Advertisement
Christmas Special - Get your first 12 issues for just £12
SUBSCRIBE
Books

The Most by Jessica Anthony review – cracks just beneath the surface of an all-American family

What happens when well-behaved middle-aged women suddenly ache to test new waters

The Most is the fourth novel from Maine resident Jessica Anthony, described by literary giant Richard Russo as one of the most inventive writers working today. Witty, provocative, rich with insight and deep with melancholy, it features a ‘normal’ 1950s middle class American family with multiple cracks just below the surface. Though the tale might seem standard, Anthony throws enough unpredictable spokes in the wheel to keep us curious and committed until the end. 

Kathleen Beckett is a mother of two who used to be a tennis champion but gave it all up to be a mother and housewife. Kathleen’s handsome husband Virgil is an insurance salesman, the kind who plays golf with the company partners, goes drinking with the in-crowd, and enjoys the lustful stares his good looks often elicit. He is not beyond having extramarital affairs but has the decency to call a halt when things advance to semi-seriousness, which he considers a sign of familial commitment. 

Kathleen has so far been a success as a wife and mother, her organisational skills and ability to keep their house immaculate much appreciated. She admits she married Virgil “because he was easy” and because he was both risk and conflict averse (and thus the opposite of her own feuding parents). Family life simply slipped into place for both of them, based on a set of assumptions about what other people did and how women fitted into men’s work and play priorities. 

So when, one day in November 1957, Kathleen goes into the communal garden swimming pool and refuses to get out, Virgil is understandably concerned. 

While Kathleen floats in the water, gazing up at a sky into which the Russians have just sent Sputnik 2, we are filled in on her backstory, the people and passions – as well as the tennis career – that she has given up for marriage. We learn about the family deaths she has endured, the childhood marked by acute loneliness, and the past love affairs she still has pangs for. We also learn about Virgil’s war experiences and his awkward relationship with his father.

It is not a new set-up: the bored housewife ripe for temptation; the dull, rigid, unseeing husband. Indeed, there are shades of Anne Tyler’s Ladder of Years, in which a dissatisfied housewife suddenly walks out on her family. Both consider what happens when well-behaved middle-aged women suddenly ache to test new waters, ones not pre-approved by their husbands or children.

Advertisement
Advertisement

But Anthony gives the ostensibly same old story a brand-new spin. There are surprising reasons for Kathleen’s direct actions, secrets she has not shared with her husband. And Virgil too has made sacrifices and harboured regrets; he is not the cut-and-paste selfish husband he initially seems. The prose sizzles with intelligence and humour and there is great pathos too. Let’s hope those qualities are retained when they make the inevitable movie.

The Most by Jessica Anthony is out now (Transworld, £12.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

View all
Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt
Books

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story
Family secrets

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened
Science

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened

Top 5 Desi books – chosen by Indi Deol, founder of British Asian magazine DESIblitz
Books

Top 5 Desi books – chosen by Indi Deol, founder of British Asian magazine DESIblitz

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know