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Water Under the Bridge

Susan Sallis

Published by Transworld (Bantam)
ISBN 0 593 03849 5

Review by Jean Currie
biography

Esme was working as housekeeper, general dogsbody to Canon James when in 1901 his son, Walter, asked her to marry him. She had never been shown any affection throughout her 37 years, had been used in every way and her life with the Canon was the best time she had ever had. She hoped for nothing more. She did not take Walter seriously, but just as she had her secrets of every kind of abuse, he had a secret to share that he made her promise not to reveal.

Against all the odds, they were happy together, bringing up the twin girls and their son. They were all very different characters, went their separate ways and had children in their turn, but despite all that happened to them, Esme managed to keep the family together. It was only at the very end that they all learned Walter's secret. Esme had kept it for more than 50 years.

I had read some of Susan Sallis's books before and enjoyed them, but I didn't expect to like this one. There are twelve characters, all very different, and we spend a little time with each, shifting viewpoints. I usually feel more involvement if there is only one viewpoint, at the most two, but here I felt I knew each one well, perhaps because Esme was such a strong pivotal character. What worried me more was the leaps through the years, not chronologically, but back and forth. The first half of Chapter One, for instance, is set in 1953, the second half in 1874, then we move forward to 1930 and back to 1901. I expected to be really confused but I wasn't. It was as if with each shift in time another secret was revealed and it didn't matter that I had gone back a few years to see another angle.

I was late coming to this book - it was published in 1995 - but I heartily recommend it. Susan Sallis is an excellent story teller and draws vivid characters.