A Sense of an Ending
I’ve reached a slightly strange point in my life where everything is uncertain and I suspect that I read this book at precisely the right time. Today I finished my final ever university essay and in a few weeks I shall have exams and that will be it. I’ll be done. As I am reaching my own sense of an ending, I read of Tony reaching his. He begins by telling us of his time at school where he befriends the curious Adrian Finn, who shall play an interesting role in his life later on. Upon moving to university and finding his first serious girlfriend, Veronica, it seems that there are things which will impact his life that he will not be able to escape from, no matter how much time may pass.
It is interesting how certain things move so quickly for Tony, whilst memories of peculiar things remain vibrantly alive. He quickly attains a job, wife and family, yet his moments at school linger for half the novel and his memories of his time with Veronica become astonishingly poignant. It makes me wonder whether the things I am currently experiencing will move quickly past or if I shall be thinking of them when I am sixty and wishing I’d done things differently.
Tony’s ‘ending’ is, I would argue, not merely a single moment. There are endings in his past which connect implicitly with who he becomes as an old man and some endings which seem destined to repeat themselves. There are many questions to be asked about the role of memory in the novel and the reliability of a narrator. It’s also a bit scary to think we could reach our old age and not remember who we were as young people and that we might forget who we so vehemently are in this present moment. We should certainly take what Tony says with a pinch of salt and read between the lines to uncover what the novel does not tell us about his past.
There are a lot of discussions that can be had about this novel (I reached the end and had to Google what had happened; I was rather confused) but not many that won’t give away quite a few spoilers. This is a quick read as it’s only 163 pages, but it will certainly leave you questioning lots of things. I like that this is an intelligent read which holds more than what is merely on the surface. As I move into applying for jobs and looking at places to live, it is also somewhat reassuring to think that, when I look back in several years, this may just be one of many endings which gave way to exciting new beginnings.
I gave A Sense of an Ending
★★★★☆
Review: Carol by Patricia Highsmith
The moment I saw the trailer for the new film adaptation of Carol, I fell absolutely in love with the story. After much frantic Googling, I discovered that the gorgeous film with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara was actually based on a book and immediately I knew I had to read it. Luckily, I received the lovely film tie-in edition (with Cate Blanchett’s beautiful face on the cover) for Christmas and actually had time to read it over the holidays!
Originally published as The Price of Salt in 1952 by Patricia Highsmith, but under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, Carol succeeded in creating a lesbian love story featuring two feminine lead roles which didn’t end in suicide or some other miserable ending, as did most lesbian romances of the time. Due to the optimistic ending of Carol, Highsmith received dozens of letters from readers thanking her for writing something relatable for queer women during a time when there was next to no representation available for them. Carol tells the story of a young woman, Therese Belivet, an aspiring set designer who works in a department store when she meets Carol Aird, a glamorous older woman with whom she falls instantly in love. The two women develop a relationship regardless of the obstacles which try to separate them, but Carol’s difficult divorce might be the one thing which could remove her from Therese’s life forever.
Sometimes you find a book that you fall so deeply in love with that it’s difficult to articulate exactly why it’s so wonderful. The story is seen through Therese’s eyes and the love she feels for Carol is so strong and so beautiful written by Highsmith:
Once the back of their hands brushed on the table, and Therese’s skin there felt separately alive now, and rather burning. Therese could not understand it, but it was so. Therese glanced at her face that was somewhat turned away, and again she knew that instant of half-recognition. And knew, too, that it was not to be believed. She had never seen the woman before. If she had, could she had forgotten?
This encapsulates perfectly all the anxiety and zeal experienced with a first love and there are countless moments like this within the novel. It is one of the few books I’ve read featuring lesbian protagonists and it was so much more enjoyable than if the protagonists had been a heterosexual couple. The love felt by both characters is so intense and significant because so much more is at stake.
For a seeming piece of ‘pulp fiction’, as it would have been viewed when it was published, the other characters within the story all have prominent voices and are well imagined. The story is continuously engaging and there are many features of the plot beyond just the romance itself. I adore the character of Carol; the fact that Highsmith based her on a real woman that she met once and had a crush on when working in a department store makes me love her even more. She is so stylish and pristine, yet so flawed and vulnerable at the same time. Equally, Therese’s development is very pleasing to read of, especially as someone of around her age myself.
Obviously I’ll be giving this book five stars as it completely stole my heart and the story of its publication and history also fascinates me. I do also have to highly recommend the film as well as the book, as again it is refreshing to see anything in popular culture which defies heteronormativity whilst also entertaining with stunning performances. And Cate Blanchett is there looking extremely attractive. Why wouldn’t you want to see that?
I gave Carol
★★★★★
Review: Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
One of the most harrowing books I’ve read this year, Faces in the Water is a semi-autographical novel by Janet Frame, an author who spent eight years in different psychiatric hospitals, experiencing electric shock treatment and only narrowly avoiding a lobotomy when her collection of short stories won a writing award in New Zealand. Frame travels to different places throughout the novel and we meet various characters who transcend the stereotypical image of a woman in a mental asylum.
Obviously this is a very personal and important story, as it records a time when people with mental illnesses were treated as subhumans, but it is also very beautifully written. This is from the start of the novel when the protagonist, Istina, is waiting for the day to start, not knowing how she is going to be treated:
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realise that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime. Waiting in the early morning, in the black-capped frosted hours, was like waiting for the pronouncement of a death sentence.”
Frame conveys the prejudices against and mistreatment of people with mental illness, but writes in such an intricate way that it is almost possible to imagine what she was going through. The idea that one must be joyful and that any other emotion than happiness is a sin is very relatable, and when those feelings are placed in such a claustrophobic environment is becomes a very haunting read.
It’s almost hard to know how to quantify a book such as this when it affects you so profoundly. I would definitely recommend it to anybody interested in the history of mental health, or even somebody who just enjoys beautiful prose. Although I read it quickly as it isn’t especially difficult to read, it is certainly not a light topic to approach. However, it is still absolutely worth a read.
I gave Faces in the Water
★★★★★
Review: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi got into my head in a similar way The Catcher in the Rye did: I had the voice of the protagonist, Karim, constantly on my mind, but I didn’t want it there. Lots of you will know what it’s like to get the voice of a novel stuck in your brain as your inner monologue, and for me this is usually the sign of a brilliant book, apart from The Catcher in the Rye which I really didn’t enjoy. However, most of the time Karim is an unhappy character and his voice wasn’t the most pleasant to have stuck in your head.
It’s a really unique coming-of-age novel featuring a protagonist growing up in-between cultures and offers a comical depiction of Indian people living in 1970s London, but it’s also just a very relatable and real story. I saw another reviewer complain that this book didn’t educate them about Indian people in the UK as they’d wanted, but this book can’t be a documentary. The author shows us exactly what it’s like for a person such as Karim to live in 1970’s England and a lot of that involves purely human emotions of ongoing depression, fear, love and a desire to escape. Karim is a seventeen year old boy when we meet him and he experiences bullying and discrimination, and his family is different and eccentric by Western standards, but the basic teenage human experience is a universal one, which in a way is the reason this book resonated with me so much. I didn’t feel as though I was being lectured on the living standards of minorities in the 70s, but I was allowed to learn about these things whilst also connecting with the story. I expected this book to be a comedy, pure and simple. The title mocks itself. I didn’t expect it to be so honest about human experience.
Other reviews have commented on the nostalgic feeling of the novel, which obviously I didn’t experience since it’s set years before I was born, but for me it wasn’t about “stepping back in time”, which often I can find painstakingly dull (see Life on Mars) as I feel like the creator is trying to jam references down my throat. Maybe some people felt this with The Buddha of Suburbia, but for me it really just reminded me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the importance of music and culture to young people when they’re growing up. These things happen around Karim without him having to be thrust into the middle of the punk scene. In fact, if this novel were written from the point of view of Charlie I’d probably hate it.
It was definitely a fun read, but much more intense than I was expecting. There is lots of opportunity for post-colonial interpretation if you’re looking for a contemporary text to write on but it’s also just quite a fun read!
I gave The Buddha of Suburbia
★★★★☆
Review: She by H. Rider Haggard
I read She for my Victorian Gothic module, which I’ll be starting in just a few weeks! It’s one of the longest books I’ve read for third year so far and it certainly took me a while to get through. It tells the story of Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey who decide to follow an adventure left by Vincey’s deceased father, to be followed upon Leo’s twenty-fifth birthday. They embark on a journey to Africa where they discover the all-powerful She-who-must-be-obeyed and begin to uncover her mystifying secrets.
I was really surprised to learn that this is actually one of the best selling books of all time, because I’d never heard of it until I was told to read it! I’d never even heard of H. Rider Haggard until studying King Solomon’s Mines last year. I suspect these books have fallen out of fashion due to their racist depictions of the African people. She is basically a story of white men going to Africa, insulting the people and their customs, and then making them carry them around on their shoulders. It also bothered me that She, supposedly an Arab queen, was white as snow. A very, very problematic book – something I talk about in this blog post. However, despite this rather unfortunate aspect of the novel, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. I can think of so many problems with it, but I just liked the narrative. A lot of the time I was probably laughing at Holly, which I doubt was the desired effect, but it did make me enjoy it. The characters were daft, the story adventurous, and it focused on a strong and powerful woman. It definitely made for a decent read.
One of the main things I feel this book was trying to tell me (although maybe inadvertently) is that men are very weak. All it takes is a beautiful woman to show her face and they are literally willing to throw away their life and morals. So often I found myself rolling my eyes at how pathetic Holly was, but again it was quite funny. I like how She was neither good or bad, but rather the reader could decide for themselves. There are a lot of gender issues going on, so if studying gender and literature is your thing then this could be ideal to analyse and tear apart! Especially if you’re into third-wave feminism and want to talk about race as well as gender.
Some reviewers of this said they thought there was a lot of waffling narrative and it was just too long, but like I say I did enjoy the narrative. I thought Holly and She’s conversations were rather interesting, although there was a lot of talk about mortality which I skimmed over a bit so it didn’t get too depressing, and I liked the adventure they went on. There’s no denying that Rider Haggard is a good story-teller who manages to depict a very grand setting rather well, but if only this book had been written in a modern, post-colonial world!
I think I lost track of the actual reason Holly and Leo went to Africa, as I thought for so long that they were hunting for something to bring back rather than merely to reach She. Their trip seemed a bit futile in the end and I did think, upon finishing it, “Oh, is that it?” I also wish there had been better characterisation. I think She and Holly were fairly well rounded characters, but Leo seemed very dull and their companions were merely caricatures. I certainly wouldn’t have read this book if it wasn’t for university, but I’m rather glad I got the chance to!
Overall: men are weak, Victorians are racist, and you should never try to live in a cave for 2000 years. It won’t bring much joy.
★★★★☆
Your Fave is Problematic
Whilst this is generally a meme that applies to celebrities, the idea of your favourite being problematic is certainly applicable to books as well! Reading She by H. Rider Haggard is making me realise the conflicting emotions of reading a book that you enjoy, but that is extremely problematic in terms of racism and sexism. I feel as though I shouldn’t be enjoying She as, although it’s a good book – the plot is interesting and the writing style is appealing – I know that its representation of Africa and its people is offensive and actually embarrassing to read.
This got me thinking about other works of classic fiction with questionable ethics that are probably a lot of people’s favourite book. How should we cope with enjoying a book that we know is problematic? I’ve looked at three books that I’ve read and enjoyed, but that I know have a few issues. Warning, there are some spoilers if you haven’t read these books!
1) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Surely everybody knows that Dickens’ representation of Miss Havisham is problematic by today’s standards, right? The old spinster who refuses to let go of her grudge against the man who scorned her. In fact, all of the women presented in the book are supposed to be disliked. We have Mrs Joe, Pip’s unforgiving sister, who is only considered bearable when she is attacked by a man and left mentally incapacitated (I mean, come on, wow. She is literally beaten into submission)! Then Pip’s undying love for Estella is eventually realised as, despite her being a strong female character, she is abused by her husband and turns to Pip because she has to be looked after by a man, right? Ugh.
2) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
It wasn’t until I reached my second year of sixth form that I realised that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is actually quite a racist book. The adventurous white man (Willy Wonka) goes to Africa and comes across a colony of black African pygmies, the Oompa-Loompas. They live in Loompaland which is described as a terrible, uncivilised place so Willy Wonka decides to ‘rescue’ them by making them work in his factory where they also sing and provide entertainment, but they are only paid in beans. This follows the classic trope of the white man ‘fathering’ people of another race and introducing them to a proper, Western lifestyle. Oh, and also enslaving them.
3) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Often it feels like Oscar Wilde is viewed as a genius who can do no wrong. Whilst he is certainly a remarkable author whose satire is unrivalled, he doesn’t seem to like women very much. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Harry says to Dorian “My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.” This is a view that is also echoed in his play An Ideal Husband. The Picture of Dorian Gray is dominated by male characters and the one important female character is so reliant on male affection that she decides nothing else in her life matters. I loved reading this book and even gave it a five star review, but there’s no doubt that the representation of women is not pretty.
These are just a few popular classics that have problematic aspects to them. You can also consider pretty much any Victorian novel which involves travelling to Africa or India and reflecting on the culture and people there, but I didn’t have time to list all of them! On one hand you could argue that these sorts of books are just providing an accurate depiction of life in the time they were written, but there is certainly a difference between representation and encouragement.
As for dealing with enjoying a problematic novel, I’m not too sure! Generally, education and awareness is the best way to approach things. As long as we know the books we read are not always appropriate by today’s standards and we talk critically about them, there’s no reason for us not to enjoy them for all their many positive elements!
Is your fave problematic? How do you cope with reading uncomfortably racist/sexist literature? Let me know!
Much love x
My New Workspace!
Hello fellow book nerds!
So, this is my first post in August and it comes at the end of the 31st. Oops. But I do have a reason. Swear.
I’ve had a fairly busy couple of months. At the end of July I visited the Isle of Man to see my boyfriend, then at the beginning of August I went to Cardiff with my friend, and we also went to London a week or so ago to see our other friend to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet! Then my boyfriend visited this bank holiday weekend and here we are. However, I’ve also been seriously redecorating my room with my mum and dad. It was filled with fitted wardrobes I couldn’t use and the walls and floor were very dated and not my choice at all. We decided to do it up over a month ago and then, last Thursday, we finished it! I finally have a workspace and a bookcase that isn’t overcrowded and messy! I’m so happy with it and I thought I’d share some pictures so you can see what I’ve been up to and where I’ll be blogging from from now on!
It’s much better than just hunching over my laptop cross-legged on my bed, that’s for sure. It was really nice to choose my own colours, furniture and details for the room (and yeah, this happens to include Tequila). It’s just so much more comfortable and easy to use now. I love it.
I’m looking forward to bringing you guys more reviews and bookish posts now that it’s much easier to do! I have a lot of reading to catch up on (I’ve been lagging of late) and it’s nice to have the time now to do it. So hopefully I’ll be much more regular with updating this blog 🙂
Much love x
Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
I still feel slightly numb after reading this. Go Set a Watchman completely engrossed me. I was hooked from the very start and it brought that wonderful feeling of not wanting a book to end, which for me is always a sign of a five star rating.
Jean Louise Finch is returning to her hometown of Maycomb for her annual holiday. She’ll be returning to questions of romance and her future, but that’s nothing she hasn’t faced before. However, when she witnesses the two people she holds most dear attending an event which goes against her strongest beliefs, she begins to feel isolated from the town of Maycomb and everyone she loves.
Scrolling through the ‘reviews’ on Goodreads for this book makes me a little sad. They all seem to be either people who are very excited for it, people saying they won’t read it, or people who’ve read it and aren’t a huge fan. I’m yet to see somebody who has enthusiastically enjoyed the book. I believe it might be better for die hard To Kill a Mockingbird fans to read this as a separate entity. Personally, I didn’t reread To Kill a Mockingbird first so it wasn’t fresh it my mind, but this certainly didn’t hinder my reading of Go Set a Watchman; it’s very easy to read this book without TKAM in mind if you so choose.
A lot of people have said that it’s obvious why this book was rejected at the beginning of its life and that it isn’t written that well. I completely disagree. If there were any major flaws in the writing I didn’t notice them; I was too busy enjoying the story! Some people are upset by the different attitude of Atticus Finch compared to TKAM, but I thought it made an important point regarding idolising mortal humans (and I’m tempted to write a post on that later on for the people who feel let down by Atticus). Maybe it’s because I’ve never held Atticus Finch as a personal literary hero, but I thought his character development was interesting and oddly reassuring.
I found Go Set a Watchman to be very readable and very character driven. Adult Scout is a delight and everything you want your childhood heroine to grow up to be: she adopts the morals of her father whilst remaining the down-to-earth tomboy we fell in love with years ago. I love how fierce she is, not letting her emotions prevent her from what she vivaciously believes in as she questions, “What turned ordinary men into screaming dirt at the top of their voices, what made her kind of people harden and say ‘n—-r’ when the word had never crossed their lips before?” The narrative is angry and powerful and I adore the way Lee uses language to demonstrate the relentless energy of Scout. So whilst Atticus says some very questionable things that are likely to upset some people, Scout’s bold retaliation definitely recompenses this. It’s such a joy to read about a female character who is so spirited and independent and willing to fight for what’s right.
A lot of this novel deals with Scout’s memories of her childhood in Maycomb. In some novels I find myself getting frustrated when they move back in time because I want the main plot to be attended to, but here I found the pace to be just right that you could enjoy learning about Scout’s history. It was nice to return to the children we met in To Kill a Mockingbird and it means that the Bildungsroman aspect still remains, even though Scout is officially all grown up. There were also gems of humour throughout the book, despite the dark overarching theme, which I loved.
People have questioned the controversy surrounding the book and don’t know if it’s right to read it in case its publication is against Lee’s wishes. I understand this view, but the book has been published and is going to be read now, so I would rather enjoy the book and share this enjoyment with others than spread negativity. I won’t pretend it’s the same life-changing work as To Kill a Mockingbird and, while I know it’s impossible not to compare them, I hope it can be viewed as a great novel which, as all novels should, entertains and enlightens the reader.
I gave To Kill a Mockingbird
★★★★★
Review: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Something that’s been good about having some time to read whatever I want lately is being able to attend to some classics on my TBR list without them having to be ‘for school’. So when I got the opportunity to borrow Brave New World I jumped at it and read it in just a few days.
‘Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…’
I was very surprised to find out that Brave New World was published in 1932! It seems so modern with all its references to genetics and the very bold sexualities presented in the society. I found that I was very aware that I was reading a ‘banned book’ because the themes were so…improper? I’m not sure how to describe it, but I think if I knew that my mum was aware of the ins-and-outs of the book and then she caught me reading it I’d certainly have blushed. It’s not even that bad, honest, it’s just so bold in the way it presents certain aspects of the dystopia that it’s surprising at times. Though I do think the fact that it reads as so ahead of its time definitely works towards it seeming timeless.
Now, I could’t help but compare it to 1984, which is a book I adore, because in ways they were so similar. Obviously they’re both classic dystopian novels, but they also feature a male protagonist who recognises a need to escape and enters into a relationship with a young woman. However (and I don’t know if it’s just that I haven’t read 1984 recently and I’ve changed my views) I don’t remember Winston being so irritating. Genuinely, the only reason I opted for four stars over five is how annoying I found the characters. At first he seemed nice in the way he didn’t want to objectify Lenina, but after certain events in the novel unfolded, which I won’t mention in case of spoilers, he became nearly unbearable to me. Most of the characters infuriated me at one time or another and the only one who I know for a fact didn’t is Mustapha Mond. Please don’t judge me for this. I know he’s supposed to be the bad guy, but he was intelligent and well spoken and the only character I could even begin to warm to! Basically, I loved the society and the writing, just not the characters. I don’t dispute that they are completely realistic characters for their society; they’re very well written! I just wasn’t a fan.
The society created in Brave New World is a slightly strange dystopia as it isn’t that obvious that it’s bad. At least, that’s the way I perceived it. Everybody is happy and has relative freedom compared to most dystopias and they have enough to eat etcetera. There is obviously a very strict control over the creation of humans and social positions and there are certain taboos that, if broken, would cause people to be ostracised. However, it isn’t the dystopia we’re shown in 1984 where everything is dark and citizens are unable to act due to fear of Big Brother. That being said, the novel does focus on the lives of ‘middle-class’ members and the reader is distanced from the Deltas and Epsilons. In a way this is a rather clever technique which draws us towards the positive side of this society and almost makes the empty-headed but happy ways seem desirable.
I’m really glad I got the chance to read this book. It was so fun and engaging and definitely a good classic to read while you’re trying to have a break from classics…if that makes any kind of sense!
I gave Brave New World
★★★★☆
read like a nerd. 