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

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Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life? I understand that that is a book about motherhood, the expectation (it is the title after all) and the reality. And, I appreciate the variety of perspectives on the subject included in it – including the struggles of the dads which are touched on meaningfully a few times. BUT, Nathan reached a breaking point and told Hannah that he loved her but he just couldn’t do the IVF treatments any longer.

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

Perhaps this is a narrative that’s been done before – but I doubt any forerunners spoke so powerfully from personal experience. I need not rattle off in detail the spiel of the pressures faced by modern women; the expectation to juggle marriage, motherhood, a high-flying career, adhere to beauty standards etc. What is original in Hope’s approach is the intimate and yet dispassionate elegy to what might have been.

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They worry. The worry about climate change— they worry about knife crime and gun crime— they were about their own relative privilege. Expectation is a beautifully written tale about the ups and downs of female friendship. Truthful, vivid and absorbing, this is a novel which is easy to get lost in. Beautiful and unattached, Lissa is re-evaluating what it means to be an actress in her thirties. While she fiercely resists convention, she’s lonely. A chance encounter in the British Library with Nathan has her wondering if she missed her best chance at love when she introduced him to Hannah.

Expectation by Anna Hope - Yorkshire Times Review: Expectation by Anna Hope - Yorkshire Times

I am a big Marian Keyes fan, and earlier this year, I devoured four of her books within a month, and they’re pretty big! I think Marian is an expert in creating complex characters that you can’t help but root for, and she does this well in Rachel’s Holiday. Rachel is a prime example of this, as she is flawed in many ways, yet I adored her. I think this novel is an excellent example of the issues many of us suffer from, not the substance abuse itself, but everything in Rachel’s sense of identity and priorities. Rachel’s journey is touching and difficult, and it reminds us to keep going and keep improving.It was hard for me to choose between Sally Rooney novels, as I am quite the fan! But even though ‘Normal People’ holds a very special place in my heart, it wasn’t the best choice for this list. Rooney’s latest novel is breathtaking, and even though the characters are edging towards the end of their twenties, I think it holds messages that any twenty-something can relate to. The novel reminds us to keep questioning, look further than ourselves, and focus on who we are within this larger context. It reminds us that things don’t always go our way, but with a good friend by your side, you’ll be okay. The first is Hannah. Her friends envy her successful London life, complete with a well-paying job and a husband. However, as she desperately struggles for a baby through a succession of failed IVF treatments, she is far from content. Enter Cate, Hannah’s childhood best friend. Despite having exactly what her friend wants, motherhood has left her feeling desolate and disillusioned. It has led to sleep deprivation, a move to Canterbury away from her friends, and ever-growing distance between herself and husband Sam. Finally, Lissa completes the trio, Hannah’s friend from university. She is a single actress who once had high hopes for her career, that have sadly whittled away with age. Lissa thinks) “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.” Now, I found Hannah fairly unlikable from the get-go. Aside from the fact that I personally don't want kids and thus had trouble identifying with the character's primary motivation, Hannah's interactions with the other two protagonists in the first half of the book made it clear that she considered her fertility problem far more dire than anything her friends might be going through. New mum Cate, struggling to hold it together in those difficult early months, admits that she sometimes wonders whether having a child was the wrong choice for her; this infuriates Hannah, who responds by curtly advising Cate to "see the doctor" and "take some pills". But, there is an aspect of the narrative that I am incredibly angry about. And, sorry to say that is pretty much all that is going to follow in this review. It seems to me that the author left no room in the narrative for a woman to be okay with being childless.