Reading Perfect by Rachel Joyce

I read Rachel Joyce's book Perfect having never come across her writing before. I have had the The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on the bedside pile for a while but Perfect appealed first, probably because of my mental health background.

I was born in the 1970's with a mum who had clinical and possible post-natal depression. There were long periods where mum was unhappy and found life very difficult. Bringing friends home was a struggle for her during my early childhood and we were aware that she became anxious in social situations. On the other hand mum was unusually imaginative and great fun to be around. She would join in with our games and fantasies entirely often joining in with dressing up, making dens and having make-believe adventures. I sure this experience with mum led to me working in our local mental health team for the past fifteen years and studying psychology. I am now in my final year of counsellor training and practice at my local MS Therapy Centre (I have MS and so did my late husband) as well as helping with mental health drop-in groups in my local town. I empathise enormously with anyone who is having difficulties because of some trauma or bereavement, but also with those people who can't manage 'normal' everyday life. These experiences and interests definitely persuaded me to read this book and I finished it in 24 hours.

Several of the characters in this book are either openly or secretly dealing with mental health problems. In the present day Jim is living in a van and cleaning tables in his local cafe. Jim is lonely and exhausted by the OCD rituals that have governed his life. Jim has had underlying mental ill health most of his life and the need to repeat small rituals 21 times has become his coping mechanism. Back in 1972 we meet Byron who lives in a small town on the edge of a moor. He and his sister, Lucy, go to private school because their father wants them to have the right start in life. All week they live in their big house with their mother in the country and his mum has a brand new Jaguar to drive them to school in the morning. Byron's father works in the city and only comes home on weekends arriving at the train station at the same time every week. Byron's father Seymour likes everything to be done correctly and often telephones home in the week to check on his wife Diana to make sure she is following the schedule and has no visitors. Seymour worries if anything appears to stray from their normal routine of getting up at the same time, dressing, eating, doing housework and then going to bed at 10pm and doing it all over again. Byron is fascinated with an article he has read in the newspaper that explains the how time is out of sync with the movement of the earth and the need to add two seconds to time. Byron constantly checks his watch in case he can capture the moment the two seconds are added. One morning, as they veer slightly from their normal schedule and Byron's watch seems to jump, they are involved in an accident that triggers 'Operation Perfect'. The operation is Byron and his schoolfriend's plan to monitor Diana and her new friend Beverley who is from the lower class Digby Road. Women like Diana did not socialise with women like Beverley and the friendship would never have happened without the accident and those two seconds.

As well as the obvious mental health problems of Jim, there are other characters in the book who struggle with their mental health and there are interesting differences between those who are open about their problems and those who are not. It is plain for all to see that Jim is not 'normal' because he struggles to speak, he lives in a van and he is isolated by his history of being a patient at Besley Hill mental home. How Byron's father, on the other hand, has serious mental health issues because of the way he treats his family but they his problems only appear in secret. His obsession with schedules and perfection impacts heavily on his family. Diana is nervous and completed isolated by his need for control. She is not allowed friends or a job and has to be a perfect middle class wife. Seymour is constantly worrying about what others might think, about whether his wife is seeing the wrong sort of people or whether she might be tempted into an affair. He places so much pressure on Byron expecting him to be a little man who watches his mother and does well at school. Byron must study hard, appear tidy and presentable and have the right sort of friends. Seymour imagines that Byron will be well educated, go to Oxbridge and become a professional. He wants his family to be perfect and they all keep their accident from him because of fear.

Diana is a nervous woman who is constantly vigilant for signs that she is failing her husband's very high standards. When she makes friends with Beverley it is so taboo that she has to remove every trace of her before Seymour comes home at the weekend. She pressures Byron to lie about who has been to the house and where the mysterious blank stubs have come from in the family cheque book. When Diana realises the implications of the accident she begins to come apart at the seams; her schedule falters, she begins to wear different clothes and appears unkempt. The closer Seymour comes to finding out her big mistake she starts to drink and not get out of bed. This causes even more pressure to be placed upon Byron who enlists his friend to help get the family out of this difficult situation without telling his father. His friend draws up 'Operation Perfect' and is on the end of the phone daily taking transcripts of conversations and making diagrams. Byron chooses this friend because he is so particular and seems to know so much about grown-up things. He is the one who talks to Byron about the two-seconds because he is interested in time, but he also likes to wonder about life and what is real; he reads articles on whether the moon landings were fakes and on time simply being a concept. He becomes drawn further and further into Byron's world and worries about Byron's beautiful but very fragile mother.

In the present day Jim is frightened of the bold and loud woman who cooks at the cafe. She is called Eileen and he is fascinated by her flame red hair and loud laugh. Eileen swears a lot, walks up the customer stairs instead of the staff stairs and generally ignores all the rules. When she is fired Jim is sorry he won't see her again but then another chance accident brings her back into his life. Whereas Jim has obvious problems Eileen's issues are hidden by her brazen attitude and loud personality. As he overcomes his fear to get to know her he finds that she is hiding a deep well of sadness that won't go away. Eileen's daughter went missing and never returned several years ago and this loss is very raw. Everyone has the wrong idea about her and Jim starts getting to know this softer side, that is so fragile it is never seen by others. The descriptions of Jim's past in Besley Hill where he suffered electric shock treatment for his breakdown and was abandoned by his family are heartbreaking.

This was an interesting book that was sad but hopeful too. It seems to say that we need to allow ourselves to be open even if we are frightened and hurting. It showed that even the most respectable person from the best family can suffer from mental health problems and how it can be passed from parent to child in many different ways. Seymour is so buttoned up because of the way he was treated by his own father, but instead of being open and asking for help he becomes cold and strict creating anxiety in his own son. I found the detail of how the character's felt very moving and realistic. The inner monologues were beautifully written and I was so attached to the character of Jim, probably because he reminds me of individuals I have worked with. Through Jim the author explores the idea that every person, no matter how different they seem, has the same hopes and dreams for their life as anyone else. It showed how subtle differences like money, class and control over those around you can keep people from seeing you as mentally ill. The very expectations we place upon people in society act as controls and deterrents against appearing different. Byron's school friends has one of the most insightful ideas when he explores the concept of time as a construct. It is good to remember sometimes that time was a concept dreamed up by men and that outside of time and other societal controls we still exist. Diana and Jim probably come closest to being free by understanding that all people are the same and by communing with nature either around the pond or for Jim out on the moor. On the moor concepts like time and schedules become meaningless because the moor is timeless and endless. Jim sits out there and feels the grass, feeling the wind and listening to the sounds of nature and feels more grounded and at one with the world than when he is at home and fenced in by societal expectation and the rituals he has had to create in order to cope with it.

Perfect is a very meaningful book disguised inside easily accessible characters and dialogue. I loved it and I will now be reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry before her new novel comes out.