Bitter

Our Review

Bitter by Francesca Jakobi is exactly the kind of book you would expect it to be from looking at the blurb. Gilda is a bitter woman who is unable to accept responsibility for the way her life has turned out.

Gilda abandoned her son, Reuben, when he was a young boy and fears the resulting damage to their relationship can never be overcome. Now her son has married someone who is the total opposite as her and Gilda will go to extreme lengths to discover what his new wife has that she doesn’t.

Gilda is not a likeable character, but she is an intriguing one, you want to know how her story ends and whether she will be able to repair her relationship with Reuben.

Bitter begins at Reuben’s wedding to Alice and we immediately get a sense of the kind of woman Gilda is; critical and prone to errors in judgement which she usually proceeds to blame on everyone but herself.

“I thought I looked so smart when I left the flat this morning, but I’ve come to my own son’s wedding in a white suit and veil.”

This is the kind of action that makes it so difficult for her to repair her relationship with her son. She is aware of the distance that exists and is desperate to bridge it, but her actions only seem to make things worse and to make her more bitter.

Her son’s wedding should be a happy occasion for her but everything about it serves only to remind her of their difficult relationship.

“He says she taught him how to love; that she taught him what love could be.

And I can’t look at him because he didn’t learn about love from me.”

During the course of the book we learn that Gilda was married twice and that both marriages failed. Her first marriage was to an older man named Frank, a business partner of her father’s and a match she would not have chosen. Frank was a kind husband and whilst she didn’t love him she was content with him for a while.

However, when Gilda learnt she was pregnant with Reuben that began to change. Once he was born she was scared that she wasn’t able to look after him properly and found herself reliant on the nanny and her friend Margo to look after hm in her stead. When Margo left to work during the war Gilda found took to her bed with depression and her relationship with Reuben was further separated.

Eventually Margo and Frank decided she should take work to try and bring her out of her depression. During the course of this work she met Leo and embarked on the affair that would serve as the final nail in the coffin in terms of her relationship with her son.

Now Gilda takes any sign of Reuben’s love for his wife as a slight to their own relationship.

“He’s holding her hand like it’s a trophy he can’t believe he’s won. This is the son who never touches his mother, not even on the cheek when he kisses me hello. This is the son who never calls me; never visits me unless he knows he has to.”

Gilda often feels overlooked in her life, redundant.

“I can’t remember the last time anyone looked at me and really saw me.”

Bitter is an interesting display of the difficulties that can occur in the relationship between a mother and her son. It was an easy read and one I enjoyed at the time, but I can’t say it was particularly memorable. However, I think it is an ideal holiday read as it doesn’t take too much of your attention and isn’t too heavy.

Our Final Rating...

Mon, 11th June 2018