Book Review No 33: Matilda Is Missing by Caroline Overington

Softie and Garry are from two different worlds. She is an accomplished career woman from a middle class background and he grew up in foster care after a horrific childhood incident and takes life very much as he finds it. They were never really suited for one another, but Softie went against her better judgement and settled. Why? Because she was approaching 40 and desperately wanted a child. In hindsight she knows it was the wrong decision, yet at the time Garry was there and available. And like many women Softie believed that she just might be able to "fix" him.

This novel is told in quite an unusual way and as you start reading you wonder when you are actually going to come across what is described in the main blurb of the story. Told through the eyes of outsiders, it shows the whole situation from different angles and perspectives - which I thought actually worked really well. The main voice is that of a man in his sixties, who as a character I thought was absolutely spot on. You could imagine this man easily, right down to his old man wardrobe and what he has for dinner each night.

Matilda is missing delves into the horrible reality of the fractured families and how the courts deal with them. It shows there are never really any winners and that things are ultimately best left out of it altogether if possible. It also shows that judges in such cases are fallible too - they don't always get it right and when that happens the fallout can be tragic.

This book also explores the theme of the biological clock and how women are pressured by the medical profession, family, friends and their own biology to settle for just about anybody if it means you can have a baby by a certain age. Softie herself knows she is making the wrong choice but does it anyway, so strong is that time pressure.

Matilda is Missing deals with uncomfortable subject matter in such a way that is easy to read. The way the story is structured is suspenseful in that you are drawn into each different angle and ultimately want to know what really happened to Matilda.