The House of Broken Bricks
Writing about Fiona Williams’ heartbreaking novel The House of Broken Bricks without spoilers is not easy. But l will try to, so you can all still fully enjoy this sad and beautiful story about the cracks in the lives of the Hembrys, a mixed-race family in rural Somerset. It’s a family of four in a difficult situation and it seems like it’s going to break them. But maybe there is still a chance that they can somehow find their way back to each other?
Tessa, the mother, grew up in London and she is the only Black person in the village. In the year in which the story takes place, she misses London more than ever and the constant microaggressions and her loneliness in the country are hard to bear. She escapes to her family in London a few times and seriously considers moving back there. At home in the village, she spends her days – and often also large parts of her nights – cooking Caribbean food and baking all sorts of muffins and cakes.
Richard, the father, grew up in the village and is familiar with the people and the damp weather. He throws himself into work to avoid Tess and save his struggling business: he grows vegetables and offers home deliveries to his customers. He keeps his financial difficulties to himself, grabbing a beer earlier and earlier, often stopping at a pub after a delivery.
While reading, I thought more than once, please just talk to each other. And their children seem to feel the same way; they want their family life to be easier again and less dominated by silence or crying. Max and Sonny, the twins, are inseparable, even if the people around them never tire of doubting whether they are siblings at all – they don’t look very much alike, Max takes after his white father and Sonny after Tess.
The seasons progress and as readers, we dive deep into the minds of the four protagonists, into their worries and sorrows, their likes and dislikes, while the world around them slowly changes. Williams describes the seasons in detail. After an icy winter and a damp spring, it’s slowly getting warmer and with the sun rays perhaps a glimmer of hope and a little bit of comfort emerge. The novel seems to say that some things in life take time.
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