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Review of the novel 'Here One Moment' by Liane Moriarty

There are stakes on the plane in “Here One Moment,” the latest from the Australian fiction powerhouse.
Updated 2024-Oct-06 12:00

A young person wearing headphones sits by a window, oblivious to an older woman in tight profile intently looking at them from across the aisle. An illustration shows the dark blue interior of an airplane.

A young person wearing headphones sits by a window, oblivious to an older woman in tight profile intently looking at them from across the aisle. An illustration shows the dark blue interior of an airplane.

The reader needs to pay close attention to all the overlapping storylines and remember the different threads from one short chapter to another in order to keep up.
Certain characters are more engaging than others: Allegra the flight attendant with self doubt hidden under her lovely exterior Paula whose fear for her son sparks her old case of O.And Leo whose desire to excel as a husband father and employee could be his downfall. The focus also lies on Cherry s enigmatic past and a surprising twist near the end adding an element of intrigue.
Moriarty s talent for creating complex characters and subtle humor is still evident in this book though spread thin.
Furthermore she continues to focus on the experiences of middle age and beyond in her mainstream fiction defying the expectation that reaching 40 means the end of vitality.
 
HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane MoriartyNine novels in Liane Moriarty’s output falls somewhere between empire and institution: a reliable bastion of breezy yet propulsive storytelling smartly informed by relevant issues of the day infertility wellness culture domestic abuse.
Her books claim prime real estate at chain stores and airports kiosks and regularly go on to become glossy television fodder more often than not fronted by her fellow Australian Nicole Kidman see Big Little Lies Nine Perfect Strangers and the upcoming The Last Anniversary which she’ll produce.
At the same time Moriarty is still consigned to the metaphorical broom closet of women’s fiction dismissed as something less than literature or damned with faint pink praise.
Never mind that her latest the busy but unhurried Here One Moment is as demographically diverse as a phone book.
Granted it helps when your character pool is pulled from a flight manifest: a short domestic plane ride between the sunny Tasmanian capital of Hobart and Sydney.
Or it should have been short except for a two hour delay that leaves passengers tetchy and frazzled each one caught up in the private drama of mislaid plans.
Among them: the 40 ish engineer missing his daughter’s grammar school Lion King the contract lawyer turned bleary stay at home mom left to wrangle a screaming infant and a vomitous toddler and the beautiful flight attendant spending perhaps her worst birthday on the tarmac distributing light snacks and strained apologies in between desperate rummages for a tampon.
Into this maelstrom of ordinary inconvenience arrives someone who may or may not be extraordinary: a quiet woman neatly dressed and with hair the soft silver of an expensive kitten who stands up in her seat 45 minutes after takeoff.
I expect catastrophic stroke she proclaims with no particular flair pointing to a preoccupied 50 something man on a laptop.
Age 72. And so it goes down the rows the solemn finger of fate: Heart disease age 84 cardiac arrest age 91 diabetes age 79.
 
However Here One Moment frequently lacks the gripping intensity of a compelling thriller. The book seems more like a rough draft than a complete novel still evolving and not yet fully formed.
Author Liane Moriarty prefers not to discuss herself
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Perhaps Nicole Kidman could handle this task we ll let her handle it now.

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