A novel documenting the lives of two women living 400 years apart struggling against the prejudices of the society surrounding them, The Virgin Blue is an uncomfortable and sometimes devastating read.
It surrounds the linked but very different lives of two female characters. In the 16th century, Isabelle lives in a harsh French village, where she is cast under constant suspicion and disdain because of her red hair. Four hundred years later, her ancestor Ella moves from America to a rural French town with her husband Rick. Both have very different struggles against the people around them.
Despite the 400-year gap, there are similarities and themes which link the women. Both live in unhappy marriages; both feel osctracised in the villages they live in; both are outsiders. Ella is phonetically similar to Isabelle and both are midwives. As the novel progresses, Ella is also nicknamed La Rouss as her brown hair gradually turns red.
But for every similarity, there are dozens of historical, social and cultural changes that separate them. Isabelle is forced to marry bullying rapist Etienne to save her family from financial ruin. He beats her, virtually imprisons her and sexually abuses her. Ella married Rick for love and he is a loving and respectful husband. Isabelle is made to give up midwifery by Etienne; Ella must give it up until she gets her qualifications in France. Isabelle has no choice but to have children; Ella decides to have a child and gleefully empties her contraceptive pills into the river near her home.
Their parallel yet often opposing experiences act as a mirror for the different pressures, expectations and limitations of women's lives. Isabelle is at the complete mercy of her husband, his violence and his wishes. She is controlled, stifled and locked away. When she is accused of an affair which she never had, she is beaten to within an inch of her life.
Ella has the freedom to make friends, indulge in an affair and explore her vilage. She makes the choice to leave her husband and end their stale marriage despite his wishes. But for all her freedom, Ella is still not completely free. She falls victim to the wicked gossip of women in the village and feels trapped, frustrated and isolated by her inability to work.
Isabelle isn't the only woman who falls victim to the misogyny of the world surrounding her, however. Her daughter Marie is joyous, wilful and passionate; her brave words save her Huguenot family from slaughter when they are confronted by Catholics. But Marie's lively personality lead to her downfall. When she is found with her mother's precious patch of blue cloth underneath her black dress, she is eventually tricked and drowned by her father and brothers. In killing Marie, they take away Isabelle's only love in her life.
Colour is a central theme in the novel. Isabelle is obssessed with the blue of the Virgin Mary and deceives her husband in order to purchase the precious cloth in the shade. Ella is plagued with nightmares of this blue, which suffocate and terrify her.
The Virgin Blue is Chevalier's first novel and it sets out the interest in gender politics and colour that shape her later works. While colour is central to the novel, it is not realised as expertly as it is in Chevalier's later classic work Girl with a Pearl Earring.
By contrasting Isabelle and Ella's lives, Chevalier beautifully exposes the gulf between both women's experiences. But the gender politics don't ring so true in Ella's story. She is swept off her feet by her lover Jean-Paul, who accepts her unquestioningly even when she is pregnant with her husband's child. While the reader can understand that Ella feels lost and isolated, the character of her husband Rick is so marginalised it is difficult to sympathise with Ella and her affair. Rick isn't a bad husband like Etienne; he does nothing wrong. This makes it difficult to empathise with Ella and her choice to end her marriage.
Despite this, The Virgin Blue is an interesting read filled with brutal examples of how hard life was for women in the 16th century. Packed with atmosphere and lyrical observations, it shows the devastating lack of choice women 400 years ago had, how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
My next read: One Day by David Nicholls.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Saturday, 25 July 2009
The House at Riverton - Kate Morton
The House at Riverton is a deep, brooding and gut-wrenching novel about how the choices we make for love can shape families, fate and history. Weaving time frames between 1914 and 1924 and one woman's memories in 1999, the novel exposes how loyalty, love and family ties can transgress right and wrong, truth and fiction.
The novel's narrator is Grace Bradley, a 98-year-old woman in a residential home, who was a maid at The House of Riverton as a young woman. Grace is visited by a filmmaker who is making a film about the suicide of war poet Robbie Hunter in 1924, a suicide Grace witnessed. As Grace remembers that fateful day, she slowly reveals a tragic secret she has hidden from history.
A beautifully plotted novel, it is in its characterisation that The House of Riverton comes into its own. From Grace, the maid loyal to the end, to Robbie and Alfred, who are changed and battered by the horrors of war. The Hartford sisters are beautiful, privileged and polar opposites. Hannah is an intelligent, wilful suffragette, determined to have an independent life on an equal footing to a man; Emmeline is gorgeous, feminine and traditional, desperate to marry well.
But as the novel unfolds, the sisters fates are flipped. Hannah finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage, stifled and suffocated by her husband's patriarchal, class-obssessed family. A few years younger, Emmeline managed to carve out her independence following the death of their father, able to smoke, drink and take lovers. The tensions of class and social norms threaten, stifle and forbid many of the relationships throughout the novel, leading to many unhappy endings.
But the relationships between the characters show the different types, depths and strengths of love. Reunited after the war, Hannah and Robbie are besotted with each other, seemingly willing to go to any lengths to be together. But Hannah's love for her family ultimately dooms their fate. Grace discovers a secret tying her to Hannah and, when she finds true love with Alfred, allows it to pass her by to remain loyal. Even the Hartford sisters' father Frederick has his own secret about love, which ultimately led to his lover's doom.
In its predominantly post-war setting, The House at Riverton recreates the psychological aftermath of World War One. Grace and Hannah find the men they love are changed, hardened and damaged by the war, tending towards a cold-bloodedness they can barely understand. And the men who survived are the lucky ones, with many men wiped out in he novel. Hannah and Emmeline's brother David and their uncle Lord Ashby are annhilated by the war, wiping out two generations of the Hartford family. Lord Ashby's pregnant widow Jemima is left to deliver their baby alone after years of tragedy, losing two sons before her husband.
In its sections in 1999, The House at Riverton mirrors the servant/master relationship between Sylvia and Grace. Unlike Grace, as a care home assistant Sylvia doesn't need to give the same level of servitude. She goes beyond her duty and is close to Grace, but she also leaves her alone at times and doesn't bend to her every demand. The film of the events at Riverton also acts as a mirror to the lies surrounding what happened. It reveals history's perception of what happens and how the so-called events are bent for the purposes of fiction. While Grace's version of events are bent to protect the Hartford family, the film's version is changed to make a better story.
While it is atmospheric, well plotted and beautifully realised, The House at Riverton isn't as much of a mystery as Morton's other novel, The Forgotten Garden. I worked out much of the twists and turns hundreds of pages in advance, unlike the narrative of The Forgotten Garden. But Morton's writing and characterisation still make it a can't-put-down read till the end.
A stunning and heartbreaking read, The House at Riverton invokes a critical time in British class and social history to show how everlasting love and loyalty can be.
My next read: The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
The novel's narrator is Grace Bradley, a 98-year-old woman in a residential home, who was a maid at The House of Riverton as a young woman. Grace is visited by a filmmaker who is making a film about the suicide of war poet Robbie Hunter in 1924, a suicide Grace witnessed. As Grace remembers that fateful day, she slowly reveals a tragic secret she has hidden from history.
A beautifully plotted novel, it is in its characterisation that The House of Riverton comes into its own. From Grace, the maid loyal to the end, to Robbie and Alfred, who are changed and battered by the horrors of war. The Hartford sisters are beautiful, privileged and polar opposites. Hannah is an intelligent, wilful suffragette, determined to have an independent life on an equal footing to a man; Emmeline is gorgeous, feminine and traditional, desperate to marry well.
But as the novel unfolds, the sisters fates are flipped. Hannah finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage, stifled and suffocated by her husband's patriarchal, class-obssessed family. A few years younger, Emmeline managed to carve out her independence following the death of their father, able to smoke, drink and take lovers. The tensions of class and social norms threaten, stifle and forbid many of the relationships throughout the novel, leading to many unhappy endings.
But the relationships between the characters show the different types, depths and strengths of love. Reunited after the war, Hannah and Robbie are besotted with each other, seemingly willing to go to any lengths to be together. But Hannah's love for her family ultimately dooms their fate. Grace discovers a secret tying her to Hannah and, when she finds true love with Alfred, allows it to pass her by to remain loyal. Even the Hartford sisters' father Frederick has his own secret about love, which ultimately led to his lover's doom.
In its predominantly post-war setting, The House at Riverton recreates the psychological aftermath of World War One. Grace and Hannah find the men they love are changed, hardened and damaged by the war, tending towards a cold-bloodedness they can barely understand. And the men who survived are the lucky ones, with many men wiped out in he novel. Hannah and Emmeline's brother David and their uncle Lord Ashby are annhilated by the war, wiping out two generations of the Hartford family. Lord Ashby's pregnant widow Jemima is left to deliver their baby alone after years of tragedy, losing two sons before her husband.
In its sections in 1999, The House at Riverton mirrors the servant/master relationship between Sylvia and Grace. Unlike Grace, as a care home assistant Sylvia doesn't need to give the same level of servitude. She goes beyond her duty and is close to Grace, but she also leaves her alone at times and doesn't bend to her every demand. The film of the events at Riverton also acts as a mirror to the lies surrounding what happened. It reveals history's perception of what happens and how the so-called events are bent for the purposes of fiction. While Grace's version of events are bent to protect the Hartford family, the film's version is changed to make a better story.
While it is atmospheric, well plotted and beautifully realised, The House at Riverton isn't as much of a mystery as Morton's other novel, The Forgotten Garden. I worked out much of the twists and turns hundreds of pages in advance, unlike the narrative of The Forgotten Garden. But Morton's writing and characterisation still make it a can't-put-down read till the end.
A stunning and heartbreaking read, The House at Riverton invokes a critical time in British class and social history to show how everlasting love and loyalty can be.
My next read: The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
Monday, 20 July 2009
The Pirate's Daughter - Margaret Cezair-Thompson
A novel documenting the tensions of race, class, sexuality, and gender in a changing Jamaica, The Pirate's Daughter is an epic novel about the pain of love and family relationships.
Spanning 30 years, the novel tells the tale of Ida Joseph, a teenager entranced by the presence of Hollywood actor Error Flynn in her home country. Beautiful, passionate and wilful, Ida finds herself in love with Flynn and, after a brief love affair, has his child, May.
The novel documents Ida's struggle to find her way in the world and to let go of Flynn, doing her best to provide for her daughter. The focus then switches to May, a deep, intelligent and lonely child, who in turn fights to find her place and to fall in love with the right person.
Epic, atmospheric and evocative, The Pirate's Daughter uses Jamaica's changing political climate as the backdrop for a winding saga probing the complexities of families and love. With her parents unmarried and from different ethnic backgrounds, Ida is uncomfortable with her place in the world. Unable to relate to her traditional Jamaican mother, she finds herself turning to her father Eli for comfort and to be understood. As she nears womanhood, she increasingly turns to Flynn before they become lovers when she is 16.
In the novel, Flynn personifies colonialism with mere presence and his relationship with Ida. He is blown onto the island in a storm. While there, he buys his own island, transforms it and makes it known as a paradise to his friends and fellow celebrities. He arrives, buys, transforms and conquers. In his relationship with Ida, he decides she is beautiful and starts a brief love affair, one which cools after it is consummated and when May has his unborn child. She is cast aside like an unwanted toy. Her pleas for help and her love for him go unacknowledged evermore.
Her daughter May is later even more uncertain of where she fits in. She is a mixed race child, the daughter of a Hollywood legend. Her peers brand her a "white witch" while her fiance Martin later jilts her for being "coloured" and illegitimate. Like her mother, she uses sex to try to validate herself. May works her way through a multitude of lovers and one night stands before finally finding love and happiness.
Beautifully weaving fact and fiction against Jamaica's changing political landscape, The Pirate's Daughter is an unusual read, which has the echoes of Wide Sargasso Sea. Poetic and perfectly plotted, it is a dark, sad and desolate read which shows just how unwavering love can be, even if it is unrequited and built on fantasy.
My next read: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Spanning 30 years, the novel tells the tale of Ida Joseph, a teenager entranced by the presence of Hollywood actor Error Flynn in her home country. Beautiful, passionate and wilful, Ida finds herself in love with Flynn and, after a brief love affair, has his child, May.
The novel documents Ida's struggle to find her way in the world and to let go of Flynn, doing her best to provide for her daughter. The focus then switches to May, a deep, intelligent and lonely child, who in turn fights to find her place and to fall in love with the right person.
Epic, atmospheric and evocative, The Pirate's Daughter uses Jamaica's changing political climate as the backdrop for a winding saga probing the complexities of families and love. With her parents unmarried and from different ethnic backgrounds, Ida is uncomfortable with her place in the world. Unable to relate to her traditional Jamaican mother, she finds herself turning to her father Eli for comfort and to be understood. As she nears womanhood, she increasingly turns to Flynn before they become lovers when she is 16.
In the novel, Flynn personifies colonialism with mere presence and his relationship with Ida. He is blown onto the island in a storm. While there, he buys his own island, transforms it and makes it known as a paradise to his friends and fellow celebrities. He arrives, buys, transforms and conquers. In his relationship with Ida, he decides she is beautiful and starts a brief love affair, one which cools after it is consummated and when May has his unborn child. She is cast aside like an unwanted toy. Her pleas for help and her love for him go unacknowledged evermore.
Her daughter May is later even more uncertain of where she fits in. She is a mixed race child, the daughter of a Hollywood legend. Her peers brand her a "white witch" while her fiance Martin later jilts her for being "coloured" and illegitimate. Like her mother, she uses sex to try to validate herself. May works her way through a multitude of lovers and one night stands before finally finding love and happiness.
Beautifully weaving fact and fiction against Jamaica's changing political landscape, The Pirate's Daughter is an unusual read, which has the echoes of Wide Sargasso Sea. Poetic and perfectly plotted, it is a dark, sad and desolate read which shows just how unwavering love can be, even if it is unrequited and built on fantasy.
My next read: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Thursday, 9 July 2009
The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry
A stunning, beautifully observed novel, The Secret Scripture is a raw insight into Ireland's turbulent history and its devastating consequences on the life of a young woman.
The novel tells the story of Roseanne McNulty, a 99-year-old woman who has spent most of her adult life in a mental hospital. As she approaches her hundredth birthday, Roseanne writes her memoir, revealing a tragic web of misery that leads to Roseanne's incarceration. Throughout the novel, Roseanne's pyschiatrist Dr Grene attempts to analyse her, but more often analyses himself as Roseanne resists his questions and enquiries.
The Secret Scripture is a stunning read, which slowly unfurls the tragic truth behind Roseanne ending up in a mental home. As a girl, Roseanne is beautiful, loving and naive. She idolises her father, who includes her on his adventures working in a graveyard and as a rat catcher. But by being included, Roseanne is exposed to horrors. She sees her father struggle against poverty and accidentally cause a fire which kills more than a hundred children at an orphanage. Soon after, Roseanne, 16, is left to care for her mother alone when her father is found hanged. She quits school and gets a job as her mother slowly descends into madness.
It is from there that the tragedy which blights her life continue. Blonde and beautiful, Roseanne becomes an object of lust for older men in Sligo, one of whom attempts to rape her. Soon she marries but after being accused of adultery the marriage falls apart and a few years after she finds herself in a mental hospital.
The novel is a raw and disturbing insight into Ireland's history, with Roseanne falling victim to the prejudices of the civil war, varying religions and the men who control her. With no parents to protect her, Roseanne's short-lived independence as a waitress is chipped away when she marries. She is moved to the outskirts of the village, can no longer work, her mother is committed and she is kept under the watchful eye of her husband and the community around her.
Barry uses parallels to expose the extreme injustice Roseanne faces. She is cut off, ostracised and her marriage is annulled beyond her power after she is seen meeting a man by her local priest, despite nothing ever happening. In contrast, Dr Grene is punished less obviously by his wife Bet after his infidelity. Roseanne is judged savagely by her husband, her community and even the Catholic church for her perceived "nymphomiania"; Dr Grene is simply subjected to separate bedrooms.
A fascinating insight into attitudes towards gender, sexuality, religion and madness in Ireland in the 1920s and 30s, The Secret Scripture is a brilliantly observed and dosturbing read.
My next read: The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
The novel tells the story of Roseanne McNulty, a 99-year-old woman who has spent most of her adult life in a mental hospital. As she approaches her hundredth birthday, Roseanne writes her memoir, revealing a tragic web of misery that leads to Roseanne's incarceration. Throughout the novel, Roseanne's pyschiatrist Dr Grene attempts to analyse her, but more often analyses himself as Roseanne resists his questions and enquiries.
The Secret Scripture is a stunning read, which slowly unfurls the tragic truth behind Roseanne ending up in a mental home. As a girl, Roseanne is beautiful, loving and naive. She idolises her father, who includes her on his adventures working in a graveyard and as a rat catcher. But by being included, Roseanne is exposed to horrors. She sees her father struggle against poverty and accidentally cause a fire which kills more than a hundred children at an orphanage. Soon after, Roseanne, 16, is left to care for her mother alone when her father is found hanged. She quits school and gets a job as her mother slowly descends into madness.
It is from there that the tragedy which blights her life continue. Blonde and beautiful, Roseanne becomes an object of lust for older men in Sligo, one of whom attempts to rape her. Soon she marries but after being accused of adultery the marriage falls apart and a few years after she finds herself in a mental hospital.
The novel is a raw and disturbing insight into Ireland's history, with Roseanne falling victim to the prejudices of the civil war, varying religions and the men who control her. With no parents to protect her, Roseanne's short-lived independence as a waitress is chipped away when she marries. She is moved to the outskirts of the village, can no longer work, her mother is committed and she is kept under the watchful eye of her husband and the community around her.
Barry uses parallels to expose the extreme injustice Roseanne faces. She is cut off, ostracised and her marriage is annulled beyond her power after she is seen meeting a man by her local priest, despite nothing ever happening. In contrast, Dr Grene is punished less obviously by his wife Bet after his infidelity. Roseanne is judged savagely by her husband, her community and even the Catholic church for her perceived "nymphomiania"; Dr Grene is simply subjected to separate bedrooms.
A fascinating insight into attitudes towards gender, sexuality, religion and madness in Ireland in the 1920s and 30s, The Secret Scripture is a brilliantly observed and dosturbing read.
My next read: The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
A prequel responding to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea gives a voice to Jane Eyre's most mysterious and marginalised character, Rochester's first wife Bertha Mason.
The novel tells the tale of Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole woman struggling to adapt to an impoverished life in the West Indies after the abolition of slavery. It charts Antoinette's childhood and womanhood, when she marries Mr Rochester and is gradually moulded into Bertha Mason.
Wide Sargasso Sea is a literary classic, which is still studied today more than 40 years after it was published. After wanting to read it for years, I finally picked up the novel and was surprised by what I found.
The novel charts a world which couldn't be further away from the grey, dreary England of Jane Eyre. It is hot, exotic, mysterious and hostile, with racial tensions underpinning and overwhelming Antoinette and her family's every day life.
Like her future rival Jane, Antoinette is naive, lonely and unloved. Her father already dead, she is rejected by her mother who lavishes her attention on her disabled brother Pierre. Her only friend Tia only associates with her after the friendship was engineered by Antoinette's nanny Christophine and then turns on her viciously. Antoinette is pushed out further when her mother remarries Mr Mason. When the family home is set alight in a blaze of racial hate, Antoinette's mother is tipped into madness and the girl's life is never the same again. Her mother later dies, leaving Antoinette rich.
Through Antoinette's narration, we soon discover that she has married Mr Rochester (although he is never named). Honeymooning in a place called Massacre, the marriage soon turns sour when Rochester starts to believe wicked lies and rumours about his new bride. He pushes Antionette away and beds one of her servants, determined to break her.
Rochester is cold, vicious and unfeeling, a man who married Antoinette for her fortune and has the gall to take away everything she is and owns, including her name. Antoinette is the ultimate other; she is a woman, white yet Creole, exotic but still rejected by the community surrounding her. She loses power with each page of the novel, completely shackled by her marriage. She has lost her fortune, her status and her independence.
Against a backdrop of magic, rumour and mystery, Antoinette is driven into madness as she is stripped of everything she ever had, including her dignity and freedom. Rochester takes her to England and locks her up without ever visiting her.
Dreamy, disturbing and dark, Wide Sargasso Sea is a fascinating response to Jane Eyre, giving a voice to the so-called mad first wife. Rochester is shown as a calculating brute, a man who undoubtedly does not deserve a second chance of love that he gets with Jane. While it is a good read, it is so short part of me felt some opportunities were lost, particularly the surprisingly brief section of Bertha's imprisonment. Although not completely satisfying, Wide Sargasso Sea is a must-read for anyone who wants to see Jane Eyre from a new, exciting and darker perspective.
My next read: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
The novel tells the tale of Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole woman struggling to adapt to an impoverished life in the West Indies after the abolition of slavery. It charts Antoinette's childhood and womanhood, when she marries Mr Rochester and is gradually moulded into Bertha Mason.
Wide Sargasso Sea is a literary classic, which is still studied today more than 40 years after it was published. After wanting to read it for years, I finally picked up the novel and was surprised by what I found.
The novel charts a world which couldn't be further away from the grey, dreary England of Jane Eyre. It is hot, exotic, mysterious and hostile, with racial tensions underpinning and overwhelming Antoinette and her family's every day life.
Like her future rival Jane, Antoinette is naive, lonely and unloved. Her father already dead, she is rejected by her mother who lavishes her attention on her disabled brother Pierre. Her only friend Tia only associates with her after the friendship was engineered by Antoinette's nanny Christophine and then turns on her viciously. Antoinette is pushed out further when her mother remarries Mr Mason. When the family home is set alight in a blaze of racial hate, Antoinette's mother is tipped into madness and the girl's life is never the same again. Her mother later dies, leaving Antoinette rich.
Through Antoinette's narration, we soon discover that she has married Mr Rochester (although he is never named). Honeymooning in a place called Massacre, the marriage soon turns sour when Rochester starts to believe wicked lies and rumours about his new bride. He pushes Antionette away and beds one of her servants, determined to break her.
Rochester is cold, vicious and unfeeling, a man who married Antoinette for her fortune and has the gall to take away everything she is and owns, including her name. Antoinette is the ultimate other; she is a woman, white yet Creole, exotic but still rejected by the community surrounding her. She loses power with each page of the novel, completely shackled by her marriage. She has lost her fortune, her status and her independence.
Against a backdrop of magic, rumour and mystery, Antoinette is driven into madness as she is stripped of everything she ever had, including her dignity and freedom. Rochester takes her to England and locks her up without ever visiting her.
Dreamy, disturbing and dark, Wide Sargasso Sea is a fascinating response to Jane Eyre, giving a voice to the so-called mad first wife. Rochester is shown as a calculating brute, a man who undoubtedly does not deserve a second chance of love that he gets with Jane. While it is a good read, it is so short part of me felt some opportunities were lost, particularly the surprisingly brief section of Bertha's imprisonment. Although not completely satisfying, Wide Sargasso Sea is a must-read for anyone who wants to see Jane Eyre from a new, exciting and darker perspective.
My next read: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry.
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