The messiness of family life

By Philippa Tracy

At the centre of the tragicomic debut novel At the Table is the Maguire family, Linda and Gerry, and their two 30-something children, Nicole and Jamie. Over the course of a year, with each chapter structured around a different event involving food, we watch the complexities of adult family life unravel. The novel shifts between the four different perspectives on what has happened and who each one thinks is to blame. Family secrets are slowly revealed, including each character’s failings and mistakes.

As the novel opens we are parachuted into a belated mother’s day lunch for Linda, which starts badly and gets worse. Nicole has a hangover and appears to have very little time for her mother’s small talk. Jamie and his fiancée are late and arrive to find Gerry “loitering” outside; the first indication that something is about to fall apart. The mildly awkward family dynamics in this scene take a nose-dive into fully dysfunctional when Linda and Gerry choose this moment to reveal that they have decided to separate after 30 odd years of marriage. Why? And why now?

The break up of the Maquire parents’ marriage has a huge impact on all four characters. Jamie initially thinks it might be something of “a phase,” while Nicole, more cynical and acerbic, calls it a “late mid-life crisis.” Jamie has his own issues, preparing for a wedding to Lucy, a marriage that he seems increasingly unsure about. Unlike food, there is a distinct lack of any sex on the table at this point, which should have been a major red flag!

Nicole, meanwhile, is busy dealing with her own pressures at work, an ex-boyfriend she tries to reconnect with and the horror of modern dating apps. She is in many ways a powerful and dynamic woman. But her go-to response is drinking heavily and partying. And a sexual encounter at work is rather sobering, although she never sees herself as a victim.

A major concern of both siblings seems to be the family home, their own safe place, at “number forty-two.” Linda re-arranges the house, helps an elderly neighbour and looks forward to becoming a grandmother. Gerry really does seem to be having a mid-life crisis. His response to being weighed down by family life is rather passive and predictable. It is unsurprising that his son is equally passive in response to his own marital dilemma.

The most interesting character for me is Nicole, who has some rather awful moments as well as some particularly funny ones. When she turns up at a house party in an ex-council flat in Deptford with a £50 bottle of Pol Roger champagne, it is hilarious watching her as she has an absolute fit when the host tries to drink it.

This novel is firmly grounded in an area of South East London that I know well: Bromley, Bluewater, Blackheath, Deptford, Borough Market, Elephant and Castle, Dulwich, Camberwell and Kings’ College Hospital at Denmark Hill. I grew up in these places, which may be why I found it all so relatable. It is also because this is a novel about “the messiness of family life.” The dialogue and the observations are light but punchy and well worth the read.