Clever Little Thing

Finished April 2

Clever Little Thing by Helena Echlin

This psychological thriller is set in England. Charlotte, who is English, is married to Pete, an American. Pete works for a startup company using mushrooms to make biodegradable packaging. They have had some success, but are trying to get a big company on board, so Pete is working long hours. The couple have a daughter, Stella, who is eight, and Charlotte is pregnant with their second child. 

Stella has a lot of the signs of being neurodivergent, but they've not had her tested. She is very sensitive to noise, likes her food separated, and taught herself to read early. She very interested in birds and science, and as we see at the beginning, on a trip to the beach, she finds a dead bird that she wants to bring home to examine. Some of her behaviours can be offputting for the neurotypical kids in her class, and Charlotte is trying to socialize her more. 

Charlotte has a babysitter that looks after Stella, a woman named Blanka, who is very patient with her, and doesn't talk a lot. When Blanka suddenly quits without explanation, Charlotte is surprised and disappointed. When she finds out Blanka died a few days after quitting she is saddened. Shortly afterward, she begins to notice changes in Stella, who seems to be losing her fear over some things, but is becoming more withdrawn. She is using phrases that Blanka used to use like "Oh yes" in her responses, and doesn't seem interested in her usual passions. As Charlotte tries to make sense of these changes, Pete seems to think that Charlotte is making too much of it, and increasingly Charlotte feels herself alone, without anyone to tell her worries to. She reaches out to an unlikely ally and finds herself trusting to herself more than ever before.

This is a story that escalates slowly. We can see the changes in Stella as Charlotte notes them, and understand her growing worries, and why she takes some drastic actions. Charlotte loves Stella as she is, and while she wants Stella to be able to function more easily in school and have friends, she also feels that Stella isn't herself and finds herself thinking about Blanka and how Stella seems to be exhibiting more and more elements of Blanka's personality. 

This is a story of manipulation, of love between mothers and daughters, with an eerie underlying tone. The touches of creepiness are so well done, and you feel Charlotte's frustration and desperation as she tries to understand and save her children. 

Hard to put down. 

Red Lights

Finished April 16
Red Lights by Simenon, translated by Norman Denny

This dark novel is unusual for Simenon in that it was set in the United States, rather than France. On the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend, Steve and Nancy Hogan, meet as the always do in a small bar in downtown Manhattan for a drink before heading to their home on Long Island. The couple is a bit unusual for their time as Nancy went back to work after having children and is a well-paid executive assistant at a Madison Avenue firm.
This evening they are waiting for the worst of the traffic to stop before driving up to Maine to bring their two children back from summer camp. For some unstated reason, Steve has a bit of an attitude, drinking at first secretly and then more openly as they drive north. Nancy finally has enough of this, and tells Steve that she won't go on this way. When he pockets the keys, he returns from a bar to find her gone, likely to the crossroads ahead to get a bus. He follows, but has missed the bus and when he drives on, loses his way. As he continues driving on in the rain and dark, and his mind grows more confused, he goes over his resentments in his head, and we learn of his life and his wife's.
At one point Steve agrees to drive someone else north, someone he clearly suspects to be an escaped convict, and when he stops after getting a flat tire, loses consciousness. When he wakes the next morning, he finds himself alone and with his wallet gone. Phoning ahead to the camp, he finds that Nancy has never arrived, and as he realizes what must have happened to her, he finds his life forever changed.
The drinking and driving is definitely an element from another time. The novel was set in the early 1950s, and first published in 1955. But the dynamic of resentment and guilt are still clear in today's world. This new edition has an insightful foreword by Anita Brookner. The cover on this edition has the right feel to it, but I would have liked it better if the cars had been from the right era.