Breaking Up

A new Cann book is always a cause for celebration. The veracity of both internal and external dialogue in Breaking Up immediately communicates Fliss's anguish at the disintegration of her parents' relationship and of her own with her boyfriend Simon. There is an overwhelming sense of isolation permeating the novel - Fliss's over-dependence on Simon for support is graphically communicated and when their relationship crumbles the reader is left with a real sense of loss and anger on Fliss's behalf - a double perspective which allows one to observe and participate at the same time. The real triumph of the book is the reader's awareness that each character is reshaped by events: it is their destroyed relationships which define them, not their independent personalities. The therapeutic value of Breaking Up cannot be ignored: the absolute realism of emotional trauma is slowly replaced by an equally convincing and determined climb to rehabilitation and renewal.