The Understanding

Lynne Perras teaches communication arts at the University of Calgary.

Set in Vancouver, The Understanding paints an unsettling picture of the
harsh realities that often lie beneath apparent domestic bliss. Isobel
and Solly Whitechapel are beloved by their friends and the media for
their seemingly selfless and generous natures. The parents of nine
children, they also run a job-training program for street kids whom they
support and mentor. Theirs is a world of convention, rules, and
respectable appearances: “Friday night you go to Solly and Isobel’s.
You make something or buy something and bring that. It doesn’t matter
what ... it’s the bringing that counts. Isobel still believes in the
communal thing.”

Gradually, it becomes clear that the perfect family is anything but, as
Isobel is discovered not to be the mother of her estranged rock-star
daughter, Magnolia, and is in fact accused of kidnapping her as an
infant and raising her as her own. Through a series of flashbacks,
Wright describes Isobel and Solly’s first meeting, early courtship,
and stay at a commune on Gulf Island. The mystery of Magnolia’s
origins is solved. Also exposed are Isobel and Solly’s denial of age
and their reluctance to grow up authentically (Solly has affairs with
young women, while Isobel clings to her youth by producing more and more
children).

The Understanding is a fast-paced and lively novel, filled with
well-drawn and fascinating characters. Wright is adept at creating
suspense as she slowly reveals the secrets hidden under the serene
surface of her protagonists’ lives.