It’s Monday evening and I’m tired from a long week (book fair last week) and a busy weekend, but I just finished a fabulous book that I wanted to tell you about before I forget too much about it. I just finished Claire Messud’s latest novel, This Strange Eventful History, which was brilliant. This novel, loosely based on Messud’s own history, follows the Cassar family over three generations and across several continents. From 1927 to 2010, this strange, nomadic family seem never to find a place to call home, but whose members keep wandering, relocating and searching for happiness and a place to belong. I can’t really tell you much more about the plot than this, but the themes that are dealt with are ones of family, relationships, what “home” means, and what it means to belong somewhere. She also explores the power of words, and I found L.J. Austin's concept of "performative utterances" (the idea that saying something makes it so), as well as the notion of anti-performatives (if I din't say it, it's not real) fascinating. Messud’s use of language is brilliant and every character is riveting. I don’t usually enjoy novels that portray family histories, particularly ones that are multi-generational, but this one was gripping from the opening page to the final paragraph. I would highly recommend this literary novel if you’re in the mood for a gripping story that has you wanting to race ahead to find out where the story will lead while simultaneously wanting to read slowly, to savour each word and phrase.
That's all for tonight. Stay warm and keep reading!
Bye for now... Julie
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