Read Christie 2021: The Burden

A book that reflects on the weight of love.

Name: The Burden

Writer: Mary Westmacott (aka Agatha Christie)

Country: United Kingdom

Year: 1956

Genre: Romance

Synopsis:

Laura Franklin is very affected with the birth of her sister. As you would expect, baby Shirley is the main focus of the family’s attention. Laura’s jealousy is so intense that she even wishes for Shirley’s death. However, these negative feelings drastically shift when, one night, after a fire, she vows to protect her with all her strength and love. Years later, when Shirley starts to crave for freedom and adventure, Laura will have to question the boundaries of a relationship that has become uneven. Has the burden of her love for her sister have a dramatic and irreversible impact on their lives?

Review

Being February the month of Valentine's Day, the topic of the Read Christie 2021 challenge couldn’t be anything else other than about love. and for that reason, I decided to go for a book from Christie’s pseudonym.

The Burden is a book that tells us the story of Laura and Shirley, two young sisters with very different temperaments and a gigantic will to be happy. The book is divided into four parts, focusing each on a specific moment in the character’s lives. We start off by exploring Laura’s childhood, a little girl that reminded me a lot of Wednesday Addams, and her aversion towards her sister Shirley. However, one day changes everything and the aversion turns into pure love. As the narrative progresses, we end up also getting to know Shirley, a cheerful and dreamy young girl, and the challenges she faces.

Like in her crime novels, Agatha Christie wraps us with her fluid writing and intricate plot. However, I must confess that the last two parts of the book left me a bit confused, since it focused on a character never mentioned in the story before, which led me to feel like I was reading a different book sometimes.

Other than that, the book is very well conceived and makes us think about our own feelings towards love, but that is something I will dive into a bit later on. Another positive aspect was the fact that the author went straight to the point and didn’t “beat around the bush” as the story progressed.

As for the ending, it was short and direct, and I confess that I am not sure what to think about it. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I’m not entirely sure if I found it satisfactory. However, I admit that it took me by surprise, and that, sometimes, I felt like I was Laura, carrying the weight of love on my shoulders.

Whisper of the Heart

Mary Westmacott was born from Agatha Christie's will to prove to herself that her books were good, not for her fame as Dame of Crime, but for their merit and the quality of her work. This was the first book of her pseudonym that I read and I can't say I was disappointed. Being a big observer of human nature, the author was capable of presenting us a rich and insightful narrative about love.

The Burden was one of the last books written by Christie as Mary Westmacott. As I referred before, it’s a book that makes us think about our own feelings towards love, and we find several kinds of love in it: paternal, fraternal, sexual and spiritual. The author shows us that all of them can become toxic if we are not careful. For Laura, the paternal love was not enough, which led to her becoming a child with dangerous ideas. Our parents' love can influence us in a way that we end up being good people or not. Also, fraternal love can pose as dangerous in situations where we are not aware when not to interfere in each other’s lives. As much as we love one another, there comes a moment when we must let them live their lives with all that it brings, be it pain or happiness.

However, the things that confused me a lot were Shirley’s attitudes and her path throughout the book. I was always fascinated and admired the people that live by their beliefs, even when they lead them towards a precipice. However, I don’t understand when they say that love withstands everything, for, personally, there are things that I do not allow to happen, regardless of how much I am in love.

On the other hand, Llewellyn’s path is quite different from the other characters, and makes us understand that even faith can corrupt us from within, if it is excessive.

“Man cannot have power in his hands. Power makes it rot, from the inside out. How much longer could I have gone on without this stain appearing inside me?” ( Llewellyn, The Burden)

For someone who has read Agatha Christie: an autobiography, reading The Burden was a mix of feelings, for I firmly believe that the author based on facts from her own life and used this book to think about the weight that love can have. Are we conscious of the weight our love has on other people?

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