It’s warm-ish and
sunny outside today, so while I’m enjoying my cup of chai and warm Banana Bread
and really want to tell you all about my reading experiences over the past
week, I also really want to get outside and enjoy this sudden change in
weather, after yesterday’s cold, windy bitterness.
I had to put
aside that excellent novel I was reading, The Truth About the Harry Quebert
Affair by Swiss novelist Joël Dicker, in order to read that other
excellent, but very different, novel Property by Valerie Martin for my
book club, which met yesterday. Property
is narrated by Manon Gaudet, the wife of a plantation owner and slave owner
outside of New Orleans in 1828. It opens
with Manon watching through the window as her husband plays a “game” with some
of the slave boys, a game that inevitably ends in a beating of at least one of
the participants. Manon is not a happily married woman, having
to face daily the insolent attitude of her maid, Sarah, with whom her husband
demands regular conjugal visits, and who has borne him one wild, ill-behaved
son and now a young daughter who is described by Sarah as both dark and
ugly. She wishes for freedom from the
husband, and as events occur, her dislike of Sarah grows. When a revolt takes place on the plantation
and Manon is attacked and wounded, her fate takes a turn. As she seeks to assert her power and authority
once again, her true character is revealed and the reader is left wondering how
much is dependent on inherent character and how much is a product of the social conditions at the time. I won’t want to say any more about the details
in the novel, because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may decide to
read it, but I feel safe in highlighing some of our discussion points. We
discussed the roles of women during this time in history, and how Manon, for
all her supposed “freedom” as the wife of a plantation owner, is as trapped as
Sarah, but in a different way, and to a different degree. We discussed Walter, Sarah’s wild son, who
belongs nowhere and so is forgotten or ignored.
We discussed slavery, and what it means to be “owned”, and who really
has freedom, even today. We discussed
the title, Property, how such a simple title can be ambiguous, but can
also be applied to nearly every character in the novel. This short novel, less than 200 pages, tells
such a strong, dark, compelling story, taking the reader inside the mind of
Manon and revealing how the power of ownership can corrupt one’s character
beyond recognition. Winner of the 2003
Orange Prize for Fiction, this novel is compelling enough to read in a single
sitting and will leave readers rethinking everything they have come to expect from
female characters.
Then I finished the Joël Dicker novel, which did not disappoint. If you recall, this book is told from the point of view of Marcus Goldman, a young New York writer. Facing prolonged writer’s block, he turns to his friend and mentor, writer Harry Quebert, and visits him at his seaside house in Somerset for some R&R. Shortly thereafter, Harry is arrested for the murder of Nola Kellergan, a young girl who has been dead for over thirty years, and with whom Harry fell in love during the summer of 1975, and whose body has recently been discovered buried in Harry’s back yard. As Marcus investigates people and events in and around Somerset, he uncovers truths and cover-ups that take him further and further into a world he never imagined existed. Half-truths and lies, characters, stories and past events merge together in this novel-within-a-novel that kept this reader glued to her seat until the very last page. While it may have seemed a bit overlong and unnecessarily complicated during the initial reading, the surprising ending neatly wraps up any loose ends, and conveniently details the events that actually lead up to Nola’s, and other subsequent murders. While I was glad to finally reach the end of this lengthy novel, I was also a bit sad to say good-bye to the characters I felt I’d come to know during my reading. Originally published in French in September 2012, the English translation will be available in May of this year.
Then I finished the Joël Dicker novel, which did not disappoint. If you recall, this book is told from the point of view of Marcus Goldman, a young New York writer. Facing prolonged writer’s block, he turns to his friend and mentor, writer Harry Quebert, and visits him at his seaside house in Somerset for some R&R. Shortly thereafter, Harry is arrested for the murder of Nola Kellergan, a young girl who has been dead for over thirty years, and with whom Harry fell in love during the summer of 1975, and whose body has recently been discovered buried in Harry’s back yard. As Marcus investigates people and events in and around Somerset, he uncovers truths and cover-ups that take him further and further into a world he never imagined existed. Half-truths and lies, characters, stories and past events merge together in this novel-within-a-novel that kept this reader glued to her seat until the very last page. While it may have seemed a bit overlong and unnecessarily complicated during the initial reading, the surprising ending neatly wraps up any loose ends, and conveniently details the events that actually lead up to Nola’s, and other subsequent murders. While I was glad to finally reach the end of this lengthy novel, I was also a bit sad to say good-bye to the characters I felt I’d come to know during my reading. Originally published in French in September 2012, the English translation will be available in May of this year.
Time to get
outside and enjoy the day!
Bye for now…
Julie
Julie
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