The characters in Sweet Caress suffer many traumas. Did any of these portrayals resonate with you personally?

The characters in Sweet Caress suffer many traumas including alcoholism, mental illness, infertility. Did any of these portrayals resonate with you personally?

The incident that resonated with me was the Maroon Street riot - because my father-in-law lived on Cable street during that time and told us about the two riots, shortly after which our family went to London and saw where he had lived and where it had all taken place. It was cool to see it described in a novel as it was something I had not known about.

Amory was the most developed character. The other characters seemed minor, and their traumas were never sufficiently developed for them to resonate with me. Amory's near drowning at the hands of her father was, to me, the most traumatizing event in the story, yet little is made of the incident. I do think it influences all her decisions and actions throughout the story. I believe this because as a child, I was physically abused in a hospital and I have never gotten over it. Even with therapy, they explained that the mind at that age is so sensitive to experiences that it would not be able to forget the trauma. Years and years later the thought of a hospital or doctor can bring on a panic attack.

I thought that Sholto's alcoholism was very believable and well portrayed.

Amory's reactions to trauma was always somewhat muted. For example, the reader knows that the near drowning incident marked her deeply but not because she dwells on it. The same is true for her beating in the Maroon Street riot and the death of Sholto. I enjoyed her understated response, particularly at the end of the book when she so gently and calmly changes her mind about committing suicide, only to do so some years later when, presumably, the time was right.