2013 Booker longlist: Unexploded by Alison MacLeod

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2013 Booker longlist: Unexploded by Alison MacLeod

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1kidzdoc
Jul 23, 2013, 1:37 pm

This thread is for discussion of Unexploded by Alison MacLeod.

2Deern
Editado: Set 3, 2013, 9:10 am

Started this book yesterday. So far it somehow goes against me. Maybe it's the writing which sounds like wannabe-Virginia-Woolf, just not as good. Maybe it's also that for me something rings untrue - it's modern thoughts in historic setting written in a style that wants to be on a level with the setting but somehow isn't.

Spoiler:
Can I say that I don't get why Evelyn so over-reacts about those "2 little things buried in the garden"? Would a person terribly scared of an invasion really react this way or wouldn't it on the contrary be calming to know that there's a last quick way out? Yes, she is hurt and offended because her husband is leaving, but punish him for what must probably be seen as thoughtfulness?

Edit 02/09/2013: oops... so Evelyn is in fact a fan of Virginia Woolf, which explains why the author tries to write a bit like her. I am not happy with this book so far (40%), and I can't say why.

Edit 03/09/2013: okay, now I know why it doesn't work for me. This is not a quiet book, on the contrary, theres too much in those 337 pages. I wish she had concentrated of just one or two aspects of "the British and WWII" instead of trying to cover everything plus a marriage crisis and Bathseba from the Old Testament, but this is a general problem with historical fiction. Authors want to show they are well-informed and they want to prevent readers from writing countless "but you forgot about..." letters. But this way of storytelling doesn't go well with the attempt to do poetic Viginia Woolf-style stream-of-consciousness writing. There's a clash, and that's what I meant in my first post with "ringing untrue".

3kidzdoc
Set 2, 2013, 2:10 pm

I started this book last week, but put it aside after I had trouble getting into it. I didn't bring it with me on vacation, but I'll almost certainly read it toward the end of the month.

4alexdaw
Nov 30, 2013, 12:21 am

I hadn't read Alison Macleod before this. I do remember hearing some murmuring about The Wave Theory, so I might look that one up now. The Man Booker website tell us that Macleod was "raised in Canada and has lived in England since 1987". She lives in Brighton, where this latest novel is set, but in a different time period - May 1940 to be exact. England is at war with Germany and Geoffrey, Evelyn and their young son Philip explore what it means to live in fear; how relationships change and the choices you make in those conditions. Oh and it's about art. What does art make of all this or what do we make of art?

So it is above all a thoughtful book. It is not a gazillion pages long, thank heavens. Some of the writing is great. Evelyn, in the madness of war, is seeking consolation or answers in literature - namely Virginia Woolf. She attends a lecture given by Woolf and is fascinated by the author's appearance, describing her ink-stained lips as "stained as if she'd been feeding herself on words." I liked the intersection of war-time propaganda phrases cut into the story like subconscious thoughts e.g. "She strode higher, towards the course, watching her step a a matter of habit, on the lookout for the wild orchids and moon daisies of late summer, but only the rangy husks of toadflax clung on. (Is your journey really necessary? Think before travelling!) It is a somewhat different take on the Jewish question than many I have read to date - a complex weaving of the clash of typically restrained English personalities and rigid class structures in a resort town "closed for the war", uncomfortably hosting a labour camp which houses "foreign" "degenerates".

Yes, Unexploded is a tragedy. And I think it is cleverly crafted, as tragedy often is, keeping you on the edge of your seat - knowing it is not going to end well, but not quite sure how.