The Son-in-Law

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 22nd May 2023.

The Son-in-Law. Charity Norman.

The reading group meeting was fairly unanimous in their approval of this book. It was very well put together, we thought; the characters came across extremely realistically; and the writing style was liked by everyone. An engaging read, and an interesting study in psychiatric issues and the concomitant family dynamics. We spent a long time discussing the book and various issues that arose from it, including mental health in general and the application of labels to conditions.

There were a few reservations expressed, however, including some discomfort with the idea that although the narrative is acknowledged to be a viable scenario in legal terms (plea of manslaughter and only three years served in prison), and despite the presentation of Joseph as an almost ideal father in most ways, he still killed his wife. He was badly provoked, it was unintentional, and he was obviously remorseful afterwards, but the fact of his wife’s death is unalterable. In some ways Joseph appears almost as much of a victim of these events as were his wife and their children; in another way, Joseph was an undeniably violent man, and the book seems in some ways almost to excuse his crime, which gave an impression of ‘ducking the moral responsibility’ and leaves a bad taste to the story.

The other main point of discussion was the possibility that the whole process of Joseph getting legal access to, and then custody of, his children, was concertinaed in the narrative and thus appeared to us to be too fast-tracked.

We were also very interested in the character of Rosie, the nun. Why was a nun introduced into the narrative? Where is the convent she went back to in St Ives? And was the close of the book, in which Rosie renounces her vocation and marries Joseph, too much of a happy ending?