‘It took Patrick Hawthorne a long time to get rid of the metallic taste after the motorway pile-up that killed his wife and twenty-seven other people.’
As opening sentences go, this one certainly packs a punch.* Welcome to Gothard’s fourth book, ‘The Quietist’, a thoughtful study of grief, loss and the complexity of human feelings.
* Technically there is a kind of prologue, but it is fragmented, almost dream-like, making this the first distinct idea in the novel.
What’s it about?
Dr Lanning is treating Catherine and Patrick for PTSD after they have both lost their partners in the same motorway accident. Patrick seems detached in a way that Lanning thinks must be due to severe trauma; Catherine seems overcome by the trauma and Lanning longs to protect her.
Seeing an opportunity to help himself at the same time as his patients, Lanning arranges for them to have shared therapy sessions, intending to write a book based on their treatment.
Instead, as the sessions continue, Catherine and Patrick form a bond that helps them to relinquish their previous lives – and reminds Lanning of what he, too, has lost.
What’s it like?
Sombre but with surprisingly playful touches, this is an intense tale of three very different responses to grief.
‘He pressed send and felt another pang of oddness about his signature…First Dr L now Chris, what next – the Lann Man?’
Catherine’s is perhaps the most conventional response; her intense, paralysing grief contrasts sharply with Patrick’s almost frenetic life changes, though ultimately it is Lanning’s own despairing grief that cannot be tamed.
In sparse prose, Gothard shifts between characters’ thoughts, feelings, conversations and actions. A few transitions are jarring and could perhaps have been more clearly marked for readers, but the whole is both thoughtful and suspenseful.
Final thoughts
If those we loved died, how would we feel? Gothard shows us that there are no simple, trite answers to such an enormous event and I felt on edge for much of the book, increasingly disturbed by Patrick’s thoughts and actions and Lanning’s helplessness and wondering where they would lead.
‘The Quietist’ is an emotional and powerful insight into the impact of tragedy and complexity of human nature.