Strait is the Gate by André Gide

"I meant to fall on my knees before her; I took a step which she heard."

It is fine to love your cousin - but not to Love your cousin; if you catch my meaning. This is a strange tale translated from the French and it is on just about every must-read list there is.

There are moments of beautiful prose but ultimately I was a little unmoved. Everyone loves someone they shouldn't, life is hard, people suffer and then there's death: now if that synopsis has you gravitating towards this, well... more power to you.

I think sometimes these kinds of stories appeal more to someone younger, particularly when I flash back to my early teens and my fixation with Flowers in the Attic (like just about every other girl I knew at that time). This shares the overblown emotional weight of the teenage years, mixed with escaping the pull of hormones through a combination of religion and guilt.  Sexual awakening is a frightening prospect, this is why boy bands remain so popular.

What this slim novella does show is the propensity for children to rebel against their parents by becoming their opposite. Alissa's religious zealotry begins in reaction to her mother's sinful behaviour and is not the path to a happy, healthy life.

4/5 - Courtly love is a drag.

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

“Only when you are grown up, perhaps only when you have children yourself, do you fully understand that your own parents had a full and intricate existence before you were born.” 

I almost take a deep breath before I start one of McEwan's tales. There is the sense of foreboding that emotional torture lies ahead. The Child in Time is true to form in that regard.

Stephen is broken by the disappearance of his young child, Kate. His marriage seems irrevocably damaged by that life changing event. An event that haunts him through his membership of a committee on child care.

As always, McEwan crafts beautiful sentences that have an almost poetic quality and yet I feel I should've  saved this for a time when I was feeling more upbeat because I knew it would be a downer.


4 out of 5 times I visited the supermarket with Mum she would lose me.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

"How many years have passed since that far-off June afternoon? More than thirty."

My appreciation of this novel was a little hampered by reading it in fits and starts. Isn't that always the way - a busy life and reading can sometimes be difficult companions. Once i did engage with the narrator and his passion for the attractive Finzi-Contini daughter, Micòl.

The foreboding sense of what is coming hangs over the story of children growing up given that they are Jewish and live in Ferrara  and the time is just before the holocaust. Their world grows increasingly restricted and yet the trials and tribulations of love and rejection are universal and the juxtaposition makes this novel particularly interesting.

Originally written in Italian and one of a series of novels by Bassani, I wish I'd experienced it in the native tongue so to speak. My Italian is probably a little too rusty for that. Did I mention this one is yet another tick on the 1001 novels list - I'm making progress this year.

4 out of 5 frustrations and tragedy can be an unappealing mix.

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

"There comes a time in all passionate attachments when life, real life, must be faced once again with its varied and endless obligations, when the lover know in his innermost heart that the halcyon days are over."

This particular novel had been in my to read pile for a long time. I'd been a little bit put off by the blurb and the idea that perhaps I wouldn't engage with a lesbian love story. That was a really short sighted view. I think anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in any way can find something that resonates here. Stephen's journey is one of pain, exclusion, momentary joy,guilt and betrayal. This is a book chock full of emotions and I was hooked.

Perhaps what struck a chord with me particularly was the idea of femininity that Stephen challenges. Her father expecting her to be born a boy, perseveres with the name and brings up his child with an equality of experience that is to be applauded and yet is too progressive for the times. Social expectations are a constant challenge to Stephen, eager to please her parents , her inability to conform is  the source of a never-ending, losing battle.

With a milestone birthday approaching and the constant sense of disappointment voiced by my mother that I haven't bred her dreamt of grandchildren, I could really identify with that sense that you can't, in good conscience to yourself, grant your love ones their desired outcomes.

It would be great today, to look back at this, at times, gut wrenching work of fiction and laugh at how much things had progressed  While there have been many improvements in the world of 2016, it is sad to think that many still suffer as Stephen did. Hiding her relationship with Mary, and being treated like a leper by her family. Stephen's pain at not being able to marry Mary and provide for her future is sadly a struggle that many people still face in Australia today.

This review is most probably a little more heartfelt than usual and undoubtedly stems from the fact that as I get older and the news gets more horrific and 24-7,  it is my continuing wish that sanity could prevail in the world. That there would never be a question as to equal pay for women and equal representation on boards and in government. Likewise, that wherever your heart lies, you have the ability to provide for your loved ones, no matter if both of you wear a dress or a tux  at a wedding. 

Something about the ending of the novel - SPOILERS- just irritated me, I wanted Stephen to transgress society's norms and thrive. I wanted the crazy passion between Stephen and Mary to quell to something manageable and comforting. I did not like the ending. It felt like one of those code era American film endings where if you do something outside the norm you will be punished. The self-sacrificing lie is just gut-wrenching. Never has a title so eloquently enunciated the finale!

5 out of 5 why do good things have to end?

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

"There will always be, I realise,  those who would claim that any attempt to analyse greatness as I have been doing is quite futile."

I really wanted to like this more. This is one of those novels that I can appreciate in as much as it brilliantly conveys a character, but I just wanted something more/different. Admittedly it was difficult to get greatly enthused about things while waiting in a queue of some 50 people (after a long, long first day at my new job) at a medical centre because my finger was infected (damn nail salon),

The butler at the heart of the novel is a brilliant study of someone who has devoted so much of themselves to their job that they have almost lost their own identity and certainly their ability to relate to the greater public.

Actually, perhaps my reason for deducting a point of my score harks back to the fact that I've had a few jobs that have left me similarly detached from social norms by the level of devotion they required.

Now that I've reflected, I can certainly see how brilliant this work is, that doesn't mean I have to absolutely love it, but it certainly left me feeling a little blue - or perhaps that was just the fault of all the waiting while I read it.

 4 out of 5 trips in Somerset end up in a pub at some point.

The Sor­rows of Young Werther by J.W. von Goethe

“What sort of crea­ture must he be who merely liked Char­lotte, whose whole heart and senses were not en­tirely ab­sorbed by her”

This reminds me of the kind of sentimental bosh one writes in one’s diary as a seventeen year old. Always madly in love with people who don’t feel the same way, consistently sprouting superlatives and emotions turned up to eleven.

Did I enjoy this, no not really. I feel happy that I’ve crossed off yet another 1001 book from the list, but that is just about it.

Werther is a whiny wimp that really does not appeal to my sensibilities. Perhaps it lost something in translation – who can say? Ultimately, it is a particularly  short book and in my opinion- that’s a blessing.

 2 out of 5 courtly love traditions leave one cold.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

"She announced to her husband (whom she considered a difficult drunk rather than an eccentric) that she was leaving him."

 

 

What a delightful respite from the stress of work deadlines. To drift off into a sensual exploration of the sense of self and the other private life underpinned by erotic adventure.

 

Tomas is not one for fidelity, he loves his wife Tereza like no other and yet this is not reason enough to preclude his continual philandering. Kundera’s exploration of the reasoning behind these interactions is really intriguing.  I particularly enjoyed his discussion of the tension between the private and the public and Tomas’ desire to uncover all that was hidden in every woman he met. The tension between Sabine, Tomas’ mistress and his wife is also interestingly explored.

 

This is a book full of political upheaval, emotional roller-coasters and the odd bit of navel gazing, all beautifully packaged up with words that transport the reader to another place.  A place that is private and introspective, yet, at the same time, engaging on a number of levels. It seeks to explore the divide between love and lust and the points where they sometimes meet in the middle.

 

I devoured this book, not unlike a detailed dream that you regret waking from and feel leads you to return to bed.

 

5 out of 5 anything but light and fluffy.