Published By: Ringwood Publishing
Pages: 376
Released On: 16/07/2023
The story follows the protagonist (Emma) during her childhood and adult years in Edinburgh and East Lothian. The secret that only Emma knows is that her mother’s death was no accident. Her knowledge of her mother’s conscious decision to die by suicide precipitates a suicide attempt and leads to her estrangement from her father. Emma stumbles through university and finds work as a journalist in Edinburgh, although she once more starts to become mentally unstable and, following the death of her father, she ends up attempting suicide again. It’s while she’s in a mental institution that her psychiatrist suggests she write a memoir of her life, to help her make sense of everything that’s happened to her, and The Time Between Space is the story she writes.
*****
Thanks to Charlie for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
If you’re like me, you may feel intimidated by the contents page. The chapter names, the words used, it’s very highbrow and it can be overwhelming, but don’t let that put you off before you’ve even started. It’ll all make sense in the end.
From the first page, Charlie has really captured the voice of a child. It can be hard to find that as an adult, even if you’re around children in your day-ti-day life. We lose that innocence, that sense of wonder, no matter how hard we try, but I felt it was obvious I was hearing from a child and it was very well executed. And not only is he writing from a child’s POV, he’s writing from a female child’s POV, which as a male adult must be quite difficult, but I could really hear her. She does age throughout – although I’m not completely sure how old she is meant to get to, either I missed that or it’s meant to be a bit ambiguous – but my favourite bits were her as a child at the very start.
At it’s very heart, for me, it was a story about a dysfunctional family, about how the generations can mix and influence, be it for the better or the worst. Whilst it isn’t about grief and loss as such, for me, that was a big element. It uses the idea of space to show the connections we have to those we have and those we’ve lost, and I found that just beautiful, as it isn’t always easy to capture that eternal connection and make it universal for every reader.
There is a range of characters, main and supporting, but you’ve got Emma, our main protagonist, who we get to know across the years. She’s fabulous and completely holds her own, even as a child, is wonderfully complicated, with such depth that you don’t always get in young characters. Then you have her parents, the beautiful, long-suffering mother who does her best for her family and has such love in her heart, and the famous actor father who seems to put everything above his own family, which obviously has deeply rooted consequences over Emma’s life. And then Alberto, Emma’s Grandfather, who really brings all the science and space discussions, and I could really feel the tenderness between him and Emma. There is a certain level of professional respect, but you do always see that bond between the two of them, their love, and that also has a complicated effect on her as she ages.
Charlie really understands the intricacies of life and love and our relationship to everything around us, and you can read that passion in every line and it really moves you.
It starts off quite everyday, almost mundane, with the daily life of cooking and homework and family etc. and it could have easily have been a bit boring, but it’s so well captured that it’s as enjoyable as the slightly more full-on bits, sometimes even more so because they’re so recognisable and relatable. It’s not always obvious how the mundane links with the space stuff (other than mentioning the grandfather’s job), but it clearly becomes clear things aren’t as simple as it first appears.
It is an interesting book. Yes it’s a piece of entertainment and offers everything a fiction book is meant to. But it’s actually full of knowledge and expertise (how much of it is true I don’t know) but it’s fascinating none the less.
It’s a long book – well, it is for me, as my ideal length is 300-350 pages, so around 450 was a lot, and it’s an intense story with intense themes, and so it’s not the kind of book you can read when distracted, it’s one that demands your attention, and it was a hard read for me at times, but it is enjoyable and I think it’s worth the time and effort you need to put in.
Overall I would say it’s one of the most unique books I’ve read, it’s complicated and difficult, emotional and intellectual, and it asks a lot of the reader, but I did enjoy it and it was completely out of my comfort zone.
Books By Your Bedside 