bookchickdi: The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves

Friday, April 10, 2020

The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves

The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062933843
Hardcover, $27.99, 290 pages

In Abbie Greaves's debut novel The Silent Treatment, Frank and Maggie, who have been married for over forty years, have not spoken in six months. Or rather, Frank has not spoken to Maggie for six months. When Maggie decides that she cannot take another moment of it, she overdoses on pills and ends up in a medically induced coma.

Frank is beside himself, and at the hospital a kindly nurse caring for Maggie tells him that the best thing he can do is to talk to Maggie. So Frank begins to recount their love story.

While out at bar celebrating with colleagues, Frank sees Maggie enter in a crowd of people. She enters "like a cyclone descending, all flailing limbs and air kisses, a flurry of hugs and exclamations and the sort of warmth everyone in the vicinity could feel." He was entranced.

Maggie was the complete opposite of Frank. He was shy and socially awkward. His colleagues convinced him to talk to Maggie, and while he screwed up his courage and did talk to her, he didn't ask her out.

By luck, he ended up at the doctor's office where Maggie worked as a nurse, and this time he didn't let the opportunity pass. He asked her out and she said yes. And so began the love story of Maggie and Frank.

They didn't have much money, but that didn't matter. They enjoyed each other's company and brought out the best in each other. One thing Frank struggled with was that he felt in times of distress, he didn't say the right thing, so to avoid saying the wrong thing, he just didn't say anything at all.

Maggie and Frank had their share of disappointments, like all couples. She had a miscarriage, and then struggled for years with infertility. When they finally had a daughter, Eleanor, they were over the moon. Ellie became the light of their lives.

The Silent Treatment is not only a story about a marriage, it is also a story about a family. Ellie changes their lives, and when she has problems they cannot fix, they each turn inward away from each other instead towards each other. We see Frank's point of view as he tells their love story, and we get Maggie's point of view in a diary she kept during the week before she attempted suicide.

Book clubs would have much to talk about with The Silent Treatment. You can dig deep into why Frank stopped talking, why Maggie didn't confront him sooner, and how important it is to communicate honestly with your significant other. It is a heartbreaking book, and the subject matter may be difficult for anyone who has dealt with addiction or mental illness in their own family.

Fans of Jojo Moyes Me Before You will want to read The Silent Treatment, and Moyes even has a quote on the cover of the book. If you like your fiction to go emotionally deep, this one is for you. I'll be looking forward to Abbie Greaves' next book.