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.

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.