A Natural Curiosity

The Radiant Way #2

by Margaret Drabble

Alternate cover edition of 9780140122282 / 0140122281

The insatiable passion to know drives virtually all the characters in A Natural Curiosity: Liz, united with her divorced husband to fnd their friend, Liz's sister Shirley, who learns the truth about their mother's life and death, and Alix, who visits with an imprisoned mass-murder and learns things she doesn't want to know.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature, Novels

309 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 1989

About the author

Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.

Drabble famously has a long-running feud with her novelist sister, A.S. Byatt. The pair seldom see each other, and each does not read the books of the other.

Reviews

[Adrian Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has an unfinished quality. There are too many stories here, and when the author makes an appearance in the text The French Lieutenant's Women style, it doesn't seem staged, as if it's part of the narrative, but instead highlights the gaps and the excesses in the narrative, as if she were reflecting on her notes, considering the way forward. But those stories that are developed - the psychotherapeutic account of a serial killer, a suicide widow's breakdown - these stories are compelling.

It is self consciously of its time - 1987, as if the most important function of the novel is to document social history. However, the effect is to remind me of novels written of the same period: London Fields and Black Dogs: right down to specific word play - 'Alix's murderer' vs 'the murderee' and a specific breed of dogs - mastiffs. For me, the suspicion that it is not social history that is being recorded, but literary history created. A closed circuit of writers writing about what other writers have written. In the UK in the eighties and nineties, literary fiction doesn't seen to have been so much about literature, the use of language to create art, but about the culture of a particular social class. Maybe 'literary' fiction is an upper middle class niche market, the primary product of which is to tell the socially anxious what they think, how they should behave. The later work of Ian McEwan in particular seems to mine deeper and deeper in this particular niche, where his earlier work was much more broadly based. Martin Amis perhaps exhausted himself trying to escape. Margaret Drabble seems to have gone on and on, keeping up with the times, or at least the elite mores of the times. I will probably read another.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happened? A Natural Curiosity is a fragmented, over-populated and under-managed sequel to the Radiant Way, which is one of Drabble's best to date. It was impossible to resist another chapter in the lives of Liz, Alix and Esther, but it seemed a random mess of rather messy lives and rather too many of them. What was the need to introduce such a constellation of uninteresting, albeit new, characters and for no apparent purpose? The pacing is missing, the underlying purpose is unclear. What I've loved in Drabble's previous two books: The Realms of Gold and the Radiant Way was that the characters overlaid an intelligent and articulate foundation of British modernity, zeitgeist, social complexes. This is characteristic too of A Natural Curiosity, but it gets lost in the barrage of improbable plot and unlikeable people. Sorry, Margaret, and I'm one of your biggest fans from way back.

[Michael Livingston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drabble follows up on some of the characters from The Radiant Way, dealing with late 1980s England in a less explicitly political way than in the earlier book. She writes wonderfully - a few passages of visceral disgust about food stood out particularly vividly - and draws rich, messy characters. The flirtations with meta-fictional tricks feel a bit clunky, but this is an entertaining and energetic book.

[Tallulah Bankhead · Rating 2 out of 5]

Margaret Drabble is a skilled writer, so not even this rather uninspired novel is truly poor. There were too many people for such a thin volume and you hardly got to know any of them that well. The narrator jumps from person to person, telling snippets from their lives, seldom getting close and personal. The last 25% of the book the pace picks up a bit - as if the writer was eager to finish this tale from a dreary post-industial England.

[Bet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Radiant Way, the first in this series was amazing, and I didn’t want to let the characters go, especially Alix Bowen, with whom I feel a special kinship. I was delighted to discover that there were two more books about Liz, Esther, and Alix! I enjoyed A Natural Curiosity even more than the first book, which I hardly thought was possible. If you are remotely interested in middle-aged female friendships between intelligent, unconventional women, you will probably devour this series.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 3 out of 5]

There, now I've read a Margaret Drabble novel (thankfully a shorter one), and know what the fuss is about, just like I've eaten poi and tripe, and attended a performance of a Bruckner symphony. The writing is quite good. The story is clogged with close observation of life in the professional classes in England in 1987. It is so crammed with those details, nicely described though they are, that it feels irrelevant to anything outside that small world. There seems to be an overarching theme of people reacting to the unexpected and unpredictable in life in various ways, often seeking out the unknown; that is interesting but somewhat overdone.
Many other books describe particular places and people but leave breathing room for imagination. The people in them can be imagined in other settings and their worlds do not feel encased in a glass globe. Disliked the macabre bits and the third-person narrator occasionally speaking directly to the reader. It was worth a try, however.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weird, wild book. It had too many characters, annoying, pointless tense changes, a very strange "break the fourth wall" section where the narrator starts talking to you, and an ending that just drones on and on and some weird stuff about dogs. Somehow, though, through all of that, I kinda liked it. The writing was like John Updike's in a way. Someday, I might try another one of her books, one that is better received.

[Rain · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first of Margaret Drabble's books that I have read and if extensive description of surroundings and thought processes is her propensity then I won't pick up another. That was my first problem with this book. More importantly, there was an abundance of characters who were poorly developed and the story lacked any definable focus. The prose meandered here and yon and back 'round again without really arriving.

[lindsey kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of the eighties

Margaret Drabble’s saga of the eighties continues and she captures the time well. The various strands of the story are diverse and not always believable but they are probably not meant to be. Love the names and the characters. Having started with the Gates of Ivory I will be interested to reread it in the light of it’s prequels.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very British. Lots of characters. No chapter breaks. The author, interestingly and humourously, speaks directly to the reader from time to time. Drabble's writing drags a bit for me as my attention span declines!

[Brooksie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having not read The Radiant Way, these characters are new to me. Somehow they're still boring as hell. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's a bit of a mess of separate, incomplete stories that never interconnect. From what I can tell, Thatcher's England is no different from any other England; if Drabble was trying to show a unique political climate, she failed. She also interjects as the author speaking directly to the reader too often. It's not clever, it's annoying.

Only the climax (what I consider the climax, perhaps it's not) held my interest. In fact, it had me speed-reading to its (disappointing) resolution. The rest of the book feels random and half-asleep with unfinished characters and an overabundance of uninteresting sub-plots. Only read to the end so I can say I finished it.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Which character are you? Tag yourself. I’m afraid I’m probably Alix. Anyway, this is a re-read. I got more out of it on this reading, and the series remains both thoughtful and thought-provoking. And I love her use of an omniscient narrator — best of perspectives. But I will say that Liz and the pedophilia angle made me queasy. In this day and age my first question is: okay so who is the pedophile Drabble thought she needed to protect?

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It`s been quite a few years since I read "The Radiant Way" and I cannot recall any of it. I will go and re-read it now and also the third book in the trilogy. I got a wee bit confused regarding the characters, but liked the author`s style. I think I will also read and re-read more of Margaret Drabble's work. I am aged in my 60s and enjoyed the thoughs and feelings of the mature characters.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drabble is such a good writer. This one was a bit hard to keep up with because so many characters but all very interesting in that human way. Quite grotesque at times, this book, and not a lot of love or forgiveness except for the most unforgivable characters, the mother and son. I couldn’t go along with that.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it, will look for more by her. Go 3 1/2. I started reading this piecemeal, but that doesn't work. I had to concentrate to get to know the various/numerous characters - their relationships and foibles are complex enough. 1980's era so a bit out-of-date in that sense, but doesn't bother me.

[Eithne Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an unsatisfying read. The writing was highly stylised, with the author frequently breaking the fourth wall, and discussing her characters and their actions. It made for a very detached reading experience, making it hard to maintain an interest.
The structure was also quite disjointed adding to the sense of detachment.

One also had the sense that Margaret was flashing her deep knowledge of the classics. "Look at me I was in Oxford".

The book was deeply rooted in its era, the late 80s.

[Angelina Tenuta · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story had potential but the novel was very disorganized. i feel as though if it were divided into parts or chapters to focus on each character’s life it could have been better, or if it just narrowed its focus on a few of the characters lives.

[Barbara Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 3-1/2 stars. I liked this book.

[Meinwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not impressed

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than The Radiant Way!

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really pretty passee now. Well enough written but didn't really get involved at all

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story lines - just a few too many characters to keep straight!

[Jan Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second in her trilogy which I've probably read five times. She's a fricken genius.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book about almost nothing, just the interconnected lives of a random group of British people. Had such a sense of calm and satisfaction finishing this book, possibly my new favorite

[Helen Pomfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as much as The Radiant Way, you can see the development over time from 1979 to the mid/late 80's

[Astrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lang geleden gelezen, prachtig!

[Sophie Houston · Rating 1 out of 5]

The horrible animal cruelty towards the end meant that I threw this turgid book across the room.

[Valerie Ventura · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read in the 1990’s. It holds up. Alix, Liz & Esther are wonderful characters

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read in the 1990’s. It holds up. Book 2 of The Radiant Way. I still relate to the characters Alix, Liz, and Esther.
A lot to absorb. This isn’t light reading.

[Dave Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

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