Rachel Matthews’ third novel Never Look Desperate (Transit Lounge 2023) is a light-hearted, funny, satirical and sardonic story that nevertheless transverses some heavy emotional ground such as family dynamics, aging, parent/adult child relationships, despair and Covid isolation and the after-effects.
The three central characters Goldie, her son Bernard and his love interest Minh each give their point of view in a contemporary narrative about loveless and hopeless people who are trying hard to change those aspects of their lives.
Never Look Desperate features great and authentic dialogue with distinct characters. All three characters initially felt younger to me than I eventually realised they were, but perhaps this is a reflection of the fact that despite aging, you often continue to feel young and face the same challenges, especially in terms of relationships. The book is a slow burn but this deliberate leisureliness is compensated by the author’s acute and sharp observations of the details and minutiae of daily life, with many perceptive depictions of what people say and think, what they do and how they do it, and the motivations and past trauma or important life events that influence how they now live.
Although Goldie, Minh and Bernard are connected, the book could almost be three novellas on each of their lives, as each chapter from that person’s point of view is wholly and intensely their own. In this way, we are pulled from one to another, each perspective immersing us in that character’s emotional and physical plights to the extent that we almost forget about the others until we change chapters and then do another deep dive into the next character.
The novel is easy to read, funny, wise and thought-provoking, and Matthews has navigated well the post-Covid writers’ dilemma of how to include the pandemic without it completely absorbing the story.