Book 12 - Jane Eyre

Now I've been diverted down the classics path. A friend lent me the latest BBC production of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which reminded me of the deep affection I developed for this book while studying it for my HSC. So down off the bookshelf it came, and I devoured it in a day or two. It made me realise again how great a difference there is between merely reading a book and actually studying it. Despite having last read it nearly 10 years ago, so much was familiar to me - not just plot and character but also themes, significant quotes, the symbolism of locations and visual cues, even structural elements and facts relating to the author's life. There are few books that I know so thoroughly, and of them this is perhaps my favourite. I must also give my heartfelt thanks to my English teacher, who really did inspire in me a love (or at least healthy respect) for all of the texts we studied.

So - back to Jane Eyre. I'll start by saying don't just read my pathetic summary - go and read it!

Jane Eyre is an orphan, perceived to be a wild and passionate child by the relatives who eventually cast her into a cold and heartless charity boarding school. Trust me, this is probably one of the most horrible descriptions of what a boarding school can be. She somehow emerges from it as a strong-willed yet quiet woman who takes a post at Thornfield Hall as governess to Adele, ward of Edward Rochester. Rochester is a cynical and abrupt man embittered by a secret past, yet he finds himself drawn to Jane's integrity and quiet determination. He proposes to her, but unfolding events force Jane to chose between her passionate love and her personal integrity and morals.

Jane narrates the story, and she truly is a unique individual - passionate yet retiring, fiery yet restrained. Bronte has a genius for dialogue - the repartee between Jane and Rochester positively zings with wit and unsaid feeling. I could read those conversations again and again. The BBC miniseries does a fair job of bringing this across, although it seems to miss some of my favourite passages in the book. The plot has a couple of improbable moments but these are more than made up for by the richness of the narrative. Watch for the clever use of symbolism - the interaction of the elements (air, fire, ice, earth), names of locations and people, Jane's fey dreams. As I mentioned earlier, this book has such depth that it can be read again and again while retaining its freshness and providing something new each time. I strongly recommend you read it as one of the more unique love stories ever written.

Book 11 - Child of my Heart

Child of my Heart by Alice McDermott was for me a vaguely disquieting (perhaps the word is sophisiticated?) coming of age novel. Theresa is 15 years old and beautiful - a gift her parents are banking on as they send her out to baby-sit and pet-sit for the wealthy folk who spend their summers on Long Island. Their hope is that she will marry into that wealthier set and bring them up in the world. Theresa may be still a child but she sees the people around her with old eyes, which quickly uncover the tragic secret of her young cousin Daisy, who has come to stay with the family for an idyllic summer holiday.

More disturbing (for me) is her involvement in the bizarre relationships of an 70-year artist's household, whose young wife flounces off to town in a huff, abandoning her two year old daughter to the care of the maid and Theresa. Theresa knowingly watches the artist's affairs and eventually becomes a willing participant. The relationship makes her appear "older", much moer so I suppose than a tumble on the beach with someone her age would have been. However the deliberate way that she becomes with the artist, who could be her grandfather, lays way outside my moral compass and as such I find it hard to empathise with Theresa's actions. I found it much easier to sympathise with her attempts to cover up Daisy's illness and make this summer the high point of her life. A beautifully written but for me uncomfortable read.

Book 10 - Woman on the Other Shore

It's interesting to document my reading like this - I'm starting to see some trends and themes as I move from one book to the next. Some are obvious - like continuing the myth thing - but some seem to appear by themselves. For example, the role of women within society and story seems to be a common theme in my last few reads, including this latest one.

Woman on the Other Shore, written by Mitsuyo Kakuta and translated by Wayne P. Lammers, was winner of the Japanese Naoki Prize in 2005 and is the first of her works to be translated into English. I have a quiet fascination for Japanese culture and literature, from the popular (manga) to the literary (such as Haruki Murakami) which led me to pick up this book.

Sayoko is a quiet woman, very much submissive to the will of her husband and his mother, who worries that her antisocial tendencies are being transferred to her young daughter. She resolves to put her into daycare and go back to work, finding a job under the independent, capricious and compelling Aoi. Aoi's adventurous spirit and charm draws her into activities that she would never have expected of herself. Little does she know that Aoi suffered terrible bullying in high school. When she moved to another town, she became caught up in a similar compelling relationship with charismatic Noriko that had severe consequences but also led her to become the strong-willed yet flawed businesswoman that Sayoko admires. Both stories unfold and inform each other throughout the course of the novel.

The parallel stories and reversed relationships are the most fascinating element of this read. For me there was also a sense of dislocation - of common themes and relationships set in a different context and culture, with different reactions. An interesting read.

Book 9 - Ithaka by Adele Geras

Ok, so I was on a bit of an ancient myth kick after reading Chimera. I studied Homer and Ovid at uni and have always had a bit of a fascination with these ancient myths. So while at the library I picked up Ithaka, a young adult novel by Adele Geras, an author with a history of reversioning fairy tales and myths.

Ithaka is the "other" story of The Odyssey - the story of the people waiting for Odysseus to return. For those of you not familiar with the myth, Odysseus came up with the idea for the "Trojan Horse" which ultimately caused the fall of Troy. Because of this he was cursed by Poseidon (the sea god) to wander the seas for many years before being able to return to his kingdom Ithaka, and his wife Penelope. During the intervening years, many lords invited themselves to Ithaka and took advantage of Penelope's hospitality, with the intent of forcing her to admit Odysseus's death and marry one of their number. To buy time she said she would decide only after finishing the burial shroud for her father-in-law. Each night she would unravel half of that day's weaving, until Odysseus finally did return.

In Ithaka, the long wait is seem through the eyes of two young people. Klymene is a kind of lady-in-waiting to Penelope. She and her brother Ikarios were childhood friends of Telemachus, Odysseus' son. Their idyllic childhood is shattered when rough men overrun the palace, gorging on wine, food and pretty girls. The two must grow up quickly to survive in such an enviroment. They must also cope with the usual difficulties of adolescence - first loves, strained friendships and betrayals. Klymene must watch her childhood love Telemachus fall for a beautiful and cunning girl, even as he struggles with his inability to take his father's place and cast the suitors from the palace. The book surges with the daily tension of waiting which is ultimately resolved in Odysseus' return and a battle with the suitors in which the young people play a pivotal role.

An interesting feature of the book is the role of the gods. As in the Iliad and Odyssey, they walk among the humans, creating hope or havoc in their wake. Klymene and Ikarios are blessed with a form of second sight that allows them to see and even converse with gods such as Poseidon, Aphrodite and Athena, a gift that gives them insight into the greater scheme that is the Odyssey. It is important also to note the significance of Penelope's weaving - in addition to the shroud, Athena grants her the power to weaves Odysseus' story as it happens. It is intimated that she not only sees Odysseus' adventures through this but also protects him as he journeys homeward.

Adele Geras has a strong interest in the role of women in myth, which flows through in Ithaka and its earlier companion novel, Troy. They are bound by their circumstances but exercise power over the men around them, and sometimes even the gods. Troy and Ithaka are both enjoyable reads from the Young Adult genre and I would recommend them to anyone with an interest in ancient myths or the role of women.

Book 8 - Chimera

"Chimera" by John Barth is a classic postmodern text. It consists of three novellas that are based on and reinterpret ancient myths - the story of Scheherazade from 1001 Arabian Nights, the story of Greek hero Perseus who killed Medusa, and the story of Bellephron who tamed Pegasus. Each story is quite distinct, and yet references each other to create an intertextual "chimera". The book is full of humour and delights in twisting the reader through some fascinating and complex concepts regarding literature, myth and storytelling. I guarentee that anybody who has an interest in mythology will enjoy it - mostly!

Now here's my guilty confession - this book is actually Book 7 and 2/3. I never made it through the third story. The same thing happened the first time I tried to read it. Barth's narrative structure grows increasingly erratic and whimsical. It's a bit like the progress of James Joyce's works - from the quite straightforward "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" to the convoluted "Ulysses" to the incomprehensible "Finnegan's Wake". It may not be that extreme, but that's how it felt to me. It also directly correlated to my knowledge of the myths - to be honest I've never even heard of Bellophron, the hero of the third story. And given the distinct lack of narrative structure by this point, some prior knowledge would be helpful to understand what the hell they're talking about. Anyway, there is a natural progression to the whole text so I will go back and review the stories in order.


"Dunyazadiad", the first story is named after the sister of the famous Scheherezade. For those of you not familiar with 1001 nights, here's a quick summary. A sultan and his brother are both cuckolded by their wives. They vow to marry and kill a virgin every night, for no woman is to be trusted. When the kingdom starts running out of girls, the chancellor sends in his daughter Scheherezade, who devises a cunning plan. After the wedding, she begs the sultan to allow her to tell her younger sister a bedtime story, ending it with a cliffhanger just as dawn arrives. The sultan keeps her alive another day to hear the rest of the story and so on, until 3 years later she runs out of stories and he forgives her (and woman kind etc), he marries her (again?) and the brother marries Dunyazade.

Barth's version is narrated by Dunyazade - to whom we don't find out till the end. His alterations are clever and have all the hallmarks of postmodernism. On the eve of her first night with the sultan, Scheherezade inadvertantly summons an author from our time, who loves her myth and supplies her with all of the 1001 stories. There's a worry for the time-space continuum! This is the first of many plays and discussion around the nature of stories and story-telling - the genesis of stories and the inherent relationship between teller and listener being two of the issues explored. Sex plays a big role as well (it does in all 3 stories) - 1001 nights being enough time to get through a big chunk of the Karma Sutra when you think of it. Sex and gender are tied into the storytelling relationship - telling is a viewed as a masculine, active role, whereas the listener is feminine, passive. Of course that is all convoluted and reversed both in the original myth and this version where the woman regains power over the man through stories.

Dunyazade, too finds her role reversed by the end of this tale. Now married to the Sultan's brother, she finds herself armed with lots of knowledge and no personal experience - of sex or storytelling. And yet she is required to master both in a short amount of time. I won't tell you what happens next - suffice to say the brother has also learnt some quite different lessons on life and women from his years of taking virgins.

The Persiad, narrated by Perseus himself, both relives his glorious adventure and his middle-aged attempts to rediscover his heroic glory. The short version of the Perseus myth is that he's one of the sons of Zeus, who came to his mother as a golden shower (go figure). He was tasked to bring King Polydictis the head of the gorgon Medusa. During the quest he also rescued the Princess Andromeda from being sacrificed to a sea monster. Now married to a waspish Andromeda, he is bored with his life and retraces his quest to find new meaning in it.

I won't say quite so much about this story. Again storytelling, sex and gender play a significant role - Perseus tells much of his story to a nymph priestess and lover, Calyxa, who has also been tasked with painting his life in a series of murals. As in the Dunyazadiad, there is another, surprise audience discovered at the end. We also get to hear the story from the point of view of Medusa herself, and how she viewed herself and the events that unfolded is a fascinating reminder of how many of the women in ancient myths, including this one, were perceived. Chained chastity (Andromeda), helpless lover (Perseus' mother Danae), monsterous Gorgon - not much room for a woman to create her own role. Of course thanks to Barth they do get to rearrange their fates in a rather amusing and interesting way.

As for the "Bellerophoniad" - as I mentioned, I didn't get very far. Who is narrating at what time is difficult to work out, it seems even to switch within paragraphs. A little background research indicates that Bellerophon rode Pegasus and killed the Chimera (a creature part lion, snake and goat). The original myth appears in the Iliad, but Perseus often was substituted for Bellerophon in Medieval retellings. So clearly there's still plenty of intertextuality to be explored. Maybe I'll go re-read that part of the Iliad and have another bash at the Bellerophoniad. If it's as good as the first two stories it'll be worth the effort.

Interlude: Still Reading!

I've been getting some comments about my blog from friends, asking if I'm still doing it etc. I guarentee I am keeping up on the reading side. It's the reviewing side that is slowing down - I am now 2 1/2 books behind! There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first is that I am excrutiatingly busy with work and other activities. The second is that I have a hard time prying my husband off the computer. The third is that these reviews are actually reasonably hard work. Summarising a plot without spoiling it and then providing thoughtful commentary can be a bit of a challenge (especially when I don't do it straight away, naughty me). My hubbie keeps saying "write more, more about the book" but that can be quite hard and actually puts me off writing them. I do want to have a good blog that people want to read, but I also want it to be fun and not a chore. So there is a balance to find.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with me. I have some time off work this week, I will try to put it to good use and catch up!

Book 7 - Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher

Some of you may know Jim Butcher from his Dresden Files books - hardboiled detective stories with a wizard(!). I picked them up for my hubby and got somewhat hooked myself. So I thought I'd give his fantasy series a whirl.

Cursor's Fury is the third in the Codex Alera. Tell you what, I've got to stop reading middle books in fantasy series 'cause it means I have to review the whole thing! :( They're not bad reads, although I don't think the concept is as unique as that of his Dresden books.

Aleran people all have a connection to an elemental, or "fury", that gives them supernatural powers related to wind/water/fire/earth. Tavi stands out - not only is he an orphan, he has no fury and is considered a freak and weakling. This makes things tough, especially on the border of Alera where steadholds are under constant threat from wild animals, furies, and the savage Marat. Despite this he manages to pull off some amazing stunts, and the actions of Tavi, his aunt and uncle attract plenty of attention from Alerans and Marat alike. Not to mention his mysterious past and the secrets they all keep (dum dum DUM!)

By the third book, Tavi has completed training to be a cursor (spy) for the First Lord, and is sent for his first post to be an officer in newly formed legion that is never expected to see action. Of course it comes under attack from a greater threat even than the Marat, and when all the senior officers are killed Tavi must take control. Which he does admirably - displaying amazing leadership skills which speak of his mysterious heritage.....!

The battle scenes are quite good, Butcher has a knack for describing how different types of armies such as legions would fight. For me this is the best element. For some reasons his characters don't quite grab me so I find it hard to get going, especially at the start of each book when things are slow.

All in all, the Codex Alera books are not a bad read. Not brilliant, but good to take in your bag on a bus trip, or when you don't want to think TOO hard.... 3 out of 5 from me.