THE FINISH LINE
Author: Gail Schimmel
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
We’ve all met them, the friend who turns out to be toxic, resentful, competitive. Who, for some reason interrupts our lives on a regular and unnerving basis, and we let them in. But what happens when that ‘friend’ goes one step too far, threatening a secure and loving family? Mothers are lionesses when it comes to their kids and so it is with Brenda Critchley, Gail Schimmel’s latest protagonist in her seventh novel ‘The Finish Line’.
Dubbed the queen of domestic noir, Schimmel unpacks the viciousness that lies beneath the surface of Johannesburg suburbia in this measured, eminently readable story. Then she shakes you out of your complacency…
Brenda has worked hard to fit in to the Joburg scene. Her parents are not part of the wealthy elite. They are so focused on running that their daughter Brenda is a bit of a by-product to their lives. And Brenda adapts. But she has inherited the running gene, getting her a scholarship to a very smart girl’s school as a boarder. Turns out she‘s the fastest girl in the school, much to the chagrin of day-girl Denver who was the school’s star and to the delight of her coterie of friends, The Alphabet Girls, Brenda’s staunchest allies throughout her life. But Denver’s homelife is certainly not ideal, her wealthy parents are competitive, and cruel – traits she has inherited – she will stop at nothing to satisfy her needs. ‘Denver gets what she wants – always’ She befriends Brenda, slyly putting her down, intercepting her life, stealing her ideas, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde friend who Brenda tolerates, drops and then befriends again.
It’s a merry-go-round of slights throughout their lives, yet Brenda remains the nice girl, finding her fit when she marries her soulmate, becomes a doctor, produces her children. She understands the veiled kindnesses, knowing the repercussions to come. She tolerates, finds excuses, accepts – until her family are threatened – and she doesn’t!
It’s a spiral that will leave you gasping – a finish line that is oh so sweet.
Schimmel always brings us good characterization, while Branda is kind, she has a tough, driven core. Maturing from schoolgirls to mid-life, the reader grows with each person. Experiencing the joys, sorrows, frustrations and anger of the twisted trajectory. The unacceptable social behaviour is unpacked and laid wide open. Schimmel takes her pen and uses a it as a torch to shine a light on the damaged, unfulfilled people to whom wealth and status are more important than tolerance, family and friends. She gets under the veneers, exposing the wrinkles, until the cracks become terrifying ravines. Another great read to keep on my bookshelf.