Elizabeth is Missing [Warning from MNHQ - this thread may contain spoilers]

[IDoAllMyOwnStunts]

I'm 64 percent through this book and losing the will to live. I hate giving up on a book. Does it get better? Or should I cut my losses. So disappointed, it started off well when I got the sample too.

[WannaBeDelgadaToFitInToMyPrada]

I was just googling spoilers for this book because I can't be bothered to finish it! So is Elizabeth in a home or what then!?

[FastForward2]

I loved it and have just lost a weekend to it as I was completeky hooked. Obviously you can pick holes in the plot and moan about the devices used to make the story work, but it was a good story.
Great insight into dementia and the style was cleverly designed to gradually confuse you as the disease progressed. Obviously it is unlikely in reality a person with dementia would really solve a mystery the police could not, but the suspense over the other plot line was what kept me hooked.
The fact it was written from Mauds perspective forces you to think about things from her point of view and how distressing it is for her and those round her.
The repetiton is part of dementia and posters who complain about that are i think rather missing the point.

[Figmentofmyimagination]

The best fiction I've read with insight into dementia are "have the men had enough?" And "the seduction of mrs pendlebury", both by Margaret Forster. Superb writing - and now that I have a mum with advanced vascular dementia, I can say that they are also depressingly accurate.

[molly4M]

So the mad woman was douglas's mom, and sukey knew, they didn't go any further than that. Sukey ran into the street screaming when the mad woman came into her and Frank's house so she went to see Douglas but when she saw him she said stuff about his mom so he broke the records. Then frank organised for her to stay at the hotel but before she could they had a row and Frank hit her on the head with something and killed her so he buried her in one of the gardens he was 'helping' with (which would go on to become Elizabeth's house) and the mad woman saw him and she was digging in the narrows to see what he buried so he hit her with his car and killed her, but I would read to the end anyway if I were you even though you know how it ends because it really pieces in together and reads well

[Cooroo]

I enjoyed reading it, but now you all point them out, there are some massive plot holes. I think its strength is trying to get into the head of a dementia sufferer. It was very believable to me. To the poster who said she wouldn't just pop in to her mum once a day: what would you do? You can't just move someone into a home at the first sign of trouble. If you have a living to earn you can't be there all the time. She had a carer for part of the day. Certainly as the book went on she needed more and I thought Helen was brave trying to have her mum to live with her. I liked Katy!

The Sukey plot worked less well for me. I didn't think Maud was actually recalling it in all that detail - it was a narrative device, just like we weren't supposed to think she was writing it all down! But there was something a bit cardboard about all the 1940s characters that stopped me caring.

[noTVandNObeer]

I finished the book and thought it was ok. Although I did struggle with it at times. I found the lack of sympathy and concern quite annoying throughout the story. If my mum acted like poor Maud I wouldn't just visit her once a day as she did in the beginning. Surely she must have seen she was a danger to herself living on her own. Plus other people's reactions towards her. If I came accross a confused old person in the street I wouldn't just think 'nutty old bag'
And like other people have said, why didn't she know or guess what happened to her sister before now?
I did like the way the story made you feel confused like Maud though.

[traviata]

I really liked it. I thought the repetitions of ideas, images and language , with different significance each time, were cleverly done. I liked the way the main characters were depicted.

The reason Elizabeth was in the hospital was because she fell over in her garden, when she and Maud were starting to dig there. It wasn't until Maud got to know Elizabeth that she could connect that house with the man who came out shouting about his marrows when she was young. That's how I read it, anyway.

I think there were hints at the anger and destructiveness of dementia; there are a few times when the daughter Helen is seen crying, and when she has injuries on her arms, which the book suggests were caused by Maud. And Maud does keep smashing and dropping things deliberately out of anger.

[hackmum]

I thought it was really well done. Before I read it I couldn't understand how she could write something from the point of view of someone who kept forgetting but she rose to the challenge. I thought it was a very unusual book, very well written.

[PurpleWithRed]

I agree the plot is wobbly but I don't think that's the point of the book - the main thing is the insight into dementia. If you don't like that then don't bother reading it. I did really like it, although of course none of us will really know if that is what having dementia is like and the depiction of dementia did seem a little bit rosy - just massive forgetfulness without much of the frustration and anger and wild moods you often see (sadly).

[mimiasovitch]

I thought perhaps it was that the things Maud heard the mad woman say, like the birds flying around Sukey's head, and turning up clutching marrow flowers, only started to make any sense once Maud's herself was 'mad'. She would have had these things in some recess of her mind for years, along with the details of the compact and why she was fascinated with Elizabeth's house. I personally enjoyed it, though I did listen to it rather than read it, and the narrator was marvellous. It did remind me to be less frustrated with my Fil too, though it's not always easy, as anyone familiar with dementia will know.

[mummytime]

I think there were lots of gaps in the novel - which were deliberate. So in those gaps Maud: was told/read a note about where Elizabeth was, maybe even remembered something about the garden. But then she lost the note, got distracted onto something else and forgot.
She was obsessed with Elizabeth because she was trying to remember having seen the half compact, and on some level "knew" what it meant.

It was a bit like sometimes I forget the name of someone, and I can almost feel the sensation of making the sound of their name in my mouth, but I just can't remember it. Of course then I remember an hour later when I'm somewhere else entirely.

[Nerf]

Yeah, okay fair point.
There's probably loads of books like that actually.

[DuchessofMalfi]

nerf - I know I would have done that if I was Maud's daughter. Not just one sign but several all over the house, but then if that had happened it would have been a very very short novel with Maud saying oh ok then. End of story :o

[BlueEyedPersephone]

I enjoyed this book and it made me feel more empathetic towards my mother, I felt the repetition was part of giving the reader the understanding, I have recommended it to my siblings to read.

[Nerf]

Duchess - as it was such a recurrent and distressing thought for her, you'd think a big a4 sheet or chalkboard saying 'elizabeth isn't missing she is in hospital' and dated might have been worth trying?

[IDoAllMyOwnStunts]

Perhaps the author wants the reader to get frustrated? So we would empathise with the emotions of caring for someone with dementia? If so, I know I should never have a career change and go into Adult Care if I can't even finish the damn book

[DuchessofMalfi]

Starting to feel the frustration of this novel all over again from this thread :o

[DuchessofMalfi]

Nerf not Need - autocorrect fail.

[DuchessofMalfi]

Need - she had pockets full of notes that she either didn't understand or didn't read. There might have been one but she wouldn't have understood its meaning.

[IDoAllMyOwnStunts]

Exactly Nerf. I was thinking that throughout. Helen must've known she was obsessing about Elizabeth so why not just stick a bloody note up. Sorted

[IDoAllMyOwnStunts]

Thanks. And yes I've asked MNHQ to add spoiler alert in the title. Hope they get onto it soon.

Just downloaded The Miniaturist sample. Really struggling for a good book lately. Keep buying cheapos and then regretting it.

[Nerf]

But why the hell didn't they just write a note or stick a piece of paper up saying where elizabeth was? Bloody stupid.

[fredfredsausagehead1]

#sukey

[fredfredsausagehead1]

I took it that she had maybe remembered it before like all the other things and worked out what happened to super only to forget again !

[Waitingonasunnyday]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was v cleverly done.