Marianne Vincent
“Can I do that puzzle, Dad, the one that tells you what it means to be alive?” This Shining Life is the first novel by British author, Harriet Kline. When nearly-eleven-year-old Ollie’s father dies, dealing with the avalanche of grief that surrounds him is a challenge. Rich was a cheese-loving, party-throwing joyous individual, loved by almost all who encountered him. Dad was the person who quizzed him on football teams and national capitals, helping to distract him from things that caused a meltdown. Ollie is different. He might be described as neuro-diverse, but his mum, Carrie simply says “It’s just how his brain’s wired. If he can’t see the world as we do, then we have to honour that.” Ollie loves things to be neat and correct. “I love puzzles. Killer sudoku are my favourite but I like word ladders and codewords too. They make me happy, but only when they’re finished. If they go wrong or I have to rub something out and the page gets creased, I get itchy under my fingernails” And “When there’s a thread in my sock, wriggling against my skin, I’m supposed to act as though it isn’t there. But it makes my feet feel blurry if the threads move around. I can only ignore it if I do a sudoku. Then I get told off for being rude because I’m ignoring everything else.” Also “I hate it when people ask me two questions at once because I don’t know which one to answer first.” Given a poor prognosis, Rich concentrates on enjoying the life he has remaining, being with those he loves. “He started telling me then that being alive was like a puzzle and it was all falling into place” When he makes a list of gifts he plans to give them, Ollie concludes “each present gives a clue about being alive.” So when Rich dies, this is the puzzle that Ollie fixates on: he will understand what it means to be alive. Of course, that doesn’t quite go to plan. Ollie is a smart boy: “Rich realized, as he watched him, that he was gathering information. He might have no instinct for being with people and he took scarce pleasure in their company, but it was obvious that he was making an effort to understand. He was storing up his observations and somehow, in the future, he would put them to use.” But Ollie is too young and perhaps too literal, to understand the reactions of those beloved. Carrie’s grief as a widow overlays her ongoing depression; her sister, Nessa is well-intentioned but lacks sensitivity to what others really need; their mother Angran, still determined to triumph over her abandonment by the father of her two small daughters, has no idea of how to mother, to show affection. Rich’s father, Gerald plagued by tinnitus and encroaching dementia, holds fast to the importance of rules and manners at the expense of accepting difference; his wife, Marjorie initially seems focussed on appearances. Kline paints the many faces of grief with skill and feeling. Her characters are appealing for all their very human flaws, and Ollie is likely to find a spot in the hearts of many readers. And while a happy ending with this plot is difficult, a hopeful one can be, and is, achieved. A beautifully written, moving debut novel. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Transworld Publishers.