Book Review: Delirious

Delirious
By Damien Wilkins
Review by Bel

Mary and Pete are selling their home and moving to a retirement village, when a call out of the blue sheds new light on their young son’s accidental death 40 years prior. Unmoored and confronted, they must try to reconcile their past, present and future all at once.

Here is an old relationship – with its own particular logic, rhythms and quirks – carefully balanced on years of rubbing along together, with all the loyalty, support, frustration, allowances, understanding, withholding and forgiveness that requires. It is at once familiar, and a completely foreign country.

I love a character-driven novel, and Wilkins is so adept at creating a cast that feels complex, relatable and easy to love. Mary and Pete are just two of this novel’s many marvellous creations – and I miss them all. Wilkins has great respect for these characters, treating their most vulnerable moments with grace and dignity. This creates an easy intimacy for the reader as we watch them fumble stoically through life’s challenges. There’s great sadness, but it’s balanced with humour and warmth.

A beautifully tender, humane novel with universal themes and a distinctly Kiwi flavour. I’ve read it twice now and loved it both times. Highly recommended.