Book review: The lemon grove

The Lemon grove
Author: Helen Walsh
Published: 2014

Goodreads synopsis

Set on the rugged, mountainous west coast of Mallorca, this taut, sultry, brilliantly paced novel is an urgent meditation on female desire, the vicissitudes of marriage and the allure of youth. 
 
Taking place over the course of one week, The Lemon Grove lands in the heat of Deia, a village on an island off the southeast coast of Spain. Jenn and Greg are on their annual holiday to enjoy languorous, close afternoons by the pool, and relaxed dinners overlooking the rocks. But the equilibrium is upset by the arrival of their teenage daughter, Emma, and her boyfriend, Nathan. Jenn, in her early forties, loves her (older) husband and her (step)daughter and is content with her life, she thinks. But when this beautiful, reckless young man comes into her world, she is caught by a sexual compulsion that she's seldom felt before. As the lines hotly blur between attraction, desire and obsession, Jenn’s world is thrown into tumult--by Nathan's side, she could be young and carefree once again, and at this stage in her life, the promise of youth is every bit as seductive as the promise of passion. 

The last post I made was about how much easier I find it to review books I wasn't that particularly enamored with. I recently The lemon grove by Helen Walsh and, I hate to say it, but it fell, without any doubt, into this category; I was really disappointed with it.

I had lost track of how long this book sat on my TBR before I finally picked it up but it had  definitely been there longer than any other book has ever been left on the pile before.
I read this book in one day, on a cold, wet, English summer day which may have been a mistake as, even without reading the various testimonials on the back, I could tell from the cover alone, that this was intended to be read on a white sandy beach in the sun - much like those described in the story.
The setting was lovely but that's about as far as my praise can go. The whole novel was just weird and frustrating. Nobody seemed to know what was happening right under their noses - not the step daughter, not the locals, not even the husband and he definitely should have noticed the change in her behavior, he definitely benefited from her ... frustrations. It all just seemed a little implausible , however this apparent ignorance wasn't the most disturbing part of this novel. Although the blurb obviously enlightened me to the topics that would be covered and the relationships that might occur, nothing prepared me for just how depraved Jenn was. She was obsessed. It wasn't just attraction and flirting it was, at least on her part, utter obsession. What struck me most, and judging by the reviews on Goodreads I am not alone, is that if the same situation was occurring between an adult man and a 17 year old girl then, I am pretty sure, there would have been much more outrage both from the other characters and from the readers - why did this situation not seem to warrant the same reaction?
Continuing in this vein, the other thing that made Jenn even more messed up was that she seemed, almost, as obsessed with her step-daughter as she was with her step-daughters boyfriend. I understand that part of that was trying to understand and rekindle the bond that was formed during Emma's childhood and lost through the passing of time and the rebellion of adolescence. However, it also seemed to be so much more than that. The majority of her thoughts seemed to be dominated by how sexy she thought her daughter had become, with multiple thoughts about the firmness of her breasts - the whole thing just felt really odd and even more uncomfortable.

The novel was clearly supposed to be a bit of an exploration of sexuality and desire. I commend her for trying, it just didn't work very well.

Moving beyond whatever debates may or may not arise from the very prominent sexual aspects of this novel, the other aspects - the characters and the setting - do nothing to approve my opinions. The characters, beside their apparent naivety, were just unlikable and possibly even worse unreliable. They were so flat. The husband was the worst - a resentful and failing author who couldn't get his act together. He wallowed and was angry and that's about as far as his character ever developed. However, at least he knew what he was (or wasn't doing). This definitely wasn't a trait that he shared with his teenage daughter. I know that teenagers are prone to mood swings but Emma couldn't even stick to decision for a page. It was overdone and utterly exhausting.

Rating: 1/5