Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann. " Houses, husbands, and midnight gin parties. Nothing's going to change. Not in any way that really matters. It will be like always." This is post-war America, full of expectation and excitement for the likes of cousin Nick and Helena seeking The Great Gatsby life of endless parties and self-indulgence galore. Both women were married: Helena had sadly lost Fen after 2 months of marriage but remarried in haste and moved to Hollywood with its glitz and glamour whilst Nick married Hughes out of love and desire hoping to lead an exciting life. Yes, hoping! The story interestingly, darts back and forth over two decades so you need to be on your toes and there are multiple narrators-in total five: Nick, her daughter Daisy, Helena, Hughes and Ed, Helena's son. There are overlaps which serve as reminders to the readers of the events taking place as well as indicating the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters. The characters are presented very much as a dysfunctional family, sad, lonely and unhappy. Too many lies, too many secrets. Tiger House is central to the plot because this is where the main characters unite to spend their long hot summers entertaining, dancing to the blues, indulging in excessive drinking and flirtatious behaviour and endless rounds of gossip. With all this apparent excitement and the passion of the heat and moment, boredom and disillusionment destroy the fervour. And, of course a brutal murder. Klaussmann has cleverly used Wallace Stevens' poem Disillusionment At Ten O' Clock, a lament, to illustrate the monotony of life starved of imagination in the title and at the end of the novel. We see this disillusionment particularly in Nick who hides her feelings and is grossly unhappy at discovering her husband's betrayal. He was supposed to love her. Instead he made everything blank and turned her life gray. Excessive drink and one-night stands are the consequences. But does this fulfil her needs? Of course not. She hides her loneliness and unhappiness, admitting to making a mess of things. Badly damaged. Ed is the creative one but as a paradox one can perhaps say that creativity could also lead to destruction. There's a fine dividing line between the two. He is different and has a distorted and unhealthy view of life and love. He believes that love is brutal and sudden causing permanent damage. He is creepy, following people, listening into private conversations to educate himself about people and what's inside them. Hughes worries that there's something seriously wrong with the kid. His behaviour is psychotic and he is dangerous. We are presented with a gruesome image of a mouse that he has trapped in the basement. He has crudely sliced it open and inserted a small toothpick which was sticking out of one of its eyes. If he does this to animals could he do this to human beings? That's the worrying factor.
Tigers in red weather by liza klaussmann book review march 2014
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