Banishing Livesey: The House on Fortune Street

I first discovered Margot Livesey with Banishing Verona. I marveled at her description, laughed with her characters, and eagerly looked for her other works. Her latest work is The House on Fortune Street, a story of the events leading up to (and away from) a suicide.

Moving from scenes set in Scotland and England, the four narrators tell bits of the same story. Sean, the first narrator, lives with Abigail. He and Abigail live upstairs from Abigail’s college friend Dara. Ironically Sean is writing a book about how to help your friends commit suicide (i.e. euthanasia) after abandoning his dissertation on Keats. Dara’s father Cameron narrates the second section. He describes his struggle with a disturbing “difference” which leads to the break-up of his marriage. We hear Dara’s version of events in the third. Even with her professional counseling skills, she has trouble coping with her father's abandonment and managing her current affair. And finally Abigail wraps up the novel from her perspective. Abigail relates the trials of her transient childhood. When she meets the already-married Sean, she is in the midst of a fledgling acting career.

Livesey has once again created memorable characters. But none are really likeable. Sean mopes with writer’s block. Cameron struggles not to be creepy. Dara seems tetchy. Abigail, in being self-sufficient, has become self-centered as well. All of the characters betray their intimates - whether it's by cheating on a spouse, a lover, or pining after Lolita. No surprise then that one of them commits suicide. If you want to read an uplifting Livesey, reach for Banishing Verona. If not, try your luck on Fortune Street.