Lizzie Enfield "What You Don't Know"

Having stumbled across Lizzie Enfield I felt compelled to write a brief review of her superb debut novel “What You Don’t Know”. I really enjoyed Lizzie’s writing, and found the novel to be entertaining, relevant and thoroughly engaging. Her characterizations were deftly handled and I found myself really believing in the portrayals of Helen, Alex and Graham. The plot centres around Helen’s mid-life crisis moment, triggered through interviewing ex-soldier Graham. Despite the fact that he doesn’t fit the obvious visual mould she is drawn to him, and is tempted by the possibility of an extra-marital affair, partly due to her actor-husband’s preoccupation with his new co-star. Her indecision and the accompanying moral dilemma becomes the main theme of the novel, providing both its structure and its ultimate resolution.

The commonly held advice is to write about what you know, so given Lizzie’s background it should come as no surprise that Helen is depicted as a journalist. This provides many opportunities for insightful observations about journalistic distance and objectivity. My feeling is that many of Helen’s motivations and character traits are possibly the author’s own, although this could simply be her skill as a writer in giving Helen a believable voice. There is a beautifully crafted description of Helen’s indecision early on in the novel (which made me laugh out loud) and which then echoes throughout the rest of the book.

Minor criticisms are the fairly contained focus of the plot and the rather abrupt ending, which felt a little rushed, but these very minor gripes do not detract from the overall strength of the piece.

Intelligent, perceptive and wise, I would highly recommend this well-written book.