A Town Called Solace

“She’d expected Mrs Orchard to be more reliable, and was disappointed in her. Adults in general were less reliable than they should be, in Clara’s opinion, but she’d thought Mrs Orchard was an exception.”

Clara reflects on how disappointed she is that Mrs. Orchard did not keep her word and return quickly. Clara is learning that the adults around her cannot be trusted absolutely and that life is not always as predictable as she wants it to be. Like the other two protagonists in the novel, Clara will soon have to face the necessity of Confronting and Overcoming Challenges.

“I enjoy our conversations very much, you never know where they’re going to end up. She doesn’t make my heart lift the way Liam did, but no other child has ever done that.”

Mrs. Orchard’s reflections on Clara and Liam reflect The Complexities of Relationships. Mrs. Orchard’s deep affection for Liam was so intense because, as is foreshadowed here, she became unhealthily attached to him while grieving her inability to have children. The fact that she did not form as intense an attachment to Clara is thus a positive sign of her better sense of boundaries with other people’s children.

“The slow, relentless disintegration of his marriage, the decision to split, the months of increasingly savage disputes over the house, and the final, never-to-be forgotten evening, back at what once had been home, to decide the division of possessions.”

In reflecting on the failure of his marriage, Liam reveals the crisis that has driven him to seek refuge in Mrs. Orchard’s house in Solace. Liam’s divorce is an important part of his character arc, as it heightens his fear that he is unable to form strong and lasting relationships with others.

“The news of Mr Orchard’s death upset him more than seemed reasonable even to him, seeing that for almost thirty years he hadn’t given either of the Orchards a thought. But the letter suggested that he’d been important to them and he had a profound sense, standing there, that it had been mutual.”

Liam’s unexpected grief at Mr. Orchard’s passing reflects the complexities of relationships. Although Liam has few clear memories of the Orchards, his sense that the fondness was “mutual” reveals that he is indeed capable of forming deep attachments when given the chance—an important realization he will recognize again, and more fully, later in the novel.

“You could tell by her mother’s face that her head was so full of Rose there wasn’t room for a single other thing. Clara wanted to put her arms around her, and she also wanted to scream at her.”

Clara’s conflicting emotions here are a part of the search for solace and understanding she undergoes in the novel. Her mother’s distraction over Rose leaves Clara feeling unseen and unheard, heightening her anxiety and her need for a trusted adult to take notice of her, as Liam will soon do.

“The knowledge that countless other women had gone through the same thing and had pulled themselves together and got on with things merely added the extra weight of guilt to my despair. I had always considered myself a strong and sensible woman, and yet now I was helpless. Our lost children were with me every moment of every day. I could not let them go, I could not put them down.”

Mrs. Orchard reflects on the intensity of her grief after the multiple miscarriages she suffers. Mrs. Orchard’s unresolved depression explains the intensity with which she later attaches herself to Liam, while her reflection here that she was full of “despair” and did not know how to “let [the miscarriages] go” reflects the theme of confronting and overcoming challenges.

“Fiona would have said this was a perfect illustration of what she’d figured out years ago, namely that Liam had no close friends for the simple reason that he was incapable of forming relationships, just as he was incapable of love.”

The idea that he is “incapable of love” has haunted Liam since childhood. Liam feels like an outcast within his own family and with his wife, which in turn exacerbates his sense of being fundamentally unable to connect with others. Recognizing his capability for love will be a central part of his journey of discovery in Solace.

“Mostly, his mother had seemed indifferent to him, but there had been times when he’d felt something close to hostility emanating from her, which he’d been, and still was, completely at a loss to understand. It was as if he’d unknowingly committed an unforgivable crime.”

In remembering his mother’s apparent “hostility,” Liam provides more context for the search for solace and understanding in his own life. Since he did not feel loved and accepted growing up, he is still struggling to figure out how to shake his sense of insecurity and unworthiness with other people—an important aspect of his character arc.

“But then Moses did something so amazing that it helped after all. He stood up, his paws kneading little pits in her legs, put his front feet up on her shoulders, pressed his nose against hers and looked straight into her eyes from a distance of half an inch. His eyes were absolutely huge, it was like looking at two great green moons. Clara went cross-eyed trying to focus on them. It made her laugh.”

Moses’s show of engagement and affection is helpful to Clara, who finds the cat’s presence comforting in the midst of her dilemmas. Moses is an important symbol in the book, representing the comforts of home and stability (See: Symbols & Motifs). Additionally, her bond with him foreshadows the closeness and warmth that will develop between her and Liam, as they enter each other’s lives because of Moses.

“When it became too cold for the porch steps, we moved indoors and sat at the kitchen table. I bought a few toys […] and a number of books […] Ordinary, simple, inexpensive things. Things that say, to anyone coming in the door: in this house, there is a child.”

Mrs. Orchard’s eagerness to fill her home with books and toys for Liam hints at her growing desire to make Liam her own son. Her phrasing here—“in this house, there is a child”—is significant, as it reflects her growing commitment to creating a false sense of permanency for Liam’s presence. The passage reflects the complexities of relationships, as it implies that Mrs. Orchard’s motives are not necessarily entirely selfless and healthy.

“The decision not to have children had been Fiona’s but Liam had been one hundred per cent happy to go along with it. He hadn’t enjoyed being a child and couldn’t imagine enjoying being a father.”

Liam’s inability to imagine himself as a father reflects both the legacy of his unhappy childhood and his own nagging sense of inadequacy when it comes to forming relationships, as he can’t picture being happy as a father. This self-image of himself as not capable of connecting well with children will later be challenged by his dealings with Clara.

“His pride. He remembered his pride. The way it swelled up in him, made him feel a little bigger, a little taller; more sure of himself. Special.”

Liam comes across his old childhood drawings, carefully preserved by Mrs. Orchard, and remembers how he felt when he saw them all displayed on a wall in the Orchards’ kitchen. The passage invokes the search for solace and understanding, as Liam has struggled to recreate that sense of pride and belonging ever since—something that will only change as he starts putting down roots in Solace.

“I came close to despising her at that moment […] I had to work hard not to say, That is perfectly normal behaviour for a three-year-old, Annette, he wants your attention, why don’t you give it to him? And why don’t you lock the door of the study during the day? Hide the key. Problem solved.”

When Annette complains to Mrs. Orchard about Liam acting out and tearing one of Ralph’s books, the intensity of Mrs. Orchard’s anger reflects the complexities of relationships: She can understand why Liam might act the way he does as a young child, which shows her compassionate nature toward him, but the fact that she comes “close to despising” Annette for expressing any kind of frustration over her challenges as a mother further hints at how overly involved Mrs. Orchard is becoming with Liam.

“He knew he could have joined them, they’d indicated as much, but he didn’t. Still couldn’t cross the river. Couldn’t risk it—though exactly what it was he couldn’t risk he didn’t know.”

Liam reflects on how, despite things getting easier with girls as he became a good-looking teenager, he was still unable to make real friends. His sense that he is “risking” something if he puts himself out there reflects his lack of confidence in his ability to form connections, while his regret over failing to do so emphasizes that Liam is still grappling with confronting and overcoming challenges instead of running away from them.

“Though it wasn’t so much the thought of Rose, whose grainy image had stared so belligerently out at him from the newspaper, that made Liam suppress his irritation and agree; it was Clara. The way she had searched his face earlier that evening, needing to trust him—to trust somebody—but not sure that she could. It had rung a distant, but very resonant bell.”

Liam agrees to get involved in the case of Rose’s disappearance by talking to Clara about Dan because he cares about Clara, especially since he realizes she has his trust when no one else in her life does. This reveals that, contrary to his own belief, Liam is indeed capable of love and connection, and that he plays an important role in the search for solace and understanding in Clara’s life.

“‘Can I have the little men playing cards too? It’s my favorite thing.’ ‘Is it?’ Mr Kane said. ‘That’s interesting, it’s my favourite thing too. Yes, you can have that when I die as well.’”

As Clara and Liam unpack his things and sort through Mrs. Orchard’s, she lays claim to a specific item that belonged to Mrs. Orchard. Liam and Clara’s shared liking of this object reflects the deepening of their bond. Liam’s agreement to pass it on to Clara when he dies, just as Mrs. Orchard did with him, also reflects the motif of patterns and rituals in the novel (See: Symbols & Motifs), with his close bond with Clara mirroring his former close bond with Mrs. Orchard.

“I told him he mustn’t say that, that his mummy loved him very much. But it tore at my heart, Charles. It tore at my heart with pity and—I hardly know how to say this—with a kind of savage joy. As if I was winning something. As if I had won. How could I have felt such a thing, loving him as I did, wanting the best for him? How could I?”

Mrs. Orchard reflects on the first time that Liam told her he loved her more than Annette; it elicits both pity for Liam and a “savage joy” within Mrs. Orchard, reflecting her mixed motives and the complexities of relationships. In retrospect, Mrs. Orchard is able to recognize that her conflicting emotions perhaps did Liam some harm as well: Her implicit encouragement of Liam’s deep attachment to her, born out of her own need to mother, perhaps contributes to the rift between Liam and Annette over time. Mr. Orchard foresees this too, as later in the same chapter he cautions Mrs. Orchard against treating Liam as if he were her son, suggesting it will confuse Liam, which it eventually does.

“Driving home he was struck by the thought that, increasingly, his life prior to coming north seemed to be taking on the quality of an old movie, one in which he’d been deeply engrossed while watching it but which now seemed trivial, unconvincing and profoundly lacking in either colour or plot. Solace had colour and plot in spades, maybe too much.”

Liam’s prior life appears “trivial” and colorless because, in Solace, he is forging new relationships and confronting and overcoming challenges in a way he never had the courage to do before. What Solace provides for Liam, which he believes to be “colour” and “plot,” is actually love, acceptance, and genuine connection.

“It would have helped if Mr Kane had been there, but he wasn’t […] She wanted to ask him why Rose wasn’t home yet. She also just plain wanted him to be there. He was supposed to be there.”

Mrs. Orchard’s house becomes an important refuge for Clara, symbolizing, just as it does for Liam, a safe space filled with love and understanding (See: Symbols & Motifs). Additionally, she begins to depend on him, with his presence soothing her and helping her regain her trust. Clara’s growing reliance on opening up to Liam instead of on her self-soothing rituals reflects how she is now confronting and overcoming challenges in a healthier way.

“After lunch Rose was sleeping very soundly and Clara saw that Mr Kane was home, so she went over to his house […] and they unpacked the final box.”

Unpacking Liam’s cardboard boxes becomes a soothing and relaxing ritual for Clara, because it caters to her need for order at a chaotic time in her life. Unpacking also brings Liam a step closer to staying on in Solace, reflecting how he is putting down roots in the town.

“[T]he fault with your arguments that night was that they were rational, while I, at the time, was not. You pointed out that the situation in the Kane family was a temporary one, that eventually Annette would sort herself out and we would see much less of Liam. But the future was irrelevant to me then, dear one, or rather, I had created my own picture of it, a future in which, by one impossible circumstance or another, Liam was ours.”

With hindsight, Mrs. Orchard admits that Mr. Orchard’s warnings about her unhealthy attachment to Liam were justified, as she exacerbated the tensions between Annette and Liam to meet her own emotional needs, reflecting the complexities of relationships. However, Mrs. Orchard’s ability to now see the situation for what it was also shows just how far she has come in confronting and overcoming challenges.

“I remember my terror. I remember being sick in the car on our way there. Which was ironic, because St Thomas’s was to be my salvation. […] It was an absolute revelation to me that there were people who knew what to do about such things; people with the skill and knowledge to pick up the pieces of a shattered mind and reassemble them; make them whole.”

Mrs. Orchard reflects on the importance of confronting and overcoming challenges in a healthy way as she remembers how her stint in the psychiatric hospital ultimately empowered her to cope with her infertility. This marked a turning point in her life, helping her save her marriage and set better boundaries with children going forward.

“He stood in the living room pondering. He’d seen Jo half a dozen times in the two weeks since that first night. He’d been aware of her caution and if anything, it had reassured him, wary as he also was of getting involved. Now that he knew the reason for it, though, he wondered if it was OK to carry on.”

Liam’s hesitation as to whether he should continue the relationship with Jo speaks to his inherent integrity and sensitivity as a person, reemphasizing that he is indeed capable of genuine connection. His ability to consider what is best for her, and not just for him, demonstrates his self-growth, as he is now handling interpersonal connections with more nuance and confidence than he did before.