Cats and Boxes

If you've ever lived with a cat, you'll understand. Wrapping paper and ribbon are good cat gifts too.

BOOK REVIEW: John Harwood Novels

I thought I'd post a double review of the two John Harwood novels I read recently for the RIP IV Challenge. I started with The Ghost Writer (because he wrote that one first, of course!) and then, because I enjoyed it so much, I followed it up with The Seance. I would describe both novels as Gothic mysteries. Harwood uses Gothic elements to bring a nice chilling atmosphere to both books, [SPOILER ALERT] but early on I suspected a human rather than a supernatural cause to the bizarre happenings in his two novels and therefore consider the books more mystery than ghost story. [END SPOILER ALERT] The author didn't appear to try and hide this aspect so I don't consider the knowledge beforehand to be a terrible spoiler, but I realize some would not want to know this.

The Ghost Writer begins in Australia with ten year old Gerard Freeman unlocking a secret drawer in his mother's room and discovering a picture of a woman he has never before seen. But why the mystery? Why is her picture locked up in a secret drawer? Who is she? Why is his mother so secretive and controlling? It takes the majority of the book to discover the answers to these questions.

Gerard's mother often describes Staplefield, her childhood home in England, to the young boy thereby creating a longing in him to one day travel to this lush land of shady dells and leafy bowers. In his loneliness, thirteen year old Gerard begins a correspondence with an English "penfriend" named Alice Jessel. Alice is a thirteen year old orphan confined to a wheelchair in an institution that, by her description, seems a lot like Gerard's image of Staplefield. Odd, no? Many years of correspondence occur before Gerard decides to travel to England to meet Alice, despite her assertions that she is not yet prepared to see him in person.

True ghost stories, the creation of Gerard's great grandmother, are interwoven throughout the Gerard and Alice narrative. They are Victorian tales of the supernatural and are truly spine tingling. I actually enjoyed these stories within the story more than I enjoyed the main account. Gerard discovers the ghost stories one at a time in very curious ways. The stories are even more chilling because they mirror, or precede, events in the main narrative. It is as though the ghost stories begin to bleed into the main storyline and give a sense that Gerard is being led by someone or something that wants him to discover the truth of a horrifying past.

I will admit that I had to read the ending of The Ghost Writer more than once in order to "get it." I've heard others say that they too had to read the ending more than once and some have said they never did feel that they understood the ending. This might make the book a good choice for a book club read!

Interesting bit: Those familiar with Henry James's Miss Jessel and Dickens's Miss Havisham will recognize Harwood's rather obvious, but fun, nod to those characters through his own spinster characters.

After reading and enjoying The Ghost Writer, I was glad that I already had The Seance at hand so I could read it right away. The Seance is set in Victorian England making it even more amenable to Gothic elements than The Ghost Writer. A cursed and ruined mansion with secret passages and hidden rooms, unexplained footsteps, foggy moors and forests, a sarcophagus set into an unused fireplace, a blackened suit of armor looming in the shadows, mysterious and powerful flashes of light and an apparatus for collecting electricity from lightning strikes. What more could a Gothic loving reader wish for?

The narrative is nested and delivered through the voices of three separate characters -- Constance Langton, Eleanor Unwin, and John Montague. Constance Langton is the narrator of the story. She is alone in the world when she finds out that she has inherited Wraxford Hall, along with a packet of papers, from a distant relative. She is advised by the family's lawyer to dispose of the cursed mansion ... even if it means that she must burn it to the ground. Wanting to know more about her family, Constance opens the packet of papers where she finds the diary of Eleanor Unwin who, along with her infant daughter and villainous husband, disappeared 25 years ago from Wraxford Hall. It is believed that Eleanor murdered her husband, and possibly her baby daughter, before disappearing. But Eleanor tells a much different story in her secret diary and her account is supported through the words penned by the family lawyer, John Montague, in his own diary included in the packet of papers .

Constance believes Eleanor Unwin is both innocent and possibly still alive, and sets out to solve the mystery and scandal surrounding Eleanor and Wraxford Hall. The narratives of both Constance and Eleanor are eventually meshed to provide a thrilling end to the mystery and the reader is left to contemplate the monstrous in human form.

Having recently read Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum, I particularly enjoyed the competing paranormal and Victorian scientific claims of the late 1800s that Harwood includes in The Seance. Throughout the latter 19th century and into the early 20th century, the Society for Psychical Research sought to bridge the gap between faith and science and find scientific proof for the supernatural. Harwood makes excellent use of this tension in telling his own tale.

Interesting bit: I love Harwood's modern twist to a tale set in Victorian times. "The strongest characters in The Seance are two women of action." (Quote taken from a Washington Post review.)

Read-a-Thon: Unofficial Participant

OK. So. Why did I not actually join in the Read-a-Thon?? Completely unexplainable. I've been reading and visiting a few Read-a-Thon bloggers all day. Looks like next time I need to suck it up and JOIN. I've really enjoyed cheering for y'all!

Here is what I've been reading today when I haven't been visiting:



I didn't really get to interact much with Dewey -- she was gone shortly after "making her acquaintance." But I, along with you, have been one of the recipients of her legacy by being honored to participate in the wonderful community of book bloggers that she so loved. I've been thinking about this all day and really feel that I should more fully join next time the Read-a-Thon comes around. I want to thank those of you that have encouraged me to join in next time.

Well ... back to my book!

BOOK REVIEW: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Title: The Little Stranger
Author: Sarah Waters
Publisher: Riverhead
Year: 2009
Reason for reading: RIP IV Challenge

First line: "I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old."

The Little Stranger is a deliciously spooky book that kept me reading into the wee hours of the morning ... with all the lights on, of course! The story opens with Dr. Faraday remembering his first visit to Hundreds Hall in 1919 when he was ten years old. His mother worked as a parlor maid for the Ayres family at the time, and young Faraday was quite taken with the house. Thirty years later Dr. Faraday, a bachelor, is called to Hundreds Hall to treat a servant. He becomes obsessed with both the house and the elegant Mrs. Ayres and her two grown children: Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during WWII and Caroline, a spinster who Dr. Faraday is both attracted to and repulsed by at different times.

Faraday becomes a regular visitor at Hundreds Hall despite the class differences between himself and the Ayres family. The British class system is fading and times are difficult for those who previously earned income from their estates. Many of the landed are selling their properties outright; but not the Ayres. The Ayres choose to dissect their property to developers bit by bit. The Ayres family try to maintain their status as landed gentry even though it is clearly taking a toll on the health of Roderick who oversees the estate. Hundreds Hall is in a state of severe decay and it quickly becomes apparent that the Ayres family is also disintegrating as odd behaviors begin to display. I don't want to give away too much, but in Gothic tradition there are eerie and unexplained events, violence, madness and suicide.

That there is malevolence afoot can not be denied, but it is not clear whether the malevolence is of supernatural or human origin. Is the house itself malicious? Is it inhabited by ghosts and poltergeists? Or is the psychological decay of the family creating an atmosphere and energy that result in horror? [SPOILER ALERT] For those who like tidy endings, these questions might be a sticking point as it is never entirely clear what caused the "madness" at Hundreds Hall. [END SPOILER ALERT]

The Little Stranger is my first book by Sarah Waters, so I cannot compare it with her previous work. I do think that this book has similarities to some of Shirley Jackson's work. I recently read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and [JACKSON SPOILER ALERT] like Waters, Jackson used the psychological deterioration of her characters to create a disturbing and chilling atmosphere. [END SPOILER ALERT]

I've heard that one of Waters strengths is her historical settings. I think she has done a marvelous job with The Little Stranger placing the reader in post-WWII England circa 1949. There were times that I forgot I was reading a contemporary novel.

Highly recommended.



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Also reviewed at:
an adventure in reading
Fizzy Thoughts

Is reading fiction a form of escapism?

I tend to bristle when I'm told that reading fiction is escapist. What I'm reacting to is the negative connotation that is attached to this line of thought. Because I usually feel attacked when someone says this, my immediate response is something along the lines of: "No it's not!" (I know, very mature ... and explanatory!) And then I fervently proceed to tell these people how much I've learned from reading fiction and how much it has expanded my thinking and allowed me a safe place from which to simulate various experiences and feelings. They never see it coming and usually start looking around trying to figure out how to get away from the crazy lady.

So ... today I was doing some professional reading and came across an interesting article about the connections between a reader and his or her reading choices. The article focuses on two reasons for our reading choices:

• a gravitation to certain books because of our past and the resultant "palace of memory" that particular past creates, and ...
  
• the relationship between ourselves and our environment (I'm using the term "environment" loosely here).

These reasons create a tendency in readers to choose books that allow us to either revisit or "deal with and resolve" experiences, or to reshape our world; fiction allows us the "space" to "simulate experiences outside [of ourselves] in a manner similar to that of airline pilots simulating the experience of flying an aircraft in flight simulators." Looked at in this way, I can agree that one purpose of my fiction reading is escapism. I escape to revisit pleasant experiences and places; I escape to find solace and affirmation; I escape in order to explore new worlds and ways of being. Yep, I definitely escape.

This article allowed me to come to terms with the escapist aspects of fiction reading in my own life. The term doesn't need to carry the negative connotation that I often find is the unspoken message. There are many good reasons (if one feels they need reasons) to escape into a good book!

"We frequently hear fiction reading described by both readers and fiction's detractors as escape.... However, we need to be clear about what readers are escaping from. They are escaping from a narrow, limiting view of the world and journeying to a place where it is possible to experience a deeper connection to our real selves and to live fully in our world."

Smith, Duncan. "Your Brain on Fiction." Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 49, issue 1, pp. 38-42.

So do you think reading fiction is a form of escapism? Why or why not? Do you think reading fiction to "escape" in some fashion is a negative thing?

Hello Japan! - A new mini-challenge

Tanabata of In Spring it is the Dawn is hosting a new monthly mini-challenge called Hello Japan! Hello Japan! sounds like a fantastic way to learn more about Japanese culture and literature. In fact:

"Each month there will be a topic and/or activity relating to some aspect of Japanese literature or culture. Each task shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, unless you opt to do more, and is meant to be a fun way to let you experience a little taste of Japan no matter where you live."

I've never been to Japan, but I do have quite an interest in learning about this country and its culture and history. My father spent several years in Japan during the 1950s and I have his photo album full of the images he captured on film while he was there. This might explain some of my interest, yes?

Since today is the first day of October (I love October!), I can get started right away with this month's challenge:

"The task this month is to read or watch something scary, spooky, or suspenseful, and Japanese of course!"

I think I'm going to multi-task this month and combine my October reading for both the Japanese Literature Challenge and the RIP Challenge with this task. I'll be reading Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Akinari Ueda. I'm looking forward to the supernatural and ghostly with a Japanese focus!