The Heart Of The Matter
The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene was my Book Club's choice this month. It is the third Graham Greene novel I have read after The End Of The Affair and The Human Factor. Having read those novels, I had some idea of what to expect here, and indeed the novel shares a number of deep similarities to The End Of The Affair.
Having since googled this, four of Greene's novels, including Heart Of The Matter and End Of The Affair examined Catholic themes with Heart Of The Matter being the final one. Some at my Book Club could not understand why the protagonist becomes so deeply religious towards the end, but I, having grown up in modern Catholicism with an awareness of its history, could.
The unforgiving Catholicism on show here, in the days of the Tridentine Rite and prior to the Second Vatican Council is one I think not easily understood by a lay reader, which I think makes the book lose something in translation to the non-religious or non-Catholic.
Aside from this issue the novel covers a number of other themes. First and foremost it is a novel about Colonials and Colonial society. Various Brits abroad, largely public school educated, despairing of the heat and disparaging of the natives, illustrating as they go via their behaviour the levels to which the British Empire damaged various nations and their peoples with their sense of paternalistic right and entitlement.
Our protagonist is Scobie, and our colony is a "West African State" later revealed by Greene to be Sierra Leone. Scobie is that rare thing, an honest man who likes the people and seeks to do the job well, something which makes he and his wife objects of unpopularity and scorn. As the novel turns, and Scobie is forced to act in an unprincipled way, his popularity increases, a remark perhaps aimed by Greene at the corrupt nature of those who enter Foreign Service.
It is a very male book set in a man's world and I found myself frustrated that we only see women in this book in the way Scobie views them, as needy and a burden. The two main female characters Helen and Louise are two-dimensional with only merest hints that they are more than Scobie is allowing them to be. Other men like Wilson, Bagster and Harris are priggish and annoying, and perhaps in some respects, stereotypes.
Despite this the prose itself is engaging, though the novel does not really become consistently readable until perhaps mid-way through. It has dated, but is also an interesting portrait of its time, both historically speaking and in terms of comparative literature.
It is an interesting book, and I enjoyed certain lines of prose very much, but this being my third Greene, I feel like I've got a certain handle now on the type of novel he wrote and can't say I'm eager to read his complete works.
Verdict 7/10
Showing posts with label Colonies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colonies. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Book #54 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart, the title taken as a quote from a Yeats poem is the story of tribesman Okonkwo, a man who has worked hard within his tribe to achieve recognition having suffered the burden of an embarrassing father. A number of unfortunate incidents befall Okonkwo and he is forced into exile. Upon his return white colonialists have come to his village, and nothing will ever be the same again.
A relatively short novel by any standards, Things Fall Apart shows tribal life before European colonisation reflects upon morality, belonging and social standing within different cultural norms to our own. It also shows the beginning of what became the almost total erosion of tribal culture due to Western interference. This gives cause for reflection because whilst the West generally had a negative impact in its dealings with Africa, certain horrible cultural acts based upon superstition such as leaving twins to die of exposure in the forest vanish too.
It reminded me of a somehow reverse Heart Of Darkness, however I did not feel that the ending rang true to Okonkwo's character of spirit. A good book, and given its brevity worth the time it takes to read it. Part of me would have liked a longer, more detailed novel, which said more and followed history as it had developed over time 7/10
Things Fall Apart, the title taken as a quote from a Yeats poem is the story of tribesman Okonkwo, a man who has worked hard within his tribe to achieve recognition having suffered the burden of an embarrassing father. A number of unfortunate incidents befall Okonkwo and he is forced into exile. Upon his return white colonialists have come to his village, and nothing will ever be the same again.
A relatively short novel by any standards, Things Fall Apart shows tribal life before European colonisation reflects upon morality, belonging and social standing within different cultural norms to our own. It also shows the beginning of what became the almost total erosion of tribal culture due to Western interference. This gives cause for reflection because whilst the West generally had a negative impact in its dealings with Africa, certain horrible cultural acts based upon superstition such as leaving twins to die of exposure in the forest vanish too.
It reminded me of a somehow reverse Heart Of Darkness, however I did not feel that the ending rang true to Okonkwo's character of spirit. A good book, and given its brevity worth the time it takes to read it. Part of me would have liked a longer, more detailed novel, which said more and followed history as it had developed over time 7/10
Monday, 28 May 2012
Book #48 The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
The Gift Of Rain
Longlisted for The 2007 Man Booker Prize eventually won by Anne Enright's The Gathering, having read The Gift Of Rain I feel it was cruelly overlooked and should have been a greater contender.
Its protagonist is an aging Phillip Hutton who when born had been the product of a wealthy British colonial father and a Chinese immigrant mother in Penang, Malaysia. The only surviving member of the Hutton family, he keeps the good name of his father's business alive. One night he is visited by a dying woman named Michiko who has come to find out about her lost love Endo. From there the novel takes place largely in flashback as Phillip relates to Michiko his relationship with Endo-san from start to finish.
Reading The Gift Of Rain reminded me so much of what I love about literature generally. Its ability to transport you to times past and other places, places that no longer are as they once were so that even if you travelled to their location on the map, you wouldn't find them. Recently I've been to Lagos, and the Tudor Court, in this instance I got to travel to pre-war and wartime Malaysia, and Tan Twan Eng paints a beautiful mental image with his descriptions.
I loved the tangled emotional complexities of Phillip and Endo's relationship. Some may feel that at certain points Phillip's behaviour in response to Endo's behaviour lacks credulity in the context, but then you remember the parameters set between them and their beliefs about their past and future. Like Philip you feel your gut drop when you put certain things together. Other characters are great too, Kon and Isabel particularly.
The strength of the novel ultimately is the writing, some beautifully executed descriptive prose and a portrait of a kind of love not often seen in literature wrapped up in the twists and turns of wartime intrigue. This book is thoroughly worth reading and I do urge you to buy it. 10/10
Longlisted for The 2007 Man Booker Prize eventually won by Anne Enright's The Gathering, having read The Gift Of Rain I feel it was cruelly overlooked and should have been a greater contender.
Its protagonist is an aging Phillip Hutton who when born had been the product of a wealthy British colonial father and a Chinese immigrant mother in Penang, Malaysia. The only surviving member of the Hutton family, he keeps the good name of his father's business alive. One night he is visited by a dying woman named Michiko who has come to find out about her lost love Endo. From there the novel takes place largely in flashback as Phillip relates to Michiko his relationship with Endo-san from start to finish.
Reading The Gift Of Rain reminded me so much of what I love about literature generally. Its ability to transport you to times past and other places, places that no longer are as they once were so that even if you travelled to their location on the map, you wouldn't find them. Recently I've been to Lagos, and the Tudor Court, in this instance I got to travel to pre-war and wartime Malaysia, and Tan Twan Eng paints a beautiful mental image with his descriptions.
I loved the tangled emotional complexities of Phillip and Endo's relationship. Some may feel that at certain points Phillip's behaviour in response to Endo's behaviour lacks credulity in the context, but then you remember the parameters set between them and their beliefs about their past and future. Like Philip you feel your gut drop when you put certain things together. Other characters are great too, Kon and Isabel particularly.
The strength of the novel ultimately is the writing, some beautifully executed descriptive prose and a portrait of a kind of love not often seen in literature wrapped up in the twists and turns of wartime intrigue. This book is thoroughly worth reading and I do urge you to buy it. 10/10
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Book #60 Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing
Alfred and Emily
Warning : This review contains some spoilers
Alfred and Emily written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing, was declared, shortly before publication to be the now 92 year old writer's final book.
Alfred and Emily is a curious blend of fiction and non-fiction the concept of which I was unaware of prior to reading. In the opening section, the first half of the book, we move from August to August beginning in 1902. Alfred Tayler gains notice at a cricket match but opts to stay within the farming community, he has a happy marriage to Betsy and they have twins. At the same cricket match was Emily McVeigh who has scandalised her father and her best friends mother by giving up a university place to become a nurse, her friend Daisy follows her. Later Emily experiences a short, unhappy marriage before becoming involved in charitable works, she maintains contact with her old community including Alfred, from time to time. The early section reminded me much of Virginia Woolf's "Between The Acts". Ordinary British people in the country enjoy summer pursuits, unaware that a World War silently approaches and will tear them apart. At least, that's what I thought was coming.
Alfred and Emily however is a "re-imagining" a guess, at how their lives would have developed without the intervention of the first World War. I read it perplexed, wondering why it didn't impact the characters at all, then suddenly realised that there was something "different" at work here, that Lessing for some reason had edited history and in her story the first World War did not happen.
Suddenly the involving story of Alfred and Emily brings you up short, you turn the page and are confronted by two short obituaries marking their deaths, with half a book left to go. Alfred and Emily are revealed to be Lessing's parents and the story, a story of what her parents lives might have been had not the war intervened, Alfred and Emily having become romantically involved in the war.
Whilst the first half of the book is a fiction, the second half is fact, little vignettes of different aspects of their lives as expats in what is now Zimbabwe and what was then Rhodesia. Their marriage is revealed to not have been entirely happy, and Doris' relationship with them, her mother in particular not always easy.
I suppose we all wonder at times about "might have beens" if we'd chosen a different university, or married a different person and I suppose we all wonder what would have happened if our parents hadn't met, one of my grandfathers for example, almost became a monk. Lessing seems to go one step further though, her story of Alfred and Emily seems almost like wish-fulfillment. Alfred has a happy marriage whilst Emily dies childless. Lessing strongly indicates that in her opinion Emily McVeigh should not have had children but in so doing wishes away her own existence, which makes the book slightly odd.
I found the Rhodesia episodes very true, I find it impossible to remember every incident that has ever happened in my whole life, and I'm only 30. I think all we ever retain are different snapshots of different eras, and the significant moments of our lives. Although sometimes we don't realise their significance. I am sceptical of autobiographies that recall word for word every detail of their lives and Lessing doesn't do that here.
It' s a shame that I still haven't read a "proper Lessing novel" like The Grass Is Singing or The Golden Notebook, I have only read this : a fact/fiction blend and Shikasta, an experimental space novel. Therefore I feel like I must continue to reserve judgement upon her as a writer.
From what I've read in the Amazon reviews, most people preferred the non-fiction section, I however preferred the fictionalised version of Alfred and Emily. Mainly because I like the idea of alternate realities and whether something so small as not catching the train (as in 1998 film Sliding Doors) can indeed change the world. 7/10
Warning : This review contains some spoilers
Alfred and Emily written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing, was declared, shortly before publication to be the now 92 year old writer's final book.
Alfred and Emily is a curious blend of fiction and non-fiction the concept of which I was unaware of prior to reading. In the opening section, the first half of the book, we move from August to August beginning in 1902. Alfred Tayler gains notice at a cricket match but opts to stay within the farming community, he has a happy marriage to Betsy and they have twins. At the same cricket match was Emily McVeigh who has scandalised her father and her best friends mother by giving up a university place to become a nurse, her friend Daisy follows her. Later Emily experiences a short, unhappy marriage before becoming involved in charitable works, she maintains contact with her old community including Alfred, from time to time. The early section reminded me much of Virginia Woolf's "Between The Acts". Ordinary British people in the country enjoy summer pursuits, unaware that a World War silently approaches and will tear them apart. At least, that's what I thought was coming.
Alfred and Emily however is a "re-imagining" a guess, at how their lives would have developed without the intervention of the first World War. I read it perplexed, wondering why it didn't impact the characters at all, then suddenly realised that there was something "different" at work here, that Lessing for some reason had edited history and in her story the first World War did not happen.
Suddenly the involving story of Alfred and Emily brings you up short, you turn the page and are confronted by two short obituaries marking their deaths, with half a book left to go. Alfred and Emily are revealed to be Lessing's parents and the story, a story of what her parents lives might have been had not the war intervened, Alfred and Emily having become romantically involved in the war.
Whilst the first half of the book is a fiction, the second half is fact, little vignettes of different aspects of their lives as expats in what is now Zimbabwe and what was then Rhodesia. Their marriage is revealed to not have been entirely happy, and Doris' relationship with them, her mother in particular not always easy.
I suppose we all wonder at times about "might have beens" if we'd chosen a different university, or married a different person and I suppose we all wonder what would have happened if our parents hadn't met, one of my grandfathers for example, almost became a monk. Lessing seems to go one step further though, her story of Alfred and Emily seems almost like wish-fulfillment. Alfred has a happy marriage whilst Emily dies childless. Lessing strongly indicates that in her opinion Emily McVeigh should not have had children but in so doing wishes away her own existence, which makes the book slightly odd.
I found the Rhodesia episodes very true, I find it impossible to remember every incident that has ever happened in my whole life, and I'm only 30. I think all we ever retain are different snapshots of different eras, and the significant moments of our lives. Although sometimes we don't realise their significance. I am sceptical of autobiographies that recall word for word every detail of their lives and Lessing doesn't do that here.
It' s a shame that I still haven't read a "proper Lessing novel" like The Grass Is Singing or The Golden Notebook, I have only read this : a fact/fiction blend and Shikasta, an experimental space novel. Therefore I feel like I must continue to reserve judgement upon her as a writer.
From what I've read in the Amazon reviews, most people preferred the non-fiction section, I however preferred the fictionalised version of Alfred and Emily. Mainly because I like the idea of alternate realities and whether something so small as not catching the train (as in 1998 film Sliding Doors) can indeed change the world. 7/10
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