This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce
Imelda and Augustine – or Em and the Big Hoom – are the parents of the book’s narrator. Em has been suffering with bipolar since her children were very young and the book tells of the struggles the family have endured during her illness. The narrator is a young man who is looking back on his childhood, recounting the lives of his parents. It tells the story of Imelda and Augustine and how they met, describing the happy times before Imelda’s mental illness took over and started to control both of their lives, as well as the highs and lows of living with a mother with bipolar.
Em and the Big Hoom takes an honest, upfront look at what it can be like dealing with mental illness, from the viewpoint of the sufferer and those around them, on a daily basis. There are struggles and times of calm and bits in between and Em and the Big Hoom tells the story with warmth and humour, but you can feel the frustration at times. Em is such a big character in the book, she can be crude at times and blunt to the point of hurting her family during the manic periods of her illness and I felt for all involved. The book is set between the 1960s and 1980s when mental illness wasn’t understood as well as it is now, so I admired Em’s family, who had to put up with a lot and did so with little fuss. I thought Augustine – or the Big Hoom – was particularly strong throughout and obviously loved his wife very much.
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7/10