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Sunday, October 07, 2007

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You could bet, but I think you'd actually have to go into a bookie. :-{
I found The Gathering bleak, introspective, self-important(which of course it was meant to be), and I didn't warm to it. It reminded me of a recent read that I thought much superior - The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibin.
Having read your review, I realize that there are some points that are excellent - the bits you've extracted are little nuggets of gold, and they make the book seem vivid - angry and insightful. But I also know that I found this a terribly dreary reading experience. No review from me, I think, because I'd have to re-read the book in order to understand it.

I'm not sure I follow the logic that it succeeds better than On Chesil Beach because it presents the view of the woman. It seems to me that Tom, here, is as equally maligned (if not more so) as Florence. Though perhaps it is easier to see through Veronica's bitterness and depression, to know that her words aren't a reliable description of the man they purport to describe, than it is to *see through* McEwan's narrative. McEwan is so much *in* On Chesil Beach that the thing becomes impossible to decode. Perhaps that's what you meant, or perhaps you are simply more interested in the female point of view?

Lovely review though. Glad you liked it. I'm sticking with Darkmans!

Wonderful review, and so much better than mine! I found this book grim and disturbing, but there was a part of me that loved it too. Enright really seems to have captured Veronica's dark mind so eloquently. I love that Veronica describes herself as a "good daughter" -- that she does all the right things on behalf of the family, looking after her mother, organising Liam's funeral etc -- but underneath she's seething with rage and confusion and, at times, doesn't really understand what's wrong with her. Like you pointed out, she's got a nice husband, two lovely daughters, a house in the suburbs etc, but she's not satisfied, and certainly not happy. Interesting that you think maybe she was the one that was abused...

Becca: I haven't read either book yet, but I'll have a go at responding anyway! As far as I can tell from reading Vicky's (and others') reviews, each book pivots on the interaction of sex and its female protagonist's psyche. Both are about a woman's distate for, or unwillingness to engage with, sex, yet while Enright lets Veronica tell/frame her own story, McEwan presents Florence from without rather than within.

With McEwan, though, I'm more than willing to imagine that this omission is the point: that we're supposed to wonder what Florence's problem is, and whether it is a 'problem' at all. So often in this type of story - and here I think the period in which it's set has to be significant - everything centres on the male perspective. The success or failure of a sexual situation is seen as resting on the abilities or proclivities of the man, with the woman as an adjunct to his narrative (whether as receiver, victim, or trigger - rarely initiator) without her own agency or desire. The experience is his; she is part of the scenery.

So Florence's silence may be deliberate... the real story is hers, but she isn't able to tell it?

(All of which is rather making me think of Tess and Angel ;-))

On Chesil Beach is balanced between the psyche of Edward and Florence. I believe that McEwan said that he wanted to give equal weight to both stories (and he does, through most of the novel), though when it came to revealing their future he felt he had to concentrate on one, and chose Edward, simply because he had to choose. That's a third-hand anecdote, though, so I might be misrepresenting.
They are very different novels, in just the way you suggest - Enright lets Veronica tell her story - indeed we suppose that it comes from her own pen. With McEwan, however, I think that there's something very tricky going on at the level of point of view. I blogged on it, but i didn't express it well enough:
http://beccadimery.squarespace.com/blog/2007/8/20/on-chesil-beach.html
McEwan seems to slip and slide between his own head and his characters' heads with very little signposting, and I think that it is a deliberate blurring of point of view and perception. At least I hope that it is.
McEwan is very much concerned with Florence's agency in the sexual situation, incidentally, so it might interest you to read the novel as a counterpoint to Tess of the D'Urbervilles! Where Florence is passive, she is very actively passive, if that makes any kind of sense. She's not an everywoman figure, though - she has a very definite problem, it seems.
I think you're exactly right in summing up the difference between my preference and Victoria's. The Gathering is very much an interior novel, and On Chesil Beach is an exterior one. I normally prefer the former, but not in this case! I didn't mean to fling that penultimate line 'Perhaps you are simply more interested...' out like a criticism, though - hope it didnt come across that way.

Hmmph, Tess and Angel. I do like playing Devil's Advocate, and so I enjoyed supporting Angel in class, but needless to say, I've grown up a bit since then and my sympathies for him have waned a little!

I'm coming to your review late, since I just last week read Enright's novel. You perfectly express my feelings for the book--I was the only one in my book group who really loved it. Your explanation of Veronica's frustrated anger illuminates my own sense of the narrative's power. Thanks for a great review.

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