Miranda Cowley Heller - The Paper Palace

On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace' - her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside...
So begins a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and fifty years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision.

Comment: This book was quite a hit in 2021, being part of several "best of" lists, and after a while I decided to add it to my TBR, although the blurb did mention cheating and this isn't usually a subject I care to read about. It also helped a friend I tend to do buddy reads with also had it and we scheduled it for this August. Well, we might as well not.

Elle is spending holidays with her family and some friends at her family's house in Cape Cod and one night she has sex with her friend Jonas, something they had wanted for a long time, while her husband and children are indoors. The next morning, Elle goes for a swim and she can't help thinking about what she did, but mostly, why. From then on, the more she realizes there's some kind of choice to be made here, Elle relives her past, relives her decisions and why she got to this point, but will her decision be made with her head or with her heart?

I had not read reviews about this before starting reading because, sometimes, I might read something that ends up influencing me or it's spoilerish, and that is why I was caught by surprise by how much I disliked this book.

On the cover and inner cover of my paperback edition there are plenty of references by those who praise this story and the author and the rating average is quite high in most sites, and I could only hope for a good story but it wasn't so for me, nor for my friend who also rated it low. In fact, when we chatted about it, it became obvious we both had only finished it because it has been an agreed read and there was an expectation of an exchange of ideas, otherwise this would have been a DNF.

It is true I dislike the cheating subject, even if it's not a romance. Often, this is found in stories where characters will need to overcome it or process it and move on, but it isn't an active part of the plot. Not here, and while this is fiction and not romance, I could perhaps accept it if the reasoning was string enough, or if the author convinced me this would lead to some cathartic decision (as is implied by the blurb) but I've found out that every single character in this book was incredibly loathsome, some more than others, and I didn't like any, nor was I rooting for any.

Let it be said, there is a lot of abuse happening in this book. This is a constant repetition from character to character and it put me off tremendously. Not only because what are the odds, but why would the author think this was necessary to tell Elle's story? What it achieved with me was to convince me everyone is dysfunctional and a liar and why would anyone bother being alive... it was very depressing to read about these characters going through something so bad, but worse! It seemed there was no point, for they don't "learn" anything, they don't seem to need to overcome and deal with this as adults and, unlike what a positive review I've now read included, I don't think having this content in a story is "talking about it and not hiding it". There has to be something to be gained, even if only closure by seeing a therapist or something.

If the characters had been more appealing, I could process this as realistic, after all people do things in real life they don't in fiction or if someone is waiting for a reaction. But everyone had some kind of flaw or was selfish or did despicable things and it became almost a personal dare to finish because I had agreed with my friend but also to see where else would the author go to make these characters do things they shouldn't but doing them is shocking for the novel's drama.

Apparently, the goal of having a story set in 24 hours, narrated by Elle, with several flashbacks to previous events, namely related to her family members, was to explain why Elle is now being unfaithful and why only now. I did not find the reasons to be convincing and all the misery and abuse we had to go through could have been used differently and this story could have been focused on other elements instead, perhaps making this a true woman's fiction.

Elle needs to make a decision by the end of the story and she does. That is the whole point. Therefore, is her decision a brave one? I was supposed to have thought yes, considering the drama and all the poetic sentences that make this a literary fiction story (is this a thing?), perhaps that is why we have so many shocking scenes too, but then, Elle's decision is, what? Oh yes, her decision is as obvious as anyone would assume, considering her family! I mean...why all this then?

I was very disappointed, because it's always sad that something doesn't live up to one's expectations, even if those are low. I could debate intentions and goals the author might have had, but ultimately I've agreed with my friend this wasn't in any way captivating because Elle and the other characters don't seem to really learn any lessons, nor to they become better people because of the traumas they went though. It was almost as if we, the reader, had to follow all their negative experiences and that was, honestly, too tiring and pointless.

Grade: 2/10