The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain
Sometimes, you want to spend a year reading a very long and studious book that will test you and make you think deeply and philosophically about life.
You’ll find yourself discussing this book for months afterwards, it will change you fundamentally as a person and you shall re-read it in five years time and smile quietly to yourself on how much you have grown since then, and how much this book, this book, was part of that change.
And sometime you just want to stay in bed all day and read trash and sob. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Now, this is going to be a hard review to write because Diane Chamberlain is like crack to me. I loved The Lost Daughter, which I read in 2009, and have been searching for more of her since then. So I was beyond excited when given the chance to review The Midwife’s Confession, which I have been lusting over for the past couple of weeks.
I have to mention Jodi Picoult here. Not because I want to, or because I admire her as an author, but because the press release that came with The Midwife’s Confession mentions her five times.
If I don’t use the phrase ‘The Southern Jodi Picoult’ I’m scared some publicist is going to face the sack. So there you go. But you know what? (I’m going to whisper this:) Diane Chamberlain is better.
Whereas Picoult takes her issue and stretches it round and round your head till you are a sobbing quivering mass, Chamberlain skilfully shows how one event can be the catalyst to a whole host of others.
By evoking feelings of a real family, of how people you could feasibly know would act to a certain situation (well, maybe not people I know, seeing as I don’t live in middle-class Southern America and am not in my early forties, but you know what I mean) she creates the heartbreaking stuff that a lie-in was made for, but is also entertaining and, yes, witty.
Her background as a psychotherapist is evident throughout in how she describes people and her first-person multi character prose is genuine, not schmaltzy. I’d compare her more favourably with Torey Hayden than Picoult, if I was being honest. But Picoult is the publishing world’s darling, so Picoult 2.0 she must be.
In The Midwife’s Confession, Noelle, Emerson and Tara (who are sadly not an early eighties prog-rock band) have been friends since college. A midwife, Noelle delivered Tara’s daughter Grace, who has grown into a bratty boy obsessed teen.
Recovering from the recent death of her husband, Tara’s life is once again thrown into chaos when Noelle unexpectedly, and apparently without cause, commits suicide. Baffled by their friend’s actions, Emerson and Tara begin to dig into her past, dragging up a hell of a lot of secrets that will test their love for each other, and the memories of their friend.
Told from the points of view of the various women, as well as flashbacks from Noelle’s youth, this story was everything I was looking for; heartbreakingly sad in places, gripping, fast-paced, crack-like.
Foolishly, instead of waiting for the weekend when I could read this book in huge greedy chunks I read it on the bus and in my lunch hour, which resulted in slight rocking at my desk desperate for time to move faster.
When I had twenty pages left and three hours before I could read again, I did accidentally pick my nail off a bit until it bled. I contemplated ringing in sick for this book. Which is ridiculous because it is trash. It’s easy to read, formulaic, non-taxing trash. But I loved it, and would recommend it heartily.
This is the sort of book that fans of this sort of book find each other for. I know exactly who I’m lending it to, and who I’m never letting on I loved it to. If you are that sort of reader, it’s a goody. Enjoy!
Published last week, you can buy it in paperback for £3.99, or for Kindle for £3.59.
Rating: A guilt-free 5/5. I had a great couple of days reading this book and now need more Diane Chamberlain now please!
Recommended for: Fans of Jodi Picoult (obviously) and anyone who loved The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. This is better.
Other recommended reading: If you’ve never read Torey Hayden, do. She writes mostly non-fiction books about “disturbed” children (Tiger’s Child will make you weep), but also wrote the excellent The Sunflower Forest, which I would definitely recommend. Also read The Girls by Lori Lansens and American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.
Jess Haigh
Oh, this review could be dangerous. I’ve just finshed ‘The Invisible Bridge’ by Julie Orringer, which was amazing but taxing, so have been on the hunt for books that I can read without concentrating too much. This sounds like it would be devoured in about 3 hours on a rainy Sunday, under a duvet, with cocoa and marshmallows. And tissues. Hurrah!
It is EXACTLY that! Enjoy!