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Molly Fox's Birthday
By Deirdre Madden
Faber and Faber £12 99
221 pages
Dateline: 10th November, 2008
This is a wonderful, understated novel that delves deeply into the
psyche of three individuals, an actor, a playwright and a TV personality.
Molly Fox, perhaps the best stage actress of her day, is celebrating
a birthday somewhere in the uncomfortable zone for an actress between
38 and 42. Since she has gone to New York for a holiday, her friend
and close collaborator, an unnamed playwright, has borrowed her pretty
home outside Dublin. The hope is that she might kick-start a 20th play,
following a rare failure last time out.
While the play does not get on too far during this momentous 24 hours,
the lady's reflections on life in general through observations about
herself and others are illuminating and almost always spot on. By the
end, they leave the reader both better informed about the nature and
creativity of theatre and TV work but also able to ponder on some deep
philosophical musings.
In a form that is perhaps more familiar when it is seen from the point
of view of a protagonist's deathbed, the narrator opens the book by
talking about her first meeting with a woman with a perfect voice, which
led to was for each their first big hit, the first of many together.
Even before that, the writer, a Catholic from a large family had become
friendly at university with Andrew, a Protestant art history student
with a devotion to his subject that could be regarded as scary. There
is some irony that the introverted student eventually became a populist
TV presenter of the Simon Schama or David Starkey school.
The pair became as close probably as an unmarried couple could get
but still their outlooks were coloured by history. Making up a triumvirate
of loners, Molly Fox became a great actress without ever finding love,
although but for this single missing element, she enjoys a fulfilled
and rewarding life.
The trio are each illuminated by the behaviour and experiences of a
sibling. Andrew's brother Billy was a loyalist paramilitary briefly,
before an internal feud cost him his life and left his parents bereft.
Our guide's eldest brother Tom became a Catholic priest, thus showing
up a real Northern Irish difference that even a close friendship could
never quite bridge. Making up the set, is a third brother, Fergus whose
schizophrenic existence blights Molly's life. However, his reappearance
also sheds much light on her personality and prejudices.
Deirdre Madden is a great observer, both of the minutiae that make
up these three lives but additionally the way in which different people
interact with others, both those very close to them and strangers. Gradually,
a beautifully drawn triptych of the protagonists is developed until
by the end, if one were to bump into any of them in the theatre or a
TV studio, he would feel like a meeting with an old friend.
The highest praise that can be offered regarding this book is not only
to suggest that readers should rush out and buy a copy but the knowledge
that this reviewer is going to start wading through the Deirdre Madden
back catalogue as soon as the opportunity to do so arises.
Philip Fisher
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