Rough Music by Patrick Gale

Thursday, Mar. 9, 2023--San Antonio

I don't remember why, but I had read 8% of Rough Music by Patrick Gale sometime in the past and had returned the book without noting why I had quit reading it.  My memory seems to be that maybe I had a book or two that had been on hold for several weeks become available just as I had started this book.  I'm so glad I went back to it (reading it from the start to refresh my memory).  It takes place at a resort in Cornwall where members of a family have gone twice, about 32 years apart, for a summer two-week holiday.  The book deals with family relationships and variations in showing emotions.  The father of the family is the superintendent (or warden) of a prison who is somewhat emotionally stunted and spends little time with his family on a daily basis.  He is also a man who has grown up not learning much in a practical sense about personal relationships.  Sex with his wife occurred only after marriage, was the first time he had ever had sex, and involving a technique based on reading some pamphlets about what to do.  It was painful for the wife, who was also a virgin and didn't know what to expect, and remained that way.  So the relationship is a strained one.  Somehow they managed to have one child, a boy, while wanting more children but not knowing anything about reproduction cycles, womens' orgasms, etc.  But other characters enter the story--in particular the American brother-in-law and his daughter who come to England in the earlier trip after the father's sister has died in a strange way, and in the latter story, the male artist who is the landlord of the cottage.  A major theme of the book involves hidden, close-to-incestuous relationships--the husband's wife with the American man who married the sister and their adult son with the adult husband of the American-born girl.  It's a complex book, but one that is interesting and exciting to read.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.