Case Histories: A Novel

“If she could have had one wish—if her fairy godmother (noticeably absent from her life so far) were to suddenly appear in the cold living room of the cottage and offer to grant her whatever she wanted, Michelle knew exactly what she would ask for. She would ask to go back to the beginning of her life and start all over again.”

Michelle’s reference to a fairy godmother emphasizes her unhappiness with her situation. Though her life has the trappings of a fairytale story—the remote cottage, pastoral farm, new baby—it is a life of hardship and labor that leaves her feeling caged and desperate, highlighting The Complexity of Parent-Child Relationships. Her wish for a fairy godmother highlights that she has run out of options after Keith’s death and feels that she has no way to help herself.

“He lit a new cigarette from the stub of the old one because he had run out of matches, and faced with a choice between chain-smoking or abstinence, he’d taken the former option because it felt like there was enough abstinence in his life already.”

This introduction to Jackson shows him chain smoking in his car because he feels that “there was enough abstinence in his life already.” This passage reveals Jackson’s dark sense of humor as well as his self-destructive tendencies. He sees a choice between deprivation and excess and chooses excess.

“(Were they really going to cremate him tomorrow, burn him into ashes? How extraordinary that you could be given the license to do that to another human being. Just get rid of them, as if they were rubbish.)”

Though the novel does not reveal that Victor sexually abused his daughters until later, there are many early clues to his true nature. One is Amelia’s thrill that they will be able to “burn him into ashes” as if he were “rubbish.” Her diction here indicates that she is not close to her father and is glad to be rid of him, highlighting The Lingering Effects of Trauma.