Skating Party

by Marina Warner

Depicting a skating party on a frozen river in the Fens, this novel draws together fragments of myth, painting and tribal custom, to create a picture of people tragically at odds in their need for love and in their mastery of the ways to meet it. By the author of Joan of Arc and Indigo.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Marina Sarah Warner is a British novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth.

She is a professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre at the University of Essex, and gave the Reith Lectures on the BBC in 1994 on the theme of 'Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time.'

Reviews

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tale of a skating party of academics from an old university town and of their relationships, is interwoven with memories of an anthropological study visit and discovery of the story shown in a series of frescos. This is effective and fascinating.
The tale seems to be set in the sixties, judging by the slang and the discussion of the pill as something new. The book does have a strangely dated feel and I wasn't sure about the reason for this.
The theme of the book appears to be sexual relationships between men and women, perspectives on monogamy and cultural context. I didn't engage with the women's reasons for staying in bad places, which limited the significance of the book for me.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not at all my kind of story. A professor invites colleagues, students, and his Phd-student wife and nearly grown son to go skating. He is in a relationship with one of his students. We are treated to flashbacks and tangent chapters on both his and his wife's academic fields. Things get messy. I did not feel connected to, nor did I care about, any of the characters at all.

22/60 tbr box.