Liner Notes: Jake's Progress
liner notesParenthood has come late and unexpected to Julie and Jamie Diadoi. Both approaching their forties when their first son Jake is born, Jamie loses his job and Julie is forced to return to work in an attempt to keep the family out of debt and underneath a roof of their own. Jamie is a handsome man of considerable charm. He also carries the glamour of having almost made it as a successful singer in America in the 1960s –‘nearly but not quite’. Jamie has taken on the role reversal of “house-father” to Jake with ease, and father and son enjoy a close relationship. Seven year old Jake does not get on so well with his mother. Jake’s resentment of Julie’s long absences at work and her constant pleas of fatigue when he wants attention draws him even closer to his easy-going laid back father. As Jamie relaxes into an idealistic dreamlike existence at home with Jake, Julie is left alone to face the financial realities of life that her husband refuses to acknowledge. The pressure mounts when Julie discovers she is pregnant again and the bank refuses to lend them any more money. Jake is secretly appalled at the impending arrival of a sibling who poses a threat to his exclusive alliance with his easy-going father. Tensions come to a head when Jamie has his fortune told at a sixties party. Though Jamie is undoubtedly attracted to some of the young mothers in the village he has remained completely faithful to Julie. But the fortune teller’s insistence that he will have an affair just before he dies has a profound and confusing effect on Jamie. Embarrassed that he cannot help looking at his female friends in a different light now, Jamie shies away from them. But then Kate, a beautiful and mysterious woman in her twenties, returns to the village after an absence of over ten years. And upon their first accidental meeting, Kate falls dangerously and passionately in love with him…. “An exploration of what parents do to children and what children do to parents” |
