Hugh Mackay, Allen & Unwin RRP $32.99
We know Hugh Mackay as a social psychologist whose non-fiction writing in books and newspapers over many years has often turned the spotlight on our social and cultural attitudes as we face the cultural upheaval created during some of our biggest social changes.
He has always seemed like a friendly uncle ever ready to shine light on our ethical and psychological dilemmas when they occur.
Hugh’s book is a bit of a surprise because the cover tells readers that it is a novel, but the short quotation he has chosen from David Malouf’s book Johnno whets our appetite: “Maybe, in the end, even the lies we tell define us. And better, some of them, than our most earnest attempts to tell the truth.”
Intrigued by this, I opened Chapter One and was mildly disappointed to find I was not met with prose that felt likely to quickly wind me up with excitement. In contrast to my expectations this compact novel introduced me to a sensible, methodical psychotherapist called Martha. It then proceeded in subsequent chapters to make me feel like a fly on the wall as she consulted a collection of troubled clients. Looking back this is clearly what the author intended.
If you are interested in how therapists work and what goes on behind closed doors in these private conversations they have with their clients, many of whom seem to come looking for a listening ear and calm reassurance they are not going crazy, settle down with a cup of tea and enjoy this book.
It is entertaining as the plot develops, relationships are exposed, love blossoms and blackmail rears its ugly head as one couple try to discredit our poor well-meaning heroine, Martha.
Hugh writes in explicit detail bringing Martha and her fellow psychologist Rob to life. We learn how they react to some of the information they have privy to and what sorts of issues they are dealing with at a personal level.
The clients are a complicated bunch who come seeking advice and direction. Some of the issues they want answered may resonate with some readers as they did with me. What is interesting is how Martha skilfully gets her clients to reveal even their most secretive issues.
Marsha doesn’t always play by the rules and blends her counselling with breathing exercises, meditation and foot massages. These are tools she tells her startled clients that help them relax and allow her to build trust with them. She even invites a select few clients for afternoon tea at her house, wanting them to interact with one another to see if this kind of social interaction can help them deal with their feelings of isolation and confusion.
During her counselling sessions, we witness deep encounters, interesting insights into her clients’ characters, their fears and phobias and the truths they are so reluctant to speak about much less face.
Through Martha we are even party to her honest reflections on the nature of psychotherapy itself; does it really help those who refuse to accept the reality of their situation. When one couple complains about the imbalance in their relationship and their declining sexual interest in one another, the question becomes can Martha’s guidance and the well-meaning social event she invites them to spur them to look at each other in a different way.
What really spices up this novel are the stories that Rob and Marsha reveal about themselves. Rob is in a tempestuous relationship with a beautiful, sexy Latin American woman who places huge demands on his kind nature, twisting him around her thumb in the belief that his lust for her body will not diminish until she is tired of him.
Samantha, Martha’s beautiful, intelligent daughter who can’t seem to land a husband, believes her biological clock is ticking at 40. She is determined to find a sperm doner so she can have a child, but she is choosy and finding it harder than she thought.
Martha hides a secret she has not been willing to look at and admit to for forty years. She knows that if she doesn’t, she is in danger of alienating the one person she loves most.
This a tender, compassionate novel only a person like Hugh Mackay with his long experience watching closely the human condition, could write about so convincingly. I enjoyed its unfolding stories.
Sherry Stumm