Going with Flo

So I've finished "Mister Pip" and will post my comments on that shortly, but I thought I'd first reply to Eleanor's "On Chesil Beach" post. I did get the next book, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" this evening so I will start on that right away. Has anyone found any of the other three? I didn't see them at the store tonight. It took me a long time actually to find "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (it was on a table of new arrivals rather than anywhere alphabetical) and I was getting rather frustrated. I already had sort of a crappy end to my day with a procedure not working which has a habit of not working on Friday afternoons...I even debated whether or not to look at the results because I've had such bad luck with it and didn't want my weekend soured. But I did look and it didn't work so I was left with the solace of an evening at the bookstore which the inefficient book sorting of the store almost ruined. However, if not for the extended search, I would never have found this, and this discovery certified my day a good one. Failed experiment or no, the fact that Allison (though I'll always think of her as Pam) felt the call to be a novelist convinced me that I truly can accomplish anything.

In reply to Eleanor, in terms of the readability of On Chesil Beach or Atonement, I guess this is a matter of taste--I find his prose to be delightful. There's wonderful turns of phrase and a peculiar rhythm that engrosses me. I can see how this rhythm might also just daze someone. Beyond the style of writing, I had my issues with this book and with his others as I mentioned in my last post. Reading some of the reviews online I read someone say that McKewan is "a great writer, but a mediocre artist"...I think that is a bit harsh, I would prefer "uneven artist." I still would argue that Atonement is a strong book and I think there are many good things about On Chesil Beach. A lot of the criticism on the net has been about the unbelievability of the story--that a relationship couldn't break up over a bad sex episode, with all the attendant jokes one could make. I strongly disagree with that--I wonder if the "bad sex can ruin everything storyline" might play better in America than elsewhere. I found it plausible.

I had more sympathy for Edward than Eleanor did--naturally I think he is going to come off more negatively to an outside observer than Florence in this situation but I thought McKewan made several efforts to convince the reader that Edward 1) genuinely loved Florence and 2) was clueless that she wasn't as equally excited as he was about their wedding night. I don't think McKewan wanted us to assign blame to either party but to view it as a series of symmetrical misunderstandings. Where I think we can assign blame to both of them--or what strains credulity--is not the drama of the wedding night or even the annulment that followed, but that over the next thirty years neither of them contacted each other or bothered to look the other up. Especially given that Edward was in the music business (though not the classical music business). Still--don't you think he might have occasionally flipped to the classical magazines to see what his ex-wife was up to? Over 30 years? I google totally non-famous people who don't know that I exist on a regular basis.

The other criticism I've seen in the blogosphere is that McKwean is formulaic--small decisions having disastrous consequences, how misunderstandings balloon, the connectedness between large and small events. The critics making this point acknowledge that these are good themes but that he seems to recycle them without adding much new. I would agree and this is the heart of my "no grace" point in my previous post. That being said, they are important themes and I think he does them justice to varying degrees in his different books. Atonement being the best that I have read (though I've heard some of his early stuff I haven't read is equal to it). I'd put On Chesil Beach up there above Amsterdam and Saturday, but it may be a correction prize this year, because they didn't give it to him for Atonement.

As for the references to sexual abuse, I don't have the book in front of me but I think there were at least two places where it was alluded to, the most obvious being a flashback of Florence's where she remembers her father getting dressed. The description of her relationship with him is also strained.

Mister Pip will be my next post shortly. I've only read two of the books for this year and while both were enjoyable and I do have four to go, I'm a little disappointed that this is apparently the best the year has to offer. Since I don't usually read within "annual" limits maybe I'm being too tough--that is, comparing the best of one year to the whole time line of literature isn't going to favor the one year picks--still, I'm hoping The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a standout.