Debatable Land

by Candia McWilliam

This is the story of six characters sailing a yacht from Tahiti to New Zealand. Three of them are Scottish, and as they sail from island to island, each colonised in its different way, the small northern country that has formed them exerts its own magnetic pull.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Candia McWilliam was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1955 and educated at Girton College, Cambridge. She won a Vogue writing competition in 1971 and worked for the magazine between 1976 and 1979.

Her first novel, the macabre A Case of Knives (1988), was joint winner of the Betty Trask Prize. It was followed by A Little Stranger, a disturbing tale of domestic life, in 1989. Both books won Scottish Arts Council Book Awards. Debatable Land (1994) won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour for the best foreign novel of the year. The book follows the adventures of the crew of a yacht sailing from Tahiti to New Zealand, exploring each character's differing experience of loneliness and exile.

Her book, Wait till I Tell You (1997), is a collection of short stories. She is a regular reviewer for a number of newspapers.

Her latest book is What to Look for in Winter (2009).

Reviews

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this novel, but most of all the author’s sensibility, that is, the quirky way McWilliam phrases, the way she transitions suddenly between present and past, the way her omniscient narration suddenly hops into minds and out, with moments of first-person. McWilliam proceeds, it seems, by feel, and her feel is excellent. The plot, as such, is nothing to get excited about, but that isn’t what makes this novel special. This Scottish writer is a great discovery for me, and it's good to know I'm not alone: at least a couple of her books were reprinted in 2011. She went through a long dry spell, including a couple of years of blindness. Let's hope she's working on something.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The crew of six on board this yacht in the Pacific talk to each other as no real crew ever did. But if you stop expecting the book to be realistic in that respect, it offers perceptive insights into the characters' formative pasts and present motives. The best part of the book I think is the final scene, when the boat has to be taken through an apocalyptic storm: that was the point at which both characters and setting came fully to life. But it was a long wait to get there.

A quote from the book illustrates its divided nature:
"She began to play the game that put her to sleep faster than any other, the invention of first lines from books she wouldn't want to read. For the whole of this voyage, her favourite had been: "Mother had given up attending evensong these light evenings and substituted for her devotions some undivided digging.'" Wonderful quote, but from a book that contains quite a lot of undivided digging itself.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

sticky, rollicking seafaring scenes mixed with fascinating edinburgh characters she keeps coming back to, back on land. tip-toes along plot-wise, but each delicate step along the way is worth it; it seems to peel open a freakishly real yet breathtakingly magical universe. one of those books i couldn't read without a pencil:

'the prayer-bladders of the people of the Kingdom of Tonga were weak'

'the colours were true to the tabby, pewter, lilac and soot of the slate and smoke of the city'

'the galley was like a crossword. if you could cook and carry (without spilling) and clean up a meal you had completed the puzzle.'

a story about self-exile, full of tiny beauties.

[Jo Birkett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expected a decent read as good premise (life stories of disparate people isolated on a boat together) & prize winner but found it self consciously literary, convoluted in trying to avoid normal phrasing, wordy & a trial to read. Gave it to p37.

[Philippa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very poetic, but meandering and plotless. Also a confused viewpoint - various characters are 'I' at different times.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might actually be the worst book that I have ever read in my life. I found the writing, plot, characters, and views expressed universally abhorrent, and cannot wait to hear what on earth my professor sees in it that compelled them to compel me to read it.

Besides being incredibly sexist and racist, almost nothing that happened seemed to impact either the characters things happened to or the plot, and frequently certain things came up so infrequently and with so little consequence that I forgot who or what they were.

I would wish this book only on my worst enemy. Please spare yourself the agony.

[JodiP · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got about 15 pages in an decided her writing style was not to my taste. Of course,now I can't find the example that was the last irritant; it was some sort of clumsy metaphor which seemed to be a bit of a reach to seem clever. Also, a line about a woman "being tactful about being female." Yeah, just the sort of character I want to read about. In the jacket description, the men are captivated by her. What a thrilling new literary idea: a woman whose primary function is to be the object of male attention!

[Vestal McIntyre]

There two things make my mind wander while I'm reading: boredom and inspiration. On nearly every page of this gorgeous novel there was something that got me to thinking about my own memories, my own writing, my own life, and I'd go off on a wander until I happily returned. One of the cover quotes compared McWilliam to Woolf, and I think that's pretty accurate--her writing is that multifaceted and intelligent.

Dense & delicious, this is a book to savour.

[Jane Parsons · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book chronicles a yacht trip in the south Pacific, with crew and boat owners interacting, remembering their life on land and adjusting to life on deck. It's vaguely enjoyable and builds up to a great crescendo towards the end but I found none of the characters particularly likeable or interesting so was a bit disengaged with it all. The descriptions of one character's Edinburgh childhood were far more appealing.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this novel tedious and only just managed to finish it by skip reading the last third. There isn’t much of a story, just 6 characters on a boat journey from Tahiti to New Zealand. Along the way we find out more about each of them and their past lives, but there was little of interest to me.

[Craig]

oh man... this book sets a new record for "least intriguing" or possibly "entirely uninteresting" start to a novel. it's going on the Paused shelf for now.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

My interest in this book was held by a thread. Halfway through I decided it wasn't worth it.