“At what point do we stop being the direct product of our parents? At what point does it start being our fault?” Julia Armfield’s new novel Private Rites is daring, ambitious, and all around poignant in its observations of sisters, family, and the world that never stops around us.
I leapt at the chance to review this book as Our Wives Under the Sea is one of my favorite novels to date. There is something in the way Armfield writes that is all consuming, that pulls me in and makes me consider things I think I may have known before but to look from a different angle or perspective. Private Rites takes this to another level, as the ambition of this novel is impressive; enormous themes are tackled within its pages, from family to shame to environment to love.
In this spinoff of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” we follow three sisters, Isla, Irene, and Agnes, as they grapple with the burden of their respective inheritances from their newly deceased, wealthy and cruel father. Isla, the eldest and therapist by day, struggles under the weight of her responsibility, real or imagined, to unite the three sisters together despite the grudges they each hold and amidst the chaos of her own divorce. Irene, middle child full of rage, lives with her partner Jude in a loving relationship, but when it comes to her sisters, she feels contempt and irritation at every turn, unable to let go of old traumas. Finally, Agnes, born of a different mother and isolated, by choice, from her two older sisters, finds herself falling in love for the first time, just as her world unravels at her father’s behest. Each held together by an invisible string from their traumatic childhoods, they become forced to confront their pasts, presents, and futures, and these three sisters are not afraid to strike one another where it hurts.
Something that Armfield captures beautifully is what it’s like to have sisters. Obviously, many sister relationships don’t carry this much pain along with them, but how the relationships are approached is familiar to anyone who has a sister; namely, the idea that who we are to our family remains stagnant, and who they’ve decided we are may very likely be stuck as who we were in our childhood. Armfield writes, “The sensation, then, not so much of being understood as of being understood too well at one time and then never again.” Or, “Sisterhood, she thinks, is a trap, you all get stuck in certain roles forever.” When I think of my sisters, I often tend to think of them as much younger than they actually are, as something different than what they’ve become. Armfield captures this beautifully, and suggests that perhaps we should forgive our family for who they were in youth, if their present selves are something quite different.
A brilliant feature of Private Rites is its ambiance. With point of views from each of the sisters (all in third person), there is a fourth POV: the city. The world in which this story takes place is a place of disastrous climate change effects. The world is, quite literally, drowning. Flooding has taken out homes, ruined electricity and daily routines, and the city is rapidly sinking. The disaster outside only serves to amplify the sisters’ feelings, the ways in which they are drowning themselves and the ever growing sense of dread. The city as a character was a brilliant choice and one that made this story all the better.
There is an element of the mysterious or horrific to this novel as well. A twist ending (that I won’t spoil) takes clues hidden in the pages and brings them together in a terrifying ending. The sisters will ultimately have to face their pasts in a devastating way and uncover the secrets of what they thought they knew in their childhood. My only request for something more from this story would have been a slightly clearer conclusion—the finale is swift, and likely the confusion about the horror aspect is intentional, but for me slightly more explanation would have been greeted with open arms. The wrap up of the sisters’ story, however, I felt to be perfect. Private Rites is a story of buoyancy in a world that longs to see one sink, a story of withheld forgiveness and the discovery of who one is in the company of those who have already decided. For fans of stories that challenge and grieve, Julia Armfield’s new work is one of great pleasure, pain, and polluted relationships that will stay with you long after reading.
FICTION
Private Rites
By Julia Armfield
Flatiron Books
Published December 3, 2024
