Book Review The Precious One

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Re-arranging the furniture a bit and giving Wilson a voice, would have enabled me to finish The Precious One, a novel by Marisa Los Santos, much earlier.  Wilson left his wife and two kids, Marcus and Taisy for Caroline, a young sculptress.  Willow, their daughter, is one of the story tellers.

Wilson’s hatred for his father seems to be the book’s foundation.  Maybe hate is an understatement because in his youth, he quietly made plans for boarding school, got accepted, left home never to return and changed his name to Cleary, so readers know him as Wilson Cleary. 

He ‘emancipated himself’, as the author put it, through Barbara, his sister, who was devastated when he severed all ties with the family.  However, the conveyor belt for The Precious One is Taisy, and Willow. There is no second guessing about the precious one.  Willow is.
The two voices are a stumbling block at times because they have their own concerns, which might not be a priority for anxious readers that have migraines because of unanswered questions, like why Wilson left his first wife. Taisy is trying to get her only love back and is enamoured by her friend Trillium, a character of Chic Lit persuasion.  Willow is sleeping with an older man, her tutor, and she is not the only one.

What also gave me a migraine is Wilson’s attitude towards his only son Marcus.  The book clearly explains, through Barbara, why Wilson’s father hated his son, but it’s hazy on why Wilson had no time for Marcus.  Fortunately, Marcus knows that his father only loves Willow and has learnt to live with it.

Patience is in short supply, one of the reasons why readers abandon books midway, which is unfortunate because, it wouldn’t be a book if everything is upfront, would it?
Patience paid off and I finished The Precious One.  Barbara saved the day because she is the enigma behind Wilson.  She would have been a strong ‘voice.’

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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