the paper palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
On love, and pain, and decisions...
2 May 2021
The Paper Palace is a deeply interesting love story that follows one day in the life of Elle Bishop (a professional, middle class, married mother of three, late 40s) and intersperses it with key moments from her past which will inform the crucial decision she needs to make.
The day is spent in a rambling, intriguing place (the Paper Palace of the title) by the shore of one of Cape Cod's beautiful and unspoilt ponds. This is far more than just a holiday home; communal and private, sheltering and wild, permanent and temporary, the Palace has become the touchstone of Elle's life. Hers is a a life of certain privilege but also of privations, and one of the many enjoyable aspects of this novel is precisely how the first person narrator introduces us with a direct, forceful yet always allusive prose to the various elements of her life - family characters, friendships made, problems confronted. All those elements, slowly but surely build up our expectations, and create a world that develops into a deeply believable exploration of childhood survival, the dynamics of divorced families, unexpected decisions, guilt, ... all explored with intelligence and wit. The crux of the decision Elle realises she must make has to do with love in its multifaceted forms, and truthfulness to oneself and others. This moral element informs all of the moments of Elle's past life she happens to look at through the day (or that the Palace inhabitant decides to commit to paper at a given point in the future).
The writing is wonderful in its visual descriptions, but especially strong in its depiction of character through dialogue. There is empathy, human emotion, wisdom and humour in abundance, as well as literary allusions!
A great novel, highly recommended. Thank you to Penguin via NetGalley for an advance copy - a fantastic read and loads of discussion ahead.