The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

by Maggie O'Farrell

Book Overview

From the New York Times best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait comes a gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth.

"I found this actually unputdownable . . . Reminiscent of classic writers like Rebecca West and Daphne du Maurier."--Ali Smith, author of Autumn

In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156033674
• ISBN13: 9780156033671
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Made my 10/10 list

Instantly became one of my top favorites. The different styles of writing, the stories being told from so many points of view and mental capacity…genius. Captivating. Cannot recommend it enough!

Assent, and you are sane. Demur, and you're straightaway dangerous...

From its jacket depicting a young woman in a blue dress to its haunting tale of a girl deleted from her family, everything about this book is exquisite. It is simply mesmerizing. Young Euphemia (Esme) Lennox sees her world differently. To her, "knots and markings in the wood flow like water." Her senses are acute, her innate curiosity and intelligence oftentimes baffling and unnerving to her family and others. Her mind rebels against a staid and stifling upbringing, against the demands to conform and the limited, idiotic choices a girl is given. Across two continents and seven decades, it is demanded that Esme behave. Behave or suffer the consequences. And the consequences Esme suffers in 1930s Edinburgh will appall even the most blasé among us. Maggie O'Farrell's style is spare, yet highly evocative-lean and mean. It is at times poetic and other times primal. The perspectives suddenly shift without warning, some paragraphs are disjointed and your head swims as it attempts to readjust from the constant melding of past and present. Just as her character Esme marches to a different drum, so will Ms. Farrell. It's extraordinarily clever. It is a literary jigsaw puzzle that will bedevil the reader. And when the reader has placed each piece in its proper place, the picture that emerges will break one's heart to pieces.

dissociation in Esme Lennox

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Dissociation is the key theme of this book. The first indication of the psychiatric defense mechanism is the trauma of the death of her little brother. Further into the novel, her name Esme is described as "Is Me". This is a blatant reference to the dissociation in which an individual breaks into "Is Me" and "Not Me" parts. She later demonstrates this defense mechanism in seeing herself safe on the beach with her family while standing in waves that almost took her life. Follow this theme thru the book, read of the injustice of mental institutions, read a "just" ending for Esme in this page turning, can't put it down book. The book will haunt you, and hopefully make you aware of the times dissociation is the defense mechanism that you use to face challenges that to save your soul must be put aside until you are strong enough to deal with them. M. Klemenz

Astonishing

This is an amazing book. One reviewer describes it as "predictable" but I found it anything but predictable. The injustice done to a young girl in a timeperiod when it was believed females suffered from a mental illness called "hysteria" is probably closer to reality than fiction. I like the way the author leaves it to the reader to decide if Esme has schitzophrenia or if is she totally sane. Anyone who doesn't believe Esme's story could really have happened to women decades ago should see the DVD "1940 Schizophrenic Patients & Mental Health Hospital History Pictures." I was caught up in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and although it is a work of fiction, it is truly horrible in a good, fascinating way. I couldn't put it down, and I thought about it a lot afterwards. This is a book about a life thrown away, and it makes me appreciate every day of my own life. I see my life differently today because of this book, and I cherish my freedom so much more after reading it.

Strong story, strong storytelling

Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid This book is a combination of gothic, mystery and history--rolled into one very good work of fiction. Esme and Kitty Lennox were born in India. The two girls loved each other but as the years went by and it was time to look for a husband for each of the girls, Kitty became jealous of Esme-and Esme balked at the restrictions of the times. Esme did not like dressing up and wearing gloves and going on display. She only wanted to go to school. Kitty was the opposite. When Esme was sixteen she had something happen that put her in a state of shock and brought out the green-eyed monster in her sister Kitty. The parent's solution was to call a doctor and Esme was placed in an institution. Iris Lockhart is Kitty's granddaughter and lives in the house owned by Kitty prior to the grandmother being admitted to a nursing home. Iris receives a letter that her grandmother appointed her guardian of Esme, and Iris learns that the institution where Esme has resided for over sixty years is going to close-and it is up to Iris to find a place for Esme. Even though Iris is battling her own problems, she picks up Esme and brings her home. The reader learns the history of Esme and Kitty through flashbacks. It is a sad and tragic story. This is a great book, and I know I will think about Esme and what she went through for a long, long time. Armchair Interview says: If you like a book that stays with you because of the strength of the story, this is for you.

"In an odd way, we no longer seemed like a family."

A lifetime of betrayal is tucked inside this small but powerful novel, terrible secrets finally revealed, contrasting the devastating disregard for the rights of women in Edinburgh sixty years earlier to the modern day success of independent Iris Lockhart. Iris' choices are significantly improved from those of her great aunt Esme, a cozy condo and vintage clothing store, her only problem an ongoing entanglement with a married man. But this world view shifts abruptly when Iris is contacted by a mental asylum, requesting directions regarding the release of Euphemia Esme Lennox, a relative Iris never knew existed. The hospital is closing its doors, patients released to hostels or willing family members. With the intention of simply delivering the taciturn, yet lucid Esme to approved housing, Iris finds herself unequal to the task once she sees the shabbiness of the venue and the questionable inhabitants of the residential hotel, a flotsam of drug addicts and shabby ladies of the night. Unable to resolve the issue until after the weekend, Iris takes Esme to her home, unsure of the older woman's actual mental state, whether Esme is dangerous or merely odd. Yet through Esme's reflections on her childhood and the ramblings of her sister, Kitty, now suffering from advanced dementia, a troubling past is revealed where two young girls born in Colonial India are pampered and tutored, cared for by servants as their elegant, somewhat untouchable mother gives birth to a younger brother. Six years younger than Kitty, Esme is the outsider, the questioner whose bright curiosity ceaselessly offends a staid, controlling father. Returned to Scotland after a family tragedy, Esme desperately tries to fit into a new home with their grandmother and enrollment in a girl's school where she is the brunt of cruel jokes, studying the older Kitty for clues on how to survive this very different society. Kitty has her eye on marriage, trolling for an appropriate suitor; when an unwitting Esme embarrasses her family, she suffers the terrible consequences, sentenced to years of separation from her family in an institution that deals harshly with women who will not keep their place in proper society. Iris seeks only to offer Esme some respite after years of abandonment and an opportunity to reintegrate into the world; meanwhile the past stirs the disturbing memories, each sister reliving the tragic events and the choices made by one against the other. Unfortunately, the die was cast years ago, unjustifiable decisions robbing a sixteen-year-old girl of her future. Esme's journey is absolutely heartbreaking, all the more so since the random institutionalization of young women was common place at the time. Sensing the profound connection between them, the two women, Iris and Esme, are drawn toward a shared history, Kitty holding the key to terrible secrets in her fragmented mind. Esme's strength and courage leaps off the page, her survival through years of isolation, her prison