The Last Anniversary: A Novel

My 5th read by Liane Moriarty - I can call myself a true fan now! - ended up being yet another fantastic read. The Last Anniversary started off at a more mellow pace compared to her other books, and I almost lost interest after the first chapter on Sophie, the protagonist, when we were doing the flashbacks to Connie & Rose and their secret past. Moriarty is not your typical romance/chick-lit novelist. She really isn't. I am not saying that because I don't see myself as the type to gravitate toward those books. In fact, I'd like to start appreciating ALL genres! But I say it because all her surface-level chick-lit novels (the 5 that I have read: The Husband's Secret, Big Little Lies, The Hypnotist's Love Story, What Alice Forgot and The Last Anniversary) have underlying themes of great depth.

Liane Moriarty doesn't just bring a variety of characters to life in order to spice up her novels. She seeps into the subconscious layers of thought and emotion and motive for every character and spits them out with such realness that you forget it's all fictional. She can bring to life an upstanding citizen with a horrible 20-year secret burning inside of him, a beautiful woman, adored by her husband and mother to a gorgeous baby and yet completely suicidal, a detached husband who suddenly fears that his wife may be cheating on him (she isn't), a bereaving mother who disappears into her grief and becomes obsessed with finding and killing the murderer of her child, an irritable teenager, a woman who has lost a decade of her memory and so on. All I can say is that when you start a Moriarty novel, you will not be let down. All of her novels have a great sense of humor, a lightness of heart, a shade of eccentricity and a deep layer of truth. Laughing and crying are guaranteed. Although, with The Last Anniversary, it was mostly a lot of chuckles and hardly any tears, at least for me.

Having said all that, The Last Anniversary isn't my favorite novel by her because her later novels are so much more complex and developed and intriguing. You can feel the progression of a great artist in the making. I started with her latest work and went backward. Still, she's pretty awesome.

Possible Spoiler Warning: I loved Sophie Honeywell's character. She reminded me of a friend with whom my friendship sadly fell apart, and I'm actually thinking about calling her. Sophie is put in a delicate situation when she inherits a HOUSE in an island from her ex-boyfriend's great aunt, someone she had met only a handful of times. We follow Sophie, who can be described best as the nicest, politest, kindest little charming creature you could imagine, as she moves into Aunt Connie's house and finds herself tangled up with the Munro Baby Mystery. The plot is clever. Very clever. The ending is well-done, and the novel got better and better as I kept reading.

As I write this, I'm sitting in the Hong Kong airport lounge, and my next flight is to Sydney, where most of Moriarty's novels are based, including the novelist herself. What fun it would be to make one of her events. I never thought I'd be drawn to a female Australian contemporary novelist, and this experience has shown me that we must be open to reading new genres, new authors, new styles of writing, and let our heart and mind - rather than reviewers or critiques - decide after the fact how we really feel about the work. As for how I feel about Liane Moriarty, she's now ranking in my top most five favorite writers.

The Last Anniversary is by Liane Moriarty. It is a great book and one that is hard to put down. It deals with family interactions, abandoned babies, biological clocks, and mysteries. Revolving around the Baby Munro mystery, the story develops a life of its own and takes us on a journey we will not forget. Sophie Honeywell is confused when her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Gordon, wants to have lunch with her. Their breakup was unusually harsh. She broke up with him the evening he had meant to surprise her with a trip to Fiji and a marriage proposal. She ruined everything! Now he wants to talk to her? This time, he had to tell her that his Aunt Connie had died and had left her house to Sophie. Though she felt funny doing so, she accepted it after reading a letter Aunt Connie sent her. The house on Scribbly Gum Island now belonged to Sophie. Veronika wanted to contest the will but was persuaded by the other family members not to. Sophie felt at home here and as part of the “family” was expected to take her turn escorting tourists through the Munro home. Alice and Jack Munro had moved into the cottage Rose and Connie’s grandparents had lived. The girls got to know them well. One day they went to visit and found the house ransacked, Alice and Jack gone, and their baby underneath her crib. They decided to keep the child on the island and raise her there. They named her Enigma. The mystery of what happened to Alice and Jack continues to this day. Veronika insists she is going to solve it. As the story continues, the plot thickens. Margie is losing weight but is she having an affair too? Ron is worried she might be. Grace is now home alone with her son Jake; but wonders if she should be. She feels nothing for him. She thinks she is a bad mother and might harm him. Before she leaves, she must find her darling husband a new wife. She decides it should be Sophie. I really liked this book. It kept me on my toes and kept my interest. It was a long book so there are lots of problems and solutions in this book.

Written in her typical “Liane Moriarty style”, this book kept me wanting to read day and night. It begins with a peculiar inheritance bequeathed to Sophie by her ex-boyfriend’s Aunt. By accepting it, she finds herself jettisoned into his family’s lives and business. She eventually finds out about a deep dark secret that has been harbored by only the members of his family who have turned forty years of age.

If you have yet to read a book by Liane Moriarty, why in the heck haven't you?

Allow me to explain. This novel, 400+ pages, is that quintessential beach read that you'll want to stretch out and savor each and every bite - you'll want it never to end. But, if you're like me, and have greedy guts, you'll easily find yourself gluttonous and over-indulging yourself in this read overnight; too easily binging on her sharp storyline, deft character development, and witty dialogue.

For me? Reading a book by Ms. Moriarty is SO good... She's that partially frozen Sara Lee Cheesecake that still needs another twenty minutes (or so) to defrost, and of which you are desperately trying not to eat (except for the defrosted parts around the very edge)… but then you decide to say "eff this", and pull out a fork (could be a spoon; no judging here), and eat the entire pie in one sitting.

That is my description of this author's work. Her writing is akin to a cheesecake: simply, fork-licking luscious.

She should be, if she already isn't, a national hero for her homeland of Australia.

Her characters have fallible foibles. Period. And, her characters are well fleshed-out. Albeit, unfortunately, in some instances, completely relatable. No, some may come across as almost way TOO relatable. (I don't know how she was able to portray the relationship with my mom through Grace and her mom - but she did).

This brief review encapsulates my personal feelings as I read (this) one of her books - and I've read them all, but I've read this one twice.

By the way... I'll take out another cheesecake to defrost, if you'll be so kind as to pass the kleenex.

I gave this book 4 stars because it held my interest and I felt that Moriarty handled the myriad of characters very well. Most of the details about the book have been covered in other reviews so there is no need for me to repeat those details. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Sophie Honeywell, an outsider of the Scribbly Gum clan, and occasionally switches to the point of view of a different character to foreshadow an important revelation.

I disagree with those who said the characters were not likable. I found them to be very likable, for the most part. The Scribbly Gum Island family has been under the thumb of family matriarch, Connie. Her death brings about the changes that the characters experience and allows the unraveling of the mystery. The changes are positive for the individual family members. Connie's absence allows these characters to face the past and their demons and to take positive steps towards a better future. "The truth will set you free" is a true statement for this family.

The story touches on many themes, such as postnatal depression and lesbianism, through a cast of quirky and seemingly dysfunctional characters who all impact Sophie’s life in one way or another, as her presence there impacts theirs.

The twist surprised me - it was not what I expected. I applaud an author who can surprise me. My only criticism is that the wrap up of the mystery seems a little rushed. Sophie's future is not settled yet the reader is left with the feeling that she will make decisions that are right for her and will have the life she has wanted all along. I was also left with the feeling that the Scribbly Gum clan will live better lives now that their lives are not bound to the twisted mystery of the Monroe baby.

Lianne Moriarty is adept at crafting fully realized characters. They are conflicted, vulnerable and capable of surprises. Overall an entertaining, sometimes compelling read with some deeper elements that your average chick-lit book. Definitely worth a read.

Warning: Do not read this book in the vicinity of sleeping babies or people with a nervous disposition. Your frequent spontaneous peals of laughter may startle them.

The Last Anniversary is not a new book, but it is presently on the New York Times Bestsellers. It was originally published in Australia in 2005. Apparently interest in it has been revived due to the huge international success of the author’s more recent books. Frankly, as much as I enjoyed her other novels, this is my favorite – so far.

Sophie Honeywell is a 39-year-old Sydney, Australia resident who works in human resources. She is the only child of Hans and Gretel Honeywell, a couple with an insatiable sense of fun and bottomless love for life, each other and their daughter. Sophie is a lovely person inside and outside with a sparkling personality who inspires confidence in almost everyone she meets. Three years prior, she broke up a year-long relationship with Thomas Gordon, just seconds before he was going to whisk her away to Fiji in order to propose to her on one of the islands’ white beaches. She was puzzled to hear his voice on the phone, asking to meet for a drink after work. He would only say that someone had died and he really could not say anything further on the phone.

At the hotel lounge, Thomas explained that Aunt Connie, the family matriarch, had died in her sleep the day prior. Among the very organized stack of papers she left was a letter addressed to Sophie. Aunt Connie and Sophie had only met briefly two or three times during Thomas time. Aunt Connie and the rest of Thomas’ family lived on Scribbly Gum Island, a suburb of Sydney, across the river, though Thomas himself rarely visited the place when Sophie knew him. The letter from Aunt Connie informs Sophie she is the new owner of her lovely home because she knew Sophie would love and appreciate it. She shares a special memory with Sophie from one of her visits to the island, a small moment that meant literally everything to Aunt Connie.

Although Scribbly Gum Island is fictitious, scribbly gums are in fact a type of eucalyptus tree. Moriarty used the very real Parramatta River as the location for her tiny island of six homes. Aunt Connie and Aunt Rose’s grandfather had won the island in a bet with a very wealthy man in the early 20th century. During their childhood, there were two homes – one for grandfather and one for the girls and their parents. Like millions of other people around the world, the Doughty family had a tough time during the Great Depression.

Then an incident occurred which was to turn around their bleak circumstances. Alice and Jack Munro had been renting grandfather’s house after he passed away and on one particular day they asked the Doughty girls, teenagers at the time, to stop by for tea. When the girls got to the house, a marble cake was cooling, the tea kettle was whistling, and the Munros were gone, save for their baby girl, nestled in her crib. The sisters took the child home with them, talked their father into letting them keep her.

Thus The Munro Baby Mystery is born. Connie, the older of the sisters, had an entrepreneurial mind and a fascination with mysteries, especially the real-life mystery of the Mary Celeste. This was a boat that was found abandoned in the Atlantic, on its way from New York to Italy, all ten people who had been aboard had disappeared. No signs of struggle or violence. Connie draws an analogy between the Mary Celeste and the Munro Baby Mystery and the Munro baby, named Enigma by the Doughtys, became a regional celebrity. Her story becomes the family business, a virtual gold mine. Besides tours of the Munro Home, there are souvenirs, selling the story to the media, and an anniversary festival celebrating the date they found Enigma.

By the time Sophie enters the picture, Enigma is grandmother to Thomas, his sister Veronika, and their cousin Grace. She has been a living mystery for 73 years. The emotional ramifications of Connie’s death will rock this rather dysfunctional family to its very core and make this festival marking the discovery of the Munro baby the last anniversary. It is a heck of a ride.

The Last Anniversary is filled with Moriarty’s (does Sherlock Holmes pop into your mind?) trademark wit, and her profound insights into human behavior. She tackles some serious issues in this book – adultery, rape and postpartum depression. Grace is a very successful children’s book writer and illustrator who at age 33 has just given birth to 8-week-old baby Jake. She is repulsed by being a mother and by the baby himself. She is convinced that the child does not like her at all. She fears that the maternal dysfunction of her great-grandmother Munro, who abandoned her own baby is in her DNA. She sits and stares at a carton of milk on the table for two hours, unable to move. Because of Grace’s physical beauty and her own reserved personality, no one recognizes the signs and when Callum, her husband, shares with his own mother that Grace is just not herself, he is basically just shushed. Sometimes husbands don’t get enough respect.

Only a writer of Moriarty’s caliber and remarkable insight into human behavior could produce novels that cover such hot-button subjects and manage to make the reader laugh, drop kick them in the heart, and yet keep turning the pages.

I rated this book 4.25/5.0. This review will be published in the Coastal Breeze News issue of 2/5/2016. [...]

A wonderful story of secrets, families, hope, regret, relationships and the way in which the actions of past can impinge upon the present from Liane Moriarty. Set on an island (Scribbly Gum) in the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales, Australia, it centres around Sophie Honeywell, a sweet-natured woman who reflects upon her life and decides that because she is in her late thirties, single and childless, she may have made some huge mistakes, including letting the man who asked her to marry him, Thomas Gordon, get away years earlier. When she is left an extraordinary bequest by Thomas’ Aunt Connie, one that sees her relocating to Scribbly Gum Island and becoming part of the commercial enterprise that is the Munro Baby mystery – a mystery that harkens back to the 1930s when two residents of the island, Alice and Jack Munro dramatically disappeared, leaving behind a baby which the then island residents, Alice and Connie, raised as their own - she is flung back into Thomas’ life and that of his rather eccentric family. Befriending them all over again, Sophie is forced to reassess her life and her opinions of those who both seek to include her in the Munro baby enterprise but also those who feel that as an outsider, she has no right to be on the island and upsetting the status quo. The longer Sophie stays, the more she begins to understand herself, what she wants from life and the “enigma” that is the Munro mystery. While this book doesn’t quite have the sophisticated plot and characterisation of Big Little Lies, it is a delightful, light-hearted examination of people and the way we form and maintain or break relationships as well as how decisions made on the spur of the moment can have a huge impact upon the future. Often funny, moving and with a serious side, it’s an easy read and a great way to pass the time. Moriarty paints the characters so well, even the minor ones are three-dimensional and, just like real people, can be alternately annoying, fascinating and adorable. I read this while on holidays and reluctantly tore myself from it. While some of the narrative is predictable, there is a marvellous twist at the end that I never saw coming and found eminently satisfying. Another good read from a simply fabulous writer.

Overall, it was a enjoyable book. It was very slow at times though and more than once I caught myself pushing through it just to finish. I was invested enough in the story to want to know what happen, but it was a struggle to continue reading at times. There were a lot of plot holes in the story once the truth was revealed, which made the story harder to believe. The character development was decent and I liked most of them, but I didn't feel a strong connection to any of them. I only sort of cared what happened to them as their actions were often hard to relate to and harder to believe that people who actually do the things these characters did. Several of them made sudden and poorly explained complete behavior changes which is just not realistic. And not to spoil anything, but the ending was weak. I was reading along, not realizing how close I was to the end, and then it was just over. I felt like I had fallen off a cliff - no warning signs, no preparation, just gone. While I don't regret reading this as it did have some very good points and did give me an interesting perspective on life, I likely won't be picking up another book by this author anytime soon. I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't love it.