A Curious Earth

The Jones Trilogy #3

by Gerard Woodward

In the heartbreakingly funny follow-up to the Booker Prize shortlisted I’ll Go to Bed at Noon, Aldous Jones is an old man whose wife has died, his children have left home, but he still wants to live life to the full.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction

340 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Gerard Woodward (born 1961) is a British novelist, poet and short story writer, best known for his trilogy of novels concerning the troubled Jones family, the second of which, I'll Go To Bed at Noon, was shortlisted for the 2004 Man-Booker Prize.[1] He was born in London and briefly studied painting at Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall. He later attended the London School of Economics, where he studied Social Anthropology, and Manchester University, where he studied for an MA in the same subject. In 1989 he won a major Eric Gregory Award for poets under thirty and his first collection of poetry, Householder, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1991. His first novel, August, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. In 2011 he was writer in residence at Columbia College, Chicago. He is currently Professor of Fiction at Bath Spa University.

Reviews

[Coral · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially like the description of losing the teeth over the rails of a ferry.

I'm not much of a reviewer, but this is really a good book. The main character is alternately pathetic and piercingly insightful - dredging deeply into Rembrandt imagery and dementia.

[Pris robichaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was in my twenties I loved my grandparents fiercely, but thought of them at times as old-fashioned. They loved me but seemed to be stuck in their version of how life should be. The main character of this novel, is a grandfather and in his seventies. Aldous Jones, great name Aldous, isn't it? Aldous sits in his kitchen in his old home which is outside of London. He is trying to stay warm, sits next to the cooker and sips at his whiskey. He revels in his memories. He is allowing life to pass him by while he sits and ruminates. His wife has died, his oldest son died and he has three children who have all left home. The house is falling in beside him and that may be his future.

At some point Aldous gets up from his chair and falls. Eventually his daughter finds him and he is transported to the hospital where a bleeding ulcer is found. He is given pints of blood and in the infusion of blood, infusion of new life begins. Aldous receives an invitation from his son Julian in Belgium to come and visit. Off he goes and on the ferry he loses his false teeth, gum less and older Aldous walks into a new life. Julian has many friends and Aldous fits into the group. Aldous taught art to high school students, and he also painted scenes. This is a group of artists and Julian meets his future.

Aldous returns to his home in England and spends time at the National Gallery and discovers a Rembrandt's painting of his lovely young housekeeper and mistress, Hendrickje Stoffels, which resonates with Aldous. He visits London often and renews his love of art. He goes to night school to study Flemish and meets a young woman, Maria, with whom he is very attracted. They meet off and on and a friendship develops. Aldous feels more deeply than Maria, and they eventually stop seeing each other. However, one of her suggestions of turning his home into a gallery, resonsates with Aldous. He decides to do just that. He works hard to turn his home into a gallery that will be visited by all.

'A Curious Earth' sees Aldous working hard to turn his home into an art gallery, and this gesture shows us that Aldous is inseparable from his home and his memories. The novel's title, from an early poem of Emily Dickinson, highlights this oddity: "And I'd like to look a little more / At such a curious earth!")

Highly, highly recommended. prisrob 1-12-09

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always believed that people should be allowed to do whatever the hell they want (with some exceptions, of course). In this book, Aldus is old, widowed, and beleaguered with family members who either neglect him or want him to act a certain way. Aldus is not growing old gracefully and his judgment is sometimes off, but I was entirely on his side. I love him most at the end, when he puts everything he's got into a final, extravagant, tender project. Nothing really works out for him--but this does, in a way. It's gratifying.

I think the story is also a meaningful portrait of the pitfalls of family. It seems people mostly assume that being of the same blood family guarantees them something--the right to have your needs met by others, the right to demand attention, the right to behave badly and expect forgiveness. Aldus' children drive me crazy in the book, being the perfect examples of this, and he himself doesn't think particularly deeply about relationships... so it isn't resolved and I actually feel relieved for Aldus when he dies. I'd like people to know that being family or being in any relationship simply requires more sensitivity than you would ask for yourself, more delicacy and tolerance, since a relationship is the most tender thing humans know. Peace is the way, as they say. Also, the best relative is a a loyal friend, as they say.

Aldus is a loyal, if somewhat misguided, man. He doesn't demand or impose. Aside from being allowed to do his own thing, he asks very little. I love him for this. I love his loyal friendship to undeserving people. He is weak, he's no hero, but he does no harm. And in the end, he does palpable good. A life well lived.

[Monte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woodward's I'll Go to Bed at Noon and August were Man Booker and Whitbread finalists, respectively. In his warmly comedic latest, Aldous Jones, following the death of his wife, has retired as an art teacher and begun declining into a fetid self-imposed exile on London's Fernlight Avenue. Daughter Juliette's exasperated comment on Aldous's having failed when he gave up painting long ago rouses him to visit the National Gallery, where he makes a life-changing reacquaintance with a lusty Rembrandt portrait. Son Julian's seeming unraveling and Aldous's short hospital stay following a fall prompt Aldous to visit Julian in Ostend, Belgium; there, a madcap series of encounters ensue with much younger women, one of whom inspires him as the Rembrandt portrait does. Upon returning to London, an inspired Aldous enrolls in a language class, paints madly, travels the city with various odd companions and houses his son James and James's family, leading to further adventures. Persistent themes of aging, illness and art are seamlessly woven in via Woodward's slowly paced and beautifully written prose. Aldous is at once endearing, sad and inspiring, and he's given a vibrant set of foils in the flamboyant supporting cast. His subtle and understated deterioration is funny, haunting and human.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful writing. Could not get behind the plot. Definitely makes you think and have an opinion one way or the other.

Quote that amused me: "The menu offered a bewildering array of variations on a cup of coffee - mocha, cappuccino, latte, espresso (the filthy black stuff he remembered from the war). His request for tea was met with a patronising smile, as though it was a symptom of a disability." (189)

[barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of the book was good, however it was poorly written. The story didn't even begin until at least halfway through reading it. It was a slow progression I had to force myself to turn each page, and I could only sit through several pages at a time. Not recommended until you like really slow moving, non-interesting plots.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elderly father flails about after the death of his wife, but finds his way eventually.

[Vjohnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is well written. The story is a bit of a slog.

It's a pleasure to read a book that is well written, I think it is becoming a lost art. I wish the story was worth the effort.

Aldous is a drunk. He is pursues women his daughter's age with the aptitude of a 15 year old adolescent male. He wants someone to take his loneliness away, take care of him, provide for his needs. Some of this behavior borders on inept stalker as when he volunteers at a school for the blind for no other reason than it will put him in contact with Maria. When he discovers that they are not volunteering on the same day he decides, in spite of being told no, to change his volunteer day to her day so they can be together. He can't understand why it shouldn't be allowed, or why anyone would object to his having a couple of drinks from the bottle that he has in his pocket on the school grounds. He is out of touch with reality; he seems unable to grasp how his behavior effects others or himself. The fantasy of the relationship he has constructed in his mind trumps the reality of the relationship in real time. Maria doesn't give him her address or telephone number, she guards her privacy but he fantasies about maneuvering the relationship to weekends away together as plausible.

Aldous is simply and completely self absorbed, people are to make his life better and provide for his needs. He seems genuinely confused and hurt when things don't match his internal fantasy. He names the gallery Amandus, meaning deserving or requiring to be loved. I
think this one thing summarizes the entire book. This kind of love is generally ascribed to God and is called Grace not Agnes or Maria.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last book of the trilogy dealing with poor Aldous and his family opens with Aldous alone in his kitchen. Colette is dead. Janus is dead. Aldous has lapsed into a sort of netherworld of alcohol, ghosts (the ghost cat is truly horrible) and maudlin philosophy. He hasn't got a death wish but he's pretty indifferent to life, and like the classic rudderless boat, dreading Juliette's visits because she'll only give him a hard time about drinking, and at the same time living for them.

This makes A Curious Earth sound very depressing, and to a degree it was - it had to be, to be true to the family history and to Aldous. But it has the same bittersweet combination of tragedy, dark humour and in Aldous, hidden beneath the mess we first meet, and indomitable and positive belief in the human spirit. Despite all that's happened and is about to happen, he is a people optimist. Which naturally leads him to completely misinterpret people. He has one disastrous relationship after another in his effort to replace Colette, and there were some to-curling Basil Fawlty type moments - that were, as usual, also horrendously funny. His ending is in this same spirit. I desperately didn't want him to go, and I think that may be why I felt just a tiny bit cheated. But Aldous was happy because he got what he wanted, the only thing e wanted, in the end.

Beautifully, lyrically written, and a fitting ending to this trilogy, I'd say this was the one book that wouldn't stand up well on its own. So if you've not read the others (lucky you, what a treat) go and get them, and then read this one. But be prepared to feel turned inside out emotionally by the end of it.

[Elizabeth Urello · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Curious Earth is apparently the final book in a trilogy, but I didn’t know that until after I’d finished reading it. It’s a sadly comic novel about a widower’s attempts to connect with other people (mostly women) in the last few years of his life. Aldous flings himself at other people artlessly and hopelessly; you cringe for him throughout. The best parts of the book are very funny — at one point toward the beginning, Aldous collapses in his kitchen and his son’s girlfriend comes over to complain to him about her failing relationship. Although Aldous has crapped himself and can’t move from the floor, she takes his word for it that he’s just resting, and so unburdens herself and then leaves him there.

It’s not a perfect book — there’s some casual racist fetishization of a black woman that’s played for laughs, and there are also a couple of really confusing point of view switches where we’re suddenly plunged into Aldous’s daughter’s mind without much transition. But for the most part, this is an enjoyably funny and well-written book about aging. I have another one of the books in this trilogy, and I’ll read it at some point.

Should you read it? Nah.

https://elizabeth.place/2016/02/14/re...

[sisterimapoet · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are certain books you just gel with, certain authors who seem to write in a language that you speak fluently. And Woodward is one for me.

I read the novel before this one in the loosely connected sequence when it was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2004, and I loved it then. Reading this one, years later, having not read the first part at all - and it still works.

Woodward writes beautifully flawed characters, who are both aware and ignorant of their own weaknesses, and seem to repeat their mistakes over and over again, but always have the best intentions at heart. Reading the story of Aldous presented here, was saddening and maddening, but thoroughly gripping on every single page.

[Yalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerard Woodward!!!! Why do you do this breaking thing to my heart?! I can't believe the ending, even though I saw it coming with the long descriptions of the floor painting.

This is probably my favourite book in the Joneses trilogy - Woodward created a deeply sympathetic character in Aldous, and his various well-meaning blunders tugged at the heart strings and made the reader root for him. Objectively speaking, the poignancy of yhe ending makes the novel powerful, but speaking from the point of a view of a fan who was emotionally invested in the character, I wish he' lived to see the success of his gallery.

Well done, Mr Woodward. This was one hell of a quietly brilliant, subtly funny, and deeply moving novel.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aldous Jones shoud be seen as a warning to all -- prepare yourself for aging...and death. Or else you could become the pathetic and, ultimately, tragic figure that the main character of this novel is.

This novel should have been more enjoyable to me. There is something missing, though. There is not a character in this novel that I found sympathetic. As a reader, you find yourself hoping that Aldous will pick himself up, but,yet, you don't quite care.

This is probably the lesson that Mr. Woodward is tring to teach us. People don't necessarily change when faced with difficult tests such as aging and loneliness.

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a let down after the first two, but well worth reading if you've been following the Jones family. They're all unpleasant in some way or another (with the partial exception of Juliette), and this book is Aldous' turn to face the music. The point being that if everyone's unpleasant... well, let he who is without sin and all that. It's possible to love people who are profoundly unsympathetic, while also taking a warning from their misdeeds. But 'August' and 'I'll Go to sleep...' were great because of the interactions between family members, and Aldous' profoundly dull and unsuitable crushes don't make up for the absence of Janus and Colette.

[Vlady Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written book which seemed to promise an interesting story. But the longer I read the more the book deteriorated to an episodic tale of this happening, and then this, and then this.

The book is thought-provoking, but at such a leisurely pace that point being made is lost in verbiage. At times it seems as though the author is working towards reaching a certain number of words before calling it a day.

Beautifully written, and the author does have some messages about contemporary life, but as a story with a beginning a middle and an end, this one seems to have a beginning and then the beginning of the middle which continues to the end.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final installment in Woodward's series about the Jones family, in which he follows Aldous Jones through the final few years of his life. At the opening of the book, Aldous is living alone following the deaths of his wife Colette and eldest son Janus. Aldous at first sinks into alcoholism and depression, but after recovering from a serious health crisis, he emerges back into the business of living. Aldous' pursuit of both direction and companionship is both moving and hilarious. Woodward expertly combines comedy and poignancy in this examination of old age.

[Piebakersue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would only lend it if you came over to get it. That way, I'd have a visitor! I didn't know this was part of a trilogy, but now I must read the others. I was charmed by Aldous, a bit loony thank goodness. Such a real, flawed character. For some reason, I thought as I was reading it that this book could make a very good movie. And I know who the lead would be but I don't know his name. He plays the husband, I think, in Prime Suspect.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this story was interesting - and odd - but I think I like odd. Did anybody see "About Schmidt"? Sort of a similar premise where an aging man loses wife and then attempts to find himself in his widower life...I wanted to give it 4 stars, but had to settle for less given that there are lots of far-fetching aspects to this story that don't quite come together in the end, but I do NOT regret reading it as I often do with fiction...

[Lenah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very lovely book. This is a part of Woodward's trilogy. I love his characters, everyone seems to be familiar. Very down to earth and realistic. You feel that it might happen to you or your neighbour. Woodward's writing always deal with family problem, aging, alcoholic and life in normal families. No pretension at all. The way he writes also makes you hooked!

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always like books that have something to do with art or the art world. This book was a unique departure from the chick lit books of the summer. It told by an old man who is widowed. It was a different perspective as I know nothing about what it's like to be an old man. The ending is about the strangest one ever and took me by surprise. Worth the read.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaaaah - reading this series is like coming home. You are welcomed into Aldous Jones life as he is on his decline into old age. It isn't pretty and he refuses to accept it. I think the book jacket describes him as growing old disgracefully. Along the way he loses his teeth, falls in love and rediscovers art.

[Rachel Sargeant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. It's a series of poignant, painful and ridiculous episodes in the last year of Aldous Jones's life. He's a lonely widower and alcoholic who misreads what others are telling him. And yet he's a feisty, endearing, intelligent man to whom any reader will warm. It put me in mind of Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, another favourite of mine.

[Manatee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that loneliness is a difficult problem to solve with cultural outings. However, a socially clumsy widower's efforts at connecting can be treated in a lighthearted but compassionate way. This is a fun read despite the topic.

I could REALLY relate to the main character.

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grabbed by chance, A Curious Earth is keenly descriptive. Aldous' elderly longings and strivings are revealed in poetic depth and warmth. Can his lonely (and often alcoholic) aging be both endearing and alarming?

Generally: quite lovely.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing mixture of art, aging and travel, this book kept my interest. I was travelling to Belgium, so the part sent in Ostende was relevant. I became fond of this man, who goes through so many stages and quiet adventures.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read 80% of this book and then decided not to finish it. I kept waiting to be engaged and I never was. I just didn't like the protagonist -- late middle-aged widower with a drinking problem and no direction in life. What's the point of this book?

[Gael Impiazzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This almost got 3 stars. It was well written, and quite moving in parts - funny too, here and there. But after a while Aldous Jones started to get a bit irritating.
Well observed, and the characters were very believable.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half - really enjoyable read about getting old,looking at the past, dealing with the present and finding the future. I found it captivating.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have now read the entire trilogy, glad to have read them but still not sure I enjoyed them. Hmmm...

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Gerard Woodward that I loved - I am reading them all out of order, but he is a great find, and I am enjoying them immensely.