A State of Siege

by Janet Frame

Magical powers inhabit the land to which Malfred Signal retires- freed at last of her responsibilities to a dying mother and the generations of young ladies who have learned perfect drawing techniques in her classes. Her first night in the idyllic island retreat that is to be her new home is one of terror: a storm is raging, an intruder pounding on her door, and calls the police, the priest and the doctor over her still-unconnected telephone bring no result. This is the state of siege, painted in pigments of dark and light, the brush dipped in themes of selfhood and loneliness, of death and its counterpart, the need to survive, to live.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, The World

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

The fate befalling the young woman who wanted "to be a poet" has been well documented. Desperately unhappy because of family tragedies and finding herself trapped in the wrong vocation (as a schoolteacher) her only escape appeared to be in submission to society's judgement of her as abnormal. She spent four and a half years out of eight years, incarcerated in mental hospitals. The story of her almost miraculous survival of the horrors and brutalising treatment in unenlightened institutions has become well known. She continued to write throughout her troubled years, and her first book (The Lagoon and Other Stories) won a prestigious literary prize, thus convincing her doctors not to carry out a planned lobotomy.

She returned to society, but not the one which had labelled her a misfit. She sought the support and company of fellow writers and set out single-mindedly and courageously to achieve her goal of being a writer. She wrote her first novel (Owls Do Cry) while staying with her mentor Frank Sargeson, and then left New Zealand, not to return for seven years.

Reviews

[Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5⭐️ Cracked open the mind of an old woman and we descend together as she loses her grasp around reality and the gates of a life painted on a canvas. I enjoyed a lot of its reflective and lyrical prose, however, it does slow down a bit and loses its intrigue towards the final parts. Nonetheless, personally, i loved the entirety of it and found much of what people critique incredibly necessary. It is all done intentionally and preserved the realism of Malfred’s character. I will likely come back to my annotations for my future personal inflections

[notgettingenough]

I feel ashamed at not being able to deal with this; as I understand it, it's a day in the mind of a woman developing dementia and I tried hard for thirty-odd pages. But even if it is I who am revealed to be unworthy, rather than the book, I'm sticking to my plan of seeing my days out reading what I want to. Sorry Janet Frame.

PS: It pissed me off to discover that the word 'ruminate' has been hijacked by psychotherapists and is considered to be a bad habit. I consider otherwise, it's an important word, it describes something that is necessary to do, and it should be given back to its normal English usage. However, that said, it crossed my mind more than once in my endeavour to read this book, that the character needed to stop ruminating. Please, please, please stop that!

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janet Frame was a very special discovery for me. I had found her novel A State of Siege (1966) at some book sale, and it had been sitting on my shelves for years until I watched a film based on Frame’s three-volume autobiography. I figured that if I didn’t read it now, I never would, and it turned out happily that the novel appealed to me more than the film (although I love to watch the director Jane Campion at work). A State of Siege is an internalized novel, mostly in third person, but sometimes, especially as the novel proceeds, in the first person, that also becomes increasingly surreal/unhinged. Repetition is used to great effect. A far more accessible cousin to Marguerite Young. A 4.5.

[Glen U · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janet Frame is an author of incredible talent. Her poetic prose is lyrical, especially her journeys into the inner recesses' of the human mind. In "State of Siege", she takes the reader on a journey into the mental workings of a retired school teacher as the retiree falls into the depths of dementia. No, it is not a light hearted trip but one filled with questions and recriminations of a life led by a fellow human being. There is no pain but their is confusion and beauty and introspection, as our heroine copes with her circumstances and her past. I have said it before and it holds true for this book, "No one does madness like Janet Frame." At times, the reader will get lost in the authors prose poetry style, but as you pick your way patiently through the detritus of another person's past, you will appreciate the lushness and the emotion that Frame gives to the written word.
As an aside, I find it fascinating, the New Zealander's love of their own country. This definitely comes through in this book, as we are treated to Frame's homage to her homeland, especially the South Island. Never jingoistic, but just a fierce love for the land itself. I wonder why this is so. Perhaps the newness of the nation for the English colonists, perhaps a "small man's complex", perhaps just the inherent beauty of the land itself, I don't know, but it is a phenomenon that is interesting, at least to me.
None the less, a very good read, perhaps not for everyone, I will always enjoy Janet Frame's trips through the human psyche.

[Zoe Hannay]

Janet frame completion project going well so far. Michael king‘s enormous frame biography has become my north star as i plod through her oeuvre. this is the ‘waiheke novel’ (she lived there briefly). the usual interiority, detailed accounts of spells of rumination that work so well in Faces but really torture you in the Edge of the Alphabet make up the bulk of this brief novel. probs a hard sell if you not a framehead

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A huge disappointment after have read Daughter Buffalo first. Would make an interesting performance in monologue though.

[Stephanie Roberson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bleak and thought-provoking novel on the perception (or deception) of self. I both deeply pitied and disliked Malfred. It took a turn for the slightly too strange for me in Part 3, and I found myself struggling to follow the ideas. I see some people describe this book as Malfred's descent into dementia, but I don't personally agree; I see her as Frame's vehicle for her ideas about memory and ego.

[Emily Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Janet Frame's prose are beautiful but this story was way too bleak and slow for me.

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot probably recall another time when I had read a novel where a moment's uncertainty, a moment's mischance, a moment of madness defines the working process of a novel in such a convincing manner. Indeed the novels of the great New Zealand writer Janet Frame are quite unlike any that have been written in the last century. Just picture to yourself this: a retired art teacher escaping the dominating presence of her family comes to a quiet and secluded tropical island hoping at last to be alone with nature and solitude; but her first night on this island turns to a parable of insecurity and madness as in that stormy night an intruder pounds ceaselessly and inexplicably on her door. The tragic denouement at the end does not serve the ease the atmosphere in this tense narrative where both memory and echoes of the past serve to portray the workings of the human mind in times of utter duress. Indeed the entire thought process in the novel is that stormy night and the madness of the intrusion into the privies of a lonely soul that only sought a solitude and oneness with nature. That one incident serves as the cogwheel around which the narrative twists and turns in time and the past life to portray the workings of a tender and lonely soul, and also the workings of the artistic process. Besides being a riveting narrative it is also a wonderful portrait of an individual and a family, as well as a mesmerizing exploration of artistic temper.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF p. 91. I wasn’t going to count this since I didn’t finish it, but decided I would since it is clearly well written and also seems like a work worth engaging with. It is a book about Dread, not dread of anything in particular although age and isolation feed the beast as it slinks around preying on the consciousness of vulnerable people. I found it creepy and interesting, just not interesting enough. I kept wanting someone to turn on the lights—as the main character Malfred exhorts the darkness to do in her first night in a new house, in a new town, on a small New Zealand island. I really wanted some kind soul to bring her tea and cake. Hopefully, I will find something else by Janet Frame that will sit better with me.

[Robert Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to give this one 4.5 stars for the under climatic ending. This, I think, was Janet Frame’s version of a thriller. For the most part it works. We feel what the main character Malfred feels and get the sense of what she is thinking. Anyone who has read Janet Frame knows she goes by no rules, so the ending could be anything. I was happy with the book and story overall just a little disappointed with the ending.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started well enough with evidence of the author's wonderful writing---but soon descended into a rambling monologue that made me wonder about the sanity of the character. I found it hard to continue reading.
4/10

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s comforting to know that I never have to write a novel because anything I might have to say has already been said and beautifully by Janet Frame. This is one of her lesser known works, perhaps due to its being rather quiet and awfully…awfully bleak. It’s a very well crafted book.

[Mariana Mahood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrible story but SO good

[Chookychook · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a great relief to of finally finished this book. The sense of loneliness and desperation building into madness & fear was unnerving. It has even soured the idea of a holiday in N.Z.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janet Frame knows how to take a reader on a journey, even if that journey is compressed into one harrowing stormy night within Malfred Signal's mind, the "room two inches behind the eyes."

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janet Frame never fails

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The An Angel at My Table 1990 New Zealand-Australian-British film directed by Jane Campion impressed me to want more for the writer and director. The film is based on Janet Frame's three autobiographies, and that story of a close brush with lobotomy wanted me to read A State of Siege. The tale of this retired New Zealand schoolteacher trying to become an artist and hounded by an unknown fury still haunts me. The genteel elderly spinster terrified by her own repressed fears seems to be succumbing to age-related dementia inducing a hallucinatory nightmare.

[Cazna · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does she do it?! I have just finished reading the State of Siege, I could not put it down out of suspense and finished it in a day! Yes, its cold outside and the story was os comfort. Poor Malfred. Janet frame is a sheer genius!
Well just finished the ceond story, The Rainbirds. I loved this tragic tale of human insufficiencies. I have said it once and will say it again, Janet is a sheer genius when it comes to the written word. Clever beyond imagining. This is now one of my favourite books of all time. Poor Godfry.

[Mila · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5