Ordinary people but extraordinary lives

I've just finished a book called 'Family Romance' by the novelist John Lanchester. It's autobiographical but is mainly concerned with his parents, his mother in particular. She managed to keep to herself, for decades, the fact that she had been a nun until she was in her late 30s, with particular responsibility for teaching at a convent school in Madras. She became the principal there and left when she could no longer reconcile her career and what she needed out of life. She had to lie and falsify her age when she met the man she was to marry because she was too old to produce the amount of children he would have liked (and also steal the identity of one of her siblings to make that lie effective). John Lanchester had to piece together her life through letters and conversations with one of his aunts. I wonder how many people manage to conceal their former lives or have to live what is effectively a lie to protect themselves or those that they love?

Everyone lies to protect themselves. Most people have twisted former lives they never share with others.

This does sound like an interesting book though.

It is an interesting book. Of course, we all have parts of our lives that we don't reveal, for one reason or another. It was just an interesting study of how a family could be ostensibly happy with the proverbial 'elephant in the room' for the mother. It just shows you how we adjust and cope to render our lives viable.