The reunion by Roisin Meaney

3.5 Stars

The Reunion is the story of one family, The Plunketts, really the story of their daughters Caroline and Eleanor and all the "disasters" that befall them between their Leaving Cert years of 1993/1994 and their school reunion in 2015.  Caroline is the "good daughter", works hard at school and appears to have a glittering future and Eleanor is the "black sheep", never quite good enough at school and more interested in her love life with Andrew D'Arcy (yes really, D'Arcy!) than in her education.

I wanted to love this book as much as I have previous Roisin Murphy books but somehow I found it to be particularly hard going for about 60% of the book.  The later sections did redeem the book for me though but I was still left feeling slightly disappointed overall.  Whilst the characters are as rounded as I have come to expect from the author they just felt a little cookie cutter - the mother who is so concerned about appearences she cannot support her daughter after she is assaulted by a local businessman.  The slightly "odd" Aunt who has relocated to England and lives a rather enigmatic life - indeed, we learn little about Florence and she is probably the most interesting character in the whole book.  The woman whose whole life falls apart at the death of her infant daughter and leads her to estrange herself from her friends and, most damningly, her family.  All the way through you know it will all be resolved in the end - May to December relationships for both sisters and all - and it is.

The writing is clear, concise and propels the plot along nicely but there are no surprises here, no real revelations about the characters of the women involved.  All a little flatter than the author's usual output.  I did find myself enjoying the later sections dealing with the older Plunkett sisters and found them both to be, ultimately, empathetic characters.  With the current climate in Eire challenging laws around the right of a woman to choose it was quite a timely read, dealing as it does with ostracism because of pregnancy due to assault, but at least the author never hits you with her own views on the subject, she allows you to make up your own mind just as Caroline makes up hers.

Not a bad book but not one of Ms Meaney's best.