R.D. Feneley’s second novel focuses on a sudden death in the family.
When a death is untimely, families lose more than a member, they lose their equilibrium too. In his second novel,, R.D. Feneley explores the shock and destabilising effects of the sudden loss of a beloved figure, the eponymous Ted, whose long and interesting existence is wiped out when he is brained by his own surfboard during a morning dip at Bondi.
Both double down on outrage and the plot thickens and deepens. Seb knows it’s not his place to judge, and yet can’t help himself; Connie knows that there is much that she has withheld from him and also that she loved her husband.There is much to discover, many reasons, many motivations, but it would be wrong to spoil Feneley’s gradual unfolding of the truths that hold Ted’s family and friends in thrall to his undeniable charisma and lovableness.
For instance, although Seb’s pastor isn’t spared from being skewered for the usual hypocrisies, Feneley doesn’t take cheap shots at Seb’s struggles of faith, his need for meaning. Seb’s faults and behaviour elicit our disapproval at first, but compassion keeps breaking in.Connie too. She is a doctor, a toughly atheistic ex-Catholic with zero patience for Seb’s happy-clappy brand of faith-filled escapism, and she has her depths and her reasons.
Yet the novel doesn’t offer a simple “blame the mother” analysis. Feneley gives all his characters reasons. No one is perfect, and a charismatic person can be dangerous to your soul. As Hamlet said, if everyone got what they deserved, “who should ’scape whipping?”
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