BOOK REVIEW: FICTION
Between the pages of Fawn Parker’s latest novel, What We Both Know, lives a character dubiously devoid of effervescence, despite her close relationship with fame and fortune. Her name is Hillary Greene and she is the daughter of famous author and public figure, Marcus “Baby” Greene. Hillary’s relationship with her father is tainted by a haunting past that threatens to erupt as she navigates her new life; her father is losing his memory, and thus, cannot complete his final project. Hillary agrees to write his final book, a memoir, for him and becomes his live-in caretaker.
Hillary’s task forces her to come face to face with deeply repressed traumas, personal insecurities and the power to change her father’s legacy forever. With every chapter that I turned to, the pages seemed to darken with an ever-growing shadow of Hillary’s melancholy. As the book’s narrator, we follow the protagonist into her mind, reading her most intimate thoughts and memories. Almost instantly, I felt as if this story being told from Hillary’s point of view simultaneously sequestered the outside world, while revealing its most mundane truths. Hillary is extremely stoic with everyone; she does not dwell on frivolous interactions and thus, seems to float through as an eternal observer. As she says, “It is my own fear that makes me inaccessible.” As I read through Parker’s intensely enigmatic novel, I wondered if I could trust the narrator. Her thoughts and dialogue are especially blunt, however, her perception is coloured by her own doubts and fears. Her point of view makes the world inside this book––the world inside Hillary’s mind––so much more enticing. What We Both Know is a story about how two people connected through stressed family bonds, trauma, and a project that threatens to release it all. As our protagonist pieces more and more of her father’s memoir together, a thickening air of suspense holds the reader’s vision to the page, desperately wondering: what the hell is she going to do next? Who is she, really?
I think it’s safe to say, this book comes highly recommended by me. If you’re interested in a slow-burning, character-driven plot that leaves you with a constant sense of wary curiosity and burgeoning bewilderment, then this book is the one for you. I leave you with this quote from Parker’s fantastic novel, which is perhaps one of my absolute favourites (no spoilers).
“So maybe I should never remind him. He will never fully be himself again, but I will forever be holding pieces of him inside of me, keeping them from him, keeping him good. The more Baby forgets, the more he is free of himself, and the more the stories belong to me. Though surely there is a difference, there does not feel to be one. It is me who becomes bad.”
––What We Both Know by Fawn Parker