THE LONGEST WEEKEND

by Honor Arundel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1970

Up onto the brink of contemporary Realism. . . and off the deep end with some rough trappings and mangled ironies. Eileen Forrest, pregnant at seventeen, is now an ambivalent single mother of twenty; belatedly asserting a wishful, artificial independence, she's weekending in the Edinburgh countryside alone with her daughter Gay -- whose beastliness crushes Eileen's precious model of maternal serenity. Hitherto, Eileen's own mother has been bringing up baby, with her typical take-over competence but with uncharacteristic joy: an obsessively parodied progressive type, she's always prized reason above messy sentiment -- and the results show all over immature Eileen (free to do anything, able to do nothing). Alternate chapters flash back to the passionate carefree romance with Joel, the only healthy person around and the only fair foil for the author's (withal) engaging manner. When disaster strikes Eileen vents on him what she's suppressed at home: she rejects his offer to 'make an honest woman of her,' disallows his sincerely-motivated fatherly interest, and forces a misunderstanding that remains unresolved until this very Sunday, three years later. Their ensuing marriage -- of mature minds -- is a fairy-tale ending, despite Eileen's disclaimer reflecting a new realization, ""There'll be no happy ever after."" Which is a hard-won lesson for a girl whose misery and resentment, however natural, are so devastating: she, like the pathologically liberal parents, is ripped to pieces here with a wholesale mockery that knots the story's thread -- identify with whom? is there a heroine in the house? is there a point?

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION