Absolution
Length Of Time In Possession : 18 months
What first struck me when I started reading Absolution was the identical nature of the basics of the story to Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale which I have just read. Successful elderly writer Clare Wald, summons young journalist Sam Leroux to her home with the intent of allowing him to be her biographer, and their conversations illuminate her back story. There the similarity ends because whilst The Thirteenth Tale is shrouded in a kind of Gothic old fashioned mystique, the mysteries of Absolution are of a starker, bleaker variety.
Set in modern day South Africa the events of the novel are placed against the backdrop of the fairly recent political upheavals of that nation, the findings of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission for example are referenced often. The novel is constructed in an odd way, and at times this made it difficult to read. Split into three sections it at times has sections from Clare's perspective and then Sam's interspersed with excerpts from Clare's final novel, a 'faction' named 'Absolution'.
Clare did not choose Sam for the task for no apparent reason Sam & Clare have a link, a link neither is able to discuss, and as Sam's narrative contradicts what Clare sets forth in 'Absolution' it becomes harder to know what really happened, and in some respects this is the point of 'Absolution' how, when in absence of the facts, we make up fictions in our minds of events we know to have happened but do not know the detail.
Another strand of Absolution revolves around guilt and responsibility, how responsible is a person when a remark they make sets forth a chain of events they didn't foresee culminating in disaster.
The problem with 'Absolution' as a novel and what makes it become hard work as a read is that these points about history and responsibility become laboured and the making of them ultimately occurs at the cost of the narrative : the plot becomes damaged and skewed by the authors apparent need to make them. A lengthy diatribe about censorship for example is just entirely out of step with the rest of the plot.
By far the most interesting aspect of 'Absolution' is the fate of Laura, a fate that is ultimately left hanging in mid air, with the onus on the reader to infer what they can.
All in all the novel is something of a mixed bag that does not entirely flow together very well despite containing excellent ideas.
Verdict 7/10
Destination : ebook storage
Showing posts with label Guilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guilt. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Book #57 The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman
The Light Between Oceans
The Light Between Oceans is a post WW1 Australian set novel about Tom Sherbourne who having been demobbed gets a job as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock. Soon after he marries and he and his wife come to love their isolated idyll. Their paradise becomes tainted by their inability to have children and following her third miscarriage Isabel is cracking under the strain of the grief, when one night a boat is shipwrecked on their shores..... it contains a dead man and a newborn baby. Believing God has answered their prayers Isabel persuades Tom not to report the wreck and they pass the child off as their own.
But though he loves the child, the actions wrack Tom with guilt for years to come.....
This novel is a stunning debut on the part of M.L Steadman and covers such a range of emotions and reactions. Guilt, grief, sacrifice, morality, love, marriage, parenthood, loss, time, change, duty, truth. Above all it is achingly human, and provokes the same dilemma in its reader as in its protagonist.
I am quite a cynic these days, and on top of that a well read one, so it isn't that often that I find a novel with the capacity to move me to tears, but this novel did. Its location is atmospheric and beautifully drawn, the sea and the windswept isolation of the island; even with the unusual parameters of the storyline the novel feels gutwrenchingly real, of a place and time and characters who existed as opposed to an entirely fictitious prospect.
Enormously moving and brilliantly told. I won't forget this book in a hurry nor the emotions that rose within me as I read it. A quality piece of writing and a quality novel, I hugely recommend you purchase this book. 10/10
The Light Between Oceans is a post WW1 Australian set novel about Tom Sherbourne who having been demobbed gets a job as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock. Soon after he marries and he and his wife come to love their isolated idyll. Their paradise becomes tainted by their inability to have children and following her third miscarriage Isabel is cracking under the strain of the grief, when one night a boat is shipwrecked on their shores..... it contains a dead man and a newborn baby. Believing God has answered their prayers Isabel persuades Tom not to report the wreck and they pass the child off as their own.
But though he loves the child, the actions wrack Tom with guilt for years to come.....
This novel is a stunning debut on the part of M.L Steadman and covers such a range of emotions and reactions. Guilt, grief, sacrifice, morality, love, marriage, parenthood, loss, time, change, duty, truth. Above all it is achingly human, and provokes the same dilemma in its reader as in its protagonist.
I am quite a cynic these days, and on top of that a well read one, so it isn't that often that I find a novel with the capacity to move me to tears, but this novel did. Its location is atmospheric and beautifully drawn, the sea and the windswept isolation of the island; even with the unusual parameters of the storyline the novel feels gutwrenchingly real, of a place and time and characters who existed as opposed to an entirely fictitious prospect.
Enormously moving and brilliantly told. I won't forget this book in a hurry nor the emotions that rose within me as I read it. A quality piece of writing and a quality novel, I hugely recommend you purchase this book. 10/10
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Book #77 A Cupboard Full Of Coats by Yvette Edwards
A Cupboard Full Of Coats
Also longlisted for this years Booker, A Cupboard Full Of Coats brings us another character haunted by the guilt of a small past action which turned out to have massive consequences. Jinx opens the door to find Lemon on her doorstep, the friend of her mothers partner Berris, neither of whom she has seen since she was sixteen. Lemon has come to inform her that he has seen Berris who is now "out" having served 14 years for the murder of Jinx's mother, something that Jinx holds herself accountable for.
A Cupboard Full Of Coats is really your average domestic violence story of a single mum and daughter who were doing just fine until Berris came along and ruined everything. Like A Sense Of An Ending the novel is more about the guilt people carry following the unforeseen major repercussions of a small deliberate piece of spite than the actions of Berris himself. Jinx like her name has experienced something of a cursed life since, unable to make relationships last and unable to bond with her son. She does better with dead people and works as an embalmer.
I enjoyed the descriptive prose which evoked the tastes and smells of Afro-Caribbean culture, it was enough to make you hungry. I also liked the originality of how and why a swimming costume caused a divorce. It was humorous. Lemon's character and that of Jinx's school friend Samantha Adebayo, were both well drawn and brought real spark into the novel.
But, I felt like the ending was too neat, Jinx having dispensed of her guilt is now able to begin repairing her relationships, just like that. And, I didn't feel that the story despite its Afro-Caribbean flavour was really original enough to stand apart from many other novels on the same issue. Not a strong contender I'm afraid, not when A Sense Of An Ending which covers the same kind of psychological issues outclasses it on several levels. 7/10
Also longlisted for this years Booker, A Cupboard Full Of Coats brings us another character haunted by the guilt of a small past action which turned out to have massive consequences. Jinx opens the door to find Lemon on her doorstep, the friend of her mothers partner Berris, neither of whom she has seen since she was sixteen. Lemon has come to inform her that he has seen Berris who is now "out" having served 14 years for the murder of Jinx's mother, something that Jinx holds herself accountable for.
A Cupboard Full Of Coats is really your average domestic violence story of a single mum and daughter who were doing just fine until Berris came along and ruined everything. Like A Sense Of An Ending the novel is more about the guilt people carry following the unforeseen major repercussions of a small deliberate piece of spite than the actions of Berris himself. Jinx like her name has experienced something of a cursed life since, unable to make relationships last and unable to bond with her son. She does better with dead people and works as an embalmer.
I enjoyed the descriptive prose which evoked the tastes and smells of Afro-Caribbean culture, it was enough to make you hungry. I also liked the originality of how and why a swimming costume caused a divorce. It was humorous. Lemon's character and that of Jinx's school friend Samantha Adebayo, were both well drawn and brought real spark into the novel.
But, I felt like the ending was too neat, Jinx having dispensed of her guilt is now able to begin repairing her relationships, just like that. And, I didn't feel that the story despite its Afro-Caribbean flavour was really original enough to stand apart from many other novels on the same issue. Not a strong contender I'm afraid, not when A Sense Of An Ending which covers the same kind of psychological issues outclasses it on several levels. 7/10
Book #76 A Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes
A Sense Of An Ending
Longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Julian Barnes has been nominated for the fourth time for A Sense Of An Ending after having previously been unsuccessful with Flaubert's Parrot in 1984, England, England in 1998 and Arthur and George in 2005. Always the bridesmaid never the bride you've got to feel for the guy. I hadn't read any of his previous work but I really enjoyed this book, and will on the strength of it absolutely seek out some of his other works.
It is essentially a short novel, coming in at just 150 pages, which makes me wonder whether it is in fact a novella or an extended short story. It definitely does have the 'feel' of a short story about it. And it is therefore difficult to review without spoilers, but I'm going to try my best.
Tony Webster is an ordinary middle aged man who has had a fairly unremarkable life, he married, he had a child, he divorced as so many do. But when something occurs out of the blue, the past returns to haunt him and he is forced to re-examine his history in relation to his former schoolfriend Adrian Finn; a charismatic, clever, serious boy from a broken home whose life story became linked to his in a way that Tony had never imagined nor even given consideration to.
This book is in a way about the transgressions of youth, but it also has relevance to anyone of any age. In a temper Tony said some thoughtless and spiteful things, which, in many ways would be the default reaction of most people who are placed in the situation he is placed in, particularly a young man of his age at the time. But, this act of thoughtlessness, an act that he never really dwelt upon in the years that followed had massive repercussions for several lives thereafter.
This book gave me real pause for thought, as it made me think about the impact that our actions have on other people's stories. Even if what we say about the person is true, though in Tony's case it wasn't so much that; a selfish need to "get back" at someone can cause a chain reaction the likes of which we never expected or were never aware. What happens is not Tony's "fault" per-se, he couldn't possibly have anticipated it, but yet it wouldn't have happened without that one action on his part, or....would it? Then, as an older man this is something he is left to consider possibly the rest of his life, and never get the sense of an ending, because it is clear that one person at least places the burden of blame squarely upon his shoulders.
The consequence of this book has caused a certain level of guilt by proxy for me. An examination of points in my life whereby I did or said or wrote something with only thought for my own feeling and not the feelings of the person on the receiving end. Even if you are "in the right" factually, morally, or just in your own mind, you don't know what chain reaction of events you may have unwittingly sparked.
For a book to have an impact of this kind upon you, to make you consider your own life and psychology, it rises above being "just a story" and I hope to see this novel in serious contention for the forthcoming prize. 10/10 for the simple fact it is a book you will continue to think on long after you've closed it.
Longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, Julian Barnes has been nominated for the fourth time for A Sense Of An Ending after having previously been unsuccessful with Flaubert's Parrot in 1984, England, England in 1998 and Arthur and George in 2005. Always the bridesmaid never the bride you've got to feel for the guy. I hadn't read any of his previous work but I really enjoyed this book, and will on the strength of it absolutely seek out some of his other works.
It is essentially a short novel, coming in at just 150 pages, which makes me wonder whether it is in fact a novella or an extended short story. It definitely does have the 'feel' of a short story about it. And it is therefore difficult to review without spoilers, but I'm going to try my best.
Tony Webster is an ordinary middle aged man who has had a fairly unremarkable life, he married, he had a child, he divorced as so many do. But when something occurs out of the blue, the past returns to haunt him and he is forced to re-examine his history in relation to his former schoolfriend Adrian Finn; a charismatic, clever, serious boy from a broken home whose life story became linked to his in a way that Tony had never imagined nor even given consideration to.
This book is in a way about the transgressions of youth, but it also has relevance to anyone of any age. In a temper Tony said some thoughtless and spiteful things, which, in many ways would be the default reaction of most people who are placed in the situation he is placed in, particularly a young man of his age at the time. But, this act of thoughtlessness, an act that he never really dwelt upon in the years that followed had massive repercussions for several lives thereafter.
This book gave me real pause for thought, as it made me think about the impact that our actions have on other people's stories. Even if what we say about the person is true, though in Tony's case it wasn't so much that; a selfish need to "get back" at someone can cause a chain reaction the likes of which we never expected or were never aware. What happens is not Tony's "fault" per-se, he couldn't possibly have anticipated it, but yet it wouldn't have happened without that one action on his part, or....would it? Then, as an older man this is something he is left to consider possibly the rest of his life, and never get the sense of an ending, because it is clear that one person at least places the burden of blame squarely upon his shoulders.
The consequence of this book has caused a certain level of guilt by proxy for me. An examination of points in my life whereby I did or said or wrote something with only thought for my own feeling and not the feelings of the person on the receiving end. Even if you are "in the right" factually, morally, or just in your own mind, you don't know what chain reaction of events you may have unwittingly sparked.
For a book to have an impact of this kind upon you, to make you consider your own life and psychology, it rises above being "just a story" and I hope to see this novel in serious contention for the forthcoming prize. 10/10 for the simple fact it is a book you will continue to think on long after you've closed it.
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