Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Review: Becoming Beth

Title: Becoming Beth
Author: Meredith Appleyard 

Publisher: 7th September 2022 by Harlequin Australia, HQ and Mira

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: contemporary

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

Beth has forgotten the core truth of her own life. In a cruel move, her dead mother is about to remind her. A wise and ultimately warm-hearted story about self-discovery, family and community for readers of Tricia Stringer and Liz Byrski.

Since adolescence, 58-year-old Beth has lived her life with blinkers on, repressing the memory of a teenage trauma. Her mother, Marian, took control of that situation, and of all else in their family life - and as much as she could in the small town of Miner's Ridge as well.

Now Marian is dead, and Beth, unemployed and in the middle of an embarrassing divorce, is living with her gentle-hearted father in the family home. Beth feels obliged to take over her mother's involvement in the local town hall committee, which becomes a source of new friendships, old friendships renewed, and a considerable amount of aggravation.

Researching town hall history, Beth finds photographs that show Marian in a surprising light; sorting through Marian's belongings, she realises that her mother has left a trail of landmines, cruel revelations that knock the feet out from under her supposed nearest and dearest. Beth struggles to emerge from the ensuing emotional chaos ... in middle age, can she really start anew?

A deeply felt, acutely observed novel about mothers and children, about what people hide from themselves and each other, about the richness and difficulties of community, and about becoming your own person.

My Thoughts

Becoming Beth is the emotional and challenging story of a middle aged woman’s journey following the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her mother. Set in a small South Australian town it tells the story through the revelation of family secrets, the forging of new friendships with the support of the local community. 

‘I’m in my late fifties. I'm single again. I don't have a social life as such. I don't have a job any more, and even if I wanted one, it's unlikely at my age - and with the pandemic - that I'd get one. Sure, I have money in the bank and superannuation, but I could live for another thirty years? Imagine that. Thirty more years ….’

As a middle aged woman, Beth finds herself having to navigate these life changes, however, it forces her to look for a new direction and purpose in life. Returning to her country home town, Beth comes across the usual characters and the fun interactions from living in a small community. It was Beth’s relationship with her father that I found to be most endearing. Together they confront the past with its secrets and a future that will forge a new path for both of them. 

‘I loved my dad, but more to the point, I liked him. He was perhaps the kindest man I'd ever known. Which probably went part way to explaining why the few relationships I'd had in my life had been so bitterly disappointing: the bar had been set high.’

This is not a plot driven tale, rather a gentle character analysis that many readers will undoubtedly relate to - I know I did! It’s much like sitting down over a cup of tea, around the kitchen table and listening/watching as events unfold. A story of families, dealing with grief and finding your own new identity. Meredith delivers this gentle tale with a wonderful sense of time and place of the ups and downs in life that we can all surely identify with.

‘Standing there, suddenly it all seemed so simple. I would forgive myself, and then actively pursue what I wanted for the remainder of my life. If I didn't, I would deserve what I ended up with. Maybe that's what making the most of the life you had left meant.’




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.



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