An Extraordinary Life: Three Things About Elsie By Joanna Cannon

But Ronnie Butler is dead!

Florence Claybourne lives in an assisted-living home for the elderly and Florence, or Flo to her friends, has fallen. The hours tick by as she lies alone in her flat and thinks about events both in the distant past and the recent. Florence is ‘on probation’. She does not want to be moved to Greenbank, a home for those whose minds have finally let them down and she is fighting it all the way. The chapter headings remind us of Florence’s predicament and make clear the different time frames.

A new resident looks very like someone from her past, someone she was afraid of but who she knows is dead. Then she begins to notice small things happening: the elephant is facing the wrong way, then there is too much Battenburg, but her sleuthing is hampered by her lack of clear thinking. Dementia is a cruel condition and this novel explores its complexities. It was once described to me as being like a bookcase which develops gaps, as books are unsystematically removed. There are gaps in Florence’s thinking and moments of pure clarity; the difficulty lies is persuading other people to believe the bits she knows are true.

As she lies alone, unable to raise help, she reflects on her past and on the secret she has kept for so many years, one she just cannot reveal. She has never been able to forgive herself for what happened and it’s all tied up with this new resident. Her friends help her try to prove that Gabriel Price is not who he says he is, and certainly no angel, and the reader follows their path on its circuitous route to the truth.

Dementia is a cruel condition and this novel explores its complexities. It was once described to me as being like a bookcase which develops gaps, as books are unsystematically removed.

So many threads you didn’t even realise were loose are tied up in the end and tiny snippets fall into place: Norman, a seat on the bus, an heroic fireman, a red scarf, a piece of sheet music - Florence weaves them all in as she tries to grasp hold of memories, hoping to make sense of what she knows is locked in her mind. It’s almost worth re reading the novel to savour the links all over again with the benefit of foresight.

I haven’t even mentioned Elsie yet, despite the title of the book. She is Florence’s best friend, to whom she speaks all the time, but there is far more to Elsie than meets the eye, which the reader may suspect rather than know and when her role is confirmed towards the end, it comes almost as relief.

Cannon writes tender descriptions of people and friendships: ‘Elsie’s father left for the war and returned as a telegram on the mantelpiece.’ She writes with compassion about Flo’s isolation and her desire to maintain her dignity: ‘you never know it’s the final page, do you, until you get there’ and reminds us that we’re all connected by the ‘fine threads of humanity’. She identifies ‘the long second’ when the clock lingers on a second fractionally longer, to give you the chance to make the right decision. We all need them.

In The Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury explains how important it is for time travellers not to interfere in the past. The example he gives explains how the death of one mouse, millions of years ago, might ultimately wipe out an entire nation, today. Even the death of a single butterfly might upset the equilibrium. I sensed echoes of that when Cannon explains that everyone and everything has significance, ‘no matter how long or short a time you are here, the world is ever so slightly different because you existed’. Her message is that we all play a part even if sometimes you can’t see the effect until long after you are gone. In a philosophical moment, Handy Simon explains this to Florence as he holds the ammonite, reflecting on its place in the natural world.

She identifies ‘the long second’ when the clock lingers on a second fractionally longer, to give you the chance to make the right decision.

This is Cannon’s second novel and she again explores the inner lives of society’s outsiders. It is character led and she demonstrates a sensitive understanding of people and of the effect we all have on the world around us. And the third thing about Elsie? Read it to make up your own mind.


Three Things about Elsie is published by The Borough Press