The House On Fortune Street by Margot Livesey

 

A shocking event occurs when Dara, a counselor, commits suicide.  She lived in the downstairs apartment of the house on Fortune Street which her best friend, Abigail, owned and where she lived upstairs with her lover, Sean.  No one would have ever expected that Dara would do such a thing and of course, afterwards, each person in her life tries to determine why she would do it and if they played a part in her despair.

The first part is from Sean's viewpoint.  Sean has left his wife for Abigail and shortly after the novel begins, also leaves his work on his doctorate.  Part of this is because Abigail has insisted that he pay her rent so he has to take work and it interferes with the research he needs to be doing.  The work he takes is a book about suicide and how to accomplish it, writing up stories of those who have taken this step.  Along with this work which upsets him, he is also upset by his suspicions about whether Abigail is still in love with him.

The second part is from the viewpoint of Dara's father.  They had had a happy family or at least that was what everyone would have said.  There were the parents and a boy and girl.  But when Dara is around ten, her world collapsed when her parents split and her father departed.  Afterwards he was a very distant figure and Dara felt abandoned.  She didn't know that her mother insisted that her father leave and move far away and that she kept the children from him after discovering his scandalous secret.  The father talks about this secret and how he still believes it was innocent.

The next part is Dara's story.  She is affected by the abandonment of her father.  At university, she becomes best friends with Abigail although they are very different.  Abigail is an actress, never attached to any part or in her life, any man, for very long.  Dara longs for nothing more than permanence.  She is distraught when her university boyfriend deserts her for another woman.  Lately, she has been happy again after meeting a new man.  Abigail worries that Dara is once again getting dangerously involved with a man to the detriment of her own life and goals.  When Dara is once again disappointed, no one knows to help her climb out of her despair.

Finally, we get Abigail's story.  She was raised by parents who floated from town to town, job to job.  Their children were expected to move without complaint and basically raise themselves.  When Abigail is fifteen, she decides to do just that, moving out, finding shelter and working as many jobs as it took for her to survive so that she could attend school.  She is an actress and that is central to her.  Men are nothing more than a distraction and she moves from one to the next with as little regard as she changes roles from play to play.  Her friendship with Dara is the one constant in her life but her chaotic life makes her unavailable when Dara could have used her most.

Margot Livesey has written a thoughtful book about four very different characters and about the topic of suicide, which is prevalent in most societies.  Everyone always wonders why but that is different for each case and the solution is often difficult to see.  The balancing of the four viewpoints is masterfully done and the reader will become involved in each life they are given a view into.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.