MOTHERING SUNDAY by Graham Swift (fic)

I loved this book!  It is a beautifully written book, romantic and sad and lyrical.  The story lingered in my mind for a long time.  It is a short book, a novella which is intense and impactful.  The entire story takes place on one gorgeous spring day.  In England, the fourth Sunday in Lent was called Mothering Sunday, a day when servants were given the day off to visit their families.  The year is 1924 and in the aftermath of the war, two families have lost sons in France.  Where once they would have employed several servants, help is now harder to come by.

Jane Fairchild, an orphan, is a maid working in the Niven household.  A young woman, from the time she was 15, she has been romantically and sexually involved with Paul Sheringham from a neighboring estate.  Now on this particular bright spring day, they are about to have their last tryst.  Paul is just before marrying Emma Hobday and all three families are meeting in Henley to celebrate the impending nuptials.

It is Jane's day off and she bicycles to meet Paul, and for the first time she enters his house by the front door rather than the servant's entrance.  We see Paul, his room, and home through Jane's eyes.  All the little details of their meeting and surroundings are alive through her telling.  When Paul leaves Jane, to meet his fiancé for lunch, Jane is left to wander the empty house.  There is a particularly lovely passage of her in the library and what the books she picks up tell us about her and about the family.

The reader knows there will be consequences to this peaceful scene so there is an underlying dread at the same time we spend idyllic moments with the lovers.  We also early on discover that Jane lives to a great age, that she manages to attend Oxford and that she becomes a revered novelist.  Jane as a writer knows the importance of keeping some part of her life to herself and this one day in her life is her secret and ours.

This perfect small story of a meeting on a beautiful spring Sunday is a masterpiece of writing.  It can be read in two sittings.  When I finished the book, I wanted to read it again.  The reader cannot help being caught up in the mood and the setting.  I highly recommend this book to all readers.