Musing on The Burden

My absolute favourite mystery writer Agatha Christie has written 6 books under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. In many places these books are described as romances. That can’t be farthest from the truth.

While reading her mystery novels, I had always found Christie to possess a knack for realistically depicting intense emotions and unpredictability of human nature. She has used this knack to write the 6 books on the mysteries of human mind. Unfortunately, these books are not anywhere close to the popularity of her murder mysteries. Maybe that made her non-mystery venture unattractive to publishers. It is a pity her overwhelming reputation as murder mystery writer did not let her write more books out of the “genre”.

Apart from being brilliant, these books give glimpses of the real Agatha. I don’t think I am exaggerating if I say, it is a literary tragedy that these books are not as widely read as they deserve to be.

Every year I have been reading one book written by Mary Westmacott (pseudonym of Agatha Christie). With The Burden I finished reading all 6 books by Westmacott.

I am here listing them based on my ranking of the books.

Unfinished Portrait (1934)

This, I have to say, is Christie’s unofficial autobiography. She has an official autobiography, which is quite prim and proper. Whereas in Unfinished Portrait Christie has not held back anything from the journey she went through as the wife of an emotional abusive, narcissist, and unfaithful man.

Absent in the Spring (1944)

This is my first book by Mary Westmacott. The book is narrated from the point of view of a flawed woman. She sees actions, emotions, events exclusively from her vantage point. I was taken aback by the hyper realistic depiction of human emotions and relationships in the book. The book made me to decide to read the rest of the books by Westmacott.

A Daughter’s a Daughter (1952)

The title of the book is taken from the common saying –

A son’s a son till he gets him a wife. But a daughter’s a daughter all your life.

This is the premise of the book – the strong bond a daughter shares with her mother.

In the book, the mother and daughter love each other immensely. They are best friends with each other. But sometimes much harm is done by people who love us with the pure intention of “it is for your own good” than our enemies.

Giant’s Bread (1930)

The book begins most ambitiously but the ending part could not hold up. In this book, I particularly liked the realistic depiction of children’s emotions and interesting descriptions of music.

The Rose and the Yew Tree (1948)

The book is about the characters. I enjoyed reading the book despite few shortcomings, which include inconsistencies and plot fizzling out towards the end.

The Burden (1956)

The burden is the last book for me and incidentally it is at the bottom of my ranking and it is the last book written by Westmacott.

The book starts out nicely. In the beginning it explores the psych of a child realistically. It is natural for Laura to feel jealous of her siblings because her parents clearly play favourites. No one gives her any attention. She wishes her sister would die in a childish way. But when her sister faces a dangerous accident, she feels responsible and guilty when. She becomes extra protective of her younger sister Shirley. Her world is limited to surround Shirley in love and protection. But too much love can become a burden some time. Maybe that’s the core message of the book intended by the writer. And that makes me feel instantly personally attacked with questioning my ways of life. Am I putting burdens on my children?

Actually the writer is not very clear about how love is the burden. Because the narration of the book is all over. The sister permits for a wedding only because she does not come out as a possessive person. Shirley suffers through a physically and emotionally abusive person. Later somehow the writer wants to tell us Shirley is happy with the abuser. She could have been as happy as any person with Stockholm Syndrome, I would say. Laura should not have interfered drastically in the abusive relationship, the writer and her character Shirley feel. Watch out, if you are going to stop me from interfering drastically when my loved one is in an abusive relationship!

The voice of reason in the book, the elderly neighbour of the sisters, Mr. Baldcock. He is supposed to be some kind of academician. Westmacott has created Baldock similar to Dame Laura Whitstable from A Daughter’s a Daughter but Baldock lacks the wit and sense of fairness. On top of that he unapologetically utters misogynistic lines. Are we supposed to ignore those just because he is a well wisher of the sisters!

Shirley seems to be so happy in an abusive relationship that she becomes alcoholic when she has to be in a relationship with a nice decent person who respects her and tries to do everything to keep Shirley happy. I can understand if Shirley can’t love this man but the way out would have been a divorce rather than alcohol.

Suddenly out of blue a new character appears. Llewellyn is some kind of ex-priest who gets visions. Because of his visions life long he is in search of a woman. And then everything happens abruptly.

One of the worst books I must have read in recent time. I am only sad to accept this because of my love for Christie. This book feels like a half-hearted attempt at writing by combining many elements from rest 5 Westmacott books.

MY TWO PENNIES ON THE BOOKS BY MARY WESTMACOTT

The books are good study on human psyche and relationships but at a certain paint the plots and characters get repetitive. There were so much promises and some books are in fact brilliant too. Christie deserved a career in non-mystery books. A diversity in premises and characters could have helped in taking the career off. Maybe going against the tide became tough for her and she stopped trying.

Whatever it is, I enjoyed knowing another side of my favourite writer through these 6 books.