An accidental journey into the fast lane
UNDER THE INFLUENCE Joyce Maynard Loot.co.za (R255) Harper Collins
THIS cautionary tale is a good introduction to Maynard’s work. When Helen, the alcoholic mother of a young son, gets swept up in the stylish life of a couple way above her pay grade, things move quickly.
Before she knows it, she has become the favourite dinner guest of Swift and Ava Havilland at their palatial home in the San Francisco area.
When Estella, their devoted maid from Guatemala, and her daughter Carmen don’t serve them, they scoot off to restaurants with good wheelchair access for Ava and exotic titbits prepared for them alone by chefs who know when to nip out of the kitchen.
As the narrator of the story, photographer Helen is ashamed that she has allowed herself to become a pet, one step down from Ava’s rescue dogs. However, going to their house is glamorous after her mandatory AA meetings. Each invitation, assignment and gift is more seductive than the last.
Even as she worries about being made over as Ava’s current project, she knows their unexpected friendship and careless generosity counterbalance her obsession with Oliver, her son, who was taken away from her care during a dash to the emergency ward of her local hospital.
Her frightening arrest for driving under the influence is straight out of television. The superciliousness of her former husband and his new wife while they strip her of her rights of access leaves her feeling raw.
Working for Ava stops Helen from stalking the pick-up lane outside Oliver’s elementary school every day. But she hates herself for embellishing her accounts of her dates with hapless denizens of a dating site for the Havillands’ amusement.
She is just grateful they have absorbed Oliver into their circle as well, and Swift is teaching him to swim. With his own son Cooper living far away, Swift relishes being able to do manstuff with Oliver, who loves the attention.
The catastrophe when it happens is tragic. With hindsight, Helen wonders how she didn’t fall into the obvious craters in the Havillands’ manicured lawns and marriage long before she allowed Swift to drive off with Oliver on a day’s adventure.