Passing On
Passing On is a novel written by Penelope Lively in 1989. It tells the sensitive and intimate story of how a brother and sister’s lives change after their imperious mother dies. The story is set in the South of England in the late eighties.
Plot
The book starts with a funeral. The atmosphere is not, as one would assume, oppressive, but rather buoyant. When the coffin is carried to the graveyard, Helen remarks that her mother is still, even after her death, making her presence felt. As her mother had had a row with the priest when choosing the grave years ago, he keeps casting Helen and her brother distrustful looks throughout the funeral.
From the very beginning of the book it is clear that Dorothy Glovers must have been a nasty woman; a woman who did not treat her children with love and affection, but ruled them and deprived them of life’s pleasures. Only Louise, her youngest daughter, had had the strength to escape from her dominant influence. When the ceremony of burying is held at the grave and the priest is giving his sermon, Helen thinks: „Eternal life is an appalling idea, especially in mother’s case.“
Slowly but steadily, Helen and Edward get used to their mother’s absence and they start to slightly change their lives. Helen feels much freer than before her mother's death and falls in love with Giles Carnaby, their lawyer. She becomes more confident and starts to perceive life differently. Nevertheless, Dorothy, Helen's and Edward's mother still, even after her death, makes her presence felt. At one point, Helen finds love-letters that a former boyfriend of hers had written to her in one of her mother's old cloaks. Her mother had never given these letters to her and therefore had caused the separation of Helen and her boyfriend. Helen is upset, but has to come to terms with it – she cannot confront her mother anymore.
Edwards is a biology teacher. His mother’s death does not change much about his life - he remains as reclusive as he had been before she died. He spends most of his leisure time in the wood that is part of the estate where he and Helen live. There he tends plants and watches birds. In the course of the book he turns out to be homosexual and Helen helps Edward through what seems to be a life crisis, thus reinforcing her own sense of self and strength.
Helen and Edward live modestly. They only buy what they absolutely need; their lifestyle is rather old-fashioned. This is in complete contrast to the life their sister Louise and her husband Tom lead in London, who every once in a while drop in on Helen and Edward. Louise and Tom's problems are those typical of people that live in big cities: lack of time and psycho-somatic illnesses. Helen and Edward, by contrast, lead a calm, monotonous and rather rural life.
Throughout the book it seems as though Helen and Giles Carnaby, the lawyer, will end up in a happy relationship. This does not happen, as in one of the last chapters Gilbert tells Helen that he does not want to see her anymore.
Characters
Helen is a modest woman who lives together with her younger brother, Edward. She works as a librarian, a job that she enjoys. After her mother's death she cannot quite forget her mother and still feels her presence, whenever she is about to make some important decision she is forced to think of what her mother would advise her to do.
Edward, Helen's brother, is a very reclusive man.
Dorothy, Helen and Edward's mother, dies right at the beginning of the book. All the same, her presence stays with her children. Never has she been able to show affection or love to her children, but instead she ruled them with a rod of iron. Their relationship is ambiguous; once Helen thinks, “I am her daughter and so in the nature of things came nearer to loving her than anyone else did.”
Louise, Helen and Edward's sister, lives a life very different life to that of her siblings. In Contrast to her brother and her sister, she had managed to flee from her mother's reign when she was a teenager. Although she is the youngest, she seems to be paramount to them.
Gilbert Carnaby, a lawyer who is in charge of managing Dorothy's legacy, becomes friends with Helen.