{"id":8159,"date":"2019-05-01T11:08:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8159"},"modified":"2019-05-08T11:32:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T11:32:27","slug":"a-good-enough-mother-by-bev-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=8159","title":{"rendered":"A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Faber & Faber UK\/Pam Dorman Books US 30 April 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

336pp, paperback, \u00a312.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any of us who has lost someone dear to us knows what it\u2019s like to think that you see that person alive, in front of you: such is our longing for the dead or missing to return.\u00a0 In the case of Dr Ruth Hartland, director of a trauma therapy unit, this experience takes her to personal and professional disaster.<\/p>\n

Hartland\u2019s son Tom has disappeared.\u00a0 She has concealed this for nearly two years from all colleagues except her confidential supervisor.\u00a0 She continues to be an effective therapist.\u00a0 Then, one day, she mistakes a new client for her missing boy and, in her shock, makes a cardinal error.\u00a0 Instead of asking someone else to treat him, she conceals the connection she has made and \"\"<\/a>embarks on a course of treatment that becomes more hair-raising with each session.<\/p>\n

Dan, the client, is angry, hostile, disturbed.\u00a0 Hartland knows how she should help him but underestimates the effects of her lack of detachment.\u00a0 Complicating matters further, she bumps into her son\u2019s friend Julie and finds out that she has a grandson.\u00a0 This new joy addles her judgement further and provides a hostage to fortune.<\/p>\n

Author Bev Thomas has worked as a clinical psychologist and clearly knows whereof she speaks.\u00a0 In her hands, Hartland\u2019s treatment sessions are small masterclasses in the art and practice of therapy; and Hartland is portrayed convincingly as a practitioner who knows very well when she has crossed the line but cannot stop herself.\u00a0 This should be enough to engender tension.\u00a0 However, Hartland\u2019s self-centredness drains some of the reader\u2019s sympathy and therefore reduces the suspense.\u00a0 Hartland\u2019s own mother, an alcoholic, was not really \u2018good enough\u2019, but (or should I say \u2018and\u2019?) nor was she.\u00a0 Even the climactic violence of this well-informed story about obsession reaches us at one remove, with the central character, somewhat unsatisfactorily, obstructing the view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Alison Burns<\/p>\n

Author Bev Thomas has worked as a clinical psychologist and clearly knows whereof she speaks. In her hands, Hartland\u2019s treatment sessions are small masterclasses in the art and practice of therapy; and Hartland is portrayed convincingly as a practitioner who knows very well when she has crossed the line but cannot stop herself […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8163,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8159\/revisions\/8163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}