At the Table

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A brilliant portrayal of family dynamics in all their messy glory. Powell manages to make the Maguires wholly realistic. Right down to the main characters colleagues, friends, even the locations you could picture perfectly because (if you’re in the UK) there is always a pub in walking distance called The Crown. The simple details of everyday life are just spot on every time and you could feel the ups and downs and anxieties of each character.

Jeanie Masterson works at the family undertakers in a small town in Ireland. Like her father, she can hear the thoughts of the recently deceased and give voice to their final wishes and desires. But Jeanie is torn by the many obligations in her life, both to the dead and to the living. Her marriage is characterised by emotional compromise and she is full of regrets about the risks she dared not take in life. Griffin sensitively explores Jeanie’s struggle for self-fulfilment in an assured second novel.Hardworking – and hard-drinking – Nicole pursues the ex she unceremoniously dumped six years ago, while people-pleasing Jamie fears he’s sleepwalking into a marriage he doesn’t actually want. But as the siblings grapple with the pressures of thirtysomething life, their parents struggle to protect the fragile façade of their own relationship, and the secrets they’ve both been keeping. When Linda and Gerry Maguire announce their separation after decades of marriage, their thirtysomething children find the news difficult to digest. Nicole is a successful commercial director for a technology company but also a functioning alcoholic. Her brother, Jamie, is having second thoughts about his impending marriage and becomes obsessive about diet and exercise. Filled with razor-sharp dialogue and psychological acuity, At the Table is an astute debut novel about dysfunctional family life. The Joy of Science Hardworking - and hard-drinking - Nicole pursues the ex she unceremoniously dumped six years ago, while people-pleasing Jamie fears he's sleepwalking into a marriage he doesn't actually want. But as the siblings grapple with the pressures of thirtysomething life, their parents struggle to protect the fragile façade of their own relationship, and the secrets they've both been keeping.

Painfully funny, acutely well-observed, powerfully resonant in its humanity and emotional accuracy. I missed this book whenever I wasn't reading it' Luke Kennard Claire Powell is generous with her characters, and I felt equally pained for the betrayed character as the betrayer in two (maybe even three) scenarios, without feeling like the writer was making excuses for wrong actions. People just do shitty things because they're people, and I never really disliked anyone in this book despite the many mistakes most of them make. Oh to be a reader all the time instead being restricted to a single silly mind and body that has to feel feelings and take things personally. A character explicitly tells one of the protagonists that he’s about to show her a video of his kid. As he pulls out his phone, the next sentence reads ‘She could tell immediately that it was a video of a child.’ Are we trying to hit word count here? Why on earth was this inane sentence necessary? Set over the course of a year, At The Table gives you more than you asked for. I was expecting an easy read with funny parts here and there and instead it was like having an inside look into someone’s home. The Maguires could be your friends or neighbours, that is how crystal the writing is. And although there are funny sections in the book, the emotional grounding far surpasses what I expected. The way that Powell navigates heartache, depression, anxiety, and just not really knowing what your next step in life is, is truly exceptional.

Hobbies

I’ve read a lot of books about women struggling through their twenties, this is a book about the whole family struggling through life - and it is stunning. The kind of rare story you want to nosedive into on a hot hungover weekend and slurp down like iced coffee - cold, sweet and quenching . . . a summer read to devour with suncream and spilt rosé - and then lend to your mum or your daughter' The Times Drivel. The premise had so much potential, but it was a huge disappointment. A few more notes on the novel in general: I felt secondhand embarrassment reading the scenes between one character and his love interest, the attempt at flirtation actually pained me.

Gerry and Linda Maguire are married and have two thirty something children. Nicole is a hard working, functional alcoholic, who never shies from giving her opinion, while Jamie is reticent and prone to people pleasing. When Linda and Gerry announce their separation after decades of marriage, Nicole and Jamie are stunned. We follow each of the equally flawed characters over the course of the year after the announcement and see how it affects them all. A gripping yet tender depiction of family dynamics, love and disillusionment about what it means to grow up - both as an individual and as a family.

Christmas Gifts

There was a half-hearted attempt to tie this saccharine story in a bow, but it ultimately fell so flat that I felt cheated. The Maguire function are dysfunctional, but only in a way most families will find relatable. I found it poignant seeing them come together after being torn apart by their personal dramas, and Powell's choice to leave out sections ended up creating a moving sense of intimacy between them. As readers we go from being zoomed into the individual characters' minds and lives and then suddenly being shut out when their situation comes to a head. Set over the course of one year, “At The Table” tells the story of the Maguire family, parents Gerry and Linda and their adult children Nicole and Jamie. When Gerry and Linda announce their separation after over thirty years of marriage the family are plunged into turmoil. Nicole immediately takes her father’s side and refuses to speak to Linda, while her hard-partying and drinking start to catch up with her. Jamie starts to question everything about himself, especially his upcoming marriage.

My favourite character award definitely goes to Jamie; I could read another whole book from his POV. His storyline was excellent, well written and how the writer describes anxiety and depression felt so personal and true to life. The characters and their motivations were so criminally underdeveloped, I still don’t know why anyone did anything or what I was supposed to feel when they did it. For a novel that has virtually no plot, the characters should have been the focal point of the narrative; instead they were one-dimensional, unsympathetic, and just plain boring.Nicole and Jamie have struggles of their own. Both in their thirties, they are trying to navigate through the dynamics of careers, life and love. Nicole is hard-working but also likes to party. She’s on a permanent quest to find the right man, remaining furiously unsuccessful while her friends settle down around her. In contrast Jamie has been seeing his girlfriend Lucy for years and their wedding is inevitable and imminent- but is it what he really wants?