No matter the choices we make, life will always throw us under the
bus of hardships. We can never fully protect ourselves from the
darkness. Heartache, grief, loss and all the rest of it are simply a
part of life. It is no one’s fault these things happen. The important
thing is how we respond to being overwhelmed by hardship. As if that message weren’t enough, Meriel weaves layer upon layer
of meaning into The Woman Behind the Waterfall, digging deeper
into human psychology than any other literary work I’ve read.
Meriel uses both first and third person narrative in this book and at
first it threw me off, but as I continued reading, the purpose
becomes clear. This technique lends the narrative a dreamlike
quality, which blends and flows in a brilliant, surreal unfolding of
events. This book is a beautiful and heartfelt acknowledgment of the toll
depression takes on a person. It is the examination of what can
become of every one of us because we all have the capacity to
sink into the quicksand of our minds and get stuck there. But that is not all. It is also a gentle reminder to us that we are not
responsible for our parents. We are not too blame and we can let
go the guilt we might feel for things that have been insinuated and
we have picked up on the path of life from a time before we can
consciously remember. Then there is the inter generational healing, which is depicted so incredibly beautifully. To the same extent that we can saddle ourselves with the burdens of our parents and pass those on along with our own to our children, this book reminds us that through choosing to transform ourselves, we are able to cut that rope and rework it into something uplifting, rather than continuing to pass on the noose created by generations past. I cried several times while reading. I wept for the characters, for myself, my mother and grandmothers, for my children... and there was something deeply cathartic in that, for which I wish to thank the author. It is rare indeed to find such a deeply moving piece of literature. Finally, I hope the author will consider writing a second book about Volodiya. He is a character who made a pivotal and extremely difficult decision that was crucial to the narrative of this story, but in its own right, that decision was his first step on his journey to heal the damage of his traumatic childhood. As such, I would love to know what happened to him. If you haven’t read The Woman Behind the Waterfall or Unity Game yet, I suggest you do. They are both incredible books and are definitely two of the best, most moving novels I’ve read in recent years. I will undoubtedly be revisiting both in future!
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