![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Well doesn’t this make me look like I’m jumping on the bandwagon? Just a few days ago Amy Sackville’s 'The Still Point’ appeared on the Orange prize long list and here I am about to tell you how wonderful it is. You’ll just have to take me at my honour that I already liked ‘The Still Point’ before the judges published their final decision and that the Orange prize nomination hasn’t made a bit of difference to me. Where to be begin with this novel? There’s so much to discuss. Amy Sackville tells a story of a present day marriage, that is on the brink of breaking and a marriage from the past, which never gets the chance to be successful. Julia and Simon have been married ten years and several years ago started hiding their true selves from each other. Julia tries hard to please Simon by disguising her own personality, which readers might think weak until they begin to understand the fragile state of Julia’s current mental balance, which has been worn away by a marriage gone sour. Simon feels distanced from his wife, but resents her even though he loves her and fearfully observes that she is becoming removed from reality.
The two live in the house of Julia’s great grandfather, whose first born son was a famous explorer Edward Mackley. Edward left on a polar exploration at the end of the nineteenth century, leaving his new bride Emily with his brother John and John’s wife. They all lived together in Edward’s father’s house. Edward never returned from his journey, no one knew what has happened to him, but Emily waited to hear news, then waited to hear how he died. Once his body was found, along with his diary, fifty years later Emily quickly died. This is the great Mackley romance that is passed down through the generations. Julia is now in charge of archiving Edward’s belongings and setting the story into some kind of order. As she rereads Edward’s diary and revisits the artefacts that remain of Emily’s marriage the reader learns about the truth of their thwarted relationship.
Sackville has used an ambitious structure in her first novel. The present day events of ‘The Still Point’ all take place in one day. The linear timeline of the day, from early morning to midnight, is returned to throughout the book as the central timeline. Within that day the narrative switches back and forth between Julia and Simon’s day, so that one slot of the day’s time is revisited in a different location and often Julia and Simon’s drifting thought patterns allow the narrative to learn about snatches of their pasts.
Julia’s preoccupation with Edward and Emily’s story, leads her to reread Edward’s diary and other printed remainders of Edward and Emily’s lives, creating a second story inside the main narrative. This second narrative stream starts off as a linear exploration of Edward’s journey to the pole, but towards the end of the book it also moves back and forward, revisiting certain events as Julia adds information to her mental picture of the couple’s lives. It sounds a little complicated, but all the different perspectives fit neatly together investing this one day with the significance of several lifetimes. Towards the end of the book I was constantly amazed that everything in this book happens in one day. So much seems to have happened, although there’s really very little action and I felt like I knew the characters intimately, especially Julia, whose day is described in close detail.
For me, much of the charm of ‘The Still Point’ comes from the way Sackville uses language. It’s not so much that Sackville writes in especially ornate prose, although she creates her novel out of images and words that are elegant and beautifully simple:
‘…;listen to the insects and the rustle of plants, leaves unfurling, the fluff and settle of feathers, earth shifting under tiny paws and turned by pallid grubs and worms; the garden easing into the blue darkness. Night flowers open cautiously, quietly, the warmth of day transformed into deep sweet perfume.’ .
It is more the way that she approaches writing, which makes me happy. She writes as if the form she chooses to express the story is just as important as the mechanics of the plot, so her style is very controlled, yet her prose manages to achieve a breathy quality, that makes it hard to grasp at and pin down.
Consider the first lines of the novel:
‘Wait:
…
There. A little ellipsis, the smallest pause, opening for him to slide in. Then withdrawal and a full stop.’.
Wonderful. Automatically it is apparent that something important is happening in ellipsis, something which must not be disturbed, but then it is over and the reader is left wondering if they have interpreted the lines correctly. Instead of being annoyed at the vagueness, or desperate to find out more, readers will find themselves lulled into accepting the slow, pondering rhythm of the narrative. It is easy to automatically slip into waiting for the narrative to unfold at its own pace, just as the characters Julia and Emily wait for different events.
Then occasionally something will puncture this dreamy style. The image of a plate being dropped is repeated and because the reader was present when the plate was dropped, they understand the full chilling force of what this image represents. A short, knowing comment is made by Julia’s cousin and it lands with loud, devastating force. A door is slammed. Little moments give the novel a sudden immediacy, a fearfulness readers do not feel in the rest of the sun soaked prose and this contrast makes the book a little unknowable, a little sharper. As much as the prose encourages luxuriating in its slow, sleepy rhythm there’s always the possibility of something lurking, something bad waiting to happen.
More general details about Simon and Julia’s lives are hidden at first, as the reader has stepped into the middle of a ten year relationship and much must be slowly revealed. This gives Sackville extreme power over her reader’s reaction to the characters. Yet it’s almost never obvious that she is leading you by the hand and I certainly never thought to question her control over my perceptions. This is due to a number of factors, including the tone of the writing. The writing has an aura of ease, but must be tightly shaped to produce this effect, as one word that feels out of place could jar the reader and disturb the lazy, leisurely feel the author wants to create. Sackville also allows her readers to feel like they are equal with the books omniscient narrator, as occasionally the book speaks directly to the reader as they spy on Julia and Simon together, like children creeping around a house, ‘Following the trail of it through the dark house, we will find her once more in the garden…Pause now with her on the lawn and breath in…’ . This is a great way of redirecting the reader, as it immediately refocuses their gaze on the part of the story Sackville wants them to notice. It could feel pushy, but instead it feel companionable, as if you are in on a great secret with the author.
There are some weak points in ‘The Still Point’. The visit from Julia’s cousin gives Julia new information about Emily, but the reason for his appearance is very contrived. Personally I found the part about the beginnings of Edward’s trip to the pole, a little dull and inconsequential. Perhaps the ending is a bit too much like wishful thinking, too quick a fix for a troubled relationship and a deeply depressed young woman, or perhaps I am just being a bit cynical. None of these small details kept me from enjoying Sackville’s minute look at what makes up a life and a relationship.
There’s still so much more I want to mention, the exact specifics of what makes the characters so interesting, that delectable cover, the relationships between minor characters...but we’d be here all day listening to me burble on with joy. I’ll close by saying I think Amy Sackville is going to give ‘Wolf Hall’ a bit of a challenge and I’m excited to see such a promising new female writer landing on the Orange prize list.
Other Reviews
Cardigan Girl
gaskella
Kathleen Jones
Tags:
