By Jo Browning Wroe
⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4 (Goodreads: 4.31)
GENRE: Drama
PART OF A SERIES? No
WORTH READING? Yes
SUMMARY:
In October 1966, William Lavery is at his first black-tie event when tragedy strikes in the mining town of Aberfan, where a school is buried under a mudslide.
William decides he must volunteer. This is where his career as an embalmer begins… a harsh but gentle world that he now enters.
As William discovers, being kind to others sometimes helps us heal ourselves.
Opening line: 'Something dreadful happened in Wales yesterday, but it was William’s graduation and so he has been distracted.'
I went into this book thinking it was primarily about the Aberfan disaster, but it really isn’t. A Terrible Kindness is fundamentally a character-driven story (particularly of William) and I found myself at times imagining these characters on the big screen. Even the ‘bit’ characters are well formed. Every character in this story seems to come to life … obviously writing characters is one of Jo Browning Wroe’s strengths. For example: William is “grateful that he can reply to the painting and not to Gloria” – just from this, you can absorb how awkward and uncomfortable the main character feels.
William is multi-layered. He is at times naïve, likeable, thoughtful, kind, caring, obsessive, depressed, anxious…. all words that could probably be used to describe all of us at times.
William is advised to “Keep your head down and your heart hard… that’s your kindness” – but that just isn’t in his nature.
Jo Browning Wroe appeals to aspects of life that we all know about/feel. E.g. When William and his friend are laughing: “… and that glorious thing happened... something ignited... and they kept going until they could barely breathe and their stomachs hurt.” Who hasn’t experienced moments like this?
Browning Wroe uses beautiful imagery: “… and the dining hall, heavy with its smells…”. I could almost smell the rich aromas and (possible) disappointing meals encased in the boarding school hall’s walls. Another example is: “Aberfan … has set up camp in his body…it’s behind his eyes, in his ears, his nose… and running through his blood.”
I found A Terrible Kindness to be insightful and thoughtful. It was a beautiful, moving story of hope and redemption. Highly recommended.
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