Social media and parental paranoia

DELILAH NOW TRENDING Pamela Power Loot.co.za (R169) Penguin Books

REVIEWER: JENNIFER CROCKER

DELILAH has sorted her life, she and her daughter Daisy live in a nice house, and she has a successful business with her partner Henry. Okay, as we meet her she also has a stubborn ginger hair that she is trying to pluck off her chin, but that isn’t going to spoil prize-giving at the lovely girls’ school her daughter attends.

But, what the introduction to this little nuclear family does give us is an immediate taste of Pamela Power’s Rolls Royce – or should that be Defender’s – ability to take words and use them to create an immediate sense of who the characters are. Lilah has not had a smooth ride to where she is, as she contemplates her face, she has escaped from a horrible marriage where betrayal left her destitute for a while, but she has overcome that. Her ghastly ex Christopher and his new wife will be at the prize-giving but Lilah can deal with that, because there are great expectations of Daisy, not only that she will collect her customary string of prizes, but also that she is a shoo-in for the position of head girl. Everyone expects that loveable Daisy will be the choice. Daisy herself gets a pen sketch in the opening of this delightful book, she is anticruelty to animals, deplores of her mother’s swearing, is serious about keeping things org anic a n d looking after the world. Let’s be honest many parents have gone off to a school award function convinced that our little darlings are going to scoop the big prize, the award we think they deserve, the leadership position we covet for them.

And Powers brings to life the expectations of a good mom with a good daughter delightfully in her writing. Lilah is a loud mom, she is as bored as many of us are, if we are honest, to discover that the younger grade awards come before the big ones, she commits the “sin” of logging on to Facebook during the ceremony and making witty off-hand comments to the poor parent sitting next to her. In these interplays, Powers tackles a bigger issue: what we expect from our children, the honesty that we basically all think the awards for being diligent just mean that a child pitched up.

But, she achieves these observations in a way that is, while witty, not cruel: it’s honest.

This is not really a teen novel, although I know many teens who will revel in the suburban drama that unfolds when a girl is hurt. Lilah must face up to her past, to her sexless life, and with her travel the cast of Henry a fabulously gay black man who is more right-wing than Lilah would ever consider being.

He’s a joy of a character, but not a stereotype, she will meet a man who might just become the next love of her life, and she will complicate a new relationship because of the baggage she is carrying with her.

Lilah will also discover that when it comes to your child you will go to extreme measures to protect them and that every step along the journey will be painful. Instead of allowing this just to be a book about a girl being protected by her mother though, it is also a book about insidious doubt about a child who can creep into a mom’s heart.

There are hilarious scenes in this book and ones that will terrify the reader. Through a real understanding of how the world works today, Lilah will find out that trending on social media is not all it is cracked up to be.

This is one of the best books I have read in this genre for a long time, it’s very, very well written and totally gripping.

In the cast of characters, you will recognise many people you know, and possibly even yourself.

Powers takes the things of ordinary everyday life and milks the hell out of them in creating a plausible story about the fault lines that lie in all our lives.

Lilah makes mistakes and she must face up to the fact that her daughter might not be perfect. Other characters like Rosie, a girl who has been injured who is at the heart of the plot, and her parents are instantly recognisable. In smaller roles, the sadness of the testimony of the school’s gardener who gives evidence at a hearing at the school is brilliantly portrayed.

The description of his shabby jacket is heart-breaking, but Powers counterbalances this with the sheer bloody chutzpah of Portia who “works” for her as a housekeeper, but mostly watches soapies.

Delilah Now Trending is one of those books that at first amuses, then scares and which dares to raise social issues without being precious or politically correct. It’s a hip and savvy take on life, and a very well written book.

I predict it will live up to name.

In the cast of characters, you will recognise many people you know

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