For those who loved Olive Kitteridge and Boy Swallows Universe comes a darkly funny, deeply moving novel told with breathtaking originality and dazzling talent.
Leslie Bird loves being a wife and mother but loathes her husband and children. The only person she ever loved was born dead. Meet Leslie Bird, the irascible matriarch of a big bonkers family, coming of age and to the boil, as the secrets and slights that have shaped her and her hapless husband’s lives impact their children in the most profound and complex ways. In other words, everyone’s story. Sort of. Because this is a story, and family, like none you’ve ever read before.
Things She Would Have Said Herself is a darkly funny, deeply moving novel about the lengths and breadths one woman will go to ignore her own and others’ pain and what happens when she’s confronted by it one sweltering Christmas day. A story of motherhood, marriage, madness, unspeakable loss and the heartbreaking messy love that holds a family together. Honest, revealing, resonant and startlingly original, if you loved Olive Kitteridge and Boy Swallows Universe, you will love this book!
Catherine is a master of her genre, Tragicomedy. This books showcases the complexities of family dynamics cleverly, and truly there is not a single sentence written in a boring way. I had to stop and admire many sentences throughout for their clever wit and brutality. The story was fully formed and all of the characters were so real and believable to me. I found it slow paced at times but the writing style made up for this.
This original and somewhat uncomfortable look behind the curtain of one woman’s life and family, left me unsure if I felt rewarded or repulsed. Rewarded by the honesty of words rarely spoken aloud and thoughts not often replicated on the printed page. Repulsed by horrendous behaviour and offensive attitudes disguised as humour. I was unsure what I was supposed to feel. It was very disorienting.
I tried and failed to find redeeming features in any of the characters. I’m unsure if Leslie was intended as the hero (anti-hero perhaps), if so, it didn’t quite land for me.
I found the writing style at times, full of unnecessarily complicated language and the frequent oblique and niche cultural references might be lost on many readers – firmly placing the author and reader (who understands the references) in a specific generation.
Whilst this book was not for me, it might appeal to those who enjoy quirky, train-wreck humour and the world of the overtly non-politically correct. I’m really not sure where this book is intended to sit in this current climate or who its target audience is and if it will appeal to them.
What a roller-coaster read!!
I found this book to be a fairly easy read light on humour with excellent locations in and around the Sydney area.
It did seem slightly mad in itself and some darker areas of life were brought to light in a slightly humorous way especially towards the end of the book with a heatwave taking place one sweltering Christmas Day.
The subject matter didn’t interest me as much as I thought it would upon reading the actual book and it seemed quite jumbled up.
Overall, it was well written and touched on some subjects relevant to real life in general.
I found this book very confusing. There is no action, just someone’s inner thoughts. And often it isn’t obvious who is meant to be doing the thinking. I would like to give a summary of the story, but there really isn’t one.
I suspect the book was meant to give insight into someone’s “inner life”, in order to justify for their actions and attitudes. I just wish the people in question were even slightly likeable.
The only characters that we get to know to any extent are obnoxious, deliberately offensive, self-centred, judgemental, hypocritical – I didn’t like any of them. There were a couple of people mentioned in the periphery who may have been more pleasant, but we never got to know them.
A winding garden path of a story uniquely told back through time. This gives the reader a dawning understanding only after of the events which shaped characters and gives empathy to their most unlikable traits. Leslie Bird starts out shinning a certain narrow light but as we walk along the story popping in and out of memories and family disfunctions, we see her as she has devolved. The woman she has become and the woman she once was.
This book asks us to bear witness to the evolution of our laughter, love and trauma, the high hopes and broken expectations that shape our lives, our loved one’s lives and the subconscious cues and tics we feed from and show to each other. Richly woven, the author has divulged the inner monologue of the characters, and it isn’t pretty.
There is a hint of the pessimistic realist creeping through the inner thoughts of our main lady while she herself is too close to see the broader picture. Us as the reader get the benefit of the wider view, even if at first it takes us down a labyrinthine history to see it unfurl. Possibly an antithesis to the fluffy inspirational brimming with toxic positivity, this book shows us our flaws and the fabulous adventure of life we have not in spite of but because.
“Things she would have said herself”, is a darkly humorous and poignant novel that explores the complex family dynamics of an eclectic family. The story revolves around the loss of a child, which sets off a chain of events that unravel the secrets of the family and its most unusual dynamics. Therese’s writing is masterful in its ability to balance the humour and sadness of the story, making it a gripping and emotional read. The characters are well-developed and relatable, each with their own struggles and desires. Overall, “Things she would have said herself” is a poignant portrayal of loss, family, and the complexities of life. I would recommend this book to anyone 5 stars.
Things She Would Have Said Herself by Catherine Therese is the author’s first fiction novel following an award-winning memoir, The Weight of Silence. Things She Would Have Said Herself is a contemporary fiction novel focusing on its elderly protagonist, Leslie Bird, embittered by the hand life has dealt her. This novel follows Leslie Bird as she interacts and explores the intricacies of her extensive family life.
Therese draws a detailed picture of an elderly woman in Leslie, the unheard and disrespected family matriarch with many quirks, loud opinions, and prejudices. Leslie’s quest at one point to find a baby layette set, annoying and upending nearly every member of her family in the process, felt very real to the experience of a hurried wife, mother and grandmother.
Things She Would Have Said Herself explores in detail the minutiae of family squabbles. The cast of characters is at times too sprawling and the detail of Leslie and her family’s interior life too rich. The novel meanders through Leslie’s observations, the plot struggling to get a foothold. Readers who love a character study, however, will revel in the deep detail of an often-overlooked female perspective.
I read this novel because it was well written and readable but I didn’t really enjoy it. It’s about a seriously dysfunctional family suffering varying degrees of pain, (mental and physical), grief and confusion. We meet Leslie and Wallace Bird, their assorted offspring, in-laws and grandchildren and we are also shown their preoccupation with medical conditions (real or supposed), medications and poo. They are petty, politically incorrect and just plain unlikeable ……but they stick together, as families tend to do.
I felt no real connection to or sympathy for any of the characters and the fact that everyone turns up to Christmas together at the end is quite astonishing to me. The novel ends but you feel as if the characters might be stuck in some nightmarish loop and have to relive it all again.
I wanted to like this book but I just didn’t. I loved the sound of it from the synopsis but I just couldn’t get into it, my mind was drifting and I couldn’t relate to any of the characters. I usually finish a book every 2 or 3 days but this one just took me forever to finish, the chapters were too long and it just seemed to drag on and on. Even though it wasn’t my thing, I’ll pass it on to my book club buddies and see if they think any differently.
Unfortunately, this is not my type of book. So it is hard to find positive things to say – however, early in the book the writing was very good – it was possible to laugh out loud, cringe and almost cry all in one paragraph. If the book was 100 pages less and moved a bit faster I might have appreciated it more. Unfortunately the story just rambled on with a lot of sad, mean characters and situations.
The main character, Leslie Bird, is a harsh, self-pitying, sad wife and mother and this has impacted on the lives of her husband and children and how they all react to one another. None of the characters were likeable and all had weird idiosyncrasies that were an attempt to fit into this dysfunctional family.
Later in the book, when the story went off on yet another tangent, I got lost as to what was actually going on and what the point of another seemingly irrelevant retrospective story was all about. It all came to an unexpected ending, leaving me to wonder what the family’s reactions would have been.
This novel is a story about family that demonstrates how parents behaviours shape children’s lives for generations.
The matriarch Grace Leslie Bird is an example of women and mothers of the 1950’s and 60’s who kept their heads down and put up with their lot. Her resulting idiosyncrasies are a constant source of amusement for her large family.
However her adult children have their own problems including failed partnerships, difficult children, fake illness to name some.
Leslie’s husband Wallace has left it to his wife to be both mother and disciplinarian and adding to her frustration has failed to mention a previous relationship which is revealed when his 18 year old daughter Lana arrives on their doorstep. However Leslie’s second daughter Caroline reveals herself as perceptive in describing Lana’s arrival as ‘It wasn’t only the arrival of an undisclosed older, fatter sister who looked exactly like my father in a dress that was so exciting but the fact she was untainted by my mother’s bitterness and dubbing. Lana was proof of my father’s secret suffering that at age 10 I suspected but had no evidence.’
In fairness to Leslie she has her own suffering to bear in the treatment of both her and her first baby stillborn. Even so her stream of conscious rambling to another mother whose baby had also died was not engaging.
There is plenty of laughter in this book. The author has an excellent eye for Leslie’s foibles, using euphemisms for body parts, hiding her underwear in the middle of the Hills hoist so it can’t be seen, having a collection of boxes in the boot of the car specifically arranged for the groceries and not least her can of graphite powder always in her pocket in case any hinge needs fixing.
If you enjoy family stories especially about crazy opinionated ones then I recommend you read this book.
I am sorry but I didn’t enjoy this book. I found it hard to read and follow. The family seemed so far fetched to me as was Lesley Bird the main character. I know all families are different but l am glad this isn’t my family.
The funny, irascible, caustic and unapologetically honest Leslie Bird is an absolute delight and the perfect viewpoint into this tale of motherhood, marriage, loss and all that holds a family together. Things She Would Have Said Herself settles into itself after the chaotic opening chapters and is one of the most original voices infiction I’ve read.
The story follows the family matriarch, Leslie Bird, who recounts the disappointments that she’s experienced in her adult life which culminate on a sweltering Christmas Day. The author, Catherine Therese, weaves in the complex issues of motherhood and the identity of women (especially as they age) throughout the novel. There are parts where you want to cry with Leslie but also laugh at the humour of her, sometimes far too relatable, family. The storytelling is different and unique to what I normally would read which was refreshing and interesting to follow. It’s a novel that, after finishing it, makes you reflect on your own crazy family and how the choices and decisions we make have a ripple effect on those we love the most.
As I approach my 50s, I was intrigued by the premise of this book. Watching my own mother age and seeing my own children perceive me as getting older, I found the concept highly relatable. Additionally, I often catch myself exhibiting the same behaviours that my mother did when I was a teenager, which further piqued my interest in the book.
However, despite my initial excitement, I ultimately did not enjoy the book. The negative tone left me feeling disconnected from the main character, Leslie, and I struggled to engage with her or feel any warmth towards her. Instead, I found myself sympathizing with the other characters. Furthermore, I felt that many of the descriptions and scenarios were excessively verbose and prolonged, making it difficult for me to make it through the book.
I have not read this author before and feel disappointed I was not able to engage with the book. Hopefully others find the characters and scenarios more relatable than I did.
‘If this novel were a song, it would be part Mozart’s Requiem, part Doris Day, part Radiohead.’ –– ali whitelock