The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell
The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell
In a hospice in Bury St Edmunds, a man called Daniel is slowly fading away. His friend Maggie sits with him every day; she holds his hand and she listens to the story of his life, to his regrets and to his secrets. And then he tells her about the children he has never met and never will. He talks of them wistfully. His legacy, he calls them.
Lydia, Dean and Robyn don’t know each other. Yet. And they are all facing difficult changes. Lydia is still wearing the scars from her traumatic childhood and although she is wealthy and successful, her life is lonely and disjointed. Dean is a young man, burdened with unexpected responsibility, whose life is going nowhere. And Robyn wants to be a doctor, just like her father – a man she’s never met. But is her whole life built on an illusion?
Three people leading three very different lives. All lost. All looking for something. But when they slowly find their way into each other’s lives, everything starts to change …
Review
The Making of Us is one of Lisa Jewell’s earlier novels which deals more with family dynamics rather than being like the complex psychological thrillers that she currently writes. The book centres on the subject of sperm donation and is told from the viewpoint of several characters so it takes a while to understand how these people are connected to each other. The book begins with a young Welsh woman, Dilys, who is desperate to have a child but is unable to tell her macho husband that he is the one with the fertility problem so she decides to use a sperm bank and eventually gives birth to a daughter, Lydia. The story then jumps ahead to a teenage Lydia and we discover her mother died when she was young and her relationship is very strained with her father who is terminally ill. Lydia feels at odds with the world but can’t really understand why so she assumes it is down to her upbringing and the way her mother died. We then jump ahead another decade and Lydia is a self-made millionaire after inventing a compound that stops paint from smelling. While she has everything she could ever want materialistically, Lydia is still very much a loner and seems unable to make a connection to anyone. Then, she receives an anonymous letter that changes everything.
As Lydia is learning about the true circumstances around her birth, we are introduced to Robyn on the occasion of her eighteenth birthday. Robyn has grown up in a loving home but has always known her biological father was a sperm donor as her parents had two older daughters who died from an hereditary disease. Knowing her donor was a French doctor, Robyn figures her fate has been pre-determined and is about to head to medical school to follow in his footsteps. We jump slightly ahead to Robyn’s first year and realise she is failing her course which is a new thing for her as she has never failed at anything. Despondent, Robyn decides to register her details with a company who tracks down the children of sperm donors and is astounded to learn she has three other siblings and one has expressed an interest in meeting with her. After a lengthy delay, Lydia has also registered but Robyn ignores her overtures as she isn’t ready to meet.
The story then focuses on Dean, a young man who is living with his heavily pregnant girlfriend and seems rather aimless in comparison to Lydia and Robyn. However, Dean’s world comes crashing down around his ears when his girlfriend goes into premature labour and dies giving birth to their daughter. Dean walks away believing he doesn’t have what it takes to care for a child on his own but on a rare night out he meets a young woman who is intrigued when he drunkenly blurts out the fact his father was a sperm donor and she signs him to the search company before he has a chance to think about it too much. When Dean receives contact from Lydia, he nervously agrees to a meeting but it proves to be an event that will change both of their lives. Lydia finally starts to feel that she belongs to someone and Dean is resolved to sort his life out. However, the missing part of the puzzle is Robyn and the fourth sibling who remains elusive.
As Lydia and Dean get to know each other, we are introduced to Maggie, an older woman, who thought she had found love again in the shape of Daniel but they get devastating news before their relationship can develop. Daniel has an aggressive form of cancer and before long is placed in a hospice for palliative care. As much as it hurts to have her dream snatched away, Maggie continues to be a source of strength for Daniel but she is astounded when he tells her that he was once a sperm donor and that he knows there are four children out there. Since Daniel expresses regret at not having met them, Maggie decides to fulfil his wish and registers Daniel’s name. Daniel is the final push Robyn needs to finally make contact with Lydia and Dean who have gone on a fact finding mission to Wales so Lydia can lay some ghosts to rest. When the three siblings arrive at the hospice, Daniel is barely clinging to life but they manage to say their goodbyes. However, the loss of Daniel has a profound effect on the siblings and they realise they are stronger together so they make some life changing decisions.
While The Making of Us may not be the most exciting book in comparison to Jewell’s later books, I still found it an intriguing read. A change in the law in 2005 meant any child conceived by sperm donation had the right to request information on their donor once they turned eighteen, so the prospect of meeting later in life is an interesting subject. While the subject is handled delicately in this story, it did seem a bit strange that we only follow Lydia through different age ranges although I suppose she is the only one unaware of the circumstances of her birth. However, it feels like Lydia is a little more fleshed out than the other two who are much younger than her. Robyn is the least likeable of the siblings as she appears quite shallow and her reasons for not wanting to meet the others are rooted in the fact that she feels she would lose her starring role in the fantasy she has built around Daniel all these years.
