Possession

A.S. Byatt's 1990 novel follows the story of Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey, two literature academics who each specialise in 19th century poets-Mitchell in Roland Ash and Bailey in Christabel LaMotte. They are thrown together when Roland discovers draft letters in a copy of a book that Ash once owned, which are passionate and are apparently aimed to be read by LaMotte. Roland and Maud are soon thrown onto the path of a lost 19th century romance, that they begin to work desperately to keep hidden from their fellow academics.

I really loved The Children's Book, and I have previously attempted to read Possession, but gave up due to its real density of text. This time round, with some critical understanding of English under my belt the novel was made a slightly easier read. In addition to the traditional third person narrative, Byatt also writes in letters, diary entries, poetry and extracts from books written by characters in the novel. Her ability to write in a truly 19th century style is pretty incredible, managing to create letters and diary entries that seem like they came exactly from the era, in addition to being able to write poems that sound like the 19th century Romantics (there was a part of me that wanted to google Ash & LaMotte to check that they weren't real, it's that good).

As is often the case when there are two parallel storylines, I was far more interested in the Randolph Ash/Christabel LaMotte storyline than the more modern story of Roland and Maud. There were times also when I somewhat tired of the poetry-I'll admit to have skimmed through some of the just poetry chapters and pages in order to get more back into the plot. Another aspect that I disliked was the slight stereotyping that happened; particularly with Maud-a hardened cool Women's Studies lecturer, who actually has a heart of gold, and Leonara Stern-a bohemian lesbian Women's Studies lecturer. This seemed a little annoying, and out of sync with some of the narrative which discussed how our perceptions of people in the past can shift: Randolph Ash from devoted, faithful husband, Christabel LaMotte from lesbian spinster.

As I said, however, I did really enjoy Possession, the central love story is beautiful, and Byatt also manages to make the journey of Roland and Maud to hide their discoveries from the overbearing other academics such as Leonara Stern and Mortimer Cropper exciting. I'd recommend this book to people who have an element of critical understanding of English, an interest in gorgeous romance and perhaps who have patience when it comes to 19th century poetry!

Top Ten...Wednesday?

The Broke & The Bookish blog runs a weekly Top 10 tag relating to books. Usually, I don't really think to partake, as I don't think I really read enough books. But this weeks theme is Books You are Dying to Read. Which is something I can do (:

1. Posession: A Romance by AS Byatt
After reading The Children's Book, I need some more Byatt in my life. I tried reading Possession back in Year 10, when I was fifteen, and for some reason I found it kind of boring and gave up on it. It deals with both a love story and with the art of literature, and I think after studying English with more depth for a couple of years, I should be able to tackle this.

2. The Virgin in the Garden by AS Byatt
This novel begins a series of novels about Fredrica Barrett. The publisher notes in The Children's Book about this sound intriguing enough, and I really adore Byatt's prose style.

3. On Liberty by JS Mill
Granted, this is a little different to the first two, but as I hope to study Politics next year, I really want to get my teeth into Mill's essays. I have a collecton that also includes Utilitarianism (which I've studied at school) and Representative Government. I believe he also wrote an essay on the treatment of women, and came across as an early feminist-aided by his wife-which I think would also make interesting reading.

4. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
My mum has the massive World Without End but unfortunatly gave away Follett's original work in the series. Pillars of the Earth is to be made, I believe into a television series, and I would love to read this before watching that. I adore historical fiction so this seems up my street.

5. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
I've read both Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, but my copy of this book is still sat on my bookcase. I'm intrigued by reading it, as opposed to dying to read it, but as this is Woolf's most famous feminist writing, it would probably be good to read it. I'd also love to read her diaries, if they are still in print.

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green
So, I've recently been spending too much time procrastinating on YouTube, and have discovered the sheer love shown towards this novel by the American author John Green. It's Young Adult fiction, which I rarely have any interest in anymore-due to the fact its nearly always just about sex or getting drunk. Yet Green's novel appears to have a geuninly interesting plot-about a boy obsessed with 'last word's'. His others-Paper Towns and An Abudance of Katherines-seem equally good.

7. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The idea of exploring the horrific 9/11 attacks, through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy seems incredibly interesting, especially as the novel also winds in the Allied attack on Dresden in the Second World War and the nuking of Hiroshima. It seems interesting to tie all these horrible incidents, which killed more innocents than anyone else, together.

8. The Season by William Goldman
This book follows a 'Season' (September-May) on Broadway in the 1960s. It is raved about online on theatre websites, and I'd love to read about the so-called 'Golden Era' of Broadway.

9. Solar by Ian McEwan
This has been on my 'I want to read this' list since it came out. I loved Atonement and quite enjoyed Saturday, and the set up of Solar, with a physisit suddently thrown out of joint in his personal life-he's on wife number five. I'd also really like to get to read McEwan's On Chesil Beach as well.

10. Finishing the Hat-Volume 1 by Stephen Sondheim
OK, so this isn't even out yet. But! It's a collection of the lyrics written by musical theatre's Shakespeare (no exaggeration) with his comments on them (these shows include West Side Story, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd) as well as autobiographical musings on his working with Leonard Bernstein, Oscar Hammerstein II and Angela Lansbury. I cannot *wait* for this to be released, even if it is kind of expensive.

The Children's Book

This was another book I read on holiday, which has become one of my favourite books.

Byatt brings to life life in turn of the century Kent, in the artistic rural home of the Wellwoods-Todefright-ruled over by the children’s book author Olive Wellwood and her husband, writer Humphrey and Olive’s sister Violet. It focuses on their children; Tom, Dorothy, Phyllis, Hedda and Florian-and the other additions as the years go on. It also includes Humphrey’s brother, Basil, his German wife Katharina and his children Griselda and Charles; one of the curator’s of the new V&A Prosper Cain and his children Julian & Florence, an acclaimed artist Benedict Fludd and his family, Seraphita his wife, Geraint his son and Imogen & Pomona his daughters and a runaway boy Phillip and his sister Elsie.

The above characters are just rubbing the surface of the many wonderful characters that Byatt fully forms as the tale moves from the late 1800’s to the First World War. Some of the characters I enjoyed the most were Dorothy who wants to be a doctor, Charles as he learns about the anarchist movement and Hedda in her Suffragette days.

There were a few I really didn’t like, I found Florence Cain to be quite whiney and very self-serving until around the end of the novel and the hideous Herbert Methley, a lecturer on how women should be free to have sexual relations and who serially seduces women. But, I guess it’s a testament to Byatt’s writing that she can make characters than one can adore and that one can loath, all interacting with one another in the novel.

Again, I would reiterate how much her descriptions bring to life the Todefright estate, the battered Fludd pottery, the home of Prosper Cain, university life for Julian Cain, and later Dorothy & Griselda Wellwood and Florence Cain, Paris during the Great Exhibition, German cities such as Munich at the height of the anarchist movement and finally life in the trenches and in the hospitals during the First World War.

Byatt weaves terrible secrets into her narrative, and balances moments of joy and humour with moments of tragedy, for me this balance of joy and humour was characterised by Tom Wellwood, whose ending is heartbreaking. Also interspersed with the narrative were Grimm-style stories written by Olive Wellwood, all having an edge of horror, the sort of tales that probably would not be published for children nowadays.

If you haven’t gotten round to reading this yet, I think it’s a must-read, I was totally gripped by it and its many characters and settings.

Holiday Reading

(Stupid bad quality photo)

These are the books I'm taking with me to Spain. 14 days. 6 books. These have all been out for some time, but I'm catching up. and they should be wonderful.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Mexico, 1935. Harrison Shepherd is working in the household of famed muralist Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. Sometimes cook, sometimes secretary, Shepherd is always an observer, recording his experiences in diaries and notebooks. When exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky arrives, Shepherd inadvertently casts in his lot with art and revolution and his aim for an invisible life is thwarted forever.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin yearns to escape her provincial home. She moves to the college town of Troy to start university and takes a job as a part time nanny to a glamorous couple. Tassie is drawn into their life and that of their newly adopted toddler. As the household reveals its complications, Tassie is forced out of her naivety, and the past and future burst forth in dramatic and shocking ways.

The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
One night in London, Irina McGovern's destiny hinges on a single kiss. Whether she leans into one alluring pair of lips will determine whether she stays with her long-term partner Lawrence or runs off with Ramsey, a hard-living snooker player.
A parallel-universe structure allows us to follow Irina's competing futures with two drastically different men. An intellectual and fellow American, Lawrence is smart and supportive, but rigid and emotionally withdrawn. A British celebrity, Ramsey is passionate and spontaneous, but jealous, undereducated and prone to pick fights. Irina's choice of partner will have ramifications for her relations with friends and family, for her career, and, most importantly, for the texture of her daily life.
If all love is about trade-offs-if every romantic prospect is flawed-how can we ever know which to choose?

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again-the story starts there...

The Children's Book by AS Byatt
Famous author Olive Wellwood writes a special private book, bound in different colours for each of her children. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world-but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and friends, the son and daughter of curator at the new Victoria & Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets.
They grow up in the golden summers of Edwardian times, but as the sons rebel against their parents and the girls dream of independant futures, they are unaware that in the darkness ahead they will be betrayed unintentionally by the adults who love them.

As you can tell, I don't really do light holiday reading. But this book is the exception. hey it was free:

I Heart New York by Lindsey Kelk
Fleeing her cheating boyfriend and clutching little more than a crumpled bridesmaid dress, a pair of Louboutins and her passport, Angela jumps on a plane-destination NYC.
Holed up in a cute hotel room, Angela gets a New York makeover from her NBF Jenny and a whirlwind tour of the city that never sleeps. Before she knows it, Angela is dating two sexy guys. And, best of all, she gets to write about in her new blog (Carrie Bradshaw eat your heart out). But it's one thing telling readers about you romantic dilemmas, it's another figuring them out for yourself.
Angela has fallen head over heels for the Big Apple, but does she heart New York more than home?