The Cliffs: A novel
“Sullivan is a strong writer, and each of her separate narratives is interesting in and of itself.”
“The house, long abandoned, had stories to tell. The house was a contradiction. Clearly well-loved at one time, but left to rot.”
The opening paragraph of The Cliffs is enticing, bringing the reader into a desire to read more. But don’t get ahead of yourself.
While the writing is very good, this book is more of an anthology of short anecdotes, some related to the Cliffs and the house, and some not, with a thread that pulls them together. That thread is these cliffs in Maine, not so much the house.
The primary character, Jane Flanagan, grew up in this location. But Jane is a challenged female—smart, unsure of herself, and an alcoholic. After getting her college degree and committing a disastrous mistake at a party, Jane loses her job, separates from her husband David, loses her mother, and returns to the cliffs.
As she is decluttering her mother’s house with her sister Holly’s help, she recalls being raised by a mother “. . . with a drinking problem and no money. An older sister who landed on the evening news for getting wasted and stealing a boat . . . an incident Holly swore she did not remember when she woke up in a jail cell the next morning.” Jane knew that the “. . . family she came from defined her and always would.”
Her one place of safety was the house she used to visit on the cliffs. And here is where the multitude of brief anecdotes begin. The description of the house and its various owners—past and present—creates further problems for Jane.
When she discovers that the house with its vivid history has been purchased by a wealthy young couple, Genevieve and Paul, Sullivan takes the reader down a rabbit hole of character development on Genevieve’s history. The thread that the reader grabs onto is that Genevieve’s young son, Ben, has encountered a female at the house where there should not be one.
In the meantime, Jane’s best friend, Allison, realizes there is something wrong and attempts to bring Jane back to herself. At a silent auction, Allison buys a gift certificate for Jane for a visit with Clementine, a psychic. Not something Jane wants, but her best friend went to the trouble, so she can as well.
As she continues to clean her mother’s house, more memories of her mother haunt her, and the reader wanders through another lengthy anecdote about growing up in her mother's house, her mother’s oddities, Jane’s college days, and her mother’s last days.
Jane awaits the day of the psychic reading, wondering how much Allison really told Clementine. The day arrives, Clementine arrives, and Sulivan graces the reader with an interesting scene full of good dialogue and good description. And a mysterious little girl who is only known as “D” arrives on the scene. A strong thread here.
Jane determines it is time to find out who D is, and here Genevieve reenters the story with tales of her own history. As Jane learns about Ben’s encounter with an unusual female, Jane wonders if it could be D.
The Cliffs is, at times, a difficult story to follow with unrelated situations posed through tales about previous inhabitants of the house, parental misadventures, dissolving marriages, and Jane’s travels into the depths of alcoholism and coming out the other end of that tunnel.
It should be noted, however, that Sullivan is a strong writer, and each of her separate narratives is interesting in and of itself. If the reader can follow the very thin thread that Sullivan weaves through the book, they may enjoy the read.