Matrilineal, by Tessa Hadley

Art Pepper

SUMMARY, by Nora Carranza

At the very beginning of Matrilineal, we know that Helen had left her husband forty years ago.

At that time, she was married to Phil, and they had two little girls: Nia and Sophie.

The family lived in an apartment at the top floor of a house situated in a nice street of a good neighbourhood. There were beautiful trees and gardens around the building.

To get to their flat, it was necessary to climb up an exterior metal staircase which produced a strong noise at every step they take, no matter how carefully they were. A retired Reverend lived on the flat below theirs. He was always looking through the curtains when the family went up and down, and also complained when they speak aloud, or play music or made some noise on the top floor.

The couple was not very well off, only Phil worked. He was a jazz musician; he played the alto saxophone and gave lessons at a college. Helen was a dancer before having the girls. Since then, she worked at home, took care of Nia and Sophie, took them to play in the gardens or went shopping with them for what was necessary at home, or to visit her mother by bus.

Helen had kept the physical aspect of a dancer and had a natural condition for spontaneous elegance.

The story explains that one grey afternoon Helen was at home; Sophie was sleeping and Nia playing with her doll. Helen used that quiet moment for scrubbing the floor. Unexpectedly, Phil arrived early: one lesson had been cancelled, and he returned happy at home to practise with his alto.

But Helen was not pleased at all with that possibility. They started an old quarrel, about playing music at home, the Reverend complaining, the difficulty of changing home…

When Helen met Phil, she fell in love with him because of his music, his body and movements on stage, the attraction he had over the audience. Now that all seemed evaporated, he accused Helen of killing him, and she threw the scrub at him hitting his head. Nia was astonished.

That same evening, Helen left home with her children and arrived to her mother’s apartment. The father was dead and, the lady, Nana Allen, lived on top of a hairdresser’s and also worked there. Helen didn’t have a close relationship with her mother, they were quite different.

Anyway, that evening the grandmother was helpful with the three visitors. She prepared something to eat, put the girls to sleep and talk to Helen for hours, although they saw facts in different ways.

Nia is who remembers those facts forty years later. By then, Phil was dead (he died of a heart attack in his fifties), Sophie got married and had three children; Nana Allen also died long ago, and Helen is in her sixties. She’s still an elegant woman, has had two important relationships, but didn’t get married again.

When Sophie tells her mother her memories about that evening, Helen didn’t remember it at all; she sincerely believes she was in love with Phil, she loved his music and, besides, she could have had a career as a dancer (not her idea when married).

Nia proposed Helen a trip to New York, to visit a painting exhibition, and there they went.

Nia had started to be worried about that trip because Helen could get ill, or they both could start arguing, even if they went normally well together.

After a rainy arrival at New York, little by little they got confident with the hotel and the city, did many visits and enjoyed the museum. Helen seemed completely satisfied when, after visiting the Met, they got back to the hotel. Nia went out for some food because her mother preferred to stay in bed. Finally, they ate, enjoyed watching television and felt asleep early.

When Nia woke during the night, she perceived the heat and presence of her mother, as when she was a small girl, and happily felt asleep again.

Perhaps the idea of Matrilineal is that some things are transmitted along generations from mother to daughter, in spite of differences and distance, and they need each other along lifetime, mainly when life becomes hard.

QUESTIONS

-“Forty years ago, Helen left her husband.” The narrator doesn’t use the word “divorced”. Do you think they got back together for some time, or they got divorced immediately? How do you know?

-Think about where they live. Why is this scenery important ?

-Can you tell us what mum advices her children about clothes? Do you think it’s a good piece of advice?

-Do you think Helen left dancing because she had children, or because she didn’t like dancing so much?

-They had problems with their neighbours downstairs. What are the typical problems with neighbours?

-“Helen left Phil at about half past six.” Why do you think the narrator tells us the time so exactly?

-In your opinion, did the weather have any influence in the incident between Helen and Bill?

-The narrator says they were poor. What details give us this idea?

-What is your experience / opinion about practising music at home?

-What do you know about Art Pepper?

-Why does Phil attract people? Do you think that is enough to be in love with someone? What do you do with a person of only one quality or talent?

-The college had complained about Phil’s hair. What can you say about etiquette at work / school?

-What method do you have to calm yourself down when you feel extremely irritated?

-When Helen imagined him dying in an accident after a concert, do you think she really wanted him dead?

-In your opinion, do their children understood what happened?

-Does the physical constitution determine a person’s character? I mean, do fat people are nicer / funnier than thin people? Or is it only a cliché?

-Mrs Allen has a special pronged fork. Do you have a very special object, tool, instrument… ? What is the meaning of this tool in the story?

“Love is such a lie. In marriage, it’s a lie.” Is this a universal truth, or only a moment of irritation?

-Singing / writing about love, does it mean one knows what love is?

-Do you think we can efface from our memory moments of our life because they were annoying us or because we feel remorse?

-What do you know about Greenham Common?

-What do you need to do to have a good trip in company?

-What do you travel for? What are you looking for when you travel?

-What is the meaning of the visit to NY in the story?

 

VOCABULARY

pollarded, matching, nonchalant, cut and line, valet, patent, intimation, driftwood, backcombed, slacks, hilly, tugs, chunky, soundproof, portentousness, off-beat, alto, insane, cot, starkly, moorland, muffled, fleece, thrush, leading rein, buoyant, wary, retail, bill, wig, poised, quivering, stubbornness, bleat, nana, quilt, barrel, special pronged fork, adamantly, seersucker, matted, puckery, crossly, perm papers, cheated, crumble, whorls, rougher, dado, pampered, rough, cornered, conveyor belt, shredder, skewed, rakishly, Ladies, surly, seediness, courtroom drama