Queen Mum – Kate Long

Juno and her half-French husband Manny fit into their Chester neighbourhood perfectly – Juno is able to effortlessly whip up a gourmet meal for twenty at no notice, has two accomplished teenage daughters, volunteers at an elderly care centre, and always knows what’s right, from etiquette to paint colours, while Manny specialises in art appreciation and surrealist film.
Her transplanted neighbour and friend Ally is surprised when Juno tells her that she’s applied to enter the reality TV series Queen Mum – it will not only mean another woman living in her house for a fortnight but Juno will have to live with another family. For all that Juno says it’ll be an ‘interesting cultural exchange,’ the show generally contrasts extremes, and Juno may not be comfortable with the results.
As Ally, recovering from the death of one of her sons and comparing her ramshackle life and unsteady marriage with the perfect life of Juno, the house swap and its aftermath allow her to reassess where she is, where she’s been, and where she’s going. And, in the process, allows Ally to appreciate what she has.
Long has done a magnificent job of portraying not only Ally and her recovering family but of Juno, and the way Ally’s – and the reader’s – perceptions of Juno shift during the novel is masterful. The first person narration is interspersed with transcripts from the program that allow us to see how the experience of swapping lives affects not only Juno but, more interestingly, Manny, and illuminates the patched-over holes in Juno’s perfect family façade. The casual snobbery of Juno is particularly well written.
The sections where Juno’s younger daughter, Sophie, rebels against her controlling mother strongly resonated with me, even though my adolescence is long behind me. When Ally tells a distraught Juno that, when she was a teen, talking to her mother “was as if I couldn’t help myself, like being possessed. I can remember the sensation exactly, opening my mouth and horrible words coming out that weren’t mine… I was foul.”
Long also weaves through Ally’s struggle with herself, and with her husband and son, regarding her over-protectiveness, guilt and grief over the death of her younger son, and the echoes tragic loss has on the surviving family. In fact, there are many elements and sub-plots – female relationships (mother-daughter, between sisters, and female friendships), the natures of marriage, whether one ought to prioritise substance or appearance, and what things in life really matter.
I enjoy watching the American version of Wife Swap from time to time, for the very reason that I thought I’d enjoy Queen Mum – both women, and both families, wind up with a better appreciation of what they have, and the simultaneous knowledge that some things taken for granted can be reviewed and rotated a little. That element was less present in Queen Mum than I expected, but this was compensated for by the unexpected rich and layered plot. Quite good – Alex