Novel: Truly Madly Guilty
Author: Liane Moriarty
Format: Audiobook
Source: OC Public Library
Rating: 3/5
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Summary
Clementine and Erika are childhood friends. Erika and Oliver invite Sam and Clementine over to their house as they need to discuss a particularly important matter. While returning from the grocery, Erika runs into her neighbor Vid. Vid prefers to have people at his house, so he can entertain them and feed them. And he is fond of Clementine as she is a cellist and Vid loves classical music. So when he gathers that Sam and Clementine are coming over at Erika’s, he invites them over for the barbecue and asks to invite Sam and Clementine too.
Clementine is practicing for her upcoming audition. Sam is helping her by making her run, a technique he read reduces anxiety. Clementine hates running or any form of physical exercise. She wants Sam to take the girls out so she can practice in peace. But she doesn’t share her thoughts with Sam.The girls, Ruby and Holly, interrupt their session. Sam along with girls create a fake stage for Clementine and asks her to play for them in a fake audition. Before Clementine could play, the girls fight and the fake stage falls. Meanwhile, Sam wonders loudly what Erika and Oliver need to talk about. While Clementine regrets accepting Erika’s invitation as she needs to focus on her practice. At this moment, Erika calls her to update her on the change in plans.
The three couples and the three kids meet at Vid and Tiffany’s home for the barbecue. Something terrible happens at that normal backyard barbecue that changes everyone’s life.
Audiobook
Narrator: Caroline Lee
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Number of Parts: 15
Duration: 17 hrs 20 minutes
Rating: 5/5
Review: Firstly, Truly Madly Guilty is the longest audiobook I have heard ever! Imagine 15 parts! 17 hrs 20 minutes! And it took forever to finish. I didn’t admire the story that much. But the audiobook is totally worth listening. Caroline is the star reader here. There are eight major characters and other minor characters in this book. And she has a unique voice and accent for everyone. My favorite is her Vid’s Slovenian accent. I could just picture him saying English in that accent. She successfully brings out the fear, whininess, haughtiness, playfulness, flirtatiousness, jealousy, anger, and pain for the characters whenever the story demands them. The audiobook truly deserves the 5/5.
“No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing.”
My Thoughts
I finished Truly Madly Guilty last year, but couldn’t get to write the review till now. There are three couples, Erika and Oliver, Sam and Clementine, Vid and Tiffany, an old neighbor Harry, three kids, Dakota (Vid and Tiffany’s daughter), Holly and Ruby (Sam and Clementine’s Daughters) in the story.
The whole novel revolves around what happened on “The day of the barbecue“. The story moves back and forth between present and “The day of the barbecue“. Every character shares their sequence of barbecue day until the big reveal. With all the characters sharing their story, and the switch between present and “the day of the barbecue“, everything gets mixed up a little and tough to follow, specifically with an audiobook. So, I kept notes to track the happenings in every character’s present and also on the day of the barbecue.
The novel is exceptionally long and slow. Anyone reading needs the patience to get through all the chapters. With each chapter, I even wished, “Just show me already what happened on that barbecue! I don’t want to know more about the complexities of Erika and Clementine’s friendship or the problems between Sam and Clementine or Tiffany’s colorful life or Erika’s psychologist’s visits.” At the end though, I understood why I had to go through the mundane stuff before the big reveal. Because these tidbits of their lives explain what happened, why it happened, how it affected each one of them and the process through which they go to get over that incident. Everyone is living an ordinary life in this novel until an accident turns their life into extraordinary. That pretty much sums all the novels I have read by Liane Moriarty.
This is the fourth book I have read from Liane Moriarty after The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies, and Three Wishes. Like all those novels, she addresses plenty of unconventional topics and issues in this novel too. She handles matters like the complex friendships, marriage issues, the effect of dysfunctional parents on children, post-traumatic stress disorder, parenting, children’s innocence, the effect of unsaid thoughts on relationships, etc.
Even though it was long and boring at times, I enjoyed the novel. Overall, I will say the novel is okay-okay. If only, the book was a bit shorter, it would have been a perfect read.
Memorable Highlights
I will remember Harry, the old grumpy neighbor. From the start, I saw him as the neighbor who complains about everything. He hates Dakota. He is always on Vid’s doorstep with complaints about the dog or the letters or the noise. He never accepts Vid’s invitation for dinner or lunch. Well, he never has a normal conversation with anybody in the neighborhood. He is always writing to authorities with complaints. So, when he goes missing, no one notices. And when I listened to his past, it made me sad. I felt terrible for him and understood the reasons behind his annoying behavior and grumpiness.
Dakota loves to read. She is always finding excuses to curl up on her window and read. She is reading “Hunger Games” and wants to be like Katniss. But suddenly she stops reading. She tears her “Hunger Games” book. Why? She gets it in her head that she is responsible for what happened at the barbecue and her parents hate her now. Poor girl is punishing herself by giving up her love of reading. This just shows how fragile a child’s mind is. Thank God, she finally blurts her thoughts in front of her parents and they sort everything. And she goes happily back to her reading.
There was a conversation between Erika and Clementine where Erika is explaining her reasons for a decision to Clementine. Erika says, “I choose my marriage“. At that time, Clementine doesn’t understand Erika. Later, she uses the same line with Sam, to save her marriage, when they finally talk. That conversation and Erika’s reasons have stuck in my head.
Would I recommend it?
If you love a light mystery and have the patience to read/listen to a long book, then go for Truly Madly Guilty.
Image Credits: I downloaded the image from Goodreads as I forgot to take a screenshot of this book while I was listening to it last year. Then I used the downloaded image to create my title image.
Have you read this book? Did you like it?Are you planning to read this one? Share your thoughts with me.
