Blue Hour by Sarah Schmidt

 

Blue Hour by Sarah Schmidt.

Published 7th July 2022 by Tinder Press.

From the cover of the book:

She thinks of blue mountain, her favourite place. 'We're going somewhere where we can be safe. We never have to come back here.'

As the rest of the world lies sleeping, Eleanor straps her infant daughter, Amy, into the back of her car. This is the moment she knew must come, when they will walk out on her husband Leon and a marriage in ruins since his return from Vietnam. Together, she and Amy will journey to blue mountain, a place of enchantment and refuge that lit up Eleanor's childhood.

As the car eats up the miles, so Eleanor's mind dives back into her fractured relationship with her mother, Kitty. Kitty who asked for so much from life, from love, from family. Kitty who had battled so hard to prise her husband George out of the grip of war. Kitty, whose disapproving voice rings so loud in Eleanor's head.

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1973: In the blue hour before dawn, Eleanor creeps quietly from the house she shares with her violent husband Leon, straps her baby daughter Amy into the back of her car. and heads for the safety of her favourite place in the world - blue mountain. 

As she undertakes the long drive towards her refuge, and away from her disastrous marriage to the man who has returned from Vietnam even more of a monster than he was when he went, she reflects on the difficult relationship she had with her mother Kitty and her fear that she can never be a good parent because of it. But all will be well if she can only reach blue mountain...

In the 1940s, Kitty meets George at a dance and in the brief time before he heads off to World War II, romance blossoms between them. Promises are made, that Kitty has been brought up to believe binding, and then George is gone. The next time she sees him, he is a patient in the hospital where she is a nurse. He is a broken shell of a man, horribly damaged inside and out, but something still draws her to him.

As the 1940s, 50s and 60s play out, we are party to Kitty and George's unhappy marriage, his frequent breakdowns, her infidelity, and the birth of their children, Badger and Eleanor - and a terrible tragedy that scars them, and shapes the woman Eleanor becomes...

Sometimes you find a book that you know after only a few pages will be something very special. Blue Hour by Sarah Schmidt is one of those rare books, which makes it very difficult to do justice to in a brief review such as this.

This is a many layered story that focuses on the lives of two women trapped by the choices they have made - Kitty and her daughter Eleanor. We first meet Eleanor as she is running from domestic abuse with her child, and then the narrative moves back and forth in time between them as Kitty's account of marriage and motherhood slowly unfurls across the decades; and as Eleanor reflects on her childhood, her dysfunctional relationship with Kitty, her own violent marriage, and the events of her journey to blue mountain. It's strong stuff, dealing with the lives of people affected in various ways by unresolved trauma, PTSD, and personality disorders. There are many disturbing moments that are extremely difficult to read, and the tension mounts as you hope beyond hope that Eleanor will reach her destination, while at the same time the heartrending history of this family is laid out in shocking technicolour. 

Schmidt does an incredible job of flaying Kitty to the bone, exploring the complexities of why she thinks and acts the way she does. Even so, she's a difficult character to come to terms with when she seems complicit in so much of the misery that befalls her, and my heart bled for Eleanor as her mother knowingly manipulates and punishes her daughter for her own sorrows and disappointments. 

There is pure gold in the way Schmidt writes about all the contradictions that make up these characters, and how she uses these to examine a wealth of themes about mothers and daughters, and strained marital relationships - duty, expectation, regret, desire, control, fear, and longing for what has been lost at the expense of what you have all have a part to play. The neverending push and pull of opposing feelings is also captured with perfection: love vs hate; and pain vs pleasure are particularly well examined. And throughout Schmidt uses the recurring motifs of birds, especially corvids, and the colours blue and red to elicit a powerfully visceral response. The way she pulls you up sharp with imagery around exposing what lies within, the livid marks of bruising on skin, and splashes of blood is superb.

Schmidt's writing is impressive. She can stop time and hold you in a moment that conveys every ounce of painfully intense emotion. You become so caught up in the intricacies of these characters' lives, every feeling and action that defines them, that Schmidt is able to disguise exactly where she is leading you, and only when it is too late do you realise what her intentions have been all along.

This worked its way under my skin, and left me utterly broken. It's one of the most beautifully written and affecting books I have consumed in a long while. Despite the fact that it ripped my heart from my body, I commend it to you as one you simply have to read. I am already craving more Sarah Schmidt! 

Blue Hour is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Tinder Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Sarah Schmidt is the acclaimed author of SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and won the AIBA Literary Fiction of the Year 2018. She lives in Melbourne where she works as a librarian.