Uncontrollable - Sara Staggs

 

Don’t you just love it when you get a book where the author is previously unknown to you? You have absolutely no expectations and yet you’re absolutely riveted from the first few sentences. Such has been my experience reading this debut novel from Sara Staggs.

Set in Portland, Oregon, (which coincidentally is one of the few West Coast cities I have visited!) Uncontrollable tells the story of lawyer, Casey Scott, her husband, Jonah and their children. Jonah works at a downtown advertising agency (I had a friend who worked in just such an agency in downtown Portland!). Both seem to be managing their careers and their family life. But Casey has epilepsy. The novel explores, with depth and feeling the pressure this places on the whole family as Casey’s seizures get worse. When a doctor tells her bluntly she could die if her condition is not controlled Casey faces an impossible decision. Should she choose her career, all that she’s worked for and dreamed of, or does she choose her family and her health? The story examines what happens when plans don’t – go to plan. What happens to a family and the whole nature of compromise and survival when things go so frighteningly wrong.

I found the book very well constructed. It’s a dual narrative, so we get both Jonah’s and Casey’s points of view. In that sense, we are never encouraged to take sides. And it’s easy to see where both of them are coming from. They are flawed and human.  The emotion is raw and palpable. I found them well drawn and believable characters. And if you knew little about epilepsy, then this is the fiction to educate you. The sequences in the book that detail treatments and procedures are jaw dropping . And my heart goes out to this author, because there’s no way she could write about this without having undergone it herself and believe me, it’s highly challenging for the bravest and strongest of individuals.

I think there can be a danger when you’re writing about something so close to you that a degree of sentiment and subjectivity can creep in, but that never happens in this book. It’s well plotted and accessible. The narrative remains objective. And the focus isn’t solely upon the subject of epilepsy. As a litigator, Casey is involved in a high-profile court case which highlights the #MeToo movement.

It’s an impressive debut novel, entertaining, thought provoking and enlightening. I look forward to more from this writer.

My thanks to Librarything, and the author, herself, for gifting me an inscribed copy.