5.0 out of 5 stars
"We are only skeletons in our own cupboards...", January 9, 2005
This review is from: Skeleton in the Cupboard (Hardcover)
Contemplating her old age and approaching death, elderly Mrs. Monro reflects upon the irony that it is the skeleton which is revealed by death while the cupboard of one's life, with all its memories and experiences, is absorbed by the earth and disappears forever. In this fascinating novel, however, there are many other "skeletons." Every character, including the serious and thoughtful Mrs. Monro, is hiding some aspect of the past from others, and it is these skeletons from the past which support the structure of the book and determine the present action, the forthcoming marriage of Mrs. Monro's son Syl, a single man in his late forties, to Margaret, a young woman barely in her twenties.
Mrs. Monro recognizes that Margaret does not love Syl and may, in fact, loathe him, but since she herself had reason to marry someone she did not love, she does not condemn. Instead, she empathizes silently with the bride, without understanding why she is going through with the wedding. Eventually, she reveals her own past skeletons and her heartbreaking past, and when her son's "skeletons" are revealed, it is no surprise that several fiancées have cancelled previously scheduled weddings.
The bride's father, divorced from her mother, has a horrifying secret, and Lili, one of the wedding guests, an acquaintance of both Mrs. Monro and the bride's mother from their days in Egypt during the Empire, has several secrets of her own. As the date for the wedding approaches, all the skeletons come out of the cupboard with both humorous and poignant effects.
This is one of Ellis's more thoughtful novels, dealing with Mrs. Monro's intelligent and sensitive reflections on love and sex, God and sin, and life and death, both as these subjects have affected her own life and as they seem to be occupying the other characters in the novel. Grounded in reality, eminently practical, and honest in her assessments, Mrs. Monro is a contrast to the bride's mother and the younger characters, all of whom refuse to come to grips with the past. Darker and more philosophical than many of Ellis's other novels, the novel, though short, stands on its own, offering insights into this aging woman, her difficult life, the compromises she has made, and their ultimate significance. Mary Whipple
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