The Snare

by Elizabeth Spencer, Peggy Whitman Prenshaw (Introduction)

The reprinting of a major southern writer’s New Orleans novel that explores a young woman’s temptation to live on the periphery of evil

Genres: Fiction, Novels

407 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Elizabeth Spencer was an American writer. Spencer's first novel, Fire in the Morning, was published in 1948. She has written a total of nine novels, seven collections of short stories, a memoir (Landscapes of the Heart, 1998), and a play (For Lease or Sale, 1989). Her novella The Light in the Piazza (1960) was adapted for the screen in 1962 and transformed into a Broadway musical of the same name in 2005. She is a five-time recipient of the O. Henry Award for short fiction.

Reviews

[Dave Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Snare is a truly fantastic novel, how it has so few ratings is bewildering. I guess one of the reasons is that it’s so difficult to categorise (and review). It’s not a love story nor is it a crime thriller, yet it’s been labelled as both. It’s intriguing, complex, and very Southern. Plus it has one of most enigmatic female characters I’ve ever come across.
Set in 1950's New Orleans, it’s the story of Julia Garrett, orphaned and adopted by her uncle and aunty. “Orphan girl in a Voodoo City ” is how she describes herself. She’s smart, attractive and privileged, but easily bored and self-destructive. She falls in love with a handsome drifter, who is a musician. Together they are drawn into the New Orleans underworld. They meet a preacher who claims he can see into peoples' souls and then enter a sinister world of late night jazz bars, kidnapping, voodoo, murder and heroin.
" My idea is," she said, "that people draw life from the crooked world. There's a conversation going on with the straight world, all the time. It's what makes this city and it's what makes the world. Haven't you noticed?"

Sex is never far from the surface and neither is narrative ambiguity, and this makes The Snare so fascinating. Central to that is Julia’s relationship with her Great Uncle, Henri ‘’Dev’’ Devigny. She claims to have loved him and the implication that he may have been sexually abusive is suggested, but never stated. It casts a dark shadow throughout the novel.
Author Caroline McCoy wrote an essay about The Snare and says:
“In many ways, The Snare is a feminist novel, far ahead of its time in its handling of female sexuality and desire, as well as the influence of early and unwanted experiences. Among works aimed at deepening mainstream discussions about sexual exploitation, it becomes essential reading; but one cannot claim the subject as the book’s central concern. Probably, this is why I like it so much.“

Elizabeth Spencer isn’t the first author from Mississippi that makes the reader roll up their sleeves and work, and that, for me at least, makes it a far more enjoyable experience.
The Snare is one of the most mesmerising and rewarding books I’ve read in a long time and a late contender for favourite book this year.

[Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up having read a brilliant short story by the same author and following a recommendation by @Davemarsland whose excellent review you will find among the "oh too few" below .

It's a mystery to me why some famed and fêted authors in their day sink below the sightlines of readers after their death . This novel was written in 1972 , half a century ago, but certainly within my lifetime . It reconstructs an earlier period : post WW2 New Orleans and dishes up that heady mix of soul and sweat , wealth and it's dirty underbelly , passion and self containment that defined the swirling vigour of this southern port. It splits it's storylines between those that held their noses to the sources of their wealth , while benefiting from its output, and those that swirled , sunk or swam underneath.

It's not quite a thriller , a romance or a bildungsroman but has elements of all three . Holding it together is the irresistible and spirited Julia Garrett whose childhood has a fairy tale like quality ( orphaned and raised by a wealthy aunt and uncle but with a malign great uncle who, it is hinted at , corrupts her ). She rejects the pampered and restrictive life of marriage and children laid before her and dives innocently and completely into the life of the city on her doorstep . She needs passion and she needs it now . Unable or unwilling to confront her childhood corruption, which bound her forever to life below the facade, she seeks the sensate pleasure boxed and walled off to women of her class whose mouths are stuffed with wealth . What follows is a story that ebbs and flows between ecstacy and sorrow , dull poverty and opportunity , second chances and terrible disruption.

This is , above all else , a deeply feminist novel but one that hides it's message behind a mix of sultry sexuality , crime , murder , drugs and music . We are inside the heads of not only Julia but her aunt , her uncle , a hardbitten journalist , her flat mate as the time line switches back and forth . In this way we feel sympathy for all the characters whatever their situation and , by default , for the city itself which thrums beneath their concerns with the relentless energy of the ocean from which it gains it's status .

I advise you to get yourself a copy and get it read. You won't be disappointed .

[Paddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is among my favorite New Orleans novels. Spencer is a favorite writer, not enough people know her work.

[Karin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great New Orleans novel. Recommended to me by a bookseller at Faulkner House Books in the French Quarter. The interplay of a fascinating female protaganist and the mysterious city of New Orleans, post WWII, is compelling. One of the most interesting characters I've encountered in awhile.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me while strolling through Faulkner Books in New Orleans. I was hooked by the end of page one. It's entirely Southern and exudes the very essence of New Orleans. The Snare is mysterious, sultry, and a fantastic read.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

That southern thing, that mysterious southern thing.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love discovering obscure books at the public library. Having never heard of this author or book, I was open to reading something completely unknown. The author's writing was from a different time, 1972 and the story is set in New Orleans during the 50's and perhaps early 60's. HOwever, it is timeless and wonderfully vague. I had to read some passages a few times just to understand what the author was saying.