Steeplechase

by Krissy Kneen

I force myself to take the phone away from my ear and search for the last incoming call. I store the number under one word, ‘sister’. I know I should have used her name but it is all I can think of in this moment. Sister. My sister just called me and I spoke to her. I imagine the words as if they were written in a Twenty-three years later my sister called.

Bec Reich is recovering from surgery when Emily calls, so naturally she thinks she is hallucinating. Emily, famous worldwide for her paintings, and also for her schizophrenia, lives in Beijing. But that’s not why she hasn’t spoken to Bec for so many years.

Now she wants Bec to come to and see her.

Which would mean revisiting the sinister games and shared delusions of their strange, the terrible damage of their locked-in childhood. For Bec, fascinated and repelled by her impossible sister, it may be worth the risk.

Maybe.
by her impossinbe sister

‘Kneen has a rare gift for constructing the most exquisite architectures of narrative and meaning from simple and elegant prose.’
John Birmingham

Genres: Fiction, Australia

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2013

About the author

Krissy Kneen has been shortlisted three times for the Queensland Premier's Literary awards. She is founding member of Eatbooks Inc and is the marketing and promotions officer at Avid Reader bookshop. Find out more about Krissy Kneen at www.eatbooks.com and www.avidreader.com.au

Reviews

[Anna Spargo-Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to the end of this book and decided never to write anything again. It is perfect in every way.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steeplechase is the third book by Australian author, Krissy Kneen, and her first non-erotic novel. At age 40, art teacher Bec Reich seems to be living somewhat in the shadow of her (in)famous older sister, Emily Reich, who is described as “one of the brave new voices on the Australian Art Scene”. When she receives a call from Emily after a hiatus of twenty-three years, she is undecided if she wants to take up her sister’s offer to attend her latest show in Beijing. Kneen alternates between Bec’s present day life and her strange, repressed adolescence full of games and delusions, to craft a compelling tale with a brilliant climax. Kneen’s descriptions skilfully evoke small town Queensland and the Beijing summer, her characters are have depth and spirit and her dialogue is realistic. This thought-provoking tale touches on obsession, adulation, artistic genius, student-teacher affairs, guilt, inferiority, love and mental illness. Kneen treats the reader to some beautiful prose: “a gift that shrugs off its festive wrapping only to disappoint” and “She laughs and steps up on the pedals and rings her bell as she launches herself out into the nightmare of oncoming bicycles. She is larger now, but still just as graceful. I follow at a halting pace, dodging, stopping, pulling over onto the footpath. It is easy enough to keep track of my sister. She is a gorgeous flash of blue shining against a drab background of shapeless cotton frocks and dirty T-shirts. She is other-worldly and exciting and for a moment I am overwhelmed with pride.” This is a hypnotic, powerful, stirring tale: Kneen is a writer to look out for.

[Michael Livingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, dark novel that manages to be both haunting and thrilling. Krissy Kneen is a fine writer and this is a creepily engaging read that will stick in my head for quite a while.

[Rach Denholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I ever missed Krissy Kneen? Hang my head in shame.

Astoundingly skilled writer. And Australian! Her name should be sitting beside Winton, Flanagan, Pavett, Grenville, Dalton, Carey, Miller...

I understand her writing would be confronting for some, (many), (most), but then isn't that the point? Easy reads make it easy to ignore the reality of the subcultures of the world in which we ALL live.

I've read 4 Kneens now. Each has been right on point, and each also has a very unique voice and narrative. The common theme in her work is its readability and difficulty to put it aside.

Steeplechase blew me away.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book based entirely on Anna Spargo Ryan's review, because any writing she finds perfect must be good (I am a fan of her writing, obviously). Steeplechase was a strange, dark read, which gets stranger and darker as it goes. To write in the liminal space between sanity and insanity, without having the reader simply feel confused and not understand, takes great skill and Kneen achieves that here. I suspect I will continue have more thoughts about this book after I process it over the coming days.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read this whole book on the one day my mentally ill and abusive brother was leaving for America. This was not a good idea. But I didn't know what it would be about at the time so it was just a unfortunate and unexpected scenario.

There are great things about this book. You should probably read it if you're not me. Style is great. Words are great. Things = great. But I don't like it.

Everyone else I've talked to about it says that they thought the relationships and interactions were very real. What struck me as false was Bec's feelings towards Emily lacking any sort of anger or resentment. When I was discussing it with people I thought maybe there would have to be an extreme amount of repression to not feel some strong negative emotion toward her sister while she remembers such horrible things. And there were signs of repression throughout the book. But I don't relate well to passiveness or repression as I've never been good at these things (unless it involves drinking).

And I think my problem is this: Someone, or maybe a couple of people idk (I was pretty drunk and don't remember who or what or even if anyone actually said this to me or I just made it up), expressed this idea that maybe Bec had had issues, but then gotten over them. This doesn't really make sense, even in the context of the book, as Bec sees Emily and regresses back to the 'Folie a Deux' thing. But also, there is this idea that if a person makes the decision to forgive and move on... then that actually happens. It's like a TV show where the problem is tied up neatly at the end of the story arc and is never ever referred to again. Shit just doesn't happen like that, and being angry or resentful or upset at these sorts of things doesn't mean you aren't okay and you aren't able to be happy, or that you are somewhat unwell, or beneath all those other people who could "move on". These feelings exist to give you a smaller dose of what you felt before, so you know how to protect yourself, so you know how much or how little to trust. Maybe if Bec had owned up to the anger she had for her sister, she wouldn't have regressed and begun to relive the same situations from her childhood. The problem is not being angry -- the problem is not finding a way to properly express that anger. And I feel like, with books like this one and AM Homes' one, by the characters being completely anger-free, it makes people who do still experience anger and hurt feelings stigmatised. Like we should shut up. Like we should "move on" from these things that have shape us into the people that we are, and are essentially a part of us.

I hope this made sense because I haven't been able to talk to anyone about this book for the last few days without it sounding unevolved and/or drunk.

[Lillary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book and I kept trying to love it all the way to the end. But you know what? I didn't love it. And I feel vaguely bad about that.

The main character, Bec Reich, is so horribly insecure, she practically trips over her low self-esteem with every sentence. I found the characters weren't fleshed out enough and the sisters' early life somewhat vague and unbelievable. It is never really said if they are members of an odd religion or why they are so isolated. It's hinted at that the mother, who appears to be basically catatonic, had some sort of breakdown, and I found these things maddening.

The character of Emily, Bec's sister, is a little more sharply drawn and I found I could 'see' her far better than I could picture Bec, despite several descriptives being offered.

Part 2, which takes place in China, sees the novel flare briefly into something I quite enjoyed but again, things I wanted to know remained frustratingly elusive.

The novel left me musing on why the author made her main character so needy and frankly desperate to be loved/liked. I couldn't relate to her at all and if anything, she actively annoyed me. Of all the characters, I liked John, Bec's young lover, the best. Several scenarios seemed implausible.

Not the worst Australian novel I've read but far from the best.

[Calzean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very well written in simple sentences but with a chilling storyline.

Bec and her sister, Emily, grow up in a confined household run by their grandmother, a painter, who also cares for their mother who is seriously mentally ill. The girl’s childhood is so strange that the locals think they belong to some type of cult. Both sisters become artists – Emily is world famous and Bec is a university lecturer.

The story swaps between the current and the past. The question of what is reality and what are delusions is at the heart of this.

Bec lacks self-confidence but as the story unfolds, her ability to maintain sanity shows she is a lot stronger than she gives herself credit.

[Becca Hazzledazzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bec (or Becca, as her sister calls her) is a 40 year old uni lecturer, having a relationship with a much younger, slightly socially-awkward man named John. This relationship is beautifully and unsentimentally drawn; it made me laugh, and wince, and I found myself fraught with hope for them. But the relationship at the heart of the book is between Bec and her sister Emily; Emily is a famous artist now, and they haven't seen each other since their intense, locked-in childhood. The darkness, sickness and delusion of their youth makes for compelling reading. And then Emily calls, inviting Bec to visit her in China...

[Angela Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually finished this one days ago - forgot to update. Really great Australian literary fiction from erotic writer Kneen. Strong characters, beautifully drawn, compelling plot, darkly sensual. Details the strange & complex bond between 2 sisters, the art of painting that holds them together and the madness that tears them apart. Beautifully-realised, but with shattering moments of surrealism. Set between rural Australia and modern China.

[Kali Napier · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of two sisters, a folie a deux, sharing artistic talent and a traumatic childhood, which blur their lines of identity. Bec is the more vulnerable, impressionable younger sister who never seems to have come out from her sister Emily’s shadow of talent and madness, until Emily puts on an installation designed solely for her. But Bec has something her sister doesn’t have, somebody to ground her.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book caught me quite by surprise, in that I found it dark, haunting and fast paced.
A tale of sisters, and their unbreakable bond and pull to one another despite time passes and incidents in the past.
The way it alternated between years, and weaves effortlessly between sanity and insanity, added to the chilling storyline.
Highly recommended.

[Francene Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well-written and compelling book about the psychological damage inflicted on two sisters by their dysfunctional upbringing. The narrator's emotional neediness was somewhat annoying and the climax was overwrought, but I still couldn't put this down.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful as everything from this author - the past and present interchanging until a frenzy in the last chapter.
Art & insanity

[Lisa Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steeplechase is Brisbane author, Krissy Kneen’s first novel, and her first non-erotic work. Her previous books are a memoir, Affection and Triptych, a collection of erotic stories.
Bec Reich is a forty-year-old lecturer in art, whose own art career has stalled. Bec is getting over surgery when her sister Emily, a famous artist who she hasn’t spoken to for twenty-three years, calls and invites her to the launch of her new show in Beijing. Emily is also famous for being schizophrenic and Bec, too, hints at mental illness in her past. Emily’s call awakens Bec’s memories of their strange childhood and the games, fantasies and delusions which they shared.
Cut off from social contact, the sisters are brought up by their grandmother, a woman who locks all the doors and windows every night and forbids them to venture off the family property. The family live in small-town Queensland where the townsfolk assume they are part of a strange religious group.
As the story alternates between the past and the present, the reader slowly learns more about the sisters. Bec adores her older sister and would do anything to be included in her games. Emily is horse-mad and initiates a game of steeplechase where she forces Bec to play the part of the horse. ‘I am a bad horse, a lazy horse, a slow horse, and I take the whipping silently because it is true. I am a bad horse. I am not any kind of horse at all,’ says Bec. I enjoyed the contrast between the voices of the teenage Bec and the older Bec. A sub-plot relating to Bec’s relationship with a much-younger student is also well-drawn.
This story was so skilfully told so that I never knew quite which parts were reality and which parts delusion. Reading it was like putting together a puzzle. Kneen’s writing is both simple and evocative, creating a sense of lurking threat behind everyday actions. A scene where Bec listens to a phone’s ring tone, imagining she can hear someone breathing is particularly chilling. And what about Raphael, the lover the sisters shared, did he really exist? As Bec joins Emily in Beijing, the story races towards a startling and satisfying conclusion.
Steeplechase is both beautifully written and a page-turner that provides insight into madness and art. I couldn't put it down.

[Tez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been fortunate enough to read all three of Krissy Kneen's books (minus her first, Swallow the Sound, which none of the libraries in my consortium have) within a month or so, but now that I've binged on them, there aren't any more. I haven't even heard word of her next book.

I've read quite a few erotic memoirs in the past year, but Krissy Kneen's Affection stands above them all with its quality writing, sense of humour, and lack of glamorisation. And most of all, a voice that's so easy to connect with and relate to.

Triptych is a different beast. A collection of three connected erotic novellas, the writing is top-notch, but the subject matter is disturbing above all else. I guess the most relatable character is Susanna, until she takes to stealing her neighbours' mail, breaks into (okay, it was unlocked) someone's flat, and pisses in his shoes. Spoiler alert ;-)

But the author's first full-length novel, Steeplechase, is an absolute gem that I loved reading. A Gothic tale stretching from Brisbane to Beijing, its story of art, sisters, and madness is both creepy and enthralling, with a lead character that readers will instantly relate to. The writing is beautiful, the subject matter both fascinating and disturbing, and if this isn't nominated for every writing award possible in Australia, I might declare shenanigans. As far as I know, it's only sold Australian rights, which is a shame, because I want to shove it in the faces of all my foreign friends and shout, "Read this!" (I'm not usually this psychotic about a book, unless I'm angry about it.) All I know is that I love this novel, and I want everyone else to love it, too.

[Nisha-Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

*sigh* This book did nothing for me.

I kept waiting to connect to our protagonist, Bec. It never happened. And for a long while I worried whether it was the age thing, that I was rejecting her because she kept referring to herself as old with so many of the insecurities that go along with that, and I absolutely do not feel old even though I am squarely on the age of thirty-five. Was I pushing her away because of that out of fear, a rejection of female old age and the same insecurities waiting for me?

Then I realised there was very little joy or lightness in the book so far. Bec felt disconnected and uncertain about everything, depressed and unwilling or unable to connect. There wasn't even rage for me to feel with her. The scenes set in the past were a little more compelling and constantly uneasy. Once we hit the China bits, I found myself skimming. Which is a horrific thing to find myself saying about a Krissy Kneen novel because oh my god, she has the most extraordinary brilliant wonderful way with descriptions and even here were occasions of that. But even the interactions with Emily that should have lifted the narrative didn't draw me in as I wanted.

To be fair, the last scene was unexpectedly sweet and lovely. I just wish the rest of the novel had engaged me enough to be happier for Bec, so I could celebrate for her.

But like hell am I going to stop buying and reading Krissy Kneen's novels.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The steeplechase is a very clever metaphor for this book: I know that there are fans of this form of horse-racing, but there is also ongoing concern about it here in Australia (where it is banned in NSW and Qld) because of the death and injury rate for both horse and rider. Jumps racing is banned in NSW and in Qld but not here in Victoria where our Premier was the previous Racing Minister and member for Warrnambool which – contrary to its animal-welfare-friendly image for whale-watching - is the ‘heart-land’ of jumps racing. I find the whole concept of it cruel: it involves deliberately placing hazardous objects in the course and expecting the horse and rider to compete at speed over the jumps. It’s a cruel and dangerous sport.

So the title, and the early chapters about Bec’s big sister Emily forcing her to play the role of horse in a steeplechase alerts the reader to the sense of menace that underlies this clever and exquisitely written book. If (like me) you have been a little doubtful about Krissy Kneen’s persona as a writer of erotica because the whole 50 thing was so tiresome, you can rest assured that this novel fits my criteria for a work of literary fiction.

It ticks one of my favourite literary fiction boxes too: I love novels about artists

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/05/12/st...

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued from the get-go. I recognized parts of the narrative and this is why: in 2010 Kneen was runner up in the Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize with the short story Steeple Chase. (Go to http://www.textjournal.com.au/ulrick/ to read it and see how a short story becomes a novel.) I imagine it was the catalyst for this narrative. Steeplechase explores schizophrenia and madness in an unflinching and honest manner, but it is the narrator that gets under your skin. A mesmerising voice, whose matter-of-factness only serves to emphasise the rawness and honesty of the story. I loved the juxtaposition between the narrator’s two voices - teenage and mature. And what a lovely rendition of the bumbling, insecure little sister, so desperately seeking affection. Krissy Kneen is best known for her erotic writing; she has published a memoir, Affection, and Triptych. This is her first non-erotic novel, but her background in handling sex scenes serves her well. I get the feeling that Krissy Kneen has found a new direction. Watch out.
I always have to mention the cover: in this case, stunning.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, with its disturbing plot, drew me in and provided a mesmerising read. Kristy Kneen has in the past written erotic novels and this touch isn't lost in Steeplechase, which along with its sensual undertones provides a captivating psychological drama. There are quite a few questions left unanswered (plot holes?) that add to the fabric of the mystery. I sincerely loved the style of writing and execution of the storyline; it was great to read a story based in Brisbane as well. Unfortunately, the characters were a little hard to relate to and slightly one-dimensional. Overall, a highly entertaining and easy to read novel.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling read about madness, art, sisterhood, set in Queensland and China. Excellent characterisation and clever use of metaphor, Gothic traditions, to explore the themes. My only reservation was that the ending was a little too neat to a book that was definitely not so! For my full review, please see: http://whisperinggums.com/2013/06/16/...

[Tay · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I adore the way Krissy Kneen writes. She is my favourite Australian (and Brisbane!) writer. This novel tells a compelling story of the long reach of childhood damage and generational mental illness with stunningly beautiful prose and elegant construction. No spoilers but at the end, I wanted to cheer for Bec (now one of my favour literary characters) and this incredible book.

[Sophie Shanahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great! Better than 3 stars but not quite 4- dammit, goodreads, why don't you have half (or quarter) star options?! Nutbag homeschooled sisters grow up to be but bag artists. Insanity ensues, and painting. Fab.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very gripping story about two artistic sisters and their sinister past. Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended!

[Patrick Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her best book. The structure and power of a Greek myth rendered in laconic, fluid prose.

[Johanna Rooy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a struggle to understand where the story was going. I found it somewhat unsatisfying to read

[Brenda Rosser]

Scary, good