I’ve put off writing this review because, even though I finished it nearly a week ago, I’m still not sure what to make of Liz Nugent’s novel, Strange Sally Diamond. Every time I thought the story was settling down, Nugent would throw a wild curve ball that knocked me off of my expectations. While I enjoyed the twists and turns, I’m still puzzled by the ending of the story. I feel a blend of satisfaction and uneasiness. I can’t recall any other book that left me with such a weird sense of pleasantly mixed emotions.
We meet the eponymous Sally Diamond on what might be, if she was like other people, a very sad day. Her father has just died after a long illness. Instead of calling a doctor or the police, Sally follows what she believes is her father’s last instruction: to put his body out with the trash. So, she does. A few days after attempting to cremate her father in the trash incinerator, a neighbor asks about the smell and the whole story comes out. The small village of Carricksheedy is aghast. Sally knows that she doesn’t think and feel the way that her neighbors do and is simply annoyed at everyone kicking up a fuss.
This startling introduction turns out to be the least upsetting thing about Sally Diamond. As family friends, distant relatives, and various police officers flutter around Sally in the wake of her father’s death, we learn that she was adopted by her recently deceased father after a horrific crime. Sally has no memories of the crime. She doesn’t even remember her birth mother even though both of them were rescued when Sally was around seven years old. This leaves Sally with the strange experience of knowing less about her own history than everyone around her, people who read the newspapers when the scandalous crimes of Sally’s real father came to light.
The twists come hard and fast after Sally starts to learn about her biological parents. Like Sally, we have to question how much our parents or our DNA shape who we are. Also, like Sally, we have to wonder if the monster who fathered her is still out in the world somewhere. I could never have guessed what Nugent would do with this possibility—and I don’t want to say much more because part of the pleasure of reading Strange Sally Diamond is watching all of the onion layers being peeled back.
I’m very curious to learn what other readers make of the ending of this book. Were you also simultaneously satisfied by the ending but also unsettled by it? I really wish I read this novel with a book club so that we could pick apart what the ending means. I’m going to be mulling over Strange Sally Diamond for a long time.