The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson

I just felt the author was showing off in this book

Clever, Gumble.

I’m probably being overly critical, but a summary that describes each family member as the beautiful one, the sensitive one, the insecure one, with self-sacrificing artist mother makes me think this is a book with one dimensional, stock characters.

WndyJW wrote: "Clever, Gumble.

I’m probably being overly critical, but a summary that describes each family member as the beautiful one, the sensitive one, the insecure one, with self-sacrificing artist mother m..."

And I'd agree with that assessment 100 per cent!

This one looks interesting but it doesn't look like anyone's ranked it yet.

I am about 80 percent through - so far it’s awful. Hoping the last part may redeem it.

Wait until you get to Opal and Nev.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I am about 80 percent through - so far it’s awful. Hoping the last part may redeem it."

I read an ARC and found it pretty lacklustre.

I am reading a last minute ARC (it publishes next week) and would not go anywhere near as enthusiastic as lacklustre.

I think if you like that kind of novel it's a reasonable example of its type, readable but not to my taste. I was quite shocked to see it make the longlist though, even as a conventional, middle-class family drama it's not particularly striking or sophisticated. But emotional abuse's quite topical at the moment so maybe that element tipped the balance?

But realise I forgot to add my rating at the bottom, I rated it as 2.5 but rounded up to three. Although found it no worse than 'The Fell' or 'Burntcoat'. All of them reminded me of the kind of relationship drama that the BBC frequently runs on Sunday nights, and a lot of people seem to like those, just don't happen to be one of them.

I just thought this story was preposterous and melodramatic - and setting it among North London arty types did not help.

She does do a mean metaphor though.

I realised when I read it, I'd read an earlier novel of hers that won various prizes, which was not dissimilar in style. She reminds me of Charlotte Macleod, Esther Freud, India Knight, Rachel Johnson etc All women who write novels that revolve around a certain middle/upper middle-class British, social milieu, the contemporary equivalent of Barbara Trapido, from the one of hers I've tried. I find their scenarios unconvincing but a lot of people clearly rate them, including the judges of this prize. And I thought Mendelson's portrayal of the impact of years of emotional abuse on the central character was quite convincing. The melodrama seems par for the course, hence the comparison to BBC dramas - thinking of the kind of thing that David Tennant appears in these days. I think she also stands out because very few of the writers in this category/market also write about queer and/or lesbian relationships.

She's been compared to writers like Anne Tyler but I think Tyler's work's slicker and more disciplined. For some reason American authors often seem to be more convincing when it comes to this kind of family relationship narrative.

Thanks Alwynne

I think her award winning novel was "Daughters of Jerusalem" - no one I know on Goodreads has read it but it has a string of 1 and 2 star reviews in the top Community reviews

Her best known earlier novel was I think Almost English and was longlisted for both the Women's Prize and Booker Prize in 2013/14. 5 of my Goodreads friends have reviewed it (1 star, 3 2 star and 1 3 star review for an average rating of 1.8). Overall on Goodreads it is ranked below 3 (which is very unusual for nearly 1500 ratings)

The criticisms of both seem very similar to this one

I think American authors write more believable characters from everyday backgrounds perhaps than this upper middle-class and very North London and upper arts world centric background

I agree the emotional abuse on the wife - I think having a son, a daughter and even a potential son-in-law in thrall to the same childlike individual was taking the idea way too far

Yes I agree about American writers, it seems the same when it comes to television drama - we only seem to excel when it comes to period/costume stuff. Although Anne Tyler's another writer who does very little for me.

And yes the narrative was far too busy, I could see that Mendelson was attempting to depict the ways in which emotional abuse can have a lasting impact on generations of a family but she seemed too focused on incident rather than emotional complexity. The ex-wife next door was also a bit of a stretch. There are quite a few older women who, after years of being married to men, shift to relationships with women, and it was nice to see that reflected here, but again quite clumsily represented and making the 'other woman' take on the role of "other" and making her an MP seemed too much to me.

For me one of the redeeming features of the novel was that Lucia seemed to be falling into the same patterns of allowing herself to be a victim of a skewed power dynamic, and entirely dependent on the whims of her partner - as she did with Ray (although I did fear the author might not see it that way)

Anyway I have posted my review - Wendy I have quoted you in the review (hope that is OK)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There's an article by Charlotte Mendelson in today's Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Her focus is on discussing power imbalances in creative/artistic couples and then linking that to what she's exploring in her novel which is interesting. Although I don't think that comes across very well in the actual story, it seems more incidental/window-dressing at times than central. I think it doesn't help that many of the couples she's talking about in The Guardian Plath and Hughes, Stieglitz and O'Keefe were both practicing, prolific artists and this isn't really the case in the novel.

I had been reading that earlier and felt the same - she seems to disprove her own idea

I said in my review I expected that critics would like this - as seems to be the case with her previous books where the reaction from critics and prize juries has been very different to that of readers

John Self in the Observer today absolutely loves the book - "Her new novel is so devoid of secondhand sentences that it’s quite possible she spent all nine years since its predecessor polishing her jokes and turning phrases round until they shine." - which I think matches my comments about her mean line in metaphor and turns my comment around by stating "It’s a modern mystery why Charlotte Mendelson, one of the funniest writers in Britain, isn’t a bestseller"

I think my answer to that would go back to Wendy's comment 3 on the blurb - she writes books which are very much about plot and characters but the characters are not really believable here

I also note that Self effectively says that she is a female version of Martin Amis or Saul Bellow - and I think again that may point at an issue - this feels like old fashioned writing from the late 20th Century to me.

Not exactly sure we need a female version of Martin Amis. We certainly don't need the male one any more.

Guardian (as opposed to Observer) review - which I think tries to capture what the reviewer (the author Sarah Moss) likes about the book and also why some readers will not like it

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

As so often with MSM reviews one wonders how close the reading was when the review says that Priya is an MP but that "party unspecified, not that kind of book, but there’s a whiff of Toryism". My guess is that an MP whose "gang" is a group of women MPs in the PLP might not be a Tory

According to my Twitter fees all Labour MPs who haven't left the party with Jezza have a whiff of Toryism.

This is set in 2010

Then all Labour MPs had a whiff of Toryism then as well. Most of them had served in a Tory government from 1997-2007. According to Twitter anyway.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Guardian (as opposed to Observer) review - which I think tries to capture what the reviewer (the author Sarah Moss) likes about the book and also why some readers will not like it

https://www.theg..."

Priya was such a stock character I never even considered her character's background, that's not to mention the tiresome tokenism.

And agree Martin Amis is a writer who seems pretty much of his time and that time is definitely not now, Bellow's arguably a better prose stylist but can't imagine who reads his work outside of its presence on the odd reading list.

So, I hate to say this but I actually liked this book. It's tough to be an outlier in this group, and I have read all the comments about it above this post. I can't say that I disagree with them, but for some reason, I was completely engaged in the story and really wanted to keep reading and see where Mendelson took things. I don't think I've read anything else by her, and I'm not sure I necessarily want to, but I was fully expecting not to like this one, and then I couldn't put it down.

It was fun while it lasted Cindy.

First excellent laugh of the morning GY!

I’m 42 pages and this is feeling like a slog already- not sure I would keep reading if it wasn’t longlisted! Hoping it gets better.

Spoiler alert - it doesn’t.

I'm comfortable being an outlier on this one. Maybe I was just desperate to like something on this list that I wasn't expecting to like? Otherwise that has hardly happened.

Cindy wrote: "I'm comfortable being an outlier on this one. Maybe I was just desperate to like something on this list that I wasn't expecting to like? Otherwise that has hardly happened."

I didn't dislike it or find it a chore to read either - that is another review I have left far too long to write.

Thanks for joining me in the wilderness Hugh!

I am finding myself swept up in the family drama now - I still find most/all of the characters insufferable, but despite that I now want to keep reading. Still not loving it, but not ‘hate reading’ it as I was at the beginning. Just over half way!