The Claimant

by Janette Turner Hospital

A brilliant and compulsively readable story of truth, lies and identity from one of Australia's finest writers.

'So then, here it is. The unadorned un-self-flattering gospel, the never-before-told story our intricately intertwined lives ... Listen: I know things that no one else knows. Trust me.'

Manhattan, 1996: the trial of the Vanderbilt claimant is finally coming to an end. The case - long, complex, riven with unknowns, attracting huge media and social interest - has been seeking to establish whether or not a certain man is the son of the fabulously wealthy and well-connected Vanderbilt family. The son went missing, presumed dead, while serving in the Vietnam war. There is huge fortune, prestige and status at stake. But is the man - a handsome cattle farmer from Queensland - really the Vanderbilt heir? And if so, why does he seem so reluctant to be found?

From one of our foremost novelists, The Claimant is a compelling and ravishingly readable novel about the fluid, shifting and ultimately elusive nature of identity and the reasons why people seek to change their names, their identities or their personalities.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Ebooks, Mystery, Australia

624 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Born in 1942, Janette Turner Hospital grew up on the steamy sub-tropical coast of Australia in the north-eastern state of Queensland. She began her teaching career in remote Queensland high schools, but since her graduate studies she has taught in universities in Australia, Canada, England, France and the United States.

Her first published short story appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (USA) where it won an 'Atlantic First' citation in 1978. Her first novel, The Ivory Swing (set in the village in South India where she lived in l977) won Canada's $50,000 Seal Award in l982. She lived for many years in Canada and in 1986 she was listed as by the Toronto Globe & Mail as one of Canada's 'Ten Best Young Fiction Writers'. Since then she has won a number of prizes for her eight novels and four short story collections and her work has been published in multiple foreign language collections. Three of her short stories appeared in Britain's annual Best Short Stories in English in their year of publication and one of these, 'Unperformed Experiments Have No Results', was selected for The Best of the Best, an anthology of the decade in l995.

The Last Magician, her fifth novel, was listed by Publishers' Weekly as one of the 12 best novels published in 1992 in the USA and was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'. Oyster, her sixth novel, was a finalist for Australia's Miles Franklin Prize Award and for Canada's Trillium Award, and in England it was listed in 'Best Books of the Year' by The Observer, which noted "Oyster is a tour de force… Turner Hospital is one of the best female novelists writing in English." In the USA, Oyster was a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year'.

Due Preparations for the Plague won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award in 2003, the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for "best crime novel of the year by an Australian woman”, and was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Award. In 2003, Hospital received the Patrick White Award, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland.

Orpheus Lost, her most recent novel, was one of five finalists for the $110,000 Australia-Asia Literary prize in 2008.

Orpheus Lost was also on Booklist's Top 30 novels of the year in 2008, along with novels by Booker Prize winner Anne Enright, National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Michael Ondaatje, Ian MacEwan, Ha Jin, and Michael Chabon.

The novel also made the list of Best 25 Books of the Year of Library Journal, and Hospital was invited to be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Los Angeles in June 2008.

The Italian edition, Orfeo Perduto, has been so well-received in Italy that it will be a featured title at the literary festival on Lake Maggiore in June 2010 where Hospital will be a featured author.

She holds an endowed chair as Carolina Distinguished Professor of English at the University of South Carolina and in 2003 received the Russell Research Award for Humanities and Social Sciences, conferred by the university for the most significant faculty contribution (research, publication, teaching and service) in a given year.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one started slowly but after we got past the first section (which was told from Marlowe’s point of view), I felt it improved - although I felt a bit confused by any chapters that included Marlowe. I loved the description of life in France, and I loved the chapters set in Dayboro, which is only about a 20 minute drive from me. I could picture the Dayboro Hotel at the end of the main street, and I know where the butcher’s is. And there really is an Old Cream Truck Road in Dayboro - I checked the map!

This is my first Janette Turner Hospital, but it won’t be my last! I thought it was cleverly done.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

'The Claimant' by Janet Turner Hospital was a dense, detailed and confusing tale of identity, exploring the reasons why people may wish to change their name, their identity, their history. Loosely inspired by the 19th-century Tichborne Claimant wherein a man may or may not be the rightful heir to an English title, Hospital weaves a complex tale that really only comes together in the last third of this very big book. The story jumps back and forth, making it hard to keep track of who's who. Large slabs of story revolve around a narrator who turns out to be a fraud and a spy and peripheral to the story, then we go back in time and more large slabs of writing to when the two main characters are growing up in France, then the female character gets huge sections devoted to her life and why she keeps changing her name, then we're back in modern-day New York. When, finally, it all comes together, the story actually gains momentum, thought I was a bit shocked to read that 26 years had passed. To me, this was a case of an author trying to do too much with an idea and losing the essence of the theme along the way.

[Lisa]

I've really enjoyed JTH's fiction before, and I thought I'd like this because I liked Robyn Annear's The Man Who Lost Himself (about the Tichborne case) but I found Marlowe's narrative voice too irritating to persist with. All those parentheses all over the place, the tone, the contradictions, the repetitions. (I won't tell you this, oh well, yes I will, oh I must have let that slip).
And I found that I wasn't interested enough in him or his story to continue.
I probably would have kept it to try again if it were my own copy, but this one belongs to the library so back it goes unread.
I haven't rated it because I haven't read it.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this novel as I always look forward to the next Turner Hospital. Her last (a collection of short stories titled Turbulence) was marvellous. I may have made a mistake in reading her Author's Note first but I wasn't quite ready to get into a 600 page book. As Turner Hospital explains, the impetus for the novel was the Tichbourne case in which a butcher from NSW may have had claims to a British aristocratic fortune in the 1890s. Turner Hospital is interested in people who change their names and identities, either seeking to con others or to hide from being the people they were born to be. She sets her novel in modern America, with links to the 'claimant' in Australia.

It turns out that the ideas behind the novel were more interesting to me than the novel itself. I was initially intrigued, then confused, then frustrated. I did persevere - after all, I did want to know how the puzzle resolved itself. However, apart from a few memorable lines and paragraphs, the sensuous prose and underlying sense of menace that typify Turner Hospital's work were missing. Her brief descriptions of Australia seemed clichéd. I believe she fell into the trap of trying to manage a sprawling canvass and an intricate narrative, to which depth of characterisation and nuanced writing were sacrificed. I often feel as if I want to start a novel all over again as soon as I finish it - but not this time.

[Bonnie Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually love Janette Turner Hospital but I found her latest book just soooooo slow and frankly, I really didn't give a hoot about the characters. I normally get very excited about the prospect of a long read but I just couldn't get through this. Disappointing.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt it similar to The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, though it moves into different material. The similarities were partly of style, partly of the milieu (wealth in NY)and for me at any rate have made each novel somehow even more memorable.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novel by Australian-born novelist Janette Turner Hospital. It tells the story of an attempt to find the heir of the Vanderbilt fortune, mostly in extended flashbacks through upper-class French and Americans, and a series of people nosing their way into these cliques. The cover blurb promises a charming con man, a serial killer, and a court case to reveal the claimant. But these dramatic features get hidden behind other unlikeable and unrelatable characters in a long, boring narrative that reads mostly like a soap opera, complete with love triangles, social embarrassment and war trauma, until an ending in the epilogue that’s so brief, sudden and surprising, it feels like deus ex machina, even if I missed something and it’s not. A clear attempt to live up to the potential of the blurb, it comes across as too little too late.

I chose this book because I wanted to buy myself a Christmas present by an Australian writer, and Hospital’s unusual name was the first one that came to mind. According to Wikipedia, she’s published 10 novels since 1982 – this is the most recent and the only one I’ve read to date. I finally made it to the end because her prose is often delightful, and some of the story takes place in Dayboro, a country town just a short drive from where I grew up. Unfortunately, following the stodgy plot was like walking through quicksand, and if I read another one of her books, I would hope it’s more engaging.

[Sharon Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of this book was almost unreadable - so confusing and convoluted. However as it has been in my to read list for years I did persevere and found the rest of the book quite enjoyable.

As a 600 page story it was not sufficiently compelling.

Most of the characters were one dimensional and cliched - the simple loyal peasant Christophe, the superior elegant French comtesse, the greedy banker, the snobby New England family, the warm mushy black maid - all too predictable and insultingly simplistic.

The main male character Ti Loup was and remained a spoilt brat from start to finish!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not enthralled with the book in the beginning as I found it a little slow and hard to follow, The main characters seemed to go by several names, but once I got that sorted it was fine. Once I got about a third of the way through there was a long section about the childhoods of the two main protagonists who grew up together in rural France. It all became clearer and more enjoyable at that point. It is a great story of deceit, betrayal and dysfunctional relationships. Highly recommended.

[Rebecca Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging and thought provoking

This imaginative novel weaves multiple generations and strands of stories together in a compelling way. A few times I found myself slightly lost, as the narration moves around a great deal, but I think that's more about me. I loved the New York descriptions of places I know really well. Very satisfying read.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was close to the end in my library copy, and we were packing to go on holiday. I didn't want to take a big bulky library book on the flight, particularly with less than a quarter still to go. I decided to buy the e-book, and downloaded it the night before we left.
An interesting, complicated mystery - I enjoyed the unreliable narrator. A flawed but interesting plot, and some very nice writing

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first quarter of this quite confusing, as the narrative shifts between characters and times. However, as the main narrative got going, and it moved a bit more steadily between future and past, I became much more engaged in it. The parts set in France in the past were the most effective, I think, and I enjoyed that the most.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can get past the repetitive and confusing Part 1, the rest of the book is highly readable despite the fact that 2 six year olds seem to have the vocabulary and philosophical views of the great academics of our time. Enjoyable however unbelievable.

[Leonie Recz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read for book club otherwise would have given up early. After first section it did however, greatly improve. I was drawn into the story and anxious to read the conclusion, to uncover the ‘villain’. Very long book, glad I read it but in general not the genre I enjoy most.

[Babette DiBella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the story difficult to engage with.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The claimant has been on my bedside table for some time, as I tried to find time to read it. I am glad to say it was worth the wait. This is an intriguing novel, a blend of mystery, history with a love story. The idea for the novel came from the Titchborne affair, where the heir to the Titchborne inheritance in England was claimed to have been discovered working as a butcher in rural NSW. Turner Hospital transposed the story to modern day America, Australia and France and built the narrative around the wealthy Vanderbilt Family.

This is a novel which explores the idea of identity and belonging. The two central characters, Capuccine and Ti-Loup, live in the Loire region of France, where they meet as children. Capuccine is the daughter of the gardener who works for Ti-Loup's mother, a reclusive French countess. They form a bond which lasts throughout their lives, even when they are separated from each other by geography or circumstance.

Turner Hospital has created a richly imagined novel, with many layers. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, even as I doubted the overarching premise that somebody could successfully impersonate another, especially as that person was from another country, with a different accent.

[Diannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. "The Claimant" is an entertaining piece of fiction, based on the Tichborne Claimant with characters drawn from America's Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Cabots, the French aristocracy and incarcerated con artists. Historical details are wonderfully woven into the ambitious plot.

The nature of identity is explored throughout the narrative but I feel that the main characters lacked depth and this let the psychological musings down. As a reader I would have liked more intimate, tangible details on several characters. I found Book I hazy and the character elusive (yes, I know he was a spy, but I think you are going to lose readers here).

In Book II and III the main characters are better developed in the French setting and I was intrigued. I also felt one of the major climatic scenes could have been better framed to create a more suspenseful telling. I cringed at the Australian vernacular explanation dialogue. Was this conversation necessary?

A well-told predictable tale.

[Susan Wight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long been interested in the Tichborne case in which Roger Tichborne, an English aristocrat who spoke several languages and was heir to a fortune, disappeared in a shipwreck in the 1850s. Twenty years later a bankrupt butcher from Australia claimed to be the long lost heir who, having survived the shipwreck, made a new life in Australia. He was accepted by his aged mother who had never come to terms with the fact that her only son was dead. The extended family were not convinced and a court case ensued.
In The Claimant, Janette Turner Hospital reworks the essentials into an epic twentieth century tale of identity. Here the heir was born in a French village at the close of WWII and is heir to the vast Vanderbilt fortune through his American father. He is reported Missing in Action in the Vietnam war but reports emerge that he may have survived and be living in Australia.
The tale holds the attention but is slightly over done
The book wasn't a bad way to waste a Sunday but didn't live up expectations.

[Carina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious. A delectable and satisfying read, with more than a few twists and poignant observations. A search not just for identity but to hide from identity. What 'The Goldfinch' should have been.


Favorite Quotes:

- Cap notices the first red and gold leaves of the fall eddying on the surface of the lake. Do they make a pattern? Perhaps. She could impose form: a ragged spiral; a cluster disrupted by ducks; a single reed caught between reeds. She could impose symbolic meaning. She believes this may be life's primary requirement: to impose a tolerable meaning on randomness.

-'I like to hope that there are more good people in the world than evil people' she said. 'I would like to hope that too', the old man said, 'but I don't. There are good people, however, and our duty in life is to be one of them, even though we will generally be outnumbered.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irritating beginning- Lucifer sets up the mystery but is too elusive to engage the reader, but it picks up in the middle when the scene shifts to France and we are drawn into the children's story. I really enjoyed this part but found the children's precociousness slightly implausible, in a similar way to Boris in 'The Goldfinch' which also bears a number of other parallels -Art scene, New York, rich, dissolute youths, wealthy heiress living a fantasy- but the GF annoyed the hell out of me all the way through, while The Claimant only in places.
It dragged. I felt that the author was a bit over it by the end too, and just wanted to get the damn thing finished. The last 40-odd pages are mainly exposition of plot. It's told, rather than revealed. I still cared enough to like the suggestion of a happy ending, though.

[Carinya Kappler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Review The Claimant by Janette Turner Hospital 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this epic tale spanning a lifetime shrouded in mystery.
Falling between cracks created by the VietNam war, rejecting a repugnant wealthy heritage and trailing off into an uncertain future in rural Australia the claimant is always just beyond the reader's grasp. Frustrating though this may seem the book has a realistic credible air, colourful representations of cultural and religious issues from post war France to the USA of the sixties and seventies.
This is a book that evolves rather slowly but rewards the reader increasingly as it progresses.
Carinya

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was worth persevering through the first confusing chapters to get into this fascinating story. Based on the real story of the 19th century Tichborne claimant, but set in the latter half of the 20th century, the novel explores issues of identity, guilt and loss. The plotting is complex, shifting backwards and forwards in time and place but the writing is carefully structured so this doesn't become jarring. Particularly enjoyable are the scenes set in the village in France where the two main characters grow up. Three and a half stars.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other readers I found the early part of this story confusing in the way it jumped around. But unlike other books I have read like this that annoyed & frustrated me, I was intrigued by both the characters, events & settings which kept me reading to discover how it was all linked. I enjoyed the premise on which the book was based, the characterisation & the various settings in France, New York, Boston & Australia. It was a big read at over 600 pages but I devoured it. Though I was rather disappointed with the ending which I felt was abrupt & only semi-resolved the saga.

[Jen Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure that the structure was quite right, as I agree with many others' comments that it was confusing for a while, but this was my first long book and read-for-the-pure-pleasure-of-reading (rather than studying as a writer) in ages, and I so enjoyed travelling with these characters and their stories.

I found the sections that were set in Australia particularly rich, and after hearing Turner Hospital speak a few months ago it's great to have spent time with her words again.

[Margaret Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

So nearly gave up on this book but pleased I persevered. Once I started keeping track of all the name changes it all gradually became clear. Complex characters, well researched, complex plot and themes make this a very worthwhile read. Other readers have noted similarities with The Goldfinch. I would actually put this ahead. An epic effort from the author but I think she pulled it off!

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely hard to get into at first - confusing and frustrating, but I went online and read some reviews and decided to persevere and I was spellbound by the end. Main four characters are people who change their names and their lives, some for good some to forget, some to gain fame and fortune. Very interesting, but long.

[Kat Ashworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging exploration of false identity, childhood friendship and the sacrifice to serve justice and equality. I found the protagonist in the first section challenging to read, they way it jumped around with no warning but more so the narcissist character himself. But once I got onto the second section I was spellbound and intrigue right to the last page.

[Kerri Jones]

I got too bogged down with this one and although I persevered beyond my usual 100 pages trial (got to page 280) I didn't feel like I was relating to it and I kept wanting it to get better. Will have to read a spoiler to see what happened in the end.

[Di · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really could not get into this book. I have read other books by the author and loved them. After 100 pages I was still at the stage of wondering what else I could do instead of reading the book. That's when I gave up. No doubt it is me. A shame nevertheless

[Cath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting premise. I very much enjoyed the structure of the book. Starting near the end, then going back to the beginning. Very much invested in Ti-Loup and Cap, not at all in Cleise and Marlowe - who should have been made more of.