Laura > Recent Status Updates

About half way through - wondering if I should throw in the towel. We're back with the awful Hotelling people - not sure if I've spelt that correctly - as I only have the Audible version. So far I have loved the Mary Carter story and her wonderful horse - Whistler. Everything else is a blur of boredom. The Loathsome Jonathon - Daphne's husband - yeuchs. Why does she put up with him. Eddie clearly as the foil.

I'm at chp 22 out of 37 - so about 60%. I'm going to have to set this aside for the moment because some of the Interlude sections are extremely violent and I just cannot tolerate that at the moment. I understand that these Interludes with their multiple different voices and perspectives allow the reader/listener a very realistic insight into the type of background against which this story is set - thugs, gangs etc.

A really miserable story - from the perspective of a 9 year old who knows his mother is dying. He expects to be told of her death any day. The story is unique in how well Bowen conveys the child's anxiety - he's afraid he will break down when told and that's even worse than the death itself - but the story is misery - on a page.
The Visitor - by Elizabeth Bowen, 1980 from Collected Stories.

Margaret Drabble - Hassan's Tower. Set in Morocco - couple on honeymoon - husband doesn't like his new wife. It's an early work - 1966 - and not so good as the first three stories. A lot of interiority type narrative - husband's thoughts - he does have a revelation - but it's a typical judgemental, condescending attitude. I'm not sure he even deserves that insight !! Cynical me.

So good - Clare Boylan "Some Retired Ladies on a Tour" - a story about loneliness.
All three stories - I know the writers - their short stories just enthuse and inspire me to buy more of their work.
Taylor, Mackay and Boylan - such good writers!!

Slaves to the Mushroom - Shena McKay - another good one. Mckay causes us to question our acceptance of the narrator's point of view. We trust Sylvia's narration and her moral stance - and then she does something right at the end. We realise that the tedious work leaves no room for any kind of moral superiority.

The Devastating Boys - very good - very enjoyable. Taylor captures the husband/wife tensions and the reality of small boys - the characters of the children are v well done.

least favourite so far - Tina Reyes

Notes for me.
Musique Concrete - Marcela's story - made me think of Jean Rhys - that descent into madness as a result of extreme disillusion.
End of a Struggle - begins exactly as José Saramago's - The Double - even the same intent by the narrator to ascertain which of them is real! extraordinary. Saramago read Davila?
Oscar - I think of Leonora Carrington's short stories - or even perhaps Shirley Jackson.

I'm having to read this slowly - because basically - it's giving me the creeps.

Fragment of a Diary - this one reminded me of Kafka's - The Hunger Artist, only it's much worse.

Oh! Someone telling it how it truly is !!

The last section was like all Gilbert and Gubbar's examples of Mad Women in the Attic - reminded me totally of - The Yellow Wallpaper.

He's too preoccupied with the dramatics to actually convey the feelings of his characters.
We have caricatures not real people on these pages - typical problem in debut novels.
Quite a lot of over-written descriptions - as in an original image given a second layer - very odd.
Disjointed thoughts - odd phrases - non-logical progressions - again he thinks he's being literary - actually just annoying.

I'm very slow or the book is ?

The incident with Esteban Yanes - my response - to lose my high esteem for Berta, but to understand also why she doesn't meet him. But also more importantly how the 'dead' are frozen in time, in appearance. Esteban's appearance makes Berta consider all the possibilities of change in Tomás - both appearance, behaviour and internally. The possibility also of her not wanting him either - 7 years+ since they parted.

It is Berta's story - and for that alone I respect the writer - so far. Another 165 pages to go!

Berta argues from Henry V - the King is the infiltrator - the spy amongst his men. When a soldier argues with the disguised king he is later confronted. Berta says the means were false, the King is wrong - he should pardon the soldier. But even I can see a hole. Shouldn't the soldier know to keep his opinions to himself - trust no-one - especially in war. Captain Fluellen switches sides because both are possible.

In front of Berta - Tomás changes his voice. The dangers of disguise - he is hiding behind this voice - just as Berta identified the various prime ministers hiding behind a veil of not knowing - what has been carried out in their name. The utter loss of accountability. The same thing my partner does when he pretends he doesn't understand me or denies he said something - subterfuge. The resort of the weak - IMHO.

The book has simply become a polemic between husband and wife. Tomás asserting on one side the necessity of his secret work and Berta on the other asserting that he is no "different from what the sociales did here. They too devoted themselves to preventing what, for the Franco regime, would have been tragedies. They, too infiltrated and betrayed. And actions can't be erased." P. 265
My thoughts exactly.