Review by Darcie Czajkowski
When
Annabelle Andrews glides into Tallulah “Lulu” de Longland’s life, Lulu is
besotted. By Annabelle’s unqualified comfort in her own skin. By her bewitching
artist parents of national fame. And by Annabelle’s instantaneous interest in
becoming Lulu’s best and only friend.
Forsaking
all others at their elite Catholic school, Lulu and Annabelle are inseparable.
They bond over the fact that they both call their parents by the first names, that
their mothers have limited parental capacities, and that they feel most
alive when they are with each other, communicating through a unique
word-blending language. Only when Joshua Keaton enters the picture and becomes
Lulu’s first boyfriend does their fold expand to three.
But just
before high school graduation, just as Lulu and Josh are making plans to travel
abroad, Lulu finds Josh and Annabelle together, at once severing the two lifelines
that mattered most to her.
Devastated,
Lulu fritters away the next four years, listlessly performing menial office
tasks for her father Harry’s successful plumbing business. But Harry sees that his
daughter isn’t engaged in her life in any capacity, failing to go on even one
date in the years since Annabelle and Josh’s betrayal, and, in an act of love,
he fires her and insists that she move to the city an hour and a half away from
their sleepy little town of Juniper Bay.
Lulu starts
working for Duncan McAllister, a morning radio show host who is prominently
known in the industry as the King of the Airwaves. Lulu and Duncan are an odd
pairing: Lulu is understated, a caretaker. Duncan has three ex-wives and another
one imminent, a gaggle of children, and a loud, demanding personality. But the
two form a symbiotic friendship, one that Duncan will ultimately rely on to get
him through the most difficult news one can receive in life. In turn, Lulu will
be repaid in the most unexpected of ways, encouraged to learn lessons in
finding her own happiness, realizing her place in the world, and forgiving not
only Annabelle and Josh, but also forgiving herself.
Frances
Whiting strikes glittering gold in Walking
on Trampolines. At first glance, the story is simple: girl meets boy, boy
break girl’s heart, girl doesn’t recover. But as the reader continues to parse
the delicate folds of this story, she is taken on a journey that spans
complicated home lives, the realization that everyone deserves happiness, the
challenges in surviving loss, and the freedom that is found in forgiveness.
With layered characters, vivid setting depictions, and a remarkably original
premise, I was captivated by this story and encourage you to set foot into Lulu’s
world in the coastal town of Juniper Bay, Australia.
Purchase the book at:
Frances Whiting is one of Australia's best known and favourite
columnists. For more than fifteen years her Sunday Mail column has engaged readers in the highs, lows and the wonderful of
the every day. She is also an award winning journalist and Senior Feauture
writer for Q Weekend Magazine in the Courier Mail. She has published two
collections of her columns: Oh To Be A Marching Girl, and That's A Home Run,
Tiger! Walking on Trampolines is her first novel.
Connect with
the author at:
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