What She Had To Do edition by MaryRose Hayes Literature Fiction eBooks
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A secret and desperate choice, made by young Imogene Sayle during the rigors of post-World War II England, triggers shockwaves through three generations of a family.
Almost fifty years later Imogene’s daughter Penelope, married and living in California, learns of her mother’s illness and imminent death. Despite a toxic childhood, Penelope is driven by an abiding love for her beautiful, imperious and destructive mother and returns to England to care for her.
The story, told from Penelope’s point of view, is set in San Francisco and an English cathedral city, and covers the last three months of Imogene’s life.
While coping with the day-to-day challenges of her mother’s decline, Penelope must also confront self-doubts regarding her own marriage and career, her relationship with her college-aged daughter Caitlin, and the sudden and unsettling reappearance of an old love.
At the same time, through shifting childhood memories, newly-found war-time letters and chance disclosures by Imogene’s old friends and lovers, Penelope attempts to discover before it’s too late what went so wrong in her mother’s life, why she chose to remain deadlocked in an abusive marriage, and why, most importantly, she seemed to blame Penelope for all of it.
Before she can find answers, however, Penelope must ask the right questions.
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In this quiet, intense novel, a woman returns to England to comfort the dying mother she rejected long ago. Penelope Sayle Foley fled her parents’ home on the elegant Regent Crescent in England after a mysterious family dispute. In 1997, she now has a sexy Irish-American husband, a college-age daughter and a San Francisco advertising job, but she must leave them all behind to deal with Imogene, her difficult, demanding mother. Imogene is on morphine to dull the pain of what she calls “tummy trouble” (really “the Big C”) and drifts between the past and present, haunted nightly by “her”—a ghostly figure only she can see and who, Imogene insists, is trying to take her to hell. The novel’s title refers, in part, to Penelope’s decision to move the ailing Imogene to a nursing home, but as the story progresses, readers discover what Imogene herself had to do years before.
Although Penelope eventually accepts the fact that she’ll never know the whole story, she learns bits and pieces from Lord y, an elderly man who loved and lost Imogene to Penelope’s father, Frank Sayle, during World War II; she finally comes to terms with Imogene after her death. The author’s clever prose—a cross between British and American style that perfectly reflects Penelope’s inner conflict—provides sharp dialogue and a group of charming, eccentric characters straight out of a BBC television series, including Bethany, who does tarot readings and loves her dog; the gardening McBrydes; Simon, a gay architect who always knows just how to handle things in an emergency; and Miss Bannerman, who once pined for Frank Sayle. All serve as perfect foils to the confused, miserable Penelope, who finds herself caught between two different countries, loving and hating a woman she never understood. An enthralling, well-written family novel.
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
About the Author British born Mary-Rose Hayes is the author of eight previous novels, including the TIME/LIFE bestseller "AMETHYST" and two political thrillers co-authored with Senator Barbara Boxer. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She has taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley; Arizona State University; numerous writing seminars in the Western United States, and at an annual writers' retreat in Tuscany, Italy. She has worked in jobs ranging from medical researcher to fashion model to international deliverer of sailboats, and has lived on four continents. She currently lives with her husband in Northern California.
What She Had To Do edition by MaryRose Hayes Literature Fiction eBooks
This is a story that could be all too close to home for many readers. The title is so aptly chosen as it describes the two main character's problematic relationship and what they, not she, had to do to understand the basis of the vast gulf which exists between them. Throw in the mysterious father figure and you have a great read. I couldn't put it down and read it in two days.Product details
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What She Had To Do edition by MaryRose Hayes Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
If I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. If I was reading it I wasn't thinking about anything else.
Honestly, if you enjoyed Downton Abbey then this is the perfect read for you. It's a well written, tightly packed story that keeps you turning pages long into the night. The only disappointment is that it has to end... Hopefully they'll make a movie out of it!
Author Mary-Rose Hayes writes with dignified elegance as she unravels the lives of an unsettled mother daughter relationship. Everyday activties born out of duty and guilt take on new dimensions as a long-held secret emerges with new understanding and compassioin. Compellingly real, the read is a fast emotional ride charged with heartbreaking humanity.
The core of the book is the complex relationship between 3 women - mother, daughter and granddaughter. the story is beautifully told, flawless in the language and touching in the emotions.
mary rose brings her characters to life, so very british and ever so lovable with their slight eccentricities.
her descriptions - at times - are like stage settings or viewing a beautiful painting, simply exquisite in the details.
CONGRATULATIONS, mary rose hayes, on having written one of the best books i have read in quite a while.
i highly recommend this book - a perfect present for any daughter to her mother!!
This book is an elixer for healing for both the author as well as the readers. Families are messy; some contain toxic people. How we deal with them in life and consider them after is critical to our well-being. Hayes presents a compelling story of a woman trying to understand her mother's behavior as well as solve a family mystery without resorting to trite, cheap denouments. What she had to do is about emotional truths that must be plumbed.
Mary Rose Hayes paints a masterly portrait of an emotionally conflicted daughter coming to terms with her narcissistic mother.
The reader experiences every nuance of Penelope's bitterness and pain as she struggles against the unbreakable connection to Imogene that will not allow her to die alone.
Each of the secondary characters are vividly drawn but it is Mother and Daughter who linger in the mind after each reading ~ especially Imogene's final days. Uncompromisingly told!
Through three generations of women, you see the complexity of family relationships and discover that reality is often very different from the perception we create. Caring for her aging mother forever changes what Penelope believes to be true about her parents and her past. The story is raw and realistic; a fine example of the love and longing that comes with any maternal relationship. Often heartwarming, occasionally heart wrenching, and sometimes even shocking; this book leads the reader down a pleasant path of discovery. Buy this book! You will love it!
I wasn't very far into Mary-Rose Hayes’s novel, What She Had To Do, before I realized I’d been transported into a family drama that reminded me of my own story. When life required I put the book down, I returned quickly as possible as I was fascinated by the conceit of the story. And almost without noticing, I found I’d slipped back in time. A bit of literary magic Hayes performs brilliantly. The pace of the novel is perfect and the characters are complicated, yet totally accessible. The humor is quietly delightful and the poignant passages caused me to stop and examine my own experience of seeing my mother off for the last time. When I came to the end and closed the book, I had the sensation that the story was still spinning it’s web as the characters I've come to know refuse to go away.
This is a story that could be all too close to home for many readers. The title is so aptly chosen as it describes the two main character's problematic relationship and what they, not she, had to do to understand the basis of the vast gulf which exists between them. Throw in the mysterious father figure and you have a great read. I couldn't put it down and read it in two days.
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