Review: Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson

Title: Grace Williams Says it Loud
Author: Emma Henderson
Publisher: Sceptre, 2010
Rating: 3 stars

To begin, here is a synopsis of Grace Williams Says it Loud, taken from Goodreads.com:

This isn't an ordinary love story. But then Grace isn't an ordinary girl. 'Disgusting,' said the nurse. And when no more could be done, they put her away, aged eleven. On her first day at the Briar Mental Institute, Grace meets Daniel. He sees a different Grace: someone to share secrets and canoodle with, someone to fight for. Debonair Daniel, who can type with his feet, fills Grace's head with tales from Paris and the world beyond. This is Grace's story: her life, its betrayals and triumphs, disappointment and loss, the taste of freedom; roses, music and tiny scraps of paper. Most of all, it is about the love of a lifetime.

Grace Williams Says it Loud tells the story of Grace, physically disabled and “mentally deficient”, as they put it in the book. We follow her from infancy, to the Briar Mental Institute, to a home in Hounslow. She makes friends and enemies, she falls in love with the wonderfully charismatic Daniel (my favourite character in the book), and then she loses him. Twice. We are shown the story of this life through Grace’s eyes, though it is the voices of all the other characters which fill the pages. Grace herself manages to speak only a maximum of two words at a time; the novel allows her thoughts the expression that her body is incapable of providing. It is this contrast, between the richly observant, descriptive narrative, and Grace’s stunted speech and her treatment by the nurses at Briar, that makes for some of the most moving sections of the book.

When I started reading this novel, I honestly couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. I read it in three sittings: in the first, I reached page 70; in the second, I got to around page 170; and in the third sitting I read right to the end. But what struck me most about this book was that, by the time I reached page 70, I still couldn’t decide whether or not I liked this book. I found its narrative style didn’t quite sit right with me. I still can’t work out why. But what I then realised, whilst I was still puzzling over whether or not I liked this book, was that either way, it had made a significant impression on me in those opening few chapters.

Even now I have finished Grace Williams Says it Loud, I still can’t say whether or not I liked it. It was compelling, yes, and moving, and beautiful, in a way. It’s not a story – or a character – that I am likely to forget in a hurry. But I don’t think I enjoyed reading it. All the way through, the narrative style didn’t seem quite right. Grace’s observations seemed over-done, especially in the opening scenes of the novel. And then again at the end.

So: it was touching and beautifully done, in its own way, but not quite to my taste. Grace Williams Says it Loud was a good read, but not a book that I was able to lose myself in completely.