get him to do more while I am out at work / I do wonder sometimes what he does with his days (what I would do if faced with days such as his / days and days such at those he has),
And the final section of the novel is written directly by Michael, preciously obsessed with knowledge as a child, as we see the lingering effects of his father's illness on his own mental wellbeing. Present-day Michael is a poet, and Sinclair also wrote poetry. Griffiths' As A God Might Be took its title from Wallace Stevens, , and Sinclair and his wife have, as their shared poem, Stevens' , whose opening and final words are both particularly resonant to the story:
After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.
No was the night. Yes is this present sun.
If the rejected things, the things denied,
Slid over the western cataract, yet one,
One only, one thing that was firm, even
No greater than a cricket's horn, no more
Than a thought to be rehearsed all day, a speech
Of the self that must sustain itself on speech,
One thing remaining, infallible, would be
Enough. Ah! douce campagna of that thing!
Ah! douce campagna, honey in the heart,
Green in the body, out of a petty phrase,
Out of a thing believed, a thing affirmed:
The form on the pillow humming while one sleeps,
The aureole above the humming house...
It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.
A brilliant book, formally-inventive, highly evocative, and an exploration of family and illness that combines humour and bleakness, and which is, above all, moving.
October 9, 2023
This is David Robert’s debut novel published this year by Weatherglass Books. Thank-you to Neil there for the copy.
This is as raw as it comes, and it touched a good few nerves. Bold and courageous writing, astute and composed.
The Way the Day BreaksÌýis a poignant novel of family life unfolding. Roberts has captured ordinary living flawlessly, and deftly illustrates the agonizing effect that mental ill-health presents as it tears apart a once well-grounded family unit.
There is something hugely sedative and abating about Robert’s prose, particularly in his regular revisits to his childhood, navigating a working-class upbringing in Yorkshire, recounting a plethora of memories ranging from sweets no longer sold, the relationships with his siblings, and rugged school days.
The impossibility of mental illness is dealt with facilely, as the sufferer and those affected around them are captured ingeniously. The painful dialogue during the digressive husband’s decline. The rapidly waning patience and strength of the wife. The innocence of the children compromised as the familial nucleus is gradually torn apart.
There are also an array of painfully relatable moments, in addition to utter hilarity. The hysterical opening of a typical family on the car journey back from a holiday - bickering, arguing, debating what food they will eat as there is rarely anything in the cupboards after being away, that first 'proper brew'. It’s uncanny and will resonate with any child of a certain generation in the UK who had a similar upbringing of normality, clannishness, that beautiful ordinariness perhaps not realised at the time.
Above all, this is an essential piece of literature in truly encapsulating the pure essence of mental illness � its brutality and lasting desolating reverberations, its universality � its sheer lack of discrimination - a case study almost in confronting the many elephants that frequent so many rooms up and down the country.
This is as raw as it comes, and it touched a good few nerves. Bold and courageous writing, astute and composed.
The Way the Day BreaksÌýis a poignant novel of family life unfolding. Roberts has captured ordinary living flawlessly, and deftly illustrates the agonizing effect that mental ill-health presents as it tears apart a once well-grounded family unit.
There is something hugely sedative and abating about Robert’s prose, particularly in his regular revisits to his childhood, navigating a working-class upbringing in Yorkshire, recounting a plethora of memories ranging from sweets no longer sold, the relationships with his siblings, and rugged school days.
The impossibility of mental illness is dealt with facilely, as the sufferer and those affected around them are captured ingeniously. The painful dialogue during the digressive husband’s decline. The rapidly waning patience and strength of the wife. The innocence of the children compromised as the familial nucleus is gradually torn apart.
There are also an array of painfully relatable moments, in addition to utter hilarity. The hysterical opening of a typical family on the car journey back from a holiday - bickering, arguing, debating what food they will eat as there is rarely anything in the cupboards after being away, that first 'proper brew'. It’s uncanny and will resonate with any child of a certain generation in the UK who had a similar upbringing of normality, clannishness, that beautiful ordinariness perhaps not realised at the time.
Above all, this is an essential piece of literature in truly encapsulating the pure essence of mental illness � its brutality and lasting desolating reverberations, its universality � its sheer lack of discrimination - a case study almost in confronting the many elephants that frequent so many rooms up and down the country.
May 8, 2023
Incredibly moving and with a strangely comforting sense of familiarity, I couldn’t put this novel down. The final chapter floored me in the best possible way and I know this book will stay with me long after finishing reading.
Read
March 27, 2023I tried to think of what this novel was reminding me of, on nearly every page. Ali Smith, Jonathan Coe, Stephen Sexton, Justin Torres ... a bit, all (though these writers aren't exactly alike!), but eventually I realised that what I was most reminded of was life! The associative, digressive, continuous present; the way that while we're reading the page, we're pondering the one that went before. A gorgeous, effortless, touching piece of writing.
August 15, 2023
I don’t usually leave reviews but this book was one of the most beautiful, most moving and most devastating books I have ever read. Captures childhood so well and manages to be both bleak and very funny. I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
I impulse bought this in Waterstones, knowing nothing about it, and am so glad I did. Can’t recommend enough! I couldn’t put it down and wish I could have read it for longer. Hope David Roberts writes more books so I can read them.
I impulse bought this in Waterstones, knowing nothing about it, and am so glad I did. Can’t recommend enough! I couldn’t put it down and wish I could have read it for longer. Hope David Roberts writes more books so I can read them.
March 31, 2024
Den är så nära 5 stjärnor men inte riktigt den var otroligt bra och skriven på ett nytt sätt för mig. Jag hade lite svårt att komma in i den men efter första kapitlet eller nått så kunde jag inte sluta.
May 5, 2023
Den var så fin. Att det är hans första novell är otroligt..hur kan han vara så bra!?
October 1, 2023
Alternating chapters of chaotic dialogue and lists of reminiscences. The dialogues were of the family in tbe eighties, often in or about cars, with the dysfunctional father at the centre. It started with him being a bit eccentric but clearly descended into worse. Tbe reminiscences we’re of Michael his youngest child who clearly by the end has issues of his own. Difficult to follow and the format seemed fresh and innovations only for a short time. A short story overplayed into a short novel.
September 2, 2023
I can’t find the words for this book - it’s beautiful. Beautifully written, with a sense of familiarity that draws you in and makes you feel like they are your own memories, or at least, you’ve experienced very similar. The prose was daunting to me at first but is intentional and deliberate in simulating a sense of disarray. I think it was a very well done portrayal of mental illness and the way it dominates not only that persons life but their loved ones too, and the rippling effect it has throughout generations. Though you hardly hear directly from Sinclair his experiences the dizzying structure of the novel allows you to understand what it’s like to possess a mind that just never stops, and I found it very clever how Roberts utilised natural imagery (part 3!) but also the structuring of the novel to depict mental illness. My review cannot do this book justice, I am unable to encapsulate into words how this book made me feel, I can only strongly recommend it to everybody I know (and I will).
March 25, 2024
Roberts� debut novel delicately captures the reality of a sensitive topic, and one that is close to my heart. The novel centers equally around the gradual deterioration of Sinclair’s mental health, and the impacts this inevitably has on his immediate family. I really enjoyed the way the novel was written and structured, flitting between moments of the family’s everyday life and Micheal’s (the youngest child) later reminiscence.
Many novels I have read dealing with the topic of mental illness, have failed to convey the duality of life with an unpredictable parent. However, this novel captures both the good and the bad; whilst Sinclairs ramblings are often lighthearted and entertaining, they frequently take a dark turn.
The way in which his fathers illness has impacted Micheal is also, I feel, aptly portrayed. While Michael remembers his childhood, memories of his father infiltrate his prose in intervals, indicating how Sinclair will perhaps always be in the background of his thoughts.
Many novels I have read dealing with the topic of mental illness, have failed to convey the duality of life with an unpredictable parent. However, this novel captures both the good and the bad; whilst Sinclairs ramblings are often lighthearted and entertaining, they frequently take a dark turn.
The way in which his fathers illness has impacted Micheal is also, I feel, aptly portrayed. While Michael remembers his childhood, memories of his father infiltrate his prose in intervals, indicating how Sinclair will perhaps always be in the background of his thoughts.
July 12, 2024
this book absolutely blew me away.
the authors writing style and choices are different to pretty much everything i’ve read before. the use of whole chapters of dialogue, a mixture of time periods and crossings out worked really well.
the book felt real, the family spoke to each other like “normal� families having conversations about everyday things. i particularly liked the chapters set on car journeys.
the dialogue centred chapters being interspersed with chapters with no dialogue and other characters voices was an interesting idea and worked perfectly.
the families experiences with the fathers mental illness are really cleverly done, subtly at first and then written about more boldly, potentially, as the seriousness became apparent.
i don’t feel my ramblings here have done this book justice but i thought it was incredible and *potentially the best novel i’ve read this year*, so would 100% recommend it !!
the authors writing style and choices are different to pretty much everything i’ve read before. the use of whole chapters of dialogue, a mixture of time periods and crossings out worked really well.
the book felt real, the family spoke to each other like “normal� families having conversations about everyday things. i particularly liked the chapters set on car journeys.
the dialogue centred chapters being interspersed with chapters with no dialogue and other characters voices was an interesting idea and worked perfectly.
the families experiences with the fathers mental illness are really cleverly done, subtly at first and then written about more boldly, potentially, as the seriousness became apparent.
i don’t feel my ramblings here have done this book justice but i thought it was incredible and *potentially the best novel i’ve read this year*, so would 100% recommend it !!
May 5, 2023
Sometimes you read something that just grabs you and it's like you're in your own memories. There's this quality about this novel, like you had these conversations, or nearly these conversations, but this is a beautifully written dream version.
Roberts is a new writer with something to say and he does it with art and finesse. You don't have to be interested in mental health or the North to like this book, you just have to be someone who appreciates good writing. Hard recommend!
Roberts is a new writer with something to say and he does it with art and finesse. You don't have to be interested in mental health or the North to like this book, you just have to be someone who appreciates good writing. Hard recommend!
September 11, 2023
I read this quicker than I've read any book for years
Emotional, and engaging. Surprisingly easy to read despite the overarching theme. Uplifting yet contemplative.
I'm not very good at reviewing books.
Emotional, and engaging. Surprisingly easy to read despite the overarching theme. Uplifting yet contemplative.
I'm not very good at reviewing books.
October 4, 2023
All a bit disconnected. More like a 2.5 than a 2
Didn't feel a strong relationship with what was portrayed although there were phrases or sequences which felt analogous to my life.
A lot of implicit commentary about mental health but I have to be honest I didn't feel particularly invested in any of the characters, and the protagonist keeps the reader at arm's length so it's hard to stay involved in his monologues
Feels like the guy needs another book to get everything out properly
Didn't feel a strong relationship with what was portrayed although there were phrases or sequences which felt analogous to my life.
A lot of implicit commentary about mental health but I have to be honest I didn't feel particularly invested in any of the characters, and the protagonist keeps the reader at arm's length so it's hard to stay involved in his monologues
Feels like the guy needs another book to get everything out properly
June 22, 2024
I found this book genuinely very hard to get lost in, which is a shame as the premise was wonderful. I liked the idea of the form - and see how others would be immersed in the story - but for me, in reality it made the characters and the story distant and clunky.
October 7, 2024
hm this was very heavy and made me very sad at times. really liked the way it was written, but i’m sure it would have hit much harder if i were older (and had more to look back on my childhood too or smth) while reading this
June 4, 2023
If you like Jon McGregor, Max Porter or Sarah Moss it's worth investigating.
October 3, 2023
3.5 stars
January 14, 2024
Wanted to love but structure was quite tedious, the father (Sinclair) not quite real
April 17, 2024
moving, funny, heartwrenching and overall amazing
("time waits for snowman" is still my favourite thing i have ever read)
("time waits for snowman" is still my favourite thing i have ever read)
September 11, 2023
This was a creative read, unlike anything I've read before in structure, and felt very true to life. Difficult topics were handled sensitively and despite mental illness being a significant part of the book there were moments that were genuinely funny as well as moving. I always find it a bonus when books are set in areas I'm familiar with, too, and this was no exception.
June 15, 2023
I loved the familiarity, fondness, sadness, and humour of this book. I also loved the pace and subtle way that things were revealed to the reader. It feels very real and very human. Can’t believe it’s a debut.
March 11, 2025
I was expecting something a bit more tbh.. the back and forth between dialogue and memories got a bit boring halfway through. I think it would be better as a theatre production.
December 28, 2024
I found some passages excellent at evoking the feel of the times - the advert game took me right back to my sister & I having, practically word for word, the same arguments as Michael, Helen & Christopher.
The scene was set early on. Sinclair lives almost entirely in his own mind, conducting inner dialogues with himself. He only refers to his wife, Caroline, once by name. Caroline’s over compensation & anxiety re sending him further down the rabbit hole or triggering an explosion. If I had to label Sinclair’s condition(s), I would say he was bipolar with periods of psychosis.
Personally, I would have preferred a shorter book or a broader scope that opened out to explore the feelings of & impact on the wider family.
The scene was set early on. Sinclair lives almost entirely in his own mind, conducting inner dialogues with himself. He only refers to his wife, Caroline, once by name. Caroline’s over compensation & anxiety re sending him further down the rabbit hole or triggering an explosion. If I had to label Sinclair’s condition(s), I would say he was bipolar with periods of psychosis.
Personally, I would have preferred a shorter book or a broader scope that opened out to explore the feelings of & impact on the wider family.
December 27, 2024
Just an amazing read. Original, beautiful. Incredibly moving. I want to read it again and again and again
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