NYRB Classics discussion

The October book selection is My Death by Lisa Tuttle with an introduction by Amy Gentry 144pp

A widowed writer begins to work on a biography of a novelist and artist—and soon uncovers bizarre parallels between her life and her subject’s—in this chilling and singularly strange novella by a contemporary master of horror and fantasy.

The narrator of Lisa Tuttle’s uncanny novella is a recent widow, a writer adrift. Not only has she lost her husband, but her muse seems to have deserted her altogether. Her agent summons her to Edinburgh to discuss her next book. What will she tell him? At once the answer comes to she will write the biography of Helen Ralston, best known, if at all, as the subject of W.E. Logan’s much-reproduced painting Circe , and the inspiration for his classic children’s book.

But Ralston was a novelist and artist in her own right, though her writing is no longer in print and her most storied painting too shocking, too powerful—malevolent even—to be shown in public. Over the months that follow, Ralston proves a reluctantly cooperative subject, even as her biographer uncovers eerie resonances between the older woman’s life and her own. Whose biography is she writing, really?

This is a perfect choice for the Halloween season. Join us for a read and discussion. Spoilers are welcome but please be conscious of other readers in the early days of the month and limit anything that would ruin their experience.

Reviews:

https://readersretreat2017.wordpress....

https://tracysterrors.com/my-death-20...


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/bo... paywalled

Live discussion with Amy Gentry Kelly Link and Lisa Tuttle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uv-T...

I read this in a couple of days. I didn't read the introduction, or any reviews, until I'd finished.
I thought it was a fascinating book. It's all perfectly normal, too normal, until it's not. As Amy Gentry describes it "a creeping sense of unease begins to steal into the text".
There is so much to talk about, particularly the ending. I'll wait until others have read it.

I read this for the second time this summer and thought it was excellent also the second time around. When Ralston explains the dream about the doll, it was wildly creepy -- it's wonderful to get a thrill from a book like that.

I am very interested in what others think about the ending, too. I remind myself that this is a (somewhat unconventional) horror story and needn't be realistic -- and that is what makes it a great read.

Oddly, I re-read Kazuo Ishiguro's "A Pale View of the Hills" soon after re-reading this, and the subject of identity, blurred identity/unsure identity, comes up in that too. There's a similar, intense moment where you try to make sense of who the character is -- I recommend that one if the subject intrigued any other readers.

I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls.

I will be getting to this on Wednesday, after I have finished with some other books.

Emmeline wrote: "I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls."

I think the doll dream is central to the story and the questions about identity. I don't want to build it up too much since you may be disappointed -- it packed more power for me the first time I read it.

I hear you on the cost of buying books. If you like offbeat creepiness you will probably enjoy this, and it's quite short.

Sarah wrote: "Emmeline wrote: "I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls."

I think ..."

Thanks Sarah. I'll mull over for a day or two, but may need to join you all after all (damn it!). The cost is one thing, but the space is my real source of angst... I must clear some shelf room!

I have My Death, but dreams in books are not my thing. I like the creepy doll aspect though so I’ll try it when I finish my current, non-nyrb, book.

Sarah wrote: "Emmeline wrote: "I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls."

I think ..."

hey! i see you're in barcelona -- so am I. You can borrow my copy if you'd like.

Sarah wrote: "hey! i see you're in barcelona -- so am I. You can borrow my copy if you'd like.."

What?! Really? We should have an in-person book chat! (Sorry if that's forward; I will DM like a normal person).

This is my first time joining in here, but I think I know you all . . . I listened to My Death today and enjoyed it. It definitely fits into a more classic tradition of "horror" - more uncanny, really. I'm reading The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and it has a very similar vibe, so much so that I kept thinking of it as being set in the much more distant past, so that when the narrator talked about looking something up on the internet, it almost felt jarring.

(This is a compliment, not a critique.)

I have read this month's selection a few days back but am posting now. If any others are considering the read, I suggest reading in one sitting, which is easily done since the book is short.

Welcome Rose! Nice to see you here.

I loved this for the premise of a writers mirroring other writers, the author's use of intertextuality, the mixed genre approach, and as Rose pointed out the vague sense of time implied in the writing. I am going to leave my comments at that for now to leave this shorter than usual, and save the reader's time.

WndyJW wrote: "I have My Death, but dreams in books are not my thing. I like the creepy doll aspect though so I’ll try it when I finish my current, non-nyrb, book."

Wndy, I think you will especially enjoy this because of its relation to Greek myth which interests you.

Oh! Let me go get my copy….

I just finished and I’m sorry to say I am disappointed. I didn’t find it suspenseful or even interesting. I dont know at what point others felt a sense of unease, unless it was when the protagonist told she felt a shiver or a chill, but the incidents that gave her a chill weren’t at all unsettling.

I’m eager to know what I missed, but for me this is a 2 star read, which is sad because the ideas Tuttle explored: the one sided telling of Helen’s life as the lover of Logan; identity; what life was like for young women in 1920’s Paris; rebuilding a life and finding one’s muse after a loss; then the twist at the very end would have made a fascinating novel, but this novella felt like a printed outline for what should have been a really good book.

I'm going to start this tonight.

Emmeline wrote: "I'm going to start this tonight."

I'm starting tonight too. Just got back from a trip and it was waiting for me in the mail.

I see the nyrb reports this book at 144 pages, My nyrb copy has 105 pages. Does anyone else have 105 pages?

Mine has 105.

Then I guess I can’t change my opinion.

I'm only 30 pages in but I'm with Wendy so far. It doesn't help that it's so far about a writer and her agent (not a fan) nor that even this part is full of nonsense: "a biography of an unknown woman written by someone whose other books weren't big sellers? I can sell that easily," insinuates Selwyn. "Look at these cute little freestanding houses in Edinburgh. I could probably afford one even though I'm avowedly poor," thinks the narrator later.

WndyJW wrote: "I just finished and I’m sorry to say I am disappointed. I didn’t find it suspenseful or even interesting. I dont know at what point others felt a sense of unease, unless it was when the protagonist..."

I am so sorry to hear. Once again , it proves no matter how much a person thinks they know what someone will like based on what they see in their tastes, with books that often proves wrong. For me the sense of unease is best described as a sense of discomfort in what is discussed combined with an anxiety based on the ambiguity of where the novel is going. For example, it is uncomfortable to read about the painting and pick up on the narrator's sense of discomfort discussing it, but we are unclear on what the painting will have to do with the whole. I think part of this is inspired by memories of our experience of viewing other paintings we are reminded of when reading of this. The first is Courbet's "L'Origine du monde," which generates that sense of discomfort, but the second is Duchamps "Étant donnés," which plays off of Courbet's painting. It is an installation assemblage in the Philadelphia Museum of Art where the visitor sees a wooden door and must look through a peephole to see the assemblage of the nude, which can be disconcerting for those unprepared.

It is the same with Circe. We know Circe to be a which and one who transforms people, but how she is going to be worked into the novel is unknown leaving us with a sense of unease.

Part of the reason may be that Tuttle was a known horror/fantasy author by the time this was written and fans would already be expecting something weird to happen before the novel's end.

I liked the book for its "bookishness." We have an author researching an author in a book entitled My Death. Just the thought of the plot gets me tingling and all the various allusions and details just build that suspense. But I think you have to have the right amount of anticipation for it to work. Too much or too little and the novel won't create the same unease.

The things you mentioned, Sam, were all intriguing ideas, but I didn’t feel Tuttle did anything with them. It didn’t make sense to me that the MC was suddenly aware that she was alone with two men while holding the painting. It sounds like her editor was a close friend, so I didn't find her sudden fear of him believable; that Helen was the model for Circe was mentioned, but it went nowhere; I never got the sense that Helen was obsessed with the MC, Helen read the MC’s book which is how she knew about the doll dream, so the only “mystery” was how Helen knew the list of men the MC had loved, but before that became something to worry about the book ended.

For me Celia Fremlin set the bar pretty high for novels that create a growing sense of unease.

WndyJW wrote: "The things you mentioned, Sam, were all intriguing ideas, but I didn’t feel Tuttle did anything with them. It didn’t make sense to me that the MC was suddenly aware that she was alone with two men ..."

I may feel closer to this book because the themes of the erasure of women in art and how an author's identity fuses with authors of the past clicks with me. The erasure theme was the central theme of Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González which was my favorite book the year it was released.

I encourage you and all members to watch the live discussion video
with Amy Gentry, Kelly Link, and Lisa Tuttle linked in message 2.

First it covers some of the themes in the book and what prompted them plus it has a wonderful reading of the excerpt that describes the dream of the doll by the author. It amazes me that we have access to such things at our fingertips in the 21st century since this could only be imagined when I was most engaged in literature growing up.

This unfortunately didn't work for me either. Partly for reasons that really only relate to me. I strongly dislike books about writers... I have often thought that one of the reasons literature is losing relevance in the world is because it becomes ever more insular, speaking to a particularly narrow middle class experience, and increasingly not just middle class, but middle class creative. For similar reasons I tend to dislike novels about artists. And I have a particular bugbear about fictional narratives that feature real people doing things they obviously didn't do with ficitional people

So a lot of this is particular to me, but god did this book annoy me.

Emmeline wrote: "This unfortunately didn't work for me either. Partly for reasons that really only relate to me. I strongly dislike books about writers... I have often thought that one of the reasons literature is ..."

Your post was fascinating to me, because I am much the opposite. I use to envision all art, literature and music making up this massive quilt of what is imagined through time (or maybe a puzzle is a better term) and that each work had a particular place that related to works around it and the more complete the puzzle or quilt became in our minds, the more understanding and appreciative would we become of the human condition. I felt the artists that were able see and comment on this imagined quilt or puzzle, held a special place in the whole and that their works alluding to that imagined place deserved extra attention. Utter nonsense of course, but I still feel an affinity for the works that seem to acknowledge this concept by alluding to the works past and potentially signalling to works in the future. For me, a work like Woolf's OrlandoOrlando has no greater purpose than to reference this imagined whole of art and illustrate its significance while pushing toward a future. We can see other examples by multiple artists as well in all arts.

Your view is different and I'll be looking forward to hearing more of your views.

Sam wrote: "Emmeline wrote: "This unfortunately didn't work for me either. Partly for reasons that really only relate to me. I strongly dislike books about writers... I have often thought that one of the reaso..."

Honestly Sam, I've read this comment three times now and it's a lovely example of suddenly being thrown into an alternate reality. I mean, I still have my preferences, but I love your quilt.

But back to the book... I thought it made so many strange choices, especially the length of the realist section compared to the perfunctory nature of the eerie or speculative section.

I shared Wendy's feeling that the scene of the MC first seeing the painting made little sense. So she sees a painting that is a mountain but also a naked woman in ecstasy and concludes:

a) that there is something deeply wrong and revealing about the naked figure (she herself goes into the history of the nude so for me this was unsatisfactory and yes, a trifle prudish)
b) that it is the artist herself depicted because "she wouldn't do that to another woman," (makes no sense; artist presumably didn't think this picture was "wrong," also, artists do lots of bad things to other people.)
c) that the men she was with were suddenly fearsome in some regard. ??? Her old friend and a man in his '90s are a sexual threat because some woman drew herself naked?

I could have bought into this (the wrongness, the threat) if it had gone somewhere... but it doesn't. I didn't even really find much of a link between sexuality and the rest of the plot. Yes, it appears that sex rips the fabric between one reality and another... but is it sex or the island? Because Willy Logan and Helen have had sex before.

I'm not sure if knowing more about Circe would reveal all this to me (men are pigs? But which men... certainly not the ones in this novel, with a possible question mark by Willy).

In this context, I find putting Virginia Woolf in the book gratuitous in the extreme. And also boring. Find someone less expected!