The Weekend
Charlotte Wood, 2019 (U.S., 2020)
Penguin Publishing
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780593086452
Summary
Three women in their seventies reunite for one last, life-changing weekend in the beach house of their late friend.
Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank, and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.
They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur; Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual; and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work.
Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather at Sylvie's old beach house—not for festivities this time, but to clean it out before it is sold.
Can they survive together without her?
Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface—and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.
The Weekend explores growing old and growing up, and what happens when we're forced to uncover the lies we tell ourselves.
Sharply observed and excruciatingly funny, this is a jewel of a book: a celebration of tenderness and friendship from an award-winning writer. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1965
• Where—Cooma, New South Wales, Australia
• Education—B.A., Charles Sturt University; M.A., University of Technology Sydney; Ph.D., University of New South Wales
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Sydney, Australia
Charlotte Wood is an Australian writer and the author of six novels. She was born in Cooma, New South Wales, and received her B.A. from Charles Sturt University. She went on to earn a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales. Woods currently lives in Sydney, Australia.
The author's novels include The Weekend (2019), The Natural Way of Things (2015), Animal People (2011), The Children (2007), The Submerged Cathedral (2004), and Pieces of a Girl (1999).
Her nonfiction works include The Writer's Room (2016), a collection of interviews with Australian writers, as well as Love & Hunger (2012), a collection of personal reflections on cooking. Woods also edited an anthology of writing about siblings, Brothers & Sisters (2009).
Recognition
2014 - Chair of Arts Practice, Literature, at the Australia Council for the Arts
2016 - Stella Prize, Indie Book Awards Novel of the Year and Book of the Year (for The Natural Way of Things)
2016 - Writer in Residence Fellowship, University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre. (Wood brought together award-winning novelists and world-leading researchers to discuss complex topics of aging.)
Book Reviews
Wood has several surprises up her sleeve; her characters have loved often, lived large and taken plenty of risks, which makes for quick, Liane Moriarty-esque reading. She also has an eye for the little moments that link us, sometimes past the point of reason, to people whose histories we share.
New York Times
[A] dark, smart comedy of manners…. For a reader in or facing the demographic of Wood’s three friends, The Weekend is both fascinating and chilling. Not just the question of superannuated friendships, but also past-prime careers, aging bodies, senior finances and calcifying personality traits are all fairly coldly examined here.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Old age is a state of mutiny rather than stasis in this glorious, forthright tale of female friendship.… What gives the book its glorious, refreshing, forthright spine is that each woman is still adamantly (often disastrously) alive, and still less afraid of death than irrelevance.
Guardian (UK)
The Weekend captivated me from the excellent opening chapter…. The three main characters—Jude, Adele and Wendy—are superbly drawn.… [T]his wise, funny novel will help you understand yourself—and it may scare the s*** out of anyone brave enough to confront the truths within its masterful pages.
Independent (UK)
Wood finds a beautiful balance between her three women…. The gaps between how a character sees themselves and how their friends see them are astutely drawn, both painfully comic and frequently heartbreaking.… Wood is to be praised for taking female friendship seriously and for being caustically honest.
Observer (UK)
A darkly funny, truthful novel…. There is endless pleasure to be found in the candour and compassion Wood brings to bear on femininity and female friendship.
Metro (UK)
A lovely, insightful exploration of aging, regrets and rebirth.
People
If you've ever thought to yourself, I wish there were a beach read kind of like the movie Book Club, but more emotionally complex—look no further.
Entertainment Weekly
Capture summer (even if you can't leave your house) with a tender read dripping in easy nostalgia.
Marie Claire
Three 70-something women spend Christmas together and find new tensions in their long friendship. With the lightest of touches, this big-hearted, insightful read tackles friendship, ambition, ageing and death.
Good Housekeeping
[S]harp…. Wood explores myriad possibilities of success, failure, philosophy, psychic ailments, and forms of melancholy that a 70-something woman might experience.… Baby boomers and Wood’s fans will best appreciate this astringent story.
Publishers Weekly
The novel displays wit, insight, and some astute social commentary, especially on the topic of age, but offers little in the way of engagement or surprises.…. A neatly observed, tightly circumscribed journey into predictable territory.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points for THE WEEKEND … then take off on your own:
1. Start off your discussion by considering the number of books, nonfiction and fiction, that you've read on aging. How many can you think of? Among those works, how is aging dealt with—as an unavoidable "condition," as a preoccupation with dying, as a static no-man's land between living and dying, as comedy, as tragedy, or as a natural state of life in which individuals remain capable of desire and drive, complex emotions, and deep insight?
2. (Follow-up to Question 1) How does Charlotte Wood treat aging in The Weekend?
3. Of the three women—Jude, Wendy, and Adele—who is your favorite and least favorite, and why? Talk about their long relationships with one another, as well as their long-held grievances toward each other.
4. How does Wendy's dog, Finn, represent the state of old-age? While watching him through the kitchen window, Jude considers him "pitiful."
5. Part of the pain of aging is the difference between how you see yourself and how others see you. Does that feel familiar to you personally? How does this gap in perception affect the three women in The Weekend?
6. If you are in your mid-50s, say, or older, how do you view aging? How do you view yourself and your life as opposed to when you were in your 20s, 30s or 40s? What has changed?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)