This story is actually part mystery and part
fantasy. The mystery comes in when Elizabeth begins to see the changes in
Michael. Despite her wanting to just enjoy it, she realizes that it isn't all
rosy and begins investigating what is the cause behind the change. The fantasy
part is Michael's visions and his being tortured by them. Then we find that
Michael suddenly stopped taking medication that Elizabeth wasn't even aware he
was taking. So there is a medical background to Michael’s changed behavior. Even
so, Torday seems to suggest that perhaps Michael isn't crazy at all, and what
he's going through is something very real. As we toggle between their two
stories, we slowly become acquainted with them, together with the intensifying
situation. In this way, Torday melds the plot together with the characters so
that they seem to drive the story forward with almost equal power. This is because
Michael's almost Jekyll and Hyde situation makes the character himself become part
of the plot. Of course, adding to this is Elizabeth and how all this effects
her and her world.
What the reader will find with Torday's work,
and in particular this novel, is that he truly knows how to get to the heart of
a story quickly and then pull his readers in. This not only makes them very
fast reads, but fascinating ones as well. In fact, you might get so involved
with this story that you'll hardly notice the 300 plus pages going by, since
it's so jam-packed with action. What's more is that Torday does it in such an
easy-going and comfortable language.
Since this novel is two different accounts of the same story as told by
this couple in an almost diary entry form, it isn't hard to imagine that the
tone of the writing is very conversational. The primary reason for using this method
is to keep from using descriptive passages that sound dead and boring, since
you are basically reading the narrator's thoughts straight his or her head.
Fans of Torday's who have read his first novel
"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" will know of his ability to find an
absurd situation, bring in a good dramatic climax while keeping the reader
smiling. However, this novel has little to no humor in it at all. In fact, it
is very dark which makes it almost difficult to believe that these two novels
were written by the same person. However, there is one similarity in these two
stories. That is, the inclusion of something which one can't say couldn't actually
be realistic, even though it does seem highly unlikely. In the case of this
story, while it is highly unlikely that Michael is having anything more than
hallucinations, can one discount the evidence that there might be something
real behind it all. The answering of that question is the last element Torday
has used to truly capture the reader.
After all this praise, one must come to the ever-present
"however…" section. The most major drawback has to do with Elizabeth.
In this day and age, it seems unusual that any woman would "settle"
for someone that she knew she didn't love in order to have financial stability
and comfortable companionship. This would seem especially true for someone as
attractive and intelligent as Elizabeth. Furthermore, since Elizabeth is a
career woman, it isn't like she had to be gold-digger. So this marriage seems a
bit more Jane Austin-like than 21st century. However, Torday does
allow that Elizabeth was initially attracted to Michael when they first met –
and not to his money. Still, was this enough to make this something the reader
can accept, and more importantly, is it okay for a character's back story to be
only "possibly realistic, despite being unlikely"? Perhaps, in this
case it was somewhat necessary. Still, it might have been more realistic and
far more likely had Elizabeth really loved him to begin with. This also would
have made her frustration in the marriage more understandable, as well as her
reluctance to figure out why he was changing. This made Elizabeth less of a
sympathetic character than she could have been.
The other problem is that Michael seems a bit
less fleshed out than he should be. Seeing as everything in the story revolves
around his personality change, he could have had a bit more focus. One can only
think that either Torday thought it would be better to keep him clouded in
mystery as much as possible, or that he wasn't sure how to chronicle the
thoughts of a man as he takes steps he knows might drive him crazy.
All told, Paul Torday's novel "The Girl on
the Landing" is a well crafted novel that will appeal to a large audience.
While the characters are on the quirky side, they are interesting, although
they seem to lack in certain places. However, the plot is dark, fascinating and
gives one food for thought about mental illness and if some types of disturbed
states might not have some basis in the outside world. However, Torday does
know how to grab his readers, and his style is one that makes reading his books
a pleasure. For all of this, "The Girl on the Landing" deserves four
out of five stars, and is recommended.
"The Girl on the Landing" by Paul Torday published by Phoenix (an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd) released October 16th 2008 is available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, as an iBook or an audiobook from iTunes, or in paperback from The Book Depository.
(This has been adapted from my original review published on Dooyoo.)
(This has been adapted from my original review published on Dooyoo.)
