The latest novel by de Waal (My Name Is Leon, 2016) was published in the U.K. last year as The Best of Everything. It reaches these shores with a new, more memorable title that underscores the story\u2019s folksy tenderness. \u201cMy Sweet Pea\u201d is what Paulette\u2019s grandmother called her as a girl on St. Kitts, raising her after the death of her mother. Paulette came to England with Granny at age 11; she was 21 when Granny returned home, leaving Paulette, now working as an auxiliary nurse at Princess Alexandria Hospital, to reminisce about her idyllic Caribbean childhood. When the novel opens in 1972, Paulette has taken up with Denton, whose mysterious comings and goings don\u2019t seem to dampen her ardor for him or her dreams of a large happy family. But Denton\u2019s sudden death in a car accident\u2014no spoiler; it occurs in Chapter 3\u2014derails Paulette\u2019s life again, and she finds herself instead with Denton\u2019s friend Garfield, raising their son, known as Bird. Paulette is unhappy, and her unhappiness erupts into rage when, on a walk in the park, she encounters and confronts the white Englishman responsible for Denton\u2019s death; soon she\u2019s stalking \u201cShirt & Tie\u201d and comes to understand that he\u2019s mentally unwell and struggling to raise his grandson alone. Is it the echo of her own upbringing that draws Paulette to young Cornelius, nicknamed Nellie? \u201cYou can call me Pea,\u201d she tells the timid, troubled boy, whose presence will complicate and ultimately transform her life. As even this brief synopsis suggests, this is a novel bursting with plot, but it\u2019s also distinguished by lucid prose, heartfelt emotion, and moments of levity (thanks largely to Paulette\u2019s outspoken Irish neighbor, Maggie).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latest novel by de Waal (My Name Is Leon, 2016) was published in the U.K. last year as The Best of Everything. It reaches these shores with a new, more memorable title that underscores the story\u2019s folksy tenderness. \u201cMy Sweet Pea\u201d is what Paulette\u2019s grandmother called her as a girl on St. Kitts, raising […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}