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« Orange Segments, #2 : A Hymn to our Fathers | Main | Orange Segments, #3: Secret and Lies »

Monday, May 03, 2010

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I've tripped through your review, avoiding plot specifics. Apparently the Canadian rights have very recently been sold, but I won't get to this one before this year's Prize is announced. In some ways, I feel this discounts my opinion on the shortlist, but I'm still reading anyway!

"This is a book that doesn't want to play with others; it doesn't engage in a conversation." I, too, prefer books that feel like there's "room for me".

There is nothing as annoying, for me, than when an author forgets that there is someone on the other side of the book that might like to think for themself. I don't think I'll be keeping an eye out for this one.

What a perceptive review. I haven't read this book, but recently read a novel that made me feel just the same way (though I didn't phrase my reaction nearly so succinctly.)

Do you think that if you'd reviewed this book on its own merits, without the pressure of comparison of the Orange shortlist, it would have fared any better?

Jenny, that's a difficult question. I supppose in one sense, yes, I would have measured it against a different critical yardstick, as a debut novel without serious literary pretensions from a small press. The Orange Prize sets it out of this context, and makes its flaws look very stark indeed. Having said that I don't think I would have come to different conclusion in the end; my general feelings would have been the same.

It's difficult though and I'm still not sure how to write about books like this. Do I judge all books to the same high standard? In which case I end up criticising authors for failing to do things they never indended or aspired to do. Or do I judge books to what I consider their own standard? In which case I feel condescending, even if I don't mean it that way. It's a dilemma I've been turning over in my mind for a while now.

Fascinating! This one just came in for me via interlibrary loan, and I'm looking forward to reading it, but I will regard it with trepidation. Thanks for a great review!

Victoria, I don't think judging a book on its own merits (by its own genre, for instance, or by the fact that it's a debut novel) is condescending in the least. Not only is everyone not Proust, we can give thanks for that blessed fact. But judging it on its merits doesn't necessarily equate to judging it *by its own announced standards for itself*, if that makes any sense. ("I was just having a bit of a lark/ it's a roman a clef/ it's the greatest novel since Pride and Prejudice.") Judge by what it actually does or could have done or should do. As you so ably do in this review. Admittedly it's a fine line to walk, but I think you do it very well.

Interesting review, particularly your comments on feeling excluded from the narrative. The sound of it, at least, is very offputting! (Although this probably isn't the sort of book I'd pick up anyway.)

Re. quality, and standards to judge by: In some ways I'm reminded of our debate over that Anne Tyler book, Digging to America, from the year that we read the Orange shortlist together (and I had to go back through the past posts lists to find the title, so fleeting was the book's impact on me...). You really disliked it, whereas I thought it was never aiming very high in the first place. That's still my view. In general I find it difficult to get *too* cross at a book for being competent within the terms of its own unambitious goals, although I've read some books over the past few years that have been bad enough to make me despair (*cough* Feist *cough*).

Your point about it being on the Orange list, and thus having to compete with heavyweights, is a valid one - although it does make me wonder to what extent it's possible to have a prize that compares books across genres and subject matters.

"It was a good plan; it was a kind plan."

I wish all critics would start out with that intention.

"I can't help thinking that the judges have done Rosie Alison a disservice with their decision, because her book doesn't fare well by this comparison."

I agree: I would have approached this very differently if I hadn't had "Orange Prize Shortlist" in my mind. I can imagine recommending it to quite a few people whose preferences in storytelling run in directions different from my predilections for novels that beg for re-reading (so that I can marvel at their complexity, their layers, their crafting) but I was expecting something more intricately woven from a shortlisted OP title. I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd discovered this one under different circumstances.

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