Every Day Is Mother's Day

Has she written a "bad" book? Not that I've read. This is not my normal cup of tea, but it's hard to say no to Mantel. The writing style, characterizations, plot - Al put her work on a higher plane. True, this was a thoroughly depressing story. But it's intended. Don't read it if you're looking for some light uplifting fare. I don't like to discuss plot in my reviews. I detest spoilers of any stripe and try not to give anything away. No, I'm not following that with a 'but'. I try to expose writing, originality, feeling. There are lots of great stories told by poor or mediocre writers. I don't have time for those. If rather read a decent story told by someone with a talent for telling them than the best plot ever told by a hack. This is the former - with a few twists. If you're a fan already of her work, pick it up. If you've never read her work, it could serve as an introduction, but rest assured, her later works are far better in terms of story. A nice way to spend a few hours.

I had no clue what to expect from this book based upon the title. I had a love/hate relationship with this one due in part to the strangeness of the story. I am certainly glad that I do not have anyone from this cast of characters living near me! The book is well written - held my interest and thus received 4 stars. I hesitated giving it the fifth star because I felt the ending just left me hanging! Too many unanswered questions here. I will not spoil your read by listing all the cliffhangers but beware - there are many! A puzzling read with three different story lines going at once but it is interesting to see them all converge at the end. Try this one and see what you think!

The book is honest and cynical. The cold look at grandmothers and the burden of care has some funny moments.

Les Petites Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Set 1, a French TV series still in production, adapts the very English original stories and gives them a decidedly charming French twist. While the original basic story lines are recognizable, the talented writers, creative team and actors have adapted the old, familiar stories and substitute fresh, entertaining and essentially French charactets, plot elements and sensibilities. Anyone expecting the Gallic version of Joan Hickson and David Suchet will be (and deserve to be) disappointed. These stories are as enjoyable glass of excellent champagne. The scripts and performances are charming, funny, touching, a bit irreverent and a touch world-weary and cynical. The production values and look of the pieces, impeccable. What else would you expect from the French?

A very creepy story with interesting characters. I plan to read the sequel soon.

Though I am a huge fan of Mantel's more current work, I cannot recommend this early novel, nor will I read the one that followed it. When I trip across a new favorite author I like to go back and read them from their start, which is what I did here. I found this one pointlessly unpleasant verging on creepy, and going on some about it. The next on she wrote was 'Vacant Possession,' the description of which suggests it follows this one. I will skip 'Vacant Possession,' needing no more of this. Her third book was 'Eight Months of Ghazzah Street,' stunningly wonderful. So I'll go forward from there . . .

Generally like this author. This book was disappointing.

Hilary Mantel is an exceptional writer and this book almost defies description. It is the story of Evelyn Axon who is a spiritualist who will bring back the spirits of the dead to speak to the living. Unfortunately, these spirits don't want to leave her house once they have been called and thus the house is virtually full of sly manipulative evil ghosts. Yet, it is Mantel's great strength that we are never sure if there are ghosts in the house or whether Evelyn Axon has completely lost her mind. Her half-witted daughter, Muriel, lives in the house also and requires the supervision of a social work agency. Muriel becomes pregnant while in a day school for the mentally retarded and once again we are unsure if the staff or other students may have gotten her pregnant or whether the evil spirits lingering in the upstairs bedrooms may have impregnated her. Muriel's social worker is a plain woman with limited expectations, Isabel Field, who is having an affair with a middle-aged loser of a fellow, Colin Sidney. The story gets very complicated from this point onward but the strength of the book is not how pathetic many of the characters are but rather the outstanding language and black humor that Mantel uses to paint these characters in these awkward situations. Her view of mankind as expressed in the book is bleakly realistic about the limitations and foolishness of the human experience. As I read about these pitiful characters struggling for a tiny bit of joy in their limited lives, I found myself laughing out loud rather than crying due to Mantel's exceptional literary skills. Is this existentialism disguised as a black humor horror story? Probably so. However it is Mantel's gift that you don't see her fingerprints as she hides the philosophical under the humor and horror.

Ich kannte bisher nur Mantels Historikromane. Dieses Buch ist etwas ganz Anderes. Düster, geheimnisvoll, sozialkritisch und sehr spannend zu lesen.

I absolutely loved this book. Took a bit of getting into the rythmn but once in, I would say it’s one of my favourite books. Very funny.

A brilliant, if gruelling read.

Man merkt halt, dass es der Erstling ist, verworren, unausgegoren, zu vage wo es dies nicht sein sollte, am Ende bleibt vieles unklar. Gewisse Teile haben stark an Bernice Rubens erinnert, doch gesamthaft ist dieses Buch enttäuschend. Nicht ganz erbärmlich, aber sicher nicht so "fabulous" wie es uns die Titelseitenkritik weiss machen will. Definitiv KEIN Must-Read

`Every day is Mother's Day' is the story of Evelyn and Muriel Axon, a mother and daughter who live a reclusive life in the house that Muriel was born. Evelyn has raised Muriel alone since the death of her husband, Clifford when Muriel was 6 years old, Clifford unfortunately saw Muriel as an `inconvenience' and not having any more children because it would `risk repetition'. Evelyn, not in the best of health will not accept help and when social services come into their lives, Evelyn finds that Muriel is changing, something which scares Evelyn, Muriel attends a community day care centre and life becomes worse when Evelyn discovers that Muriel is in fact pregnant and is unable (or unwilling) to tell Evelyn who the father is, Evelyn decides to keep the baby a secret and lock Muriel in their house. Meanwhile, Isabel Field their latest social worker is having problems of her own, she is having an affair with a married man, Colin Sidney, his sister Florence is the Axons neighbour (unknown to Isabel) and she has also lost Muriel's file. Colin, Isabel, Florence, Muriel and Evelyn finds themselves coming together and no one knows what the outcome will be. It's hard to describe `Every Day is Mother's Day' without giving too much away, it is full of dark humour, Evelyn's ideas are questionable, Muriel is manipulative, scary, not what she seems, Isabel and Colin, two very different people, I found it hard to believe why they would have an affair (which was the point), there is constant feeling of something about to happen, you find yourself becoming more and more suspicious of Muriel and despite Evelyn's actions, you do feel sorry for her and in some ways, you feel sorry for Muriel. There is also the paranormal aspect, what exactly is in the spare room? And what does Evelyn see? The book also highlights how people can be missed, how sometimes the system does not work. The ending is left open, there is more to come from Muriel.