Expectation: The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year

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Yes, there's bugger all between thirty and fifty, not just in Chekhov, but in everything else. Perhaps in life. Perhaps this is it - Womanhood. The Wasteland Years." Ultimately, the novel’s message is a simple one: life is tough and we will often make mistakes and compromises, but we just do the best we can and try to be there for each other. The specific plot twists are slightly predictable, a few threads aren’t investigated as fully as they might be (Cate’s history with Lucy, chiefly) and I didn’t always feel as close to the main characters as I wanted to – first-person narration might have been better for creating that intimacy. My favorite relationship / subplot was Lissa and her mother.

Expectation by Anna Hope review – intelligent and humane

Hope leaves no aspect of everyday existence untouched. My only complaint is that I did not know the characters as well as I would have liked. They stray occasionally into the archetypal, especially in terms of their own personal conflicts. The novel encapsulates much in scope – not quite so much in depth. When Cate and Hannah talk, they talk about their children mostly [...] And their children talk, too - they know each other well, it is clear; they tell Lissa about a holiday they all took last summer to France. As Lissa watches, she feels a familiar ache. She will be forty-four next birthday. As the years in which she might conceivably conceive have diminished, she has felt a corresponding, surprisI enjoyed reading Cate's segments, past and present. Whereas Hannah and Lissa live in London, Cate has recently relocated to Canterbury, so her bits are mostly separated from the rest of the narrative and feature a completely different cast of characters, including a friendly fellow mum and a truly ghastly brother-in-law. It's particularly interesting to witness the contrast between Cate's younger self and the person she is now. Anna Hope’s writing is sensual and evocative, deeply attuned to both the inner lives of the protagonists and their specific environments. Her descriptions pull you into a London as welcoming as it is lively; vibrant, bustling, teaming with people. The quieter spaces – the river behind Cate’s house, Lissa’s mother’s charming bohemian abode – are just as well drawn. It’s all a pleasure to read. I strongly resent the narrative absence of it being okay to not want to be a mom. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the only character who doesn’t have a kid is the one who is villainized and made to suffer repeatedly. And, that is just not freaking okay.

Expectation by Anna Hope | Goodreads Expectation by Anna Hope | Goodreads

The three friends meet in the mid 90's , Lissa and Hannah at a course called Feminisms,and Cate who joins their group , sleeping on Hannah's sofa when she has nowhere else to go. The three women in this book are all very complicated and complex. I found them to be utterly riveting. They’re all morally grey which makes them feel more real and raw. Sometimes they make decisions that others may find irritating, but to me that makes they more dynamic.

1. Expectation - Anna Hope

Fast forward to 2010 and life is very, very different. The weight of societal expectations has these women caught in a loop of success, fertility and motherhood. All 3 seem lost and dissociated from who they were and want they wanted from life. It's a disconnetion rather than a dissatisfaction, as though in their own way, the goals that all three chased have led them to a place that they feel lost in.