The Tower

by Carol Lefevre

Widowed after a long marriage, Dorelia MacCraith swaps the family home for a house with a tower, and there, raised above the run of daily life, sets out to rewrite the stories of old women poorly treated by literature. Throughout this winding story, Dorelia and the elderly artist Elizabeth Bunting are sustained by a friendship that reaches back to their years at art school, and bonded by the secrets of a six-month period when they painted together in France. The loneliness of not belonging, of being cut adrift by grief, betrayal, or old age, binds these twelve connected stories into a dazzling composite novel. Within its complex crossings and connections, young and old inhabit separate yet overlapping firmaments; grown children, though loved and loving, cannot imagine their parents’ young lives. For most, the past is not past, but exerts a magnetic pull, while future happiness hinges on retreat, or escape.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Veronica ⭐️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogsp...
I had previously enjoyed Carol Lefevre's novellaMurmurations so was looking forward to reading her latest offering.

The Tower is an eclectic collection of short stories that are connected and bound together by themes of grief, betrayal, ageing and a need to belong. Carol Lefevre writes heartfelt stories about strong women who battle through adversity.

Widowed after a long marriage, Dorelia sells the family home and buys a house with a tower; a place to unwind, find peace and rewrite the stories of older women treated poorly by literature. Her three grown children, although busy with their own lives, feel the need to advise Dorelia on how to live her life.

This collection has stories of love, loss and the highs and lows of motherhood, all wrapped around themes of ageing and finding inner peace.
Every alternate story features Dorelia, her move to the tower, her battles with her well-meaning daughters and reminiscences of her younger years.

When I first started the book I didn't feel the connection between the stories, other than the theme of motherhood and loss, but as I read on and names from one story appeared in another the connections between the characters became clearer and the stories became more cohesive.

The Tower, although a collection of short stories, reads a lot like a novel and even has a few twisty surprises throughout.

Deeply imagined and vividly portrayed The Tower is a book that will speak to your heart.
*I received my copy from the publisher

[Rachael McDiarmid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Carol’s writing. Murmurations is a stand out and deserves all its accolades. The Tower isn’t Murmurations but it shows beautifully Carol’s craft, the way she writes her stories and how they connect. I wish I’d kept a notepad handy for this one to pick up more of the thread. That’s okay, I will just re read it. It’s like a movie - you discover more of the magic on a second sitting.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Composite novels a.k.a. short story cycles, can be tricky things to read: though they have the form of short stories the reader can't just 'move on' to the next one because you know that the stories are linked in some way.  You need to remember who's who and what their issues are, so that you can discover the connections so cunningly woven into the text. So it is with The Tower, Carol Lefevre's latest venture with this form, following on from the highly regarded Murmurations (2020, see my review).

The character of Dorelia captured my attention from the outset.  I liked her appearances in the stories best of all.  Those of us who've had the experience of caring for elderly parents are only too familiar with the emotional tug of war between enabling them to maintain independence and providing care.  Dorelia is a feisty woman whose choice of a tower to live in for her old age disturbs her adult children.  From the moment she was widowed she was alert to their plans for her future:

When her Geordie died, it had been a shock to come up against that sudden, implacable absence.  It was like being slapped hard by an icy hand.  Then, in the terrible limbo between his dying and the funeral, she'd caught glimpses of him everywhere, so that coming indoors at dusk, as she reached for the light switch, Geordie's shadow would darken his favourite armchair; in their bedroom, she surprised a flash of his old mustard corduroy coat sleeve in the wardrobe mirror.  Every mirror in the house held fragments of Geordie, even the little circular hand-mirror with the crack in it he had used for shaving.

Dorelia would have covered them all with cloths if it hadn't been for the children.  They would have pounced on that as a sign that she was not holding up — she imagined Laurence and Hannah frowning and reaching for their phones.  Apparently, they stored within those devices lists of suitable places they researched on their parents' behalf. (p.2)

(Yes, been there, done that, and my mother in particular was not best pleased about it.)

It was Dorelia's great good fortune to have stumbled upon the tower house during a rare window of inattention from her children. (p.23)

Ha!

Dorelia and her friend Bunty are creatives and in their early years they struggled with the conflicting demands of art and relationships.  Their career paths diverged but their friendship endured.  And I loved this aspect of the book: the enduring friendships of older women is such a special phenomenon, it's beautiful to see it depicted in fiction with such perception.

Over tea and doughnuts, Dorelia reveals her ambition to rewrite the stories that put old women in a  poor light, the wicked stepmothers and the evil queens of folk lore, starting with Rapunzel's witch, a figure from fairy tale who doesn't have a reader with even a smidgeon of sympathy.  Bunty understands this immediately.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/10/01/t...

[Spinifex Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Charle Malcyon said in his November 2022 review of 'The Tower' in Australian Book Review:

"Admirers of Carol Lefevre’s earlier books, and nostalgists in general, will delight in her latest offering. Her artistic eye evokes the patina of a silvering vintage mirror reflecting societal and literary traditions. Both in tone and preoccupations, 'The Tower' (Lefevre’s sixth book) continues traditions cast in several Australian literary classics. Familiar, too, is Lefevre’s favoured form. Several of the book’s chapters have previously been published as short stories, but Lefevre has worked them seamlessly into this novel’s overarching chronicle."

Carol is an accomplished writer and knows how to write a tapestry of stories. We encourage you to read 'The Tower' and her previously published books - 'Murmurations' and 'The Happiness Glass' (both novellas) and share your reviews on GoodReads and other online review sites so readers can discover her work.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

✍️ This story is told in twelve short cycle stories based on a woman called Dorelia who sells her home and buys one with a tower in representation of fairy tales especially Rapunzel. This particular story is mixed with other stories of women and similar themes.

One word to describe this book would be a piece of BEAUTY beginning from the gorgeous cover design and ending in the EXQUISITE writing style and storyline.

This was the first composite novel I had read so it took a little getting used to but once I did I devoured it. A very original story teeming with meticulous detail, cultivation and expressive writing throughout. Flawless storytelling and mesmerising imagery.

[Anne Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of interlinked short stories, The Tower is a beautifully written book by one of our own brilliant South Australian authors. In lyrical, flowing prose it deals with themes of women growing older, families, solitude, and most strongly with the choices women are often called to make between pursuing their creative passions and conforming to the role model of wife and mother. I found the stories called "The Tower" and focused on the lives of Dorelia and Elizabeth (Bunty) the most compelling and sometimes wanted there to be more of them and less of the other characters and their stories.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. I loved murmurations, but this was not as great a read.