The Little Stranger Redux

I made my disappointed and frustrated feelings on Sarah Waters' latest -and much anticipated- novel, The Little Stranger here. However, hindsight and post-analysis can be a wonderful thing. I remain slightly disappointed and it is my least favourite of her novels; although the historical setting and social commentary were exceptionally well researched, they were too dry for me and the narrator Dr Faraday altogether too dull.

Reading insightful reviews by Savidge Reads and Dovegreyreader, and then Dovegreyreader's interview with Sarah Waters posted today, has persuaded me to re-examine the novel and my reaction towards it; it is rare that a negative impression of a book prompts such consternation in me but this one has. Simon suggested re-reading the closing line to make sense of the subtle and vague ending and I managed to do so recently (I, ahem, sold my copy of the novel, which is something I never do with hardbacks, especially those I was counting down the days until published). I urge you to re-read that closing line as it confirmed a hunch I had whilst reading the novel, but by the close of it I had almost stopped caring if it was correct or not. Re-reading that line and reading complimentary and illuminating reviews by others made it clear to me that I definitely missed something in the first reading. Upon further reflection and drawing comparisons with my favourite novel, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, I now have more of an appreciation of the novel, of its nuances. I am now more disturbed by my potential limitations as a reader by giving it too linear a reading and being oblivious to some of its subtleties.... Perhaps it was my own expectations of the novel that let me down; The Little Stranger didn't live up to the high bar I had set for a beloved writer and in setting it so high I think I sold Sarah Waters short and consequently myself.

This is a peculiar blog post to write but I have been struggling with the thoughts over the last couple of weeks and thought that I should share them. The slow building of resonance with this novel has completely taken me by surprise and it has a lingering, haunting quality that is rather apt.

For the Hours After Midnight

Sarah Waters, whose own ghost/haunted house story I reviewed here, wrote about her favourite ghost stories on her website. I found the list and insight into the writer's own literary loves fascinating. Of the top ten I had read half when I first read the list but have now read eight of the ten; the short stories I found online (I would provide links but I downloaded them in pdf format and no longer have them) and have still to read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (as previously mentioned) and Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills (I have never read any Ishiguro).

Of the ten my favourites are photgraphed above.

Beloved was my first Toni Morrison novel almost a decade ago and the one she is most known for, seeing as it won the Pulitzer Prize and was likely the contributing factor to the author winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, the first time a black woman had ever won it. I loved that Sarah Waters included it on a list of ghost stories; it is intensely haunting and does include a haunted house, 124 Bluestone, and its own "little stranger", the ghost of murdered infant, Beloved (so named for the inscription on her headstone). It is also haunted by the sins of the past and I love Waters' eloquent description, " [o]ne of the great fictional studies of slavery and its scars, Beloved is also a sublime literary ghost story: a meditation on the ways in which individuals and communities – ultimately, an entire nation – can be haunted by the violence and injustice of the past. A breathtaking book." It is indeed breathtaking -you gasp in shock often- and somebody or something's breath is perhaps the sensation you feel on the back of your neck.
Beloved is the type of terrifying story that the short story "The Lottery" is, more disturbing and sickeningly shocking than sensational terror.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is also a haunting novella of another kind, a psychological and claustophobic study of mental illness. A spare and essential feminist text, I have read and reread "The Yellow Wallpaper" often. I have the beautiful slim volume (Virago Modern Classic) above as well as a couple of anthologised copies but you are able to read this on Project Gutenberg. Follow it up with Persephone's The Victorian Chaise-longue, which is similarly themed with a trapped and stifled woman.

My impressions of The Woman in Black have recently -and enthusiastically- been given. The building of palpable tension in this short novel still resonates with me.

Coincidentally I paired "Carmilla" by Sheridan Le Fanu and "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (both novellas) in a Victorian Literature essay many years ago. The latter lauded the former with the praise that he was "the ideal reading ... for the hours after midnight" and indeed Le Fanu's Vampiric tale, which predates Bram Stoker's Dracula, is deliciously atmospheric. As a prototype for lesbian vampires, as well as female, it is also probably of historical as well as literary interest to Sarah Waters. "The Turn of the Screw" is the original rational v. supernatural tale and at the forefront of the genre.

Of the short stories, "The Monkey's Paw" was the most sensational and one I had never come across mention of before (nor the others). Its "be careful what you wish for" motif is blended into a theme reminiscent of The Arabian Nights, a monkey's paw talisman that will grant you three wishes - no matter the cost. Its climax is chilling and emphasises that what is unseen and left to the reader's imagination is frequently effective.

Elizabeth Bowen is a favourite writer of Sarah Waters and one of the few female writers of War-time fiction. "The Demon Lover" is subtly creepy.

Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat" bears re-reading as I haven't fully formed an opinion. It is quite poignant but I didn't find it particularly scary.

As I seem to be on a mission to scare the bejesus out of myself, do you have personal favourites in the genre of ghost stories and the general disturbing that you would like to recommend?

Book-centric Memories

Do you ever recall particular events like pleasant weekends, holidays, or special occasions in relation to books? I do. Memories for me are often intrinsically made up of the event influenced by the book I was reading at the time or books I bought. Perhaps that takes my Bibliophilia to new, obsessive levels but it is true. The photograph above was taken exactly a year ago, on a lovely day spent in the West-end of Glasgow at the West-end festival and a visit to the Botanic Gardens. I am reading Sophie Dahl's (grand-daughter of Roald and inspiration/protagonist of The BFG) Playing with the Grown-ups, an eccentric coming-of-age novel; in the bag beside me is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which I had purchased from Fopp that afternoon and ended up giving up on half way through later that month; and in my handbag is a rare Virago copy of The Brontes Went to Woolworths, which I pounced upon in Oxfam Books for the amazing price of £2.49, and read a few months later in tribute to Woolworths and its demise in the UK.

Before I moved to London to live I visited a lot and many of the memories of my visit involve books. One visit in June 2006 involved a Southbank Centre calendar of events in tribute to Angela Carter, where writers including Ali Smith and Sarah Waters spoke; I was writing my Master's thesis on Angela Carter at the time so this was highly interesting and beneficial as was the premiere at the Royal Court Theatre of Marina Carr's (absurdist and mythological Irish playwright whose drama I was also working on) new play Woman and Scarecrow starring the wonderful Fiona Shaw. At the beginning of that journey I was reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters in time for the Guardian's book group discussion with the author, which I attended; I remember buying a copy of Affinity so I could have them both signed (a few months earlier I attended a reading of The Night Watch in Glasgow and had both that and Tipping the Velvet signed). It was quite the literary-centric visit to London and on the journey home I began reading my new Vintage edition of Angela Carter's Wise Children, set in East-end London and concerning the bizarre and theatrical Chance twins, Dora and Nora, in a hysterical Shakespearean romp.

Later that year my boyfriend and I went to London to see Wicked: the musical as a graduation celebration. On an excursion to Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross Road with a friend I bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, at her suggestion. I had only recently discovered Neil Gaiman (well I had known who he was for a long time and my boyfriend read The Sandman but I had discovered that I enjoyed him too) and had read American Gods the previous month and loved it. Neverwhere was an apt purchase as it is set in a real and fantastical London known, respectively, as London Above and London Below. The subterranean expanse of the London underground allows limitless imagination and Gaiman capitalises on it. It is so refreshing to read a book where places you know and places you have recently been are mentioned. For instance, I opened the book to read on a jam-packed tube after leaving Emma and eventually obtaining a seat at St. John's Wood tube station and the opening page of the book is a quote which reads "I have never been to St John's Wood" - how uncanny is that? Hardly surprising that it sticks in my mind. I am in dire need of a reread of Neverwhere now that I live in London Above nearly three years later. For that matter I desperately want time to reread Wise Children around Midsummer's Day (a key section of the novel is about Dora and Nora starring in a Hollywood adaptation of A Midsummer's Night Dream). For the sheer joy of it I should also reread Fingersmith too as it is another fantastic novel.

This is somewhat of a non sequitur post, a departure from the norm, but I have some blog posts in mind of literary experiences, places and bookshops, and favourite writers and books that I would like to share.

The Little Stranger

I have been hesitating over writing this review because I am loath to admit, even to myself, how disappointing I found The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I was warned but I still hoped and the hype I created for myself was perhaps my own downfall. Not since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have I anticipated a book being published and counted down the days. The anticipation of the book was exciting but the reality of the book itself a disappointment.

From the dust-jacket: "In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners – mother, son and daughter – are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own.
But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.
Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story."

Its premise is intriguing but it doesn't live up to the expectation. My problem is that I wasn't terrified or chilled or felt much in way of suspense and there was no resolution but an ending that was anti-climactic. I can see what Waters was attempting to achieve, a haunting story that defied an explanation or one that was solely rational or supernatural, but in the end I didn't care which and felt that she didn't either; it was almost as if she couldn't make up her mind and gave up without falling on either side, her ending too subtle. Her arguments for the rational were dry at times and Dr Faraday's scientific approach irritating. All in all, I didn't care for any of the characters much as they weren't likeable. I did enjoy how she anthromorphised Hundreds Hall and ultimately it was the only character I remotely identified and even symathised with.

I admire Waters' writing and her skills as a historian -the era is evoked well, as are the class distinctions- but the plot was too linear and simplistic for me and I would have been more forgiving if there had been a twist in the end. I appreciate that Sarah Waters is experimenting with new periods and new forms -as is her right- but I think that she was too bogged down in ghost story tropes to actually achieve a successful one herself. After reading The Woman in Black so recently, The Little Stranger paled in comparison, and not from fear.

For a digested account of The Little Stranger, this is amusing (beware explicit spoilers).

eta: my redux post of this book can be read here.

This and That...

This is a blog post about this and that, bits and bobs; more of an update really.

Firstly, The Little Stranger is on its way in the post to me and I am unbelievably excited (I don't think I've anticipated a book this much since the last three Harry Potter books). I pre-ordered it over a month ago online but had to cancel that order since it hadn't been dispatched yet and order through Waterstone's instead, who were offering it at a far cheaper price anyway and where I could also redeem my loyalty points. I am hoping it will arrive my Saturday's post...

Secondly, I managed to finish my book for book group before tonight's meeting. I'll review that over the next few days. I'm looking forward to finding out what we're reading next (we take it in turns to decide).

Thirdly, my library pile is decreasing although I have five books waiting collection (and four to return). One of the books I'll collect over the next few days is The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey, which I am hoping to read before the Orange Prize is announced on June 3rd. The other books I'm picking up are The Group by Mary McCarthy (this one has been on my radar for a while but I watched a Hay Festival interview with Sarah Waters and she said that she's currently re-reading it so I took the recommendation and requested it); The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks; and The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver (this one I am most excited about). I also renewed The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb so that I have more time to tackle it as its sheer size is somewhat daunting.

Also, my friend and I are tackling some classics that we have always meant to read but never have and next up is Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh for July 1st (even though, ahem, my friend still hasn't finished the previous book, Brighton Rock).

I still have three books (and another still to review) to read for Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge : one fairy tale book, which is currently in progress, and two non-fiction books before Midsummer's Night (June 23rd).

I have also began to participate in the Shelfari discussion group Booktivity's monthly challenge to read a book with a specific category -and its derivatives- in the title. This coming month's category is "weather" and I was thinking of reading Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Leaf Storm.

So that will be one new book, ten library books, one book group book (decided tonight); one unread classic; three challenge books; one weather book ... to be read within the next 4-6 weeks, not to mention the books I already have waiting (and wanting) to be read. Seventeen books is manageable in that time limit, isn't it? Deviating from the list and not adding new books, however, is less achievable...

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk)

Thou Shalt Covet Books

My first commandment: thou shalt read books
My second commandment: thou shalt covet books
My third commandment: thou shalt have books

What better way to blog on a dreary Bank Holiday Monday than to blog about the books I covet. I have read a number of book coveting posts this month that contribute to Debi's mini-challenge in honour of Dewey and I thought I would contribute.

My book eyes being bigger than my book stomach I am continually coveting new books to read and my wants and desires are eclectic and wide-ranging. For the purpose of the post I took the books most recently added to my Amazon wishlist, along with the first three books that I am desperate to own.

1. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: I am literally counting down the days (THREE) until this is released in the UK. I am jumping up and down with anticipation. Thanks to Littlebrown's Sarah Waters website I have had a sneak read of the first two chapters and I am impatient to read the remainder. I have splurged and pre-ordered a copy and I only hope that it arrives on time.

2. The Thing Around Your Neck, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I have mentioned in a previous post how much I am looking forward to reading this title; I have requested it from the library but am fifth in line so should expect it some time close to Christmas. I really should own it in hardback as I own Adichie's previous titles in that format.

3. Journal by Katherine Mansfield: I am itching to puchase the title. I have been obsessed with Katherine Mansfield recently (which reminds me I have an unfinished blog post concerning her) after re-reading some of her short stories and remembering how much I loved her writing. This is the title from Persephone Books that I most covet.

4. The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery: the follow-up (not a prequel per se, more a side-by-side?) to The Elegance of the Hedgehog this book isn't released until Autumn but my book taste-buds are salivating in anticipation - an appropriate yet unintentional desciption as it concerns a food critic.

5. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White: the advantage of taking these directly from my wishlist is that it demonstrates my book likes in all their versatility. This timeless manual for writing is the one I am most wanting to invest in.

6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: Another one that isn't being released until later in the year (by Penguin Modern Classics,) I have been coveting this book for a while but it has been out of print. I don't know much about it and would like it to stay that way until read.

7. Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics by Simone Murray: Simon reviewed this title recently and I was immediately interested. The Virago section alone is enough to peak my interest although I was disappointed to discover that Persephone isn't included.

8. Moomin: the Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip: I loved the Moomins as a child and I would love to own the four-piece hardback collection. How lovely would they look on the shelf with the other comics and graphic novels?

9. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: Cupcakes, enough said. I covet a visit to this bakery on Portobello Road.

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate: Volumes 4 and 5 are also on the wishlist so I can read Season 8 of the cult TV show (and personal favourite) in graphic novel form.

11. Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson: Another Persephone and another I covet. The synopsis amuses me.

12. Captivated: J.M. Barrie, the Du Mauriers and the Dark Side of Neverland by Piers Dudgeon: I cannot articulate how much I covet this book. J.M. Barrie? Daphne Du Maurier? I've been wanting this book for six months, since reading Daphne by Justine Picardie.

The Woman in Black

I was incorrectly under the impression that The Woman in Black by Susan Hill was a re-telling/re-interpretation/reincarnation of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins but it's not; the title is merely misleading. I read the former last October and it's a classic crime story with supernatural elements, albeit not as compelling as Collins's The Moonstone, which is a personal favourite of mine. As for being influenced by The Woman in White, nobody could possibly do it better than Sarah Waters did in Fingersmith; she took the basic premise of the great Victorian novel by one of the masters and amazingly improved upon it (if you haven't read Fingersmith then please do; it is exceptional).

As for the confusingly entitled The Woman in Black it is an atmospheric ghost story that is spine-tingling. I can say in all honesty that I am relieved that I read this during the onset of summer because it is scary enough without reading it in the thick of a dark Winter, complete with elements that lend themselves to dark imaginings. Suspenseful and chilling the events of The Woman in Black surround junior lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is young and carefree and sent to Eel Marsh House, which sits beyond the causeway and alone upon treacherous sea marshes and whose mistress, Alice Drablow, a client of the law firm for whom Kipps works, has recently died. The malevolence surrounding Eel Marsh House is something Kipps disregards as superstitious gossip on the behalf of the town occupants, even when he catches sight of the emaciated and anomalous woman all dressed in black, but gradually a creeping sense of unease takes hold. Kipps begins to witness, hear, and experience strange occurrences at Eel Marsh House and the tale becomes a meditation upon the effect of fear upon the body and mind. Kipps uncovers the tragic secret of the house from sixty years before and its consequent haunting but not without personal cost.

The unsettling nature of the plot is effectively realised; I found my heart palpitating and the hairs on the back of my neck raised as Kipps and his companion Spider the dog faced off the ghostly occurrences. There is one event in particular, where their lives are at risk, which had my heart thudding in my ears. This is a very well told ghost story, which is extremely discomfiting; I still feel a little shaken, which is a sign of a great read.

The repetition of the rocking chair in the nursery, normally a comforting motion, is as frightening as the tap tap tap of a tree branch against the window on an eerie, dark night when you are home alone.

The story is framed by a much older Arthur Kipps who has tried to forget the terrifying experience from his past but on Christmas Eve when his family are trying to outdo one another with ghoulish stories by the fire, events come back to the forefront of his mind and he resigns himself to documenting it all. I am a huge fan of this structure and it works seamlessly well; unlike The Turn of the Screw by Henry James though, which uses the same form, The Woman in White does not oppose supernatural and rational but emphasises throughout that this is a ghost story intended to scare the wits out of you. It succeeded with me.