A stunning novel of great compassion and insight, from the author of the Stella Prize-shortlisted An Isolated Incident.
Nic is a forty-five-year-old trivia buff, amateur nail artist and fairy godmother to the neighbourhood’s stray cats. She’s also the owner of a decade’s worth of daily newspapers, enough clothes and shoes to fill Big W three times over and a pen collection which, if laid end-to-end, would probably circle her house twice.
The person she’s closest to in the world is her beloved niece Lena, who she meets for lunch every Sunday. One day Nic fails to show up. When Lena travels to her aunt’s house to see if Nic’s all right, she gets the shock of her life, and sets in train a series of events that will prove cataclysmic for them both.
By the acclaimed author of An Isolated Incident, Love Objects is a clear-eyed, heart-wrenching and deeply compassionate novel about love and family, betrayal and forgiveness, and the things we do to fill our empty spaces.
I’ve always been fascinated by hoarding disorder. My great-grandmother had a mild case of hoarding – collecting furniture, clothes and sentimental items mostly – and every time I went to visit her as a child, I felt like I was stepping into an antique store rather than an actual living room. But Maguire takes this to another level in Love Objects.
We’ve all heard the stories about hoarders on A Current Affair, and from the outset Nic certainly fits the bill – she’s lonely, feeds the neighbourhood stray cats, and has a house bursting with junk. Yet Nic is so much more than this stereotype – she’s a fully realised and beautifully portrayed character who struggles to let go of past hurts and sees the beauty in discarded things. I loved her, and through her, Maguire offers readers a compassionate and insightful look at hoarding disorder and the notion of possession.
The other standout character in the novel is Nic’s niece Lena, a first-year university student who is tasked with cleaning up her aunt’s house. But Lena is also dealing with her own set of problems, and as she sorts through her aunt’s mess, she struggles to cope with the mess her own life has recently become.
Fierce, insightful and deeply moving, Love Objects offers readers a gritty and honest look at contemporary Australia, examining issues of class, and privacy – particularly in the digital space. It’s a brilliant and big-hearted novel from Emily Maguire and is one of my favourite reads so far this year.
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