Katie Waldegrave

How miserable a marriage can be

Olivia Glazebrook's intense and disconcerting Never Mind Miss Fox casts an unflinching eye on the darker aspects of marriage and motherhood

[Getty Images/iStockphoto] 
issue 01 February 2014

In Never Mind Miss Fox, Olivia Glazebrook’s second novel, the revelation of a long buried secret releases a Pandora’s Box of disasters. At the heart of the book is a disturbing sex scene between a 16-year-old girl and an older, soon-to-be-married man. With intelligent restraint, Glazebrook gives only a partial description of the event itself. Alcohol and the distorting effect of time and memory render the details hazy. But the ramifications of the brief affair play out with devastating consequences.

The novel turns on the lives of Clive and Martha, a successful, if slightly dull couple who, during the course of the book, marry and have a child. On one level, Never Mind Miss Fox is simply a powerful cautionary tale about marital infidelity and dishonesty. However, Glazebrook’s writing is more interesting than that. Her greatest skill is her ability to evoke sympathy for inherently unsympathetic characters.

Clive and Martha are deeply flawed and for the most part unlikable protagonists.

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