Not Speaking by Norma Clarke

2.5 Stars

Norma Clarke and her 5 siblings (2 sisters and 3 brothers) grew up in a Working Class Anglo-Greek family in Elephant and Castle, London in the post-second world war era.  With a volatile Greek mother and a hard working, mostly silent father.  They were a fairly typical family of the time - loud, close and living close to her Father's relatives.  The boys were almost worshipped when they came along, particularly by their mother, and the girls were expected to become "little mothers" to the younger children.  The only difference is that in their number were an English Professor (the author), a successful hairdresser (brother Michael) and a celebrity hairdresser (brother Nicky).  Not Speaking aims to tell their story, particularly following a large scale 2014 email argument regarding their widowed mother's living arrangements.

In an attempt to explain the dynamics of her family Ms Clarke treats us to several lessons along the way.  We get a very long section about Greek Mythology, centred largely around Homer's Iliad and seems to be using this epic poem to show attitudes towards women in their family.  We also get treated to lesser treatises on the lives of a couple of writers who settled briefly in Greece and also little bits of Robert Browning for good measure.  We do seem to keep returning to the Iliad though.

The above was a problem for this reader.  I picked the book up anticipating a family memoir that just so happened to have a couple of people we, the general populace, has heard of.  A family much like one we may ourselves have come from with all it's passion and insecurities.  Like it or not nurture does have a huge impact on our personalities and there is a personal comfort in finding out that maybe your family wasn't quite as messed up as you thought.  Unfortunately, these digressions in to Academia (the writing is such that much of the digressions for the tale of the Clarke family read more like a lecture hall declamation) stall the family story and did cause me to lose interest in the book.

There is a reasonable blend of early years thrown in but these seem to be mainly interspersed with tales of the fall out from the email argument and centre mainly around Nicky refusing to speak to various members of his family.  Initially you get the feeling that there is a resentment of Nicky's largesses, his freely given material support to the family, the holidays he funds, the events he gives them access to.  So that when he asks for the siblings to help him get their mother to downsize and to chip in for he exorbitant rent in a new flat it opens a schism within the family.  I actually came away feeling that he had been somewhat demonised by his family because he needed to make an economic decision.  Obviously, more was not told than was and some of the underlying frictions that built up over 50 years are still lying ignored.

The sections dealing with their parents relationship are interesting and written with a curiously detached voice.  The brief history of Greece in the Second World War is  interesting, especially as this is how Mr Greece met his war bride.  There is also a little bit of a family skeleton revealing regarding the author's paternal grandparents, much of which she readily admits she has been unable to verify.  Mostly it is about their resolutely Greek mother, her foibles and her complete control of her children, even well in to their adulthood.

Had the author stuck to the memoir this would have been a far more enthralling read.  However, there is far too much of the "other" about the book.  If I want to read about the personal lives of George Sands, or read about different translations of the Iliad or the Odyssey, I will search out books on these topics.  Sure, if the author thinks they are important to the tale and her perspective on how things unfolded and maybe even why they unfolded then sure, mention them and maybe put in a appendix so anyone with interest in knowing more can use that to delve deeper.  Instead you have to wade through rather dry academic sections to return to the story we were hoping to read.

This was not one for me.  Admittedly I don't often read memoirs as the ones that make it to print often do so because there is some tragedy or distressing pivotal event that made the Publisher think it was worth something.  Occassionally there will be one that catches my eye and they can be a thing of beauty.  Regrettably I found that this one fell very short of what makes a good memoir for this reader.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.