2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

This thread is for a discussion of Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, scheduled to begin on January 1, 2015. Please feel free to join us! It's a fast read, so I recommend that you read the book in its entirety and then participate in the discussion when you're ready.

Kris -- I'll be my usual troublesome self and sidestep the "teach's' suggestions. Sorry, but I read the first chapter last night/this morning and am in the mood to share a few thoughts.

1) This is a second read for me, but I remember place and community more than plot. Once again, I am struck by how immediately Fitzgerald puts me amongst a community of people living on the Thames of London. I feel as if I am there, yet she hasn't used that many words to create that sense.

2) I also feel as if I have a fair sense of the personalities and foibles of several characters -- Richard, the leader and gentleman of the old school, ex-Navy, savvy about the community and boats, but maybe less so about himself and his wife; his wife, Laura (Lollie), who uses Country Life to keep before her husband how badly she would prefer to be living in the house they could afford and who probably is using a bit too much alcohol in the process of avoiding her unhappiness; Nenna James, the apparently abandoned wife, who is therefore single mother to two young girls, Tilda and Martha, who have not been regular in their school attendance, one of them young and carefree, the other, Martha, who realizes she is more mature than her parents (!?, p 23); the still somewhat mysterious Maurice; and various well-delineated secondary characters, such as Father Watson and Nenna's sister Louise in Canada with her business man husband.

3) Hints of several possible plots and themes are already revealed. The opening sally on truthfulness, the presence of Father Watson, and a few other details suggest an author's concern with issues moral. One can wonder at the future path of Lollie and Richard's marriage; the path Nenna's single motherhood, boat ownership, distant relatives, and admiration of Richard will take her; and what is all this about selling a boat -- is it the Dreadnaught or is it the Maurice? Haven't got all of the boats straight yet, although they appear to be becoming personalities themselves.

4) Fitzgerald has introduced her reader to the larger landscape, both natural and physical as well as political and cultural. We learn of the rhythm of the tides, of the gulls, of the rubbish in the river, ... We pick up a bit of the jargon of the water, such as calling homeowners by the names of their boats. But we are also told of the struggles to sustain mail delivery and of the aborted attempts to rejuvenate this section of the wharves. Nenna's sister reminds us that the Thames, London, are part of a larger world long overseen as the United Kingdom.

5) As a reader, I feel well set-up for what is to come by these twenty-six pages of this 141 page novella of ten chapters that was deemed worthy enough to have received the Booker prize in 1979.

Images of Battersea reach:

https://www.tumblr.com/search/batters...

A Google search leads me to suspect the area in this book may well have changed drastically from the time of our story's setting. I wonder if the story in Offshore was current to the late 1970's, i.e., at the time of its writing.

Maybe some of you reading here are familiar with this stretch of the Thames?

A couple of artworks, including one by Canaletto, known for his paintings of Venice, depicting the Battersea area in much earlier times (~1751, ~1905). A famous section of the Thames?

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.o...

http://www.amazon.com/Marshall-Batter...

(Move cursor over surface to enlarge.)

Houseboats on the Thames today -- not sure these bear much relationship to the boats in Offshore.

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/pro...

Wiki entry for Battersea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battersea

Translation and source of the epigraph:

"The epigraph, 'che mena il vento, e che batte la pioggia, e che s'incontran con si aspre lingue' (whom the wind drives, or whom the rain beats, or those who clash with such bitter tongues) comes from Canto XI of Dante's Inferno."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore...

Kris wrote: "This thread is for a discussion of Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, scheduled to begin on January 1, 2015. Please feel free to join us! It's a fast read, so I recommend ..."
sounds good, Kris. Am due for another Fitzgerald - this will be a good start to the New Year.

Was reading the chapter on "Gestures" in Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer yesterday and found myself jumping back to thoughts of Offshore. Here Prose talked about the use of gesture, i.e., physical movement, habits, quirks, et al, to delineate character. So we have gentlemanly Richard always carrying the trays. Or Laura making the "slight, but significant noise in the galley" that Richard knew not to ignore. Or her "shires-bred glance, a glance whose horizons should have been bounded by acres of plough and grazing."

The amusing, revealing sequence: "...she came back, tottering at a kind of dignified slant..... Avoiding Richard, who got to his feet as soon as he saw something to be carried..."

Even more of a sidebar, this discussion of the translation of minute bodily movements and sounds in a key passage of War and Peace has been reminding me to notice "gesture" in what I am reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/boo...

Lily wrote: "..depicting the Battersea area in much earlier times (~1751, ~1905). A famous section of the Thames?."

"..If the old Thames trades had still persisted, if boatman had still made a living from taking the coins from the pockets of the drowned, then this was the hour for them to watch...." p26

This passage reminds me of one elsewhere in literature. Maybe Dickens? Maybe Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall?

Fitzgerald gives us a touch of history, too.

Diddling with words and images:

"...Seagulls, afloat like the boats, idled round Lord Jim, their white feathers soiled at the waterline...." p15

Wonder whether the parallel/contrast here was accidental or deliberate:

"...The flood tide, though it had no real terrors for Woodie, caused him to fret impatiently, because Rochester, in his opinion, had beautiful lines below water, and these would not now be visible again for twelve hours." p13

I found Lily's comments so enticing that I picked up the book today.

I was slow to warm to this. Was admiring occasional lines, waiting to find it. Wiki said that this is a book about liminality. I was in a liminal space about this book for the first third. But I became engaged by segues into Whistler and Turner paintings of Battersea Bridge, and beautiful tiles by de Morgan. (I suspect the girls got ripped off for the price they got for those tiles). And now in the last third of the book, I am seeing the theme of liminality everywhere.

Chapter two comments:
Just in case you haven't read this far yet. Read this chapter and the following one this morning. (view spoiler)[ I continue to be mesmerized by Fitzgerald's ability to take me into a world that I absolutely do not know, to throw a whole new vocabulary out that I only marginally comprehend, and yet leave me a comfortable visitor, perhaps even an inhabitant for those moments while reading.

This chapter can be said to belong to Tilda. The image of her hanging on the mast far above intended while recalling seeing death of the careless sailors was vivid -- we saw the daring tom girl exemplified. Martha, her sister, is contrasted as being able to climb the mast only a short way. (hide spoiler)]

I finished the book, and enjoyed Fitzgerald's characterizations, dry British wit, and descriptions of Battersea Reach.

Chapter 1: I liked this quote describing the community at Battersea Reach:

"The barge-dwellers, creatures neither of firm land nor water, would have liked to be more respectable than they were. They aspired towards the Chelsea shore, where, in the early 1960s, many thousands lived with sensible occupations and adequate amounts of money. But a certain failure, distressing to themselves, to be like other people, caused them to sink back, with so much else that drifted or was washed up, into the mud moorings of the great tideway."

Fitzgerald and her family lived in a houseboat in this area in the 1960s when they had financial difficulties. Their boat which was named "Grace" eventually sunk, and they had to move to dry land. So the author was able use her personal experiences for inspiration.

I laughed at this comment by Nenna who was a bit of a flake:

"I can't do the things that women can't do," she said. "I can't turn over 'The Times' so that the pages lie flat, I can't fold up a map in the right creases...."

I finished the book this afternoon, and immediately then read the corresponding chapter in Hermione Lee's biographyPenelope Fitzgerald: A Life and this added a lot to my appreciation of the book. The story is rich in autobiographical detail.

Your quote Connie, from Chapter 1, sets up perfectly the themes of neither here nor there that permeates the book.

This is a link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Cheryl wrote: "I finished the book this afternoon, and immediately then read the corresponding chapter in Hermione Lee's biographyPenelope Fitzgerald: A Life and this added a lot to my appreciatio..."

Lovely review, Cheryl.

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For those that don't own Hermione Lee's biography, there is an excellent review of the biography in the London Review of Books that I found through Google. This was helpful for me since this was the first time I have read a work by Fitzgerald. This is the link:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/jenny-tu...

Connie wrote: "Lovely review, Cheryl. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... For those that don't own Hermione Lee's biography, there is an excellent review of the biography in the London Review of Books...."
thanks Connie, as is yours.
thanks for identifying the LRB review. I love the anecdote about the Booker dinner, and how the newspaperman said 'that they’d all written their pieces about Naipaul and felt they were free to get drunk.’

Yes, that was so funny!

Fitzgerald's life at Battersea is discussed about halfway through the LRB article.

Such great comments! I've finished the book, and plan to comment more thoughtfully in this thread this week -- I've had a lot of family events over the past few days, and today also featured my settling back in at my apartment after winter break. More in the next day or so.

This is a quote from a CBC podcast that I found on a library website.

Fitzgerald on her books as tragic comedies:

"[My books] are too sad really to be comedies, but not important enough to be tragedies. And I've got...a great feeling for people who are defeated by life...They're very decent sorts, usually, but it's really all rather too much for all of them."

Connie wrote: "'....And I've got...a great feeling for people who are defeated by life...They're very decent sorts, usually, but it's really all rather too much for all of them.' ..."

That's such a lovely quotation from the woman described in a rather frumpy fashion at the Booker Award ceremony. Little wonder to like her writing.

Lily wrote: "Lily wrote: '..If the old Thames trades had still persisted, if boatman had still made a living from taking the coins from the pockets of the drowned, then this was the hour for them to watch....' p26..."

The repeat of this theme in Chapter 2 caught my attention:

"None but he would have noticed the gleam of gold and diamonds ... He recognized it as the hand of his father, missing for countless years...." p28

I also got a little lost here. Is this Willis as a six year old boy? Exactly who is Willis?

Chapter 3

Penelope's technique here of using a discussion in court as a way of telling Nenna's story (to whom this chapter belonged, much as chapter 2 did to Tilda) quite fascinated me, both with its cleverness and its appropriateness, as Nenna seemed to be judging herself and her life in her process of relating it.

Back to Ch2: Many of the passages here about the poor cat Stripey are so funny, e.g., "Through years of attempting to lick herself clean, for she had never quite lost her self respect, Stripey had become as thickly coated with mud inside as out." p29

I am enjoying so much the clear brevity and grammatical discipline of Penelope's language even as she weaves so many details -- poignant, revealing, setting context -- into her story. (I probably notice it particularly because the contrast is so sharp with the style of Smith Henderson in Fourth of July Creek, which I have also just been reading -- 21st Century Literature board selection for December. Both authors treat characters to whom life has not been particularly kind, but how differently!)

Connie wrote: "I found Lily's comments so enticing that I picked up the book today."

Thank you! I'm so glad you seem to have found the read worth your time as well, Connie. Thank you, too, for the quotation you shared @19. It feels so dead on for Fitzgerald, even as I remember The Bookshop as well.

Cheryl wrote: "I was slow to warm to this. Was admiring occasional lines, waiting to find it. Wiki said that this is a book about liminality. I was in a liminal space about this book for the first third. But I..."

Cheryl -- you sent me to the dictionary -- for "liminal" (having the lowest amount necessary to produce a particular effect: possessing the minimal quantity; barely perceptible), of course. For some reason, my mind went to "littoral," which does seem appropriate in some strangely parallel ways as well (composed of material deposited near a shore and within the zone affected by waves and coastal currents)!

Lily wrote: "Exactly who is Willis?"

Willis is a 65 year old marine painter, the owner of the leaky boat "Dreadnought" that he is trying to sell. It is a confusing paragraph since it's looking back at stories that Willis told Tilda about his experiences as a young boy.

Connie wrote: "Lily wrote: "Exactly who is Willis?"

Willis is a 65 year old marine painter, the owner of the leaky boat "Dreadnought" that he is trying to sell. It is a confusing paragraph since it's looking b..."

Thx, Connie. Also, for following up on the reviews elsewhere.

Thanks for all the info, Lilly. I finished the novel yesterday and am in a sort of daze. My first by her, just brilliant stuff. I was also struck by the economy of the prose...

Connie wrote: "...It is a confusing paragraph since it's looking back at stories that Willis told Tilda about his experiences as a young boy. ..."

I went back to that paragraph (p28) and marveled at the way it was structured, albeit as confusing as it is. I wonder how a writing instructor would parse its techniques. I don't even know how to parse it and apply linguistic or grammatical terms -- it is as if we with Tilda (perhaps inside her mind?) travel back in time to Willis at six, but Deadnought and Maurice from the present are there?

Another paragraph that caught my attention is on p40, Ch3, where transition occurs from Nenna's self-inflicted trial before magistrates and judges to more general topics bringing in other characters. I can't summarize quite how Fitzgerald created the change-over, but it seems to happen with her reflection that "above all the girls ought to be back in regular education." Getting to that phrase seems to be self trial and testing, but now Fitzgerald can broaden the discussion.

Would love to hear comments from any who have struggled with writing transitions or are familiar with the techniques that are taught. Or any other perspectives.

Andrew wrote: "Thanks for all the info, Lily. I finished the novel yesterday and am in a sort of daze. My first by her, just brilliant stuff. I was also struck by the economy of the prose..."

Thx, Andrew. We owe thanks to a couple of other contributors, Connie and Cheryl, particularly for the material on Fitzgerald's life that they have brought to our attention.

In these days when passionate positions are sometimes taken about whether a creative work is better understood and evaluated on its own merits versus being more deeply appreciated by knowing its creator, I personally like that we are walking here the blend. The first time I read Offshore I knew virtually nothing about the author, so my memories are very much about the words et al of the book. As I said earlier, the lasting memories of that read were of the setting.

Okay, I've gotten a bit stuck on my reread at Chapter 8, p86. Don't know quite why, other than other reading demands. But for now, let me see if I can get back to sharing more from this reading, which, as you can tell, I having been doing a bit from the perspective of how did Fitzgerald spin her magic.

Chapter 4. (includes spoilers) At the end of Chapter 3, Maurice has built his phantasmagorical representation of Venice in the form of a mauve streetlight on his boat. It is immensely impractical, whether calling attention to a boat that needs to remain obscure (as the base of Harry's questionable commercial endeavors), or consuming electricity that can't be afforded, or attracting the neighborhood thugs, who will destroy it by the end of Chapter 4. Martha closes Chapter 3: "'Maurice is going mad,' said Martha, quietly, as they went back to Grace."

Chapter 4 itself is very short, less than three pages. In it, we watch Nenna find a male confidant in Maurice to whom she can relate her woes. Those of us so inclined ask ourselves, will a romantic plot evolve here?

Maurice sagely, or not so sagely, advises: "...Decision is a torment for anyone with imagination. When you decide, you multiply the things you might have done and now never can. If there's even one person who might be hurt by a decision, you should never make it..." p47

In the final paragraph we can observe again one of Fitzgerald's tricks of transition and linkages -- when the lantern ends in the river, Tilda is the "expert mudlark" who attempts to retrieve the pieces. That "mudlark" will star in Chapter 6.

I don't believe I've commented yet on an obvious source for Martha's name: Luke 20:38-42

(view spoiler)[
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ 41 But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing.* Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

* Other ancient authorities read few things are necessary, or only one.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+10

(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5 (includes spoilers)

I found this chapter quite charming. It seems to focus on Willis, the marine artist; Tilda and he seem to strike up a familial-like relationship of grandfather (father?) and daughter. Willis provides a bit of a role model to Tilda's young aspirations and they visit the Tate together. Richard attempts to help Willis sell his Dreadnaught through his real estate friend with the unlikely but evocative nickname of "Pinkie." Pinkie would prefer to sell a good piece of land to Richard, who learns over lunch that his wife may not have been as circumspect about her misgivings as he had been crediting her. The lunch itself is a farcical sketch, funny British humor if one is in the mood to relax into it. At some inexplicable time, perhaps the evening after the lunch, but probably several weeks or months later when the Dreadnaught has a firm offer, Richard comes home to his slippers, listens to his wife, and somehow intuits it would be best to take her to dinner, which he does. (Richard is 39, we have learned elsewhere in the novel. p57)

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/w...

Lovely Whistler painting, Lily.

In message 31, you mentioned how Maurice and Nenna are unable to reach decisions in Chapter 4. Richard's temperment forms a contrast in Chapter 5 since he is so decisive (p 54):

"Richard was not aware that he was no longer reasoning, but allowing a series of overlapping images--the drawing of 'Lord Jim', Tilda cooking--to act as a substitute for argument, so that his mind was working in a way not far different from Maurice's, or Nenna's. But the end product would be very different--not indecisive and multiple, but single and decisive. Without this faculty of Richard's, the world could not be maintained in its present state."

Lily wrote: "Chapter 6 (includes spoilers)
I found this chapter quite charming. It seems to focus on Willis, the marine artist; Tilda and he seem to strike up a familial-like relationship of grandfather (fath..."
love that painting, Lily, thanks. It was a popular subject

Connie wrote: "...Richard's temperament forms a contrast in Chapter 5 since he is so decisive (p 54):..."

Great contrast, Connie. Thx for drawing that specific quotation to our attention. (You also helped me realize I mislabeled @31 -- it now reads "Chapter 5," as it should have originally.)

I hope those of you who enjoyed Whistler's painting also had the time to note the several other views/paintings/eras of Battersea Reach et al at the bottom of the screen.

Chapter 6

In this chapter "mudlark" Tilda retrieves two valuable tiles from the Thames. She and her sister then hitch a ride into Chelsea to sell them in an antique shop, ending the day at Woolworths.

Again, we have almost a self-contained story in this chapter, although it does provide a bit of background that will be useful going forward on Woodie, the boat-owner who also had a garaged car on land, an Austin Cambridge.

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Austin-C...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_C...

I didn't know the Woolworth name was used in London, but it makes sense that it was once an international brand. I still marvel at the building historically with that name in NYC and have seen the building in Watertown, NY, where the idea for the company ostensibly originated. Woolworth was the upscale "dime store", versus Ben Franklin's, in the Midwestern town where we shopped when I was young. As far as I know, both names have virtually disappeared as widely known brands, although the Wiki article below suggests Woolworth may still be used in the U.K.?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwort...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwort...

Sidebar (totally ;-o) -- Woolworth's in the U.S.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwort...
"The ornate, cruciform lobby, is 'one of the most spectacular of the early 20th century in New York City'. It is covered in Skyros veined marble, has a vaulted ceiling, mosaics, a stained-glass ceiling light and bronze fittings. Over the balconies of the mezzanine are the murals Labor and Commerce. Corbel sculptures include Gilbert with a model of the building, Aus taking a girder's measurements, and Woolworth counting nickels." (My son says there is now a charge to enter and see it.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertow...
"Watertown claims that Rodman native Frank W. Woolworth conceived the idea of his mercantile chain while working there in 1878. Woolworth, employed as a clerk in Moore's Store, set up a successful clearance display of low-priced items. This led to his idea of a store specializing in fixed-price, cut-rate merchandise. Woolworth left Watertown and opened his first store in Utica, New York in 1879."

Anyway, I can relate to young girls heading out for Woolworth's to find some "prizes."

I was charmed, and saddened, by this:
"'Yes, we will, but we ought to get a present for Ma first. You know Daddy always used to forget to give her anything.'
"'Did she say so?'
"'Have you ever actually seen anything that he's given her?'"

Anyway, sorry for the diversionary ramblings on Woolworth's. More relevant to our story are the deMorgan tiles found by the girls and which Martha recognized as having value. Cheryl told us (@11) that the girls were probably under-compensated for their find. Let's see what Google will readily share with us without a lot of searching:

http://www.williammorristile.com/
Reproductions, I believe, but suggest the ornate beauty of the originals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
Specifically about De Morgan, rather than William Morris. (I haven't siphoned out the details of the relationships between the two -- De Morgan apparently did design work for Morris.)

Doing a Google search for "de Morgan tiles" and selecting "Images" from the results provides a feast for the eyes. Across the top of the search are tiles with prices under them. I didn't explore which were originals, which reproductions. If all are originals, there appears to be a tremendous range in market value.

Note what I take to be Fitzgerald's British humor, and on-target characterization, when these two young girls, who have just handled de Morgan tiles, walk into Woolworths, "and were dazzled."

The De Morgan tiles are beautiful, Lily.

I have fun memories of visiting a US Woolworth's as a young girl, and getting ice cream at their lunch counter. The store was a hit with the preteen girls who would go there to pick out their first lipstick, or nail polish. They also had Golden books and small toys for the younger kids. Of course, Woolworth's carried school supplies and household items too. Like the girls in Offshore, I guess we were also a bit dazzled with Woolworth, especially since it had no competition in our small town. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Lily.

Connie wrote: "...I have fun memories of visiting a US Woolworth's as a young girl, and getting ice cream at their lunch counter. The store was a hit with the preteen girls..."

I don't remember that ours had a lunch counter -- for a cherry coke, it was nearby at the back of a drug store! Ice cream I don't remember, except in another town with sort of a general store, where we used to pick up coal. But do I remember chocolate chip ice cream cones from there -- a nickel for a single scoop, a dime if Mom or Dad was really being indulgent.

Certainly, besides NYC's skyscraper, Woolworths will be remembered in U.S. history for the lunch counter sit-ins in the South. (Yes, Golden books....)

Chapter 7

Oh, can I sustain this chapter by chapter look at Offshore? I am learning from it, but finding it hard to slow so greatly the pace of dealing with a book of only 141 pages. Only an upcoming writing course and the back cover clips like "a novel the Booker judges deemed 'flawless' goad me into continuing to look a bit closely at what Fitzgerald has done here as a writer.

Chapter 7 is a tumultuous one. Again, it is almost a short story, complete onto itself, but with communal ties to the ongoing flow of the book. (view spoiler)[ Even as the community gathered to celebrate the offer to buy Willis has received for the Dreadnaught, in one awful evening, the barge, that had existed on the river for so many years, almost instantly sank. The reader is given a sense of the speed of her final ascent as Willis goes to retrieve mussels for the party from his galley and encounters the "unmistakable dead man's stench of river water, heaving slowly, but always finding, no matter what the obstacle, the shortest way home."

In the third paragraph of this thirteen page chapter, Fitzgerald wrote: "As he crossed Grace's deck Woodie looked up with astonishment at Dreadnought, which was a bigger boat, and, having much less furniture on board, rode higher in the water." (hide spoiler)]

Four pages later, (view spoiler)["The main leak had given way at last. And Willis had it in his heart to be sorry for old Dreadnought, as she struggled to rise against the increasing load of water. It was like one of those terrible sights of the racecourse or the battlefield where wallowing living beings persevere dumbly in their duty although mutilated beyond repair." p77

I am reminded of Frou Frou, Vronsky's horse, as she stumbles on the pages of Anna Karenina. Or of the tragic stories from racetracks from time to time. Or, worse, as Fitzgerald takes us, of battlefield stories.

Enough parallels of human lives with boat lives are interwoven that we sense PF's reminders of the fragility of all: Did Woodie really think: "But he mustn't forget that it was a great occasion for old Willis, who must be getting on for sixty-five, ready to take the knock any day now"? p75 Has our sense of longevity greatly increased since this book was written, as so many of us now know healthy people in their 80's?

Now once again PF gives us this little community coming together, with a bit of gentle prodding/support/initiative by Richard. Woodie and Janet open Rochester for the boarding and care of Willis when he returns from the hospital after the injuries he sustained, the care Bluebird arranged. A subscription is made to help Willis cover the costs to salvage sunken Dreadnaught he incurs.

Then the chapter ends with Nenna receiving a call from her sister Louise. The dynamics of the call and Nenna's thoughts carry the reader into the next chapter.
(hide spoiler)]

Before we go on with Chapter 8, do note that there is one more vignette on the fate of the Dreadnaught that occupies Chapter 7, (view spoiler)[ sort of a Nero fiddles while Roman is burning:

"...and Maurice was so entertaining. It was said by his acquaintances in the pub that he gave value for money, but there was a touch of genius in the way he talked that night. With a keener sense of danger than the others, and finding it exhilarating, as they certainly would not, he had noticed at once that something was wrong, even before he had rubbed a clear patch on the steamy windows and, looking out into the night, had seen the horizon slowly rising, inch by inch. He made a rapid calculation. Give it a bit longer, we're all enjoying ourselves, he thought. Maurice had never learned to swim, but this did not disturb him. If only there was a piano, I would give them 'Rock of Ages' when the time comes, he said to himself." p78

Whether all these descriptions of Dreadnaught sinking are realistic or a bit exaggerated, the cumulative effect for the reader is both hilarious and ominous.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8
In this chapter, one of the key plot lines of Offshore breaks open: the relationship between Nenna and her husband Edward.

Does anyone here know the meaning of the bus conductor’s advice: “Or move house.” p86 Some Brit expression that doesn’t travel across the Pond well?

(view spoiler)[ The chapter opens with Nenna finally deciding to travel where her husband, returned from his work abroad, is living. The long trek by public transportation gives her time to consider whether she has selected the right “look” for this encounter with Edward -- “Her best coat ..would make her look as though she hadn’t let herself go…. her frightful old lumber jacket…suggested …she was worried enough not to care.”

She did not anticipate Edward might not answer when she reached her destination. Instead, the son of the landlady, a rather obnoxiously portrayed boor, let her in and proceeded to annoy with his piano playing even when he retired to his mother’s quarters below. Despite her anxieties and their quarrel, when the landlady appeared “to introduce herself,” Nenna and Eddie were on the floor, and “Nenna got to her feet, trying to pull down her jersey.”

Several times throughout Offshore I am struck how Fitzgerald uses rather old-fashioned techniques of obliqueness to introduce sexual innuendoes to the text (there are similar ones with both Maurice and Lord Jim, particularly Richard). I rather like the leaving much to the reader’s imagination, but that is probably a reflection of a rather conservative side of my own personality that any statement per se for or against the skill of the writer.

Unfortunately, Nenna heedlessly insults Gordon, the son, to the dismay of Edward, who considers himself to have been treated kindly by this family and who then berates and belittles Nenna in return. (We just had a similar discussion on another board when one of the readers wrote this about Buck Mulligan in Ulysses: “I see Mulligan as fairly insensitive, a happy-go-lucky irreverent guy (maybe even a frat boy?) who doesn't intend to hurt Stephen's feelings because he has never figured out that words can hurt peoples' feelings.” https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... As another reader wrote, discussing characters gives us a chance to see their characteristics from different perspectives.)

Nenna flees, carelessly leaving behind her purse, including her bus ticket, and then subsequently loses her shoes on her escape. She is accosted and possibly faced real danger until one of those kindly, savvy taxi cab drivers that exist, but are only too rare, in probably every city of the world, rescued her and delivered her without fare to Battersea Reach.

When she reaches Battersea, she discovers Laura has left Lord Jim for higher ground. Richard and Nenna engage in the awkward dance of consoling each other, including taking a dinghy ride on the Thames and engaging in one of those soul-searching, what the hell-is-life about conversations that oft accompany such transitional life moments as they are each experiencing. Fitzgerald peppers the entire chapter with little zinging insights on jealousies, insecurities, and bravado, but with rather tongue-in-cheek respect for the underlying love each of these couples has known, regardless of the directions their lives are about to take. (hide spoiler)]

Lily wrote: "Chapter 8
Does anyone here know the meaning of the bus conductor’s advice: “Or move house.” p86 Some Brit expression that doesn’t travel across the Pond well?..."

I interpreted that as meaning to move to a different place to live that would be closer. A smart alec conductor.
I guess there were fewer bus routes there fifty years ago. On google maps, the journey today would only take about an hour to hour-and-a-half by bus, or bus and tube.

Sidebar on what is happening currently in the area of this story (correct me if I have that wrong): http://www.nineelmslondon.com/

I'm interested that you found it a slog later on...the structure of the book was interesting to me as more of the layers were revealed, and I was drawn into Nenna's story. You have the initial meeting, where everyone is introduced, then, slowly, Nenna's story moves to the forefront while the others are somewhat attenuated.

Andrew wrote: "I'm interested that you found it a slog later on...the structure of the book was interesting to me as more of the layers were revealed, and I was drawn into Nenna's story. You have the initial mee..."

Given the way I was reading, Chapter 7 was a bit of a dogleg for me. It was a charming story, very necessary to the over-all impact of the book, but I would probably have read through it very rapidly if I hadn't been looking at PF's structure for the book. It was certainly a chapter that revealed layers of the relationships in the community and it did become a story of the Deadnaught for me. The pace then picked up for me though chapters 8-10. I read them of a piece and now must go back to them individually if I am to finish what I have started here.

It has come to fascinate how the structure can almost be considered as a sequence of interlocking short stories.

Can you say more on what it meant to be "drawn into Nenna's story"?

Lily wrote: "It has come to fascinate how the structure can almost be considered as a sequence of interlocking short stories...."

I wonder if PB saw/considered/constructed it that way? Or more as of a piece.

Cheryl wrote: "...I guess there were fewer bus routes there fifty years ago. On google maps, the journey today would only take about an hour to hour-and-a-half by bus, or bus and tube. ..."

Cheryl -- thank you for goading me into going and doing the Google map check. Interesting!