Reading 1001 discussion

February, we will finish up Pointed Roofs and start Backwater. We should get to about page 320 in February.

Intro for Backwater; "In Backwater (Internet Archive, Amazon), Miriam once again goes to work as a teacher in a girl’s school, but closer to home this time, on opposite Banbury Park in North London. (Dorothy Richardson’s real life equivalent was on Seven Sister’s Road, opposite Finsbury Park.) The book’s title reflects Miriam/Dorothy’s opinion of North London: “shabby, ugly and shabby.” From http://neglectedbooks.com/?p=3954

Share quotes and comments on how the writing reflects what Miriam thinks of Banbury Park in North London.

Here is a link to some background information; http://neglectedbooks.com/?p=3954

This is helpful. I particularly appreciate the post card which helps me to visualize the place. From the book’s descriptions I was visualizing something much shabbier.

I finished this month's reading and found it a more delightful read than Pointed Roofs. The author seems more assured and the main character Miriam also is maturing. Miriam still is prissy and judgmental (her English students are all "horrid" even though she comes to care for them) but it is in a way that seems to align with any 18 year old of that time and we come to understand the difficulties of her family's financial situation and how that impacts her mother and siblings as well as herself. She wants to be financially independent but at the time there were very few choices that allowed a middle class woman to be financially independent.
I particularly enjoyed her relationship with her sisters who really come alive when they are alone together. (view spoiler)[ I also found her losing her first boyfriend because of a naive romantic infatuation with another man all of which takes place in one evening to be good reading. The reviews above indicate she sees marriage as ridiculous but in this chapter I felt that she just couldn't imagine anyone loving her peculiar self NOT that the institution was ridiculous.
In fact, the section where she reads a newspaper for the first time really highlighted for me the place of women in that society. Their world was very closed. I can understand how someone with so little insight into the rest of the world would feel constrained. (hide spoiler)]
I also now want to read Ouida, who was a female romantic writer who I had never heard of before. One of the most interesting things about The Pilgrimage books so far is that although it is a form of stream of consciousness, we are not inundated with Miriam's daydreams or inner monologues, we largely know her through her actions and her interactions, which are then spiked with some of her inner thoughts.

An interesting quote characterizing her sense of the English school she is teaching in:
"...girls' schools were horrid, bound to be horrid, sly, mean, somehow tricky and poisonous. It was a hopeless problem. The English sentimental way was wrong, the way of Englishwomen with children - it made them grow up with treacherous smiles."

Gail wrote: "I finished this month's reading and found it a more delightful read than Pointed Roofs. The author seems more assured and the main character Miriam also is maturing. Miriam still is prissy and judg..."

I have gotten behind but if I can get the two BOTM done, I hope to at least start away at it.

I found Backwater charming, but a little less than Pointed Roofs. Perhaps because I was reading it during a stressful week. Or perhaps because I was so delighted and surprised by the style of Pointed Roofs, which is no longer the case for the second volume.

I enjoyed Miriam's spiky adventurousness in Pointed Roofs -- going off to Germany and the the uneasiness and delight she found being there. Backwater, as indicated by the title, feels more staid. The world is less interesting to Miriam and thus less interesting to the reader; I am left with few mental images from this section of her story.

I am with Liz on this one. While I really enjoyed Pointed Roofs, this seemed like more of the same, but with a less exciting backdrop (England vs. Germany) and a less eventful story line. I did still enjoy it, though, and I look forward to reading about Miriam's experiences in the third installment.

I think I am alone in finding this story dull so far oh well you can't love every book.

I liked certain aspects the boyfriend aspect and how Miriam feels torn between the tow men despite hardly knowing them.

Reading the newspaper for the first was interesting as was the way she feels the need to hide the fact she is reading novels.

The throwaway racism and antisemitism of the era is also visible in this addition with black people referred to by the N word and a Jewish girl characterised as "the cheating Jewess"

Quotes that struck me:

"Her heavily waving fair hair fell back towards its tightly braided basket of plaits from a face as serene as death" I do love this imagery.

"I feel that there is no poison in you. I have not felt that before with a woman." Were women really that bad? Miriam several times denies being a woman why is that?

"Only if education was going to be the principal thing and all teachers were to be 'qualified' it was no use going on." Thank goodness education has moved on from this attitude.

Book wrote: "I think I am alone in finding this story dull so far oh well you can't love every book.

I liked certain aspects the boyfriend aspect and how Miriam feels torn between the tow men despite hardly kn..."

I just got to the face serene as death, what an imagery! Book, I don't think your alone in finding the book boring at all. It is a book of no action, just a lot of thinking. I haven't found anything particular enchanting about Miriam. She seems a bit of a snob.

I agree, it isn’t exactly a page turner. I have kind of been settling in for the long haul rather than having any great expectations. Also, I was a bit relieved that the stream of consciousness is not really a factor in terms of reading.

Gail wrote: "I agree, it isn’t exactly a page turner. I have kind of been settling in for the long haul rather than having any great expectations. Also, I was a bit relieved that the stream of consciousness is ..."

For me I don't really see this book as stream of consciousness which to be honest is a relief as that is probably me least favourite narrative technique.

@Kristel some of the writing is really striking I just wish something would happen LOL

I tend to agree with a lot of the other comments here that this installment was kind of a more stagnant rehash of part 1.

I didn't hate it- still casually enjoying the long ride- but like Book I'm waiting for something to truly happen in the next part lol.

There was a point Kristel brought up in the last thread that stuck with me while listening to this part: why is this a feminist novel if she seems so strongly against other women? I think that's a great point, and I'm wondering if her judgement against other women is going to shift and evolve as we move on.

I mean, when I was a misanthropic teenager, I considered myself a feminist, but still tended to judge other girls harshly, in a lot of the same ways Miriam does: why aren't other girls interested in works of substance? Why aren't they more interesting people? etc. Like Miriam, I was pretty critical of men as well, but there is an undercurrent of internalized misogyny there that we can mistake as being a gatekeeper of empowerment. It's got this "I'm not like other girls...I get important stuff" vibe that is rooted in patriarchal standards without realizing it. I'm hoping that as the book goes on, this will be addressed as a misconception of Miriam's and not "played straight" as legitimate commentary. We'll see.

I can see why Kristel finds Miriam hard to like. I think that most people would be difficult to befriend if we really knew what was going on in their heads. I love the way that Richardson points out small details, particularly in appearances and movements. "Flora's hands were small and pale and serenely despairing like her face". Or "In the cab Julia's face shone chalky white, and Miriam found that her eyes looked like Weymouth Bay - the sea in general, on days when clouds keep sweeping across the sun". This continues in a long paragraph which conjures up a vivid picture of what Julia was like.
Miriam compares North London unfavourably to Hanover (who wouldn't?) and really is not very sympathetic to her charges, so much so that she is surprised at the grief when she leaves. She develops a lot while here: she starts reading independently, finding enlightenment in the newspaper, although she only read it once! and in romance novels. She smokes her first cigarette and dallies with a young man although she has no feelings for him. Two of her sisters become engaged to be married, including her younger sister who has not been mentioned except in passing until this point.
I still identify with Miriam. She does things like leave her companions abruptly to walk on her own, which I have been guilty of doing more than once. She does not try to ingratiate herself with others, particularly authority figures like the sisters who run the private school. She criticises sermons, doubts whether God exists and realises that the teaching she is doing is mostly irrelevant. And she is still only about nineteen!

So I rather enjoyed Pointed Roofs--though I went in with very low expectations. But I found Backwater to be more of the same. Her self-doubt really started grating on me in this volume. I get that she's insecure, but she is also so brave--she has now gotten herself 2 different jobs and seems to do well, but is constantly questioning her capability. It's wearing me down.

I liked Backwater better than Pointed Roofs. I am getting to Richardson's writing style and finding it exceptional. Still, nothing much happens here.
What I also liked was this part of Miriam when with her family. It seems to me that she is other person when surrounded by her sisters.