One-sentence blurb
In 1941, eighteen-year-old Lille Carrigan's ill-fated summer of romance,
lust, and indiscretion sets her hurtling through the dark, towards
events she never saw coming.
Short blurb
"Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
It's 1941, the last summer of American innocence, and eighteen-year-old
Lillie Carrigan is desperate to love and be loved, to lose her
virginity, to experience her life's great, epic romance. Preoccupied
with whiskey and cigarettes, sex and Catholic guilt, Lillie unknowingly
sets in motion events leading to death and estrangement from her two
best friends.
A decade on, Lillie is still haunted by the ghosts of that summer. Did
she act solely out of youthful naivety and adolescent jealousy? Or
perhaps there were darker forces at work: grief, guilt, sexual assault,
and the double standards of her strict religious upbringing. Searching
for patterns and meaning in the events of that year, and anxious to
understand the person she has become, Lillie reflects on the darkness of
her tarnished youth and confesses her sins.
Long blurb
The Essence of an Hour is the debut novel from Susan Furber. Set in
the summer of 1941, the story follows eighteen-year-old Lillie Carrigan
as she experiences first love with her lifelong friend, Teddy McCalman.
Bound together by shared experiences of early loss and grief, Lillie and
Teddy spend their time drinking and smoking, clinging to each other and
their intense romance. Desperate to lose her virginity, but held back by
Catholic guilt, past assault, and the judgement of her best friend,
Lara, Lillie battles with her sexual awakening and the double standards
which come with it. She is intoxicated by the summer's heady mix of
alcohol and pheromones, not realizing that the events she sets in motion
will lead to anguish, trauma, and loss. Ten years on, Lillie recounts
the story of that summer, confessing to the sins of her past.
The ideas behind The Essence of an Hour came from the author's own
interest in the cyclical nature of trauma, and her effort to understand
why ordinary people hurt each other, either intentionally or
unintentionally. Susan's experience of being raised Catholic, and
receiving a Catholic education, sparked her desire to explore the
struggles of young women caught between sexuality and religion, the
double standards they experience, and the burden of carrying secrets of
assault and abuse. Though The Essence of an Hour has all the
ingredients of a classic young adult novel, it is certainly not a story
you have heard before. You won't find clichés, prom queens, or happy
endings within its pages. The Essence of an Hour is an exquisite
example of beautifully written literary fiction which will leave you
reeling.
