BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION POINTS: ‘AGAINST ALL ODDS’ - contains plot spoilers!!

Warning:

This synopsis contains plot ‘spoilers’! 

Read at your OWN RISK!

PLOT SYNOPSIS

London stockbroker’s wife Grace Radley has had enough of her husband’s affairs; enough of being taken for granted and treated like dirt.  Too cowardly to confront him and demand a divorce, she simply runs away.

On the windswept deck of the Orkney ferry, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with desperate twenty-something Sonia Flett, who’s running home from the mess she’s made of her own London life.

Workaholic musician, Vidar Rasmussen, is also making his way north.  Approaching fifty, increasingly dissatisfied with the enforced isolation of fame, Vidar fears the spectre of a future he seems destined to endure alone.

A booking mix-up means Vidar arrives at his remote and oft-Let Orkney property only to find it’s been rented out on his behalf to the fragile and insecure Grace.  Captivated by her artless charm, craving some meaning within his empty personal life, Vidar falls passionately in love.

He reveals his darkest secrets to her – his hellraising youth of drug abusing hedonism, his abandonment and neglect of his only son as a result, and his foolishness in forming meaningless relationships with much-younger women in his desperate quest to halt the march of time.  Vidar’s past conquests coincidentally include Grace’s brand new best friend, the striking and sassy young Sonia – pregnant, pretending a boldness she doesn’t feel, defensive about her plight, and extremely cagey concerning the identity of the mystery father.

Grace’s acceptance of Vidar as ordinary human being, rather than flawless global superstar, ensures his total devotion to her from the start, and his immediate planning of their long-term future together.

It appears nothing can upset the perfection of their blossoming union, but Grace has not been truthful with Vidar.  He believes she’s free to marry him, and she’s done nothing to correct his assumption.  She’s just hoping the problem will go away…somehow.  There’s also the troublesome continued presence of Sonia.  Close as the two women have become, something about the behaviour of Vidar towards Sonia sews seeds of doubt in Grace’s subconscious.  Is her new man really as indifferent to his past dalliance as he claims, and why does Sonia remain so determinedly close-mouthed about the father of her child?

When Grace’s abandoned husband, Dominic Radley, unexpectedly arrives in Orkney to fetch her home, both Vidar and Grace are forced to face harsh truths, and confront their past mistakes.

The pattern of Dominic’s comfortable life has been inconveniently interrupted by the five-month absence of a wife for whom he has scant regard and no respect, but who is nevertheless useful to ensure both his personal wellbeing and the health of his career.  He knows nothing less than an irreparable breach with her rewarding new life will induce his wife to return willingly to London – so he sets about engineering one.

Dominic knows something Grace does not: the identity of the father of Sonia Flett’s baby.

By the time Grace works it out for herself, the damage has been done.  Grace and Vidar have been forced apart by Dominic’s poison, and it appears there’s no way back.

Grace seeks to confront Sonia and have her suspicions acknowledged and the truth admitted, but is thwarted by Sonia’s sudden and untimely labour.  As Grace supports her friend through the frightening agony of premature childbirth, her focus upon accusation and recrimination turns to a strong desire to support and nurture. 

She realises how selfishly she’s treated Vidar and wants to apologise for her foolish falsehood before she leaves Orkney for good.  

While Grace has been on an enlightening journey of self-discovery, Vidar has embarked upon his own critical road to self-awareness.  Without Grace, he is simply an unwanted, embittered millionaire, money and accolades dismally failing to fill the yawning chasm where love and fulfilment should be. 

Vidar is well-aware his conduct is far from unimpeachable.  Grace certainly should have told him the truth about her husband, but he should not have behaved the irresponsible way he did with Sonia Flett and myriad other young girls simply because fame placed him on a pedestal to be worshipped and adored.  He should not have taken drugs as a young man and abandoned his only son.  He finally understands that Grace alone holds the key to his true happiness.  If he wants his latter life to contain any significance beyond the volume of his material wealth, Vidar knows he must make his peace with her and convince her not to leave.  

Against all odds, can their love survive?

Points for discussion 

• Why has Grace remained with the unfaithful Dominic Radley for so long?  Should she be blamed for this?  Is she weak to knowingly turn a blind eye to his philandering, or wise to remain ensconced in comfortable security?
• Who is the most flawed character – the spoilt and indulged Grace Radley, or the worshipped superstar Vidar Rasmussen?
• Sonia’s ‘predicament’ could be attributed to the self-serving actions of four people, but who is truly responsible:

Grace – for cowardly self-delusion, permitting her sham marriage to endure far too long;

Vidar – for over-inflating Sonia’s expectations for his own benefit, never considering how this might influence her future decision-making;

Dominic – for taking advantage of a young, lonely, impressionable woman in his employ;

Sonia herself – for willing naivety.  Did she deliberately get pregnant to trap Dominic Radley and ensure her future security?

• Is Sonia the daughter Grace will never have?
• Is Grace wrong to offer Sonia financial support, or seek to make her divorce conditional upon Dominic’s payment of child maintenance?  Is Grace’s action philanthropic, or interfering?
• Would you prefer Grace and Vidar’s relationship and lifestyle, or that of Stewart and Elaine Kirkbride?  Why?
• In Vidar’s shoes, would you forgive Grace for her lies?