Oh
deary me, having just checked my posting history, I found that my last update
was a month ago on 11/11/12… That’s no way to cultivate a blog. It probably
doesn’t help that the last month has been a time of change for me, but even so,
I really didn’t think it had been that long since a post.
Right,
so straight down to business.
In
the last few months I’ve read several books worthy of reviewing. And I keep
meaning to give them all their own posts, but have failed. So to ensure that my
move into 2013 is not going to be weighed down with a long list of To-Do’s from
2012, I think I will give a brief review of each below, and then endeavour to
move along.
The
Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
A
weird and wonderful book about a man deserted by his wife. This was my first
Murakami and I absolutely devoured it. There are brutal scenes of awful
violence (just to warn anyone) from the war in Japan and these are mixed with
the alienation of the central character from the world around him. I would
guess that critics generally say that the escalation of violence in the novel
represents the estrangment from society. But to me it felt more like an
important part of modern history which runs just below the surface of life in
modern Japan.
My
friend who lent it to me recommended it by saying that I would want to go and
sit at the bottom of a well after reading it. Suffice to say she was right.
Read it, really, read it.
State
of Wonder by Ann Patchett
I was
turned onto this book by the review, which I can no longer find anywhere! At
any rate, it was a really interesting read.
A
researcher heads out to the Amazon in search for her missing professor who has
been researching specific new drugs. Once there though, things become much more
complicated.
This is
a difficult book to discuss without giving away large chunks of the plot. I’m
trying to write carefully here.
The
researcher finds herself with a tribe in the Amazonian rainforest where women
are fertile until death. The questions this particular issue raises I found
were poignant and stayed with me long after finishing the book. It is written
as something of a mystery story, which kept me hooked and turning pages up
until the very end.
I
liked the writing even if the book itself seemed very plot driven (which isn’t
normally my style). And I’ll be looking out for Ann Patchett again.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
I
should have read this book a long time ago. And I didn’t. But I picked it up in
a bookshop in September, with a vow to finally do so.
I’ve
heard it mentioned in critical literature on gender identity whilst studying
for my Masters, and so I had some inkling of the issues to be raised. I was
also quite curious as to the reaction to the portrayal of Cal from the
transgender community, and so have since read up on that as well online. I
think what I’m trying to say is that, unlike my normal reviews, this one is
entered into knowing some of the problems caused by Eugenides’ creation.
The
story opens in a very self-reflexive way, invoking the power of the Muses to
help Cal tell his/her history. If you do not like epic tales (a la Salman
Rushdie or Guenter Grass) then this is probably not a book for you – at least
this is what I think the opening is trying to tell you! (I for one liked the
beginning)
Then
the problems start.
Eugenides
creates Cal by having his/her grandparents commit incest. I guess Eugenides at
this point was more interested in including a small Greek community in the
drama (where his roots are as well) than in pacifying all the critics of the
book. I’m sure it could be argued that incest is such a taboo subject that
however it is included there will be a gut reaction of disgust from the
readers. All the same, I can see the critics’ point that it does to some extent
demonise hermaphrodites as the product of this union.
If we
can ignore this argument briefly, I did enjoy the section in Greece and coming
to America. The depiction of the industrial age in American history was
excellent. The epic nature of the book really comes home at this point – it
does feel necessary for Eugenides’ story to move from the birthplace of tragedy
to the great arena of the American Dream – I can really understand the story
arch at this point.
I’m
not sure quite whether the final sections of the book work quite as well.
Obviously an analysis with a doctor is crucial to the plot (in New York) and
Cal’s subsequent flight is fully understandable, but the steam has somewhat
gone out of the book’s sails. With the reader aware from the outset that Cal is
now living in Berlin, identifying as a man (due to the narrative itself being
at times told from Berlin), the final coda from Berlin, feels not quite so
perfectly timed as the rest.
Having
read the biography of Eugenides’ (who also lived in Berlin) I felt that he had
a built a story around his own circumstances as much as possible, and then fed
into that the gender identity question. Maybe this is a successful technique
for a writer who is not transgender to engage with this question. I think it
was probably necessary for him. That doesn’t stop me feeling as if the story
was slightly stilted by it. And then combined with the returning problem that I
have with the creation of Cal from incest, this stopped me enjoying the book as
much as I could have done.
The
book was convention breaking, a real first for the mass market, for that reason
I really recommend it. But readers should be aware of its limitations. A much
more convincing look at the intersex debate (and the awful operations performed
until very recently) can be found in “Mitgift” by Ulrike Draesner. But that’s
just my personal opinion.
