Clarissa - first 20 Letters...

...Or 5%. Although no-one on the Goodreads forum has commented yet, and I am kind of too shy to make the first move! I admit, this is not the easiest book to get into and you can't really read it quickly, but once you get into it, it seems to become easier and the archaic language makes a bit more sense.

Anyway, Clarissa is currently under a massive amount of pressure from her money-grabbing family to marry the odious Mr. Solmes, her only comfort being her clandestine letters to Miss Howe describing her treatment and the appalling way her siblings are behaving. Our heroine is trying to be as reasonable as possible, but to no avail. Mr. Solmes has cunningly promised either an exchange of estates with James (Clarissa's brother) or that he will buying the northern estate, increasing the family's land. Her mother has been roped into persuading her, and Clarissa hoped to bring her mother over to her way of thinking, but alas, as Clarissa tells her, she has the will of her father's relations rather than her mother. Her mother married for love, but she has very little will of her own, as she says herself, although her husband is a good man 'he will not be controuled [sic]; nor yet persuaded.' She lives in a state where she has to accede to his every whim. Surely, this is no recommendation to Clarissa to wed? She evidently wants to avoid her mother's example, as she puts it, 'those who will bear much, shall have much to bear', that through her passivity her mother is allowing her father's tyranny, and in extension, the unchecked, strong wills of her other children as well. Clarissa believes that as she is in the right to refuse Solmes, she is not being stubborn. She offers to either not marry at all (lamenting that as the family are not Catholic, she had no recourse to entering a nunnery), or only marry with her parent's consent. However, her pleas fall on deaf ears and there seems to be little she can do to improve her situation or avoid marrying Solmes. 

The reader really feels for her here in the way that her family seem to treat her as a bargaining chip rather than a person with feelings. She is completely disgusted with Solmes and finds his physical appearance and character repugnant. I guess some of the original people reading it would probably side with her parents though, and find it surprising that someone who is portrayed as being so obedient should be so against doing what her parents want. Her parents seem to believe that she is rejecting Solmes out of some sort of crush on Lovelace and that by forcing her into marriage quickly she will be out of the way of the man that James hates.

 

Night Film by Marsha Pessl

I was not sure how to review this. I think if you ignore its literary pretensions, the over-use of italics, the rambling, cheesy ending, and the poor editing and proofreading, what you are left with is quite an entertaining (if bonkers) novel. Prepare yourself for a rollercoaster ride where you will question your grip on reality as you encounter documentary evidence relating to the mysterious film director Cordova and his family. It can be eerie at times and I thought the way that Pessl blended fiction with reality was quite clever at times. I also liked the use of the mocked-up webpages and other documentary evidence. It definitely could have done with more work on the writing, however.
I admit, I enjoyed reading some of the awful reviews it got (people mostly seemed to love it or loathe it) and I agreed that the protagonist didn't really need his own Scooby gang to join in the investigation, as much as they might have added colour and assisted a man who seemed to be mostly obsessed with the clothes the people he encountered were wearing. It doesn't really work as an investigation type novel though, as Scott is a poor investigative journalist whose main tactic seems to be bribe as many people as you can, and if the author can't think of how he might get some information, one of the Scoobies can always supply it for him.

If On A Winter's Night a Traveler

Having been warned by reviews that this was a 'difficult' book I ploughed on, undaunted. And gladly. I sometimes wish that people wouldn't label books this way, although I am attracted by a challenge. I can see why people would hate it, it is like a Russian nesting doll of novels and makes you question the very nature of reading itself. It can mess with the brain, yet here I am in the sure knowledge that I could read it dozens of times and still get something out of it.
The structure is somewhat mind-bending in the way that it is narrated. The book begins in the second person describing how you, 'the Reader' goes to a book shop looking for Calvino's new novel and begin reading it, the second chapter is purportedly that novel, but only the first chapter. At the end of the first chapter, the novel returns to 'the Reader' who realises that he is not reading the book he is supposed to have bought, and the rest of the novel is missing. The rest of the book is divided into second person narrative sections describing 'the Reader' on a frantic, fruitless quest for the rest of the novel, and the ten first chapters of the rest of the novels he encounters, all vastly ranging in genre and breaking off at a plot climax. If you didn't know what you were letting yourself in for, you would probably find it a really frustrating book to read, but there is some sort of plot in 'the Reader's' quest and his meeting of a fellow reader, Ludmilla and the other characters. It could all become too mind-bending, but is saved from this by the author's playfullness and the fact that it is not just one good story to read, but at least eleven (not counting the anecdotal stories 'the Reader' hears on the way).      
It's an extremely postmodernist book and I can see the way that it relates to the dreaded structuralist and post-structuralist texts I had to study at uni. On one hand it would have been great to study this alongside that part of the unit, on the other hand, I'm not sure I would have 'got' it at the time. We can't all be David Mitchell (the novelist who wrote a review in the Guardian describing how he was amazed as an undergraduate but not so much re-reading it). It also relates to the idea of the death of the author in that there is seemingly no unifying 'author' or 'authorial voice', there is the narrative voice of 'the Reader' sections, then the voices of the ten other authors. I can also see how it has influenced subsequent fiction. 
Anyway, hopefully I will re-read it again one day and perhaps study it in more detail.

What fresh lunacy is this?!

So, having put the dreaded Proust on hold for the moment due to the weight of book and lack of time, and being bogged down by the penultimate Barchester chronicle as well as numerous other rather large volumes, I have gone and joined a reading challenge group on Goodreads and committed myself to a six month reading of the dreaded Clarissa. It's a bit naughty, but I was hoping that I would be able to not only get through this behemoth, but also discuss it with some other readers. I'm not sure anybody has actually started it yet, but so far it's not going too badly. I'm a aiming for about five per cent per week so that I can hopefully read it in about five months and I'm reading it on the Kindle fire, which somehow makes it less intimidating. Only thing is, I have a free edition so I miss the footnotes of the paperback edition I have previously tried to read. Still, I can always refer to the other edition, and there is no danger of the spine breaking as it is prone to do on the paperback.
I think Clarissa is  quite a difficult book to judge by modern standards, as the age makes some of it seem very distant to the way people think and behave and read novels. From studying Defoe and Richardson's other novel, Pamela I know that the novel as a form was just taking off and was generally frowned upon for being frivolous and untrue. Writers tried to make it seem as true to life as possible and containing a strong moral message. The messages of Clarissa are that a rake cannot be reformed by marriage and that parents should not treat their children too harshly, I imagine this  would have been quite a controversial proposition for parents of the period. 
It's an understandably difficult book to read, not just in terms of the length but also the way it's written in the epistolary form. So far, I've found that this does give the narrative a sense of urgency, as the letters are written immediately after the events, often the in the evening after the day's events have unfolded. Clarissa is a bit of a contradictory character in that although she is a dutiful, obedient daughter she is dead set against the suitor that her parents have chosen. In fact, there is a sense that Mr. Solmes is not really the person that her parents would have chosen, the family is seemingly controlled by her bachelor uncles, who are concerned with the financial prosperity that a match would bring, and, surprisingly by the older children who act out of jealousy of Clarissa's inheritance from her grandfather, and a hatred for Mr. Lovelace, Arabella's former suitor who briefly tries to switch courting Clarissa (at least this is how Clarissa herself reads the motives of her siblings). She writes about Lovelace, but not as if she considers him a suitor, as he has a bit of a reputation. Mr. Solmes on the other hand, she immediately abhors. 
Mr. Lovelace is another rather contradictory character, although he is considered a rake from the start, Clarissa describes how he gives money to a family in need. He may be putting on a face for the family, but it does serve to slightly warm him towards Clarissa, and she sees him a few times when she is visiting her friend Miss Howe. Miss Howe is a great character, the kind of naughty best friend who contrasts nicely with Clarissa's virtuousness.
Anyway, 3% in and although I know where the plot is going (I saw the TV series years ago and did modules in uni that at least alluded to it, although no-one was brave enough or daft enough to use it as a set book, Pamela was bad enough!), I still think I will be glad to read it.

2014: A Year in Books & Next Year's Books

I haven't done too badly this year, despite having a baby and a full time job (before I went off on maternity leave), I managed 61 books. Delights have included the Patrick Melrose novels, most of the Barchester chronicles (although I have completely slowed down on these lately and need to finish The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset) and Penny Vincenzi novels. As far as the BIHNR list is concerned, I managed the first book in A Dance to the Music of Time and Anna Karenina on top of the Trollope. I read a bit more chick-lit and woman's fiction, but that was fine. At the moment, I'm not putting too much pressure on what I'm reading and I'm not likely to next year either as I have to get used to working full time as well as being a mum. 

Next year's biggest resolution is going to be no more buying cheap e-books in 2015. I realise that this has become a bit of a habit I need to break as I am not even sure how much I am spending on e-books, I just go on Kindle when I need cheering up or something then somehow end up buying a couple which I then feel like I will never have time to read. Plus there is the ethical implications of supporting a giant tax avoiding conglomerate that will potentially destroy the publishing industry and independent bookshops. I've got plenty of books on the TBR shelf that I want to read, so I am going to look at seeing if I can get through some of those. I'm making it a rule that I can go to the library and add things to the TBR list, but not buy any, and I can complete challenges without buying any books.

I'd also like to read a few more books from authors from other cultures. I'm aware I get put off sometimes, which isn't great.

Other than that, finish some of the series I've started, particularly the Trollope and the current Churchminster series I've borrowed from the library and I'm close to finishing. I've also started the Mapp and Lucia series recently. I finally finished some of the books that had spent the longest on the reading list, but I still have The Cornish Trilogy and Pillars of the Earth lurking around there (they are quite heavy to read in bed with a book light both physically and metaphorically) and I've barely got anywhere with Tales of Angria. I know the Wolf Hall TV series is coming up too, and that's been on the TBR list for ages, it was one of the first e-books I paid for. So, lots of stuff to read. My challenge is 50 books and, although it seems like I am setting myself a lot of rules, I am just going enjoy it even if I end up reading mostly chick lit.