Thoughts on Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I enjoyed this novel by Margaret Atwood. It is the third novel I have read by her. Alias Grace is historical fiction, based on the story of Grace Marks who was convicted of murder in the nineteenth century in Canada.

I have read two other novels by Atwood, The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid's Tale. Alias Grace is a different novel compared to these two. It is a detailed character study of a convicted woman; aspects of her childhood and circumstances that lead to her being implicated in two violent murders. What it does have in common with the other novels is a clear focus on female circumstances and point of view.

I liked the pace of Alias Grace, the plotting is well thought out and the tension builds steadily through the narrative, leading to the unveiling of events surrounding the murders. Atwood explores other contemporary issues in her story of Grace, including the different theories on mental health ailments at the time, and early experimentation in hypnosis. As in the other two novels I have read, Atwood's handling of the desperate plight of women who did not have family or wealth to back them up, is arresting.

I found this a very human story. The main characters are multidimensional and believable.  For me the most intriguing character was Dr Jordan, whose perspective on events informs the reader for part of narrative. His weakness was perplexing and really annoyed me after I finally put the book down. I think that is the strength of this novel, all of the characters are beautifully drawn, and, as in life, seemingly dependable people can be frustratingly weak and self deluded at times. There is a lot of complexity to the characters in this book.

There is variety in the structure too, with part of the novel told in the first person from Grace's perspective, part of the novel told in the third person, largely from the point of view of Dr Jordan, and sections of the story told through extracts from media accounts, legal accounts, and personal and professional letters. These were all artfully handled in my view and added real interest.

Ultimately this is Grace's story, and I think it will definitely stay with me for some time. Her voice was very clear, even though much of her life was about waiting and existing with very few options for friendship or communication. Atwood also leaves just enough unexplained, so that I was left wondering, and found myself thinking back on the story for some time. There is a clever playfulness to Margaret Atwood's work that I really like.

Review: Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

I have recently had some time off and read a number of interesting books. This one I borrowed from the library. I have previously read Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels and short story collections. Here is my take on her second novel Human Croquet published in 1997.

I mostly really enjoyed it. By the end, the story had completely spooled out of control, stretching believability, but by then I was so caught up I didn't mind. I read this novel in a single sitting (it was that sort of day).

The story is an intergenerational time-slip family saga with an English village setting with mythical medieval history and encroaching forest. I think much of the joy of this sort of story comes from the unexpected deviations and plot turns so I won't go into the story except to say it focuses on a girl, Isobel on the eve of her sixteenth birthday as she reflects on the impact on her young life of her mother disappearing from the family when she was a toddler.

The overall tone of the novel is surreal and magical, like  some of Isabel Allende's novels. It also reminded me of an Iris Murdoch novel, The Philospher's Pupil, I read a few months ago. Like Murdoch, Atkinson is incredibly smart with her characterisations: their interactions, motives, insecurities and anxieties. Like Murdoch too, the male characters in Human Croquet are overloaded with human frailty and behave pretty badly.

I do find with the Kate Atkinson novels (including the Jackson Brodie series) that they are very intense, with the plot often circling back in on itself,  and I don't remember all of the detail once I have finished. But I think that is okay when the novel is so engaging and I don't mind being challenged by her. I look forward to reading her latest, Life After Life, soon.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver



This year has seen me read far less than previous years. At least, I have not been completing as many novels, but reading from wider sources I guess. You know that warning that whatever you are doing at New Year, be warned you may find yourself doing it all year? Well I began this year struggling through Kafka and I do think it may have slowed me down a little.

 

This week did see me complete the unbelievably huge, in every sense, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I love Kingsolver's writing, having previously read The Lacuna and listened to The Prodigal Summer. While I don't think I could accurately say that I "love" The Poisonwood Bible, I am certain, reading it, has probably changed how I view the world in a meaningful way.

 

 

 The novel is set in the Belgian Congo. A US evangelical Baptist minister, Nathan Price, brings his family, his wife and four daughters, to the region in 1959. The novel tracks the family's disastrous struggles over the next 35 years. Their stories are set against the background of the region's struggle for independence from international interference.

 

 

What Worked About the Book for Me:

 

Kingsolver creates such lush imagery. You want a book set in deepest, darkest Africa, and actually experience what living there might be like for someone used to all of the conveniences of the West? Then this is the book to reach for. In all of her books, Kingsolver hones in on descriptions of nature. I don't know how she does it, but both this book and The Prodigal Summer, somehow intensified my appreciation of the natural world.

 

The format of the story is interesting. The novel is told from the perspective of Orleanna Price and her four daughters. At the beginning I didn't much like any of them, and I don't think I felt as sorry for them as I was meant too; they all struggle to survive, not only in a physical environment they are ill prepared for, but against a tyrannical and violent husband and father. But the character development over time is excellent, and over time, each character forms in her own very different way, largely in relation to struggling with her personal demons. I should of had more faith in Kingsolver, she does a similar thing with character development in The Lacuna. The reader has to hang in there, as she lays rich foundations, that mature and come together satisfyingly.

 

I didn't really see it coming, but by the end, I felt like the novel somehow gave more depth to my understanding of how the people of the African nations may view the West. Kingsolver holds up a mirror to the greed, sense of superiority, and hypocrisy that Africa has been subjected to over the decades from the, sometimes well meaning, Western nations. I felt gently confronted as the Price women's stories unfolded. I couldn't help but think, how would I go in these situations, and what choices would I make as a result?

 

Areas of Difficulty:

 

This is a long read at over 600 pages and it is largely a very grim tale. Of the three Kingsolver novels I have read so far, I would probably categorize this one as the least accessible. It really reads like a trek through a jungle filled with constant hardship. I think the nature of the story could put some readers off, and I must admit I became bogged down in parts.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

I am very happy however, that I persisted with the novel, my effort was rewarded. I won't forget this book, because as mentioned, I think I really did take something meaningful away from it, beyond the usual entertainment factor of a well written story.

 

 

 



The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

This is the latest offering by Brisbane based novelist Kate Morton.  It is the first of hers I have read and I do regret that I did not like it more.  The reason I regret not liking it more than I did, is because she is a best selling novelist from the city I grew up in, and when I see her interviewed she seems so thoughtful and likeable.  Basically, I think I should have read one of her earlier books, and now, alas, after having waded through the more than 550 pages of The Distant Hours, I can't see myself picking up another any time soon.

From the book jacket:

It starts with a letter, lost for half a century and unexpectedly delivered to Edie's mother on a Sunday afternoon.  The letter leads Edie to Milderhurst Castle, where the eccentric Blythe sisters live and where, she discovers, her mother was billeted during WWII.  The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives caring for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn't been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

You know,  Morton does write well, there is plenty of lovely original descriptive prose throughout the novel.  She creates a good sense of place in the woods surrounding the castle.  More so than in the castle itself, where the idea of the whispering walls struck me as a bit silly, or at least overly romantic.  The story also contains some really good elements.  It has interesting ingredients, a modern and WWII setting.  To be honest, I think I have read too many books lately using the sort of narrative device where the reader is jumping from the modern era back to an earlier mystery.  At least I didn't enjoy how it was executed in this novel.  There were too many jumps and I just felt exhausted with it.   In the end it was just too long in my view.  The characters did not engage me to the degree that I needed to sustain my interest for that many pages.  I think the idea might have been that the castle itself is one of the main characters.  It just didn't hang together that well for me, and parts of the plotting were overblown or predictable.

I could see why some readers would really enjoy this novel.  If you like expansive, languid and descriptive prose, with some intriguing historically romantic themes, then you may enjoy this.

Also, don't forget to enter my  New Year Book Giveaway and a very happy New Year to you!

Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears Readalong Part One

The Foal's Bread Readalong is hosted by Danielle over at The Book Nerd Club.  Gillian Mears is an Australian novelist whose work I was unfamiliar with, but I do love a good tale with an Australian setting so was keen to give Foal's Bread a go. 

Information about the novel by publishers Allen & Unwin:

The long-awaited new novel from the award-winning author of The Grass Sister tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and the high-jumping horse circuit prior to the Second World War. A love story of impossible beauty and sadness, it is also a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both tender and unspeakably hard.

I am completely swept up in this story and these characters.  When I started reading Foal's Bread I was immediately  reminded of Australian novels that I read when I was a teenager, thanks to my mother's love of Australian fiction, by authors such as Ruth Park and E.V. Timms.  More recently, I have enjoyed this type of Australian setting and characters in novels by Tim Winton, Peter Carey and ChrisWomersley.  Foal's Bread is a brilliant example of this type of book: excellent writing, engaging plotting and characters that I know I will be weeping over before too long.

Spoiler Alert:  Discussion of Preamble to Chapter 6 so be warned.

I was shocked and compelled by the opening of the novel where the reader is introduced to fourteen year old Noah as she gives birth, with only pigs for company, in a cold mountain stream, all on her own.  I am certainly eager to see if the baby survived and reappears later in the novel. Or are we meant to assume that the baby drowned?  Either way it is powerful stuff, and not only gives the reader a clear idea of what young Noah's life has been like, but also a strong impression of her character and spirit.

There is a preamble before the story opens and while it is beautifully written, having a poetic and wistful feel to it, I am not sure that it really added anything for me.  This probably comes down to personal preference, but in my view, the Chapter 1 opening is really strong, and I don't know that the preamble actually achieves that rearview, or looking back perspective, that the author is possibly shooting for.  It made sense that way when I re-read it now, but I have only done that because I am writing about it.  Normally I don't think a reader would bother.

Foal's bread is a love story in the most wonderful, fleeting-joy-and-lots-of- tragedy, sense. And by the end of Chapter 6, the arc is well and truly descending into tough times for Roley and Noah.

I am loving it all.  It is dramatic and moving, without being too sentimental. 

I also find the characters in Roley's extended family delightful and really well drawn.  Can't you just imagine the sister who likes to bake and is especially kind to the children?

I also like the perspective of pre WWII Australia, and what the coming of the war, so close on the end of WWI,  meant for these regional areas.  Min's grief and protectiveness of her family make a lot of sense to me, as annoyingly frustrating as she is.

My final thought is that while there is lots of drama in the narrative, the characters continue to reveal more of themselves and develop in complexity, which is satisfying.  And, this really is the final thought, the relationship between Noah and Roley is wonderful and nuanced and oh so sad. I grew up with Jacaranda trees everywhere you see, and I daresay I will not look at their beautiful purple October carpet again without thinking of Noah and Roley.   I will stop before it becomes painful!  Two thumbs up from me so far.

Review: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

There is nothing so enjoyable as escaping into some high quality historical fiction don't you think? Year of Wonders by Australian author Geraldine Brooks is absorbing, human, full of drama, and I loved it. 

Geraldine Brooks, who has also worked as a foreign correspondent for publications like The Wall Street Journal,  starts all of her fiction with a kernel of historical fact. Here, the voluntary quarantining of a Derbyshire village, Eyam, in 1666 that is beset by plague.  The novel, through the narrative voice of a young maid at the local rectory, explores the villagers response to this immense crisis. 

The premise; what happens to a village where more people have died of plague than still remain, was always going to be ripe for good story telling potential. But Brooks really lets rip and through her amazing eye for detail and imagination brings the village to life, from the people, to the muddied streets to the sickening manifestation of the bubonic plague itself.  And she weaves the whole story together in 300 pages.  As a complete aside, I have recently read another novel by a former journalist, Snowdrops by AD Miller, a more different story to Year of Wonders I can't imagine, but my point is, that I really liked how Miller crafted his narrative arc too.  In both cases the novels begin at almost the end, and then describes how the heck the narrator got there. 

Anna Frith, the rectory maid and narrator of Years of Wonders is a beautifully balanced character.  From the beginning we learn that her life was devastated in the year before the plague, when her husband was killed in a mining accident.  We also quickly learn that Anna's two young children fall early victims to the plague.  This is Anna's story and how she manages to hang on through the devastation and create some sort of life for herself. 

A central theme to the story is exploring human responses to the unknown.  In 1666, there was no science to explain the plague, so no one understood why this hideous disease had come to the village, how it was spread, or how it chose its victims.  Fear, suspicion and prejudice, combined with grief and trauma make for a devastating mix in the village, as everyone is forced to confront their own death.

Anna also bears witness to the unmasking of many of the villagers.  Brooks fully explores the theme of crisis revealing an individual's true, core character.  And there are plenty of surprises to this end right up until the conclusion of the novel.  Brooks makes her point very well, that there are so many layers to a person, and sometimes it is only when everything is taken away true nature is revealed.

In more recent times Brooks has written the much acclaimed Caleb's Crossing.  Year of Wonders is the first novel I have read by her and I can't wait to read the others.  Her writing is exquisite and sensitive, and she evokes a magical sense of place.  If you like historical fiction then I would encourage you to give Year of Wonders a go.