Some parents are great, but some leave scars that endure. Not a lighthearted thought, but a gifted author can make any subject an exciting experience. That's what readers get in The Women Behind the Door, Roddy Doyle's tornado of suppressed trauma and the difficulty of caring for one's kids. Those who have read Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors and its sequel, Paula Spencer, have already met long-widowed Paula, who is still living in Ireland and smarting at age 66 from having been "married to a thief" so abusive that she had to whack him with a frying pan. Now, however--the novel takes place from May 2021 to January 2023--she's happy, with a job at a dry cleaner, a relationship with her "man friend," and the knowledge that her adult kids are well. Except for the Covid-19 pandemic, everything's great.
Until her eldest, 40-something Nicola, returns home and tells Paula she needs a break from her husband and children. Otherwise, Nicola says, "I'll kill them." Equally portentous is her follow-up: "I want to die." Now, it's Paula's turn to mother Nicola, "the woman who's been mothering her for thirty years." What follows is a brittle reunion filled with recriminations and truthful exchanges. Concern over Covid-19 is merely the scaffolding Doyle (The Guts) uses to construct a flashback-filled memory piece about emotional trauma. Readers familiar with Doyle's past novels won't be surprised by the cheerfully profane dialogue and zippy vernacular on every page of this emotionally resonant work. -- Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer