21st Century Literature discussion

Hi all, and welcome to this group read. I'm arriving a little late, having just gotten started. I will probably post the spoiler thread later in the week.

In the meantime, feel free to weigh in here. I wanted to read this book after its Booker longlisting last year, although it took a while to creep up on me, the fact that I wanted to read it. The description was never entirely clear, and I personally find the cover unattractive (UK version in my case). Nonetheless, I started to hear more and more good things about it, and to talk to people who were long-term fans of the author.

Where are the rest of you coming from with this book?

I read it during the Booker longlisting and I enjoyed it. The book is well done and takes on interesting topics in a subtle manner in my view, for instance climate change in a very personal kind of sense with plague of rodents. Also the way religion is tackled is interesting in my view.

Thanks Henk. I'm about a third in now and I really agree with what you say about the book's subtle take on climate change. I find it so interesting that more wasn't made of this being "eco-fiction" in the marketing push. It seems the protagonist is retreating from the world, but that there is no real retreat from the world in our times.

It is also a pandemic novel, which seems a blast from the past, and yet also as though enough time has passed that the pandemic can start making dignified appearances in novels... novels can include it without being about it.

Here is an interesting article in LitHub about using Yeats as an inspiration for the novel (and the experience of writing it more generally):

“Only that which does not teach,” says Wood via Zoom, “which does not cry out, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible.”

Wood continues, “There’s a lot of teaching and admonishing and explaining that goes on in contemporary fiction. And I was sick of it. I wanted to write a book that had as little explanation as I could get away with.” Thus did she begin to pen her seventh novel shortly before the pandemic. The book featured a nameless first-person narrator who moves from Sydney, Wood’s current home, to a religious convent on an arid rural plain, “almost as bare as bedrock.” The latter approximated Wood’s childhood on the Monaro, a lunarlike plateau some hundred miles south of Australia’s capital in Canberra. “The stripped back voice mirrors the landscape,” says Wood. It also aligns with Yeats’s directive.

Here's the rest of the article:
https://lithub.com/only-that-which-do...

I'm also curious how much Australian fiction people here have read? It's a real hole in my personal reading. In recent years I can only think of Grimmish and a part of Praiseworthy. And I have a Gerald Murname waiting. Based on those few examples, there seem to be interesting voices coming from the region.

I've changed this to a whole-book discussion to include spoilers (though I'm not sure there really are spoilers here).

Has anyone started reading? Planning to read? Read and been waiting for the spoilers thread?

I finished reading this book last week, yes i was waiting for others to respond. Liked it and rated it 5 stars . Its not that i enjoyed every moment with it, but that it communicated very well with me, I really appreciate the way author has dealt with the difficult theme of death and the dying. It was a surprise for me because i knew nothing about the book, every argument or idea that author presents in the book comes through the prism of death, she (protagonist) is herself going through struggle in coming terms to the deaths of her parents. I liked the way she got her answers that death spares no one and life has to respect and expect it , in this process Helen Parry plays the role of catalyst. I will not forget this book in a hurry and would like to read more from this author.

I agree, the concept of belief, while very important in the life of many, is done so well in this novel. I gave it four stars, but definitely found it one of the stronger shortlisted books of the Booker in that year. Also what is really good is how there is a wry but definite sense of humour in the narration. And then we have visually arresting scenes, mainly involving mice, that have a definite staying power!

You are right Henk. Those 'visually arresting scenes' disturbed me a lot but that is where strength of the book lies. Other thing which i found very compelling is the writing style, it is very lucid. It goes on like a diary, broken into small part otherwise it would have been difficult read. I noticed it particularly because i am trying to read Lord Jim at present.

Nidhi wrote: "I finished reading this book last week, yes i was waiting for others to respond. Liked it and rated it 5 stars . Its not that i enjoyed every moment with it, but that it communicated very well with..."

Thanks for joinng, Nidhi, and I really connect when you say "Its not that i enjoyed every moment with it, but that it communicated very well with me." I occasionally had to wander away and then come back to this book; but at the same time I highlighted so many parts that I thought were just outstanding.

Henk wrote: "I agree, the concept of belief, while very important in the life of many, is done so well in this novel. I gave it four stars, but definitely found it one of the stronger shortlisted books of the B..."

Henk, I agree with you on the topic of religion: I, like the narrator, have never had very much to do with it, but I found it movingly and convincingly presented here.

Another form of "belief," was the narrator's activism in various political causes, as well as her husband's and parents. I thought the treatment of her disillusionment/loss of hope and her retreat to live with the nuns was very well done.. and not a perspective we see often.

Emmeline wrote: "Henk wrote: "I agree, the concept of belief, while very important in the life of many, is done so well in this novel. I gave it four stars, but definitely found it one of the stronger shortlisted b..."

Yes that is a good point, and it is interesting how she takes a non-performative angle on this, which you don't see so much. Like how she pulls out of the world is interesting, but probably a simple nuns life is much better for the world than climate activists that fly to conferences to protest or discuss new rules. It was an interesting angle on the subject, without being overly obvious.

Taking refuge in religion during spiritual crisis and disillusionment is very common in India, so i was not surprised by her residence in the abbey , taking passive part in rituals but actively supporting the system. But still, it is a hard decision and much criticized by society (as in the book) she had to leave her husband, it is impossible for women with children.

At one point she mentions how horrified she is that one of the nuns leaves not only her husband but her children for a cloistered life. That did feel shocking.

Then I realized I actually know someone who did this! Or rather I know the husband. (For context I work in quite Catholic surroundings; even so, leaving your family to become a nun is next-level).

I read this last year and enjoyed it, but it feels a bit soon for a reread. I am no expert in Australian fiction but have read quite a lot of Keneally, Peter Carey, Richard Flanagan, Kate Grenville, Michelle de Kretser, a couple of Alexis Wrights and Murnanes and two of Charlotte Wood's earlier novels, and it compares fairly well with most of these.

I read this awhile ago, and gave it 5 stars in my review. I particularly liked the austerity of the nuns' way of living and by extension our narrator, who chose to live in this manner, voluntarily. I also liked the author restrained description of landscape. She places the abbey on the Munaro plains - which are dry, often empty - a unique and special place - and I wanted to hear a lot more about this scenery and environment, and I often felt blocked in her absolutely minimal touches of the surrounds - until I realised that again she is blocking herself and her reader from turning her book or this place into a "beautiful scene".
I understood that this is very much in-line with the austerity of both how the nuns live - and a direct comment on the affluence and wastage in the lives of people generally in our present times.

The narrator comments a lot on how her mother composts everything - she was a woman who made do with her restricted lifestyle - in terms of possessions and material wealth.

I think it's Emmeline who says she had to "wander" away from the book - and yes, I had to do the same. I think the author's style is deliberately an attempt to make the reader do exactly that. If I remember correctly "the narrative" is made up of lots of little pieces, which have a stop/start feel to them. I think Woods quite deliberately breaks off - at interesting points - deliberately subverting the pace of a "normal" narrative - her point is to Slow Down - for us all to Slow the pace of our lives - be more reflective, think more.

The plague of mice - was disgusting - and I think this is a metaphor for us humans - how we breed and breed, and overpopulate the world and end up running over everything in our millions, eating everything as we go - indestructible. Woods doesn't say that directly - it would be too offensive, but I think that's what she means - the human population is exactly like a great plague of mice - indestructible and consuming everything - including our own.

I always like to read about landscape - especially wild, unpopulated places so I was really yearning to hear more about the Monaro Plains - as I said above - and I think Woods gives us tantalising snippets of that world around the abbey - the beautiful bits. Again as if she is saying - they are disappearing, there are few of these pristine, untouched places left in the world. Often her camera lens zooms in on destructive scenes - there is a scene of a great Iguano - catching and killing the abbey's chickens - of which our narrator has taken charge/care of.

Austerity - it is a key word in this book. The narrator's minimal possessions. I remember also the nuns don't have money for things - they have to make do - that also is a key phrase. Making the most of what they do have - being inventive in terms of utilising their current material goods.

I would have to go back and re-read to think of other points.

I like your take on the mice plague Laura! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Laura, amazing comment. I particularly like your take on the austerity of description. I am not familiar with the area so didn't know what I was missing, but I agree with what you say. I am not often a fan of austerity, particularly of prose (well, particularly as an economic measure, but that's a digression). Wood's book is one that I thought was absolutely deliberate in its austerity and so entirely earned that aridity of feeling.

I admit I had not thought of the mice in those terms at all. But it's an intriguing idea. I'm going to sit with it a bit.

I'm 3/4 through, and I honestly thought it was a memoir.

I also thought Laura's remarks were strong. I praised the novel for investigating and elevating values that we see most often described in nonsecular literature.So along with austerity, I see service, contrition, forgiveness, acceptance, patience, trust and a host of others discussed without the emphasis on religious association. That was impressive IMO. Too often those values have been brushed aside when people get on one side or on topic the religon.

I sense that you are objecting to something in my comment Sam, but you don't really specify. "Strong" good, "strong" bad - all the points or several or just one of them? You seem to be criticising my use of "austerity".
I did remark that it was sometime ago that I read the book but I think the points I made are relevant in that those are the first to return to me when I reflect on it.
Yes - there is forgiveness - I wrote quite a lot about that in my review.
Along with other points you mention but I think I will emphasize again those points I made above are distinctly what stands out for me - looking back from a hiatus of about a year?

Themes of discrimination and forgiveness repeatedly appear in the seemingly random vignettes of the narrator's memories, Most novels are built around a central puzzle: How will this be resolved? or Why did this happen? A major puzzle I expected as I moved into Part Two was Why did our narrator adopt this life? I felt frustrated that there seems to be no attempt to address it. A very different novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, boils its central puzzle into a key phrase: "What then must we do?", borrowing from Luke 3:10. Perhaps the same puzzle is addressed here. The narrator's answer seems to be to disappear, like the glimpse of the man dropping into the drainage pipe.

Revisit the question of why she did what she did when you have finished. I think the narrator offers the answer but do not want to spoil reveling my thoughts.

I don't think our narrator's answer disappears at all - I think several reviewers expressed an interpretation of "doing the small things" - taking care of the chickens, preparing meals, self-reflection, developing self-awareness, learning to appreciate others and understand them as best you can - I think the narrator focuses on Helen Parry, and the Sister who mourns firvtye one killed in Thailand - not so much talking but thinking. Taking pride in needing very little - many Buddhist type beliefs and practices are mentioned, and these are not particularly small but distinctly important in development the inner-life, and/or in contemplating your immortal soul. A religious devotion without the ostentatious trappings of the church or officialdom is what Woods is very much advocating.

Laura wrote: "I sense that you are objecting to something in my comment Sam, but you don't really specify. "Strong" good, "strong" bad - all the points or several or just one of them? You seem to be criticising ..."

Laura, I am sorry you felt that way as my comment was meant to show my agreement with your thoughts, and I did so 100%. In fact your mention of austerity was something that hadn't occurred to me and as I define the term, I see it as a kind of self-denial or self discipline where severity has a purpose. When you used the term it fell in perfectly with my thoughts.