52/2: Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville

[maharetr]

Week two, or rather, book two, was Lilian’s Story by Kate Grenville. Written with a spectacular vividness that had me swinging between some pretty extreme squick (the part where, deluded, she stalks a stranger in particular) and some similarly intense flashes of love (‘But who are you really?’ ‘Oh, that would take a year to tell!’ and her reaction after being released after two weeks of ‘hard’). It also gave me a vivid sense of what it must be like to be overweight – something I haven’t experienced in this body at all.

I found it an almost unsettling read, possibly because it jarred my subconscious belief that things will only ever progress and move forward, rather than deteriorate. However, it will probably make me look with more warmth towards people who talk loudly on public transport without phone props.