Service - Sarah Gilmartin - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Sarah Gilmartin

GENRE: Literary Fiction

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A literary fiction focussing on three characters, one of whom has just been accused of rape. Infuriating and depressing in many ways, especially if you are a woman. A thought-provoking read for lit-fic lovers.

Story Synopsis:

When Hannah hears that her ex-boss, Chef Daniel Costello is facing rape charges, she goes down memory lane, to the summer she spent waitressing in Daniel’s hotel, about a decade ago.

Daniel, meanwhile, can’t believe that his personal and professional successes are now under a dark cloud just because of some allegation from the long-forgotten past.

Julie, Daniel’s wife, isn’t sure how to handle her husband’s new identity and the attention of the press. As she watches their private lives become public, and her two teenaged sons deal with the aftermath of the slander, Julie wonders if she could have done something differently.

The story comes to us in the first person perspective of these three characters. Hannah’s pov is majorly set in the past, while Daniel’s and Julie’s stories are set mostly in the present.

Bookish Yays:

✔ Nicely developed characters, not surprising for a well-written literary fiction work. Hannah and Julie were so different from each other, and yet so similar in many ways. Both their arcs touched me.

✔ Is it a yay or a nay when you want to rip open the fourth wall and bash up one of the characters? Daniel’s pov left me jittery and infuriated at the same time. I suppose it is a yay as emotional involvement by the reader is a sign of realistically sketched characters.

✔ The use of Dublin city and its socio-economic-cultural aspects in the plot.

(Irish lit-fic novelists seem to be in a whole other league!)

✔ The focus on systemic sexual abuse, when misogyny and chauvinism are written away as necessary evils of urban living rather than as problems to be eliminated.

✔ The glimpse of what goes into the daily running of a restaurant. If you ever thought waitressing is an easy task, here’s the book to set your assumption right.

✔ The regularly interspersed statements in Daniel’s pov asking “What is a chef?” and providing a one-liner reply to the same. Loved every single one of these!

✔ The ending. Not too optimistic nor depressing. But just at the right point of hope.

✔ The author’s note at the end: brief yet impactful.

Bookish Nays:

❌ The story takes a while to get going. It’s too slow even for a literary work, and the constant back-and-forth between timelines and characters doesn’t help. I would have been okay with this for some other topic, but when I know a book is dealing with sexual assault, the woman in me wants to get to the crux of the matter because it is a topic that leaves me fretful.

❌ I would have liked more details about the impact of the accusation on Daniel’s sons. While there were details, the narrative from Julie’s side focusses more on her own emotions than on her children’s.

All in all, this novel created in me tremendous emotional upheaval. It wasn’t easy reading, partly because I wasn’t in the right headspace for this topic. Nevertheless, it still kept me involved all the way. It is a powerful work, and for the right reader (i.e. one who appreciates character-driven novels), it will create an impact that will last long after the last page.

My thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Service”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warning: Misogyny, infidelity, sexual assault, physical assault.