Fiction that resembles real life

The Puzzle Bark Tree
Stephanie Gertler
Penguin Group

Human nature is a complex phenomenon. It varies from individual to individual. In fact, it is said that we cannot really grasp how differently human beings react under different situations. We cannot really understand how we feel until we are in the same shoes. In The Puzzle Bark Tree, Stephanie Gertler plumbs the mysteries of the people we can truly never know. It is the author's testament to showing the passion and power of the human heart.
When Grace Hammond Barnett's parents die in a double suicide case it suddenly seems to her that her parents had been strangers to her all along. Grace and her sister Melanie are thrown into a stupor. What was the secret that compelled their parents to commit suicide? What did they keep from their daughters all their life? The love that seemed whole is suddenly riddled with incomplete memories. What was the deep secret that had thrown their parents into a cold, desolate life? And yet there had been no love lost between them as they shared their grief till death. There, with their parents, is also a picture of love and devotion that can be rarely found.
From childhood Grace has been haunted by a reoccurring dream of death by drowning. She fails to understand any meaning of her dream. Nor do her parents offer any explanation for the dream that has pursued her through childhood into her adulthood. And Grace often suspects that if her parents did understand the underlying meaning of the dream they kept it a secret. The dream haunts her like an evil shadow.
Grace and Melanie both have their own families. Their ailing old parents live in Purchase, New York. Every weekend Grace come to see her parents. The parents live a secluded life. Their only company is Jemma, the housekeeper who has been with them for ages. The neighbors never receive so much as a 'hello' from the old Hammonds. Grace and Melanie have lived a childhood that is empty of music and laughter. It is Jemma who has filled the girls' need for fun and frivolity, for hugs and unquestionable love. The parents' secluded life is a mystery. Even the daughters are in the dark about their parents' choice of the mysterious lifestyle.
Grace is sanctimonious in visiting her parents on weekends. It is Jemma who takes care of the elderly people. Melanie lives a busy life and can rarely make time to see her parents. Grace is trapped in her marriage with a cardiac surgeon who seems to be emotionally barren. As the charm of the first years of their marriage wears off, Grace begins to realise that she has married the wrong man. Over their life together her bohemian skirts and long silver earrings fail to suit the surgeon. Adam, her husband, heals hearts but fails to understand the emotions of his wife. He is obsessed with money and success. Adam refuses to accompany her to the scene of her parents' death when the call comes. But his absence leaves room for extraordinary change when Grace learns of the clues that lead to the answer of her parent's silence and the secrets that will forever redefine her life. In all her trouble Grace seeks refuge in the love of her daughter Kate. Grace is constantly in touch with Kate and offers her support of every kind with her growing daughter. She is determined that her daughter does not feel the absence of her father. Remembering her own secluded childhood, she tries to fill her daughter's life with fun and laughter.
After the death of her parents Grace comes to a bequest of a house she never knew existed. It is her parents' old home on Canterbury Island. Her heart calling out to the dead parents, Grace feels this deep urgency to visit the island and see the home that she has been entrusted with. She decides to spend New Year on the island. There she meets Luke Keegan, son of her parents' close friends. Luke helps unravel a devastating secret that has all along been buried in her past. She learns of the tragedy that took away her little brother Alex and she begins to understand why her parents had resigned from life. The mystery that shrouds her past is unravelled and light is thrown on the cause of her parents' death. Grace also finds a new life as she gets to know Luke. It seems as though fate has worked in a strange way to bring them together. After long years of her unhappy marriage, Grace once again finds a man who responds to her aesthetic senses and who is content to live the simple life that she craves for.
After Grace meets Luke, the saga of the troubled family folds into a new picture of a beautiful love affair. Luke too has been lonely after the death of his first wife. Grace is at once hooked to his serenity. His quiet ways and strong character seem to beckon her to take refuge in those manly arms. Luke also finds a woman who seems to offer him her companionship with a delightful freshness. Since Luke's family has been close to her parents, Grace finds a common thread that seems to tie her to him. He seems to hold her in a bond that went far beyond just companionship. It is Luke who can finally decipher the meaning of her recurring dream. And thus unfolds a story of a new found love that readers sigh contentedly over. The vivid characters in the family story become richer with the introduction of the love story and hold the reader glued to the last page.
Stephanie Gertler has created wonderfully substantial and sympathetic characters. The structure of the book is very intriguing and very deftly handled. Reading the story one realises how strangely people can react at unpleasant turns in life. At the same time, readers are able to accept them as facts, as part of human nature. Fiction after all has its ends linked to real life like a spider's web. The characters are vivid and truly portray human emotions through a heart-wrenching plot. In this deeply imagined novel, the author plunges the reader into a borderland between opposing forces: youth and age, exclusion and privilege, alien and familiar. Gertler has a mesmerising tale of sorrow, transformation and healing. She displays a dazzling skill for carrying the reader through an emotional roller-coaster. A recommended good read for your cherished leisure hours!
Tulip Chowdhury, a teacher, writes fiction and composes poetry.