Bitter Orange

Summary (from the publisher): From the attic of a dilapidated English country house, she sees them - Cara first: dark and beautiful, clinging to a marble fountain of Cupid, and Peter, an Apollo. It is 1969 and they are spending the summer in the rooms below hers while Frances writes a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. But she is distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she discovers a peephole which gives her access to her neighbours' private lives.

To Frances' surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to spend time with her. It is the first occasion that she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes till the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled.

But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don't quite add up - and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur.

Amid the decadence of that summer, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand all their lives forever.

Review: In the wake of her elderly mother's death, Frances gratefully accepts an assignment to survey the estate of a dilapidated English country house in the summer of 1969. Given rooms in the attic of the largely ruined house, she first hears her neighbors living on the floor below. Then, she finds a peephole under the floorboards in her bathroom, giving her an intimate look at her new neighbors. 

To her surprise, her neighbors, Cara and Peter, are eager to spend time with her. Moving from voyeur to a guest at the table, Frances feels what it means to be have friends for the first time in her life.  After years of social isolation and caring for her ailing mother, Frances eagerly embraces the lavish meals and wine, the heady confidences imparted by Cara and the tantalizing thrill of a close male friend in Peter. Slowly, the line between right and wrong is blurred. Slowly, Frances gleans that not all is what it seems between Cara and Peter. And slowly, Frances comes to realize that Cara's stories Frances so eagerly listened to aren't entirely factual. As the summer continues, small crimes committed, little boundaries crossed, slowly accumulate until one big crime occurs that abruptly puts an end to their summer as a party of three. 

I loved this novel. Fuller is a masterful storyteller. At heart, Frances is an awkward, aging, plump spinster who has a couple friends to share meals with for the first time in her life. In short, not the most thrilling premise. But the combination of mysterious old estate and questionable and beautiful couple are captivating. For much of the novel, little happens in way of plot, but the writing makes you stick around and wonder what might happen next. For Frances, after a lifetime of inaction, the summer, while perhaps seeming dull to some, is everything to her. Beautifully written, the novel is incredibly rich in physical detail: the vicar wipes the sweat from his neck, Peter runs his hand through Cara's curls, the roll of fat above Frances' stomach, bulging up over her mother's old underwear is constnatly referred to. Fuller brings the reader into the Lynton estate and into the trio of main characters through Frances' rich first person perspective. And while it was the writing that reeled me in, it was the mounting staccato of the big reveal of what exactly happened that summer that kept me going. At times sinister, at others spooky, Fuller does an excellent job of conveying Frances' increasing since of unease and mounting anxiety about her choices and her discomfort at Lynton. 

Cara and Frances discover an ancient orange tree on the property. Yet the fruit, which should be enjoyable and sweet, is dry and bitter. The Lynton estate itself, Cara and Peter's relationship, and in many ways Frances herself, are much the same.  A rich, lush novel about forbidden fruits, the cumulative effects of committing small wrongs, and the price we pay for indulgence against our better judgement. 

Stars: 5