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bookgazing) wrote2010-04-01 02:53 pm
bookgazing) wrote2010-04-01 02:53 pm
The Little Stranger - Bookish Chat
I’m sure I’m not the only person in England looking forward to the long Bank Holiday weekend. A couple of four day work weeks back to back are frankly a blessing right now. To all of you out there under immense work pressure it must sound like I’m being whiny about not having much to do at my job, but it is very depressing to have to scrounge up tasks to fill your day. To me it seems terribly wasteful for me to spend hours like that, even though I’m being paid. Money can’t buy your time back.
I’m going to try and forget I have to go back next Tuesday (this has suddenly become almost too easy to do, which means the end of weekend freedom comes as a massive shock) and put the whole four days away from work to the best use possible. Tomorrow it’s time for some shopping and lunch out, Saturday getting my hair the full treatment (dye, cut, style, head massage) and then out for some drinks, Sunday lots of time with BOOKS, 24 and Easter chocolate and Monday a drive out somewhere with my parents as long as the weather stays decent. I don’t expect to be on the computer much (except for time spent looking for a job) but before I take myself away from blogland I thought I’d tell you a little bit about how ‘The Little Stranger’ is going. I know lots of you read it when it got the Booker nomination, so I’m looking forward to a bit of comment chat. I’ll need something to read while waiting for my job applications to upload, won’t I?
Thoughts 350 pages in:
I don’t know if it’s because I’m British, but I love historical novels set in big country houses. All those secrets among the upper class and scandals in the servant quarters make for brilliant drama. I tend to like these kind of novels more when they’re set during the crumbling days of the golden age of the British class system (which if you weren’t part of the upper class must have seemed like a very long, dark age), so it was always quite likely that I’d enjoy ‘The Little Stranger’. I do like that most of the story takes place in the impressive, but decaying ‘Hundreds’, a grand home that is slowly falling into disrepair. The building reflects the disintegration of the traditional upper class way of life and forces its inhabitants to accept that they will have to find a new way of living. Cue lots of ‘Oh wasn’t it glorious in its day’ style reminiscing.
Although I really enjoyed the first 200 or so pages I did find myself wondering what the big deal was about Sarah Waters. She has written this lovely, easy to read first person narrative and her writing style is much more than competent, without being obviously literary, but the way everyone talks about her I was perhaps expecting a more blatant form of genius. Her writing style reminds me of lots of classic authors like E M Forster, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne Du Maurier whose fluid, but straightforward prose almost fool you into believing that they’re just telling a story about domestic life. Now this is great because I love this kind of author and their writing style, so I was happy to find a living author to match them in Sarah Waters. However these authors all conceal their deeper themes under light prose that encourages the reader to happily follow wherever it leads, but at first I couldn’t see Water’s deeper ideas. I mean I could see ideas about what the war has done to society, the shifting class system and the malevolence of ghosts, peeping through but I couldn’t see Water’s doing anything in particular with those ideas. I’m still not sure she does reveal anything new through her incorporation of those three themes, although she handles them as well as any of the other novelists I’ve mentioned above. Am I missing something, do you see more coming out of these ideas than I did?
Then during a scene where Dr Faraday and Caroline park up in his car I began to see an emerging theme of manipulation, enabled by deep power structures. Before I began reading I was told something about the doctor that made me very aware of how he was shaping the narrative. I’m still not sure if I would have preferred to read without knowing to watch him carefully, but knowing what I did meant that I’d already started picking up that all may not be quite as he describes it. I thought the car scene really crystallised his potential dishonesty. It also showed me that Waters is interested in the many forms manipulation takes and I began to realise that perhaps other characters in the book were not quite as uncomplicated as I’d been led to believe by the light tone of the writing. I’m in the process of re-evaluating my reactions to all the other characters and to the strange things that are happening in the house. For me this strand of examination is what makes ‘The Little Stranger’ a potential short list candidate, because it’s so subtle.
I feel like looking at ‘The Still Point’, ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘The Little Stranger’ side by side is like seeing graduations in a spectrum of good writing. ‘The Still Point’ overtly plays around with language and structure, in places it openly glories in words. Its narrative voice is abstract as it doesn’t come from within a character in the book and that gives the book a kind of layer of artificiality, so you can never forget a story is being told. That’s not a criticism; it’s just the way omniscient narrator works. Sometimes I feel like there are too many first person narrators out there and first person narration is being taken as an easy option by authors who don’t really understand how difficult it is to create a convincing first person voice. Amy Sackville’s decision to remove herself from direct contact with the narrative is rather wonderful because it’s different.
‘Wolf Hall’ also enjoys playing with language, but in a more naturalistic way as the third person narrator never steps aside to overtly examine language. Perhaps it plays with traditional structure with a little more subtlety, or perhaps it’s just a little more conventional in the way it subverts that structure (because yes messing about with traditional linear narrative has now been going on for so long that it has conventions). There’s definitely a difference in the way they approach producing stories, which are essentially created using a similar forms of writing, even if I’m not completely sure what that difference is.
Then there’s ‘The Little Stranger’ which uses linear structure and doesn’t overtly examine language. Instead it’s told using lovely fluid prose which keeps from being simple, or extravagant. And here’s the thing all three novels are very good. So authors can play around with structure and language, while taking on big ideas, or they can use traditional forms of language and structure, while taking on big ideas and still produce comparably good books. Not a shocking idea to readers I know, but I just thought I’d bring it up.
Initially I thought I’d have no problem reading quite a few books nominated for the Orange prize before the shortlist appeared. I’d already read ‘Wolf Hall’, which was surely the biggest book on the list. ‘Wolf Hall’ might be the biggest one, but ‘The Little Stranger’ is not far behind. It’s 500 pages and even though I’ve devoted a lot of reading time to it this week and it’s so easy to read I’m still only 350 pages in, with 29 days until the shortlist is announced. I'm hoping to read six before then, but I wonder how many I’ll manage.
Have lovely weekends everyone and if you’re in Britain enjoy those extra days off if you’ve got them.
I’m going to try and forget I have to go back next Tuesday (this has suddenly become almost too easy to do, which means the end of weekend freedom comes as a massive shock) and put the whole four days away from work to the best use possible. Tomorrow it’s time for some shopping and lunch out, Saturday getting my hair the full treatment (dye, cut, style, head massage) and then out for some drinks, Sunday lots of time with BOOKS, 24 and Easter chocolate and Monday a drive out somewhere with my parents as long as the weather stays decent. I don’t expect to be on the computer much (except for time spent looking for a job) but before I take myself away from blogland I thought I’d tell you a little bit about how ‘The Little Stranger’ is going. I know lots of you read it when it got the Booker nomination, so I’m looking forward to a bit of comment chat. I’ll need something to read while waiting for my job applications to upload, won’t I?
Thoughts 350 pages in:
I don’t know if it’s because I’m British, but I love historical novels set in big country houses. All those secrets among the upper class and scandals in the servant quarters make for brilliant drama. I tend to like these kind of novels more when they’re set during the crumbling days of the golden age of the British class system (which if you weren’t part of the upper class must have seemed like a very long, dark age), so it was always quite likely that I’d enjoy ‘The Little Stranger’. I do like that most of the story takes place in the impressive, but decaying ‘Hundreds’, a grand home that is slowly falling into disrepair. The building reflects the disintegration of the traditional upper class way of life and forces its inhabitants to accept that they will have to find a new way of living. Cue lots of ‘Oh wasn’t it glorious in its day’ style reminiscing.
Although I really enjoyed the first 200 or so pages I did find myself wondering what the big deal was about Sarah Waters. She has written this lovely, easy to read first person narrative and her writing style is much more than competent, without being obviously literary, but the way everyone talks about her I was perhaps expecting a more blatant form of genius. Her writing style reminds me of lots of classic authors like E M Forster, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne Du Maurier whose fluid, but straightforward prose almost fool you into believing that they’re just telling a story about domestic life. Now this is great because I love this kind of author and their writing style, so I was happy to find a living author to match them in Sarah Waters. However these authors all conceal their deeper themes under light prose that encourages the reader to happily follow wherever it leads, but at first I couldn’t see Water’s deeper ideas. I mean I could see ideas about what the war has done to society, the shifting class system and the malevolence of ghosts, peeping through but I couldn’t see Water’s doing anything in particular with those ideas. I’m still not sure she does reveal anything new through her incorporation of those three themes, although she handles them as well as any of the other novelists I’ve mentioned above. Am I missing something, do you see more coming out of these ideas than I did?
Then during a scene where Dr Faraday and Caroline park up in his car I began to see an emerging theme of manipulation, enabled by deep power structures. Before I began reading I was told something about the doctor that made me very aware of how he was shaping the narrative. I’m still not sure if I would have preferred to read without knowing to watch him carefully, but knowing what I did meant that I’d already started picking up that all may not be quite as he describes it. I thought the car scene really crystallised his potential dishonesty. It also showed me that Waters is interested in the many forms manipulation takes and I began to realise that perhaps other characters in the book were not quite as uncomplicated as I’d been led to believe by the light tone of the writing. I’m in the process of re-evaluating my reactions to all the other characters and to the strange things that are happening in the house. For me this strand of examination is what makes ‘The Little Stranger’ a potential short list candidate, because it’s so subtle.
I feel like looking at ‘The Still Point’, ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘The Little Stranger’ side by side is like seeing graduations in a spectrum of good writing. ‘The Still Point’ overtly plays around with language and structure, in places it openly glories in words. Its narrative voice is abstract as it doesn’t come from within a character in the book and that gives the book a kind of layer of artificiality, so you can never forget a story is being told. That’s not a criticism; it’s just the way omniscient narrator works. Sometimes I feel like there are too many first person narrators out there and first person narration is being taken as an easy option by authors who don’t really understand how difficult it is to create a convincing first person voice. Amy Sackville’s decision to remove herself from direct contact with the narrative is rather wonderful because it’s different.
‘Wolf Hall’ also enjoys playing with language, but in a more naturalistic way as the third person narrator never steps aside to overtly examine language. Perhaps it plays with traditional structure with a little more subtlety, or perhaps it’s just a little more conventional in the way it subverts that structure (because yes messing about with traditional linear narrative has now been going on for so long that it has conventions). There’s definitely a difference in the way they approach producing stories, which are essentially created using a similar forms of writing, even if I’m not completely sure what that difference is.
Then there’s ‘The Little Stranger’ which uses linear structure and doesn’t overtly examine language. Instead it’s told using lovely fluid prose which keeps from being simple, or extravagant. And here’s the thing all three novels are very good. So authors can play around with structure and language, while taking on big ideas, or they can use traditional forms of language and structure, while taking on big ideas and still produce comparably good books. Not a shocking idea to readers I know, but I just thought I’d bring it up.
Initially I thought I’d have no problem reading quite a few books nominated for the Orange prize before the shortlist appeared. I’d already read ‘Wolf Hall’, which was surely the biggest book on the list. ‘Wolf Hall’ might be the biggest one, but ‘The Little Stranger’ is not far behind. It’s 500 pages and even though I’ve devoted a lot of reading time to it this week and it’s so easy to read I’m still only 350 pages in, with 29 days until the shortlist is announced. I'm hoping to read six before then, but I wonder how many I’ll manage.
Have lovely weekends everyone and if you’re in Britain enjoy those extra days off if you’ve got them.