Today’s team review is from Frank.
Frank has been reading One Tuesday, Early by Annalisa Crawford.
I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to adequately praise this delightful novel.
It is an exploration of the aftermath of a domestic tragedy, told in alternate chapters from the separate points of view of each of the two people involved. Lexi finds herself apparently trapped in an alternative universe in which she is the only person alive in her home town. A town permanently trapped at 6:05 am on the longest, hottest day of the year.
Her experience is related in second person, a device that provides, for the reader, just the right balance between detachment and engagement. As she wanders the sun baked streets she reminisces about her life, her childhood and adolescence, her friends and family and the ups and downs of her relationships, especially the past five years with her boyfriend Finn.
Meanwhile, Finn, alone in the house they’ve been sharing, is confused about her absence. Why has she left? Where has she gone? As days pass with no news he reports her disappearance to the police but they are unable to help. He enters a deep depression, plagued by grief and guilt. Eventually, however, he pulls himself together, meets a librarian, they marry, move to a different part of town, have a couple of children and settle into a conventional life. Every year, on the anniversary of Lexi’s disappearance, he drowns his emotions in Jack Daniels.
Finn’s story is told in third person, beginning close but slowly becoming more detached as time passes, permitting fleeting glimpses of the inner lives of the people around him.
Lexi struggles to work out how and why she is in this peculiar situation. Where are all the people? What is the fog that gradually obscures everything beyond the town boundary and gradually creeps closer to her? She ponders life’s mysteries, seeking answers in the fleeting glimpses of the lives of the ‘lost’ inhabitants.
The greatest appeal of this book, for me, is the language: the way the words roll off the tongue. I am a slow reader with a tendency to sub-vocalise. Perhaps this is the consequence of having a mother who regularly read aloud to my sister and I when we were children, long after we learned to read for ourselves. I found myself almost reading aloud myself, as I savoured Ms. Crawford’s prose.
The climax, when we discover the nature of the tragedy, is revealed in slow motion, still from each point of view.
This is a heart rending meditation on the lies we tell ourselves and each other. The choices we make and the regrets those choices sometimes give rise to. How strong does love have to be in order for someone to bury regret and accept the reality of unfulfilled aspirations? How is it possible to resolve the conflict between personal ambition and the desire to please a lover?
I hope that someone with the necessary connections to nominate this book for one or more awards picks this book up. For me it stands comparison with any of the recent prize winners.
I received an ARC of One Tuesday, Early via Rosie Amber’s book review service. I wish I could award more than five stars but I can’t, so that will have to do.
Book description:
You’re on your own and you shouldn’t be. Your partner is missing. The streets are empty. Even the birds have disappeared. What do you do?
It’s 6:05am one Tuesday morning, and Lexi Peters is alone. Her partner, her friends, her neighbours have all vanished without a trace. The entire town is deserted. Gathering every ounce of courage, she sets out to explore the streets, seeking any sign of life. Her only companions are a coy black cat and a lurking fog that seems to follow her every step.
On the same morning, her partner Finn awakens to an empty house. Recalling the blazing argument they had the night before, he assumes Lexi has snuck off somewhere to cool down. But she doesn’t return.
Time passes. Or not. Lexi is stranded on that Tuesday morning, while Finn hurtles through the years at increasing speed.
Can Lexi and Finn be reunited, or is it already too late?
Rosie Amber 
Wonderful review of what sounds like an impressive and wonderful book. I’ll check it out. Thanks, Frank and Rosie!
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I’ve got this on my list as a TBR pick, so look forward to reading it!!
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