Best Man by Chris Delyani

More LGTBQ+ than the slash fic I often read. This is a serious, often bittersweet romantic novel from the point of view of Frank, a man who has never got over a romantic attachment for a friend and Julio, who is Frank's housemate since he divorced. Poor Frank is in a rather woeful state, locking himself up in his house avoiding Julio, so he is thrown into confusion when Jonathan turns up in his life again planning a wedding to his evil boyfriend Marcus who utterly hates Frank. Julio on the other hand is busy crushing on Marcus at his yoga classes unaware that Marcus is engaged. As a favour for Frank, Julio pretends to be his boyfriend to Jonathan and Marcus. 

I liked the characters in this book and the way that the plot kept me guessing, I thought that the first person narrative worked well in the way that the characters were not necessarily what Frank and Julio thought they were. They are all very human and every one of them does things that they are ashamed of (or should be ashamed of!). I loved the way that Frank and Julio grew as people. This is not an explicit book, but I didn't feel like it needed it, this is a beautifully told story. 

Nelly Dean by Alison Case

Billed as a return to Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean is the story of WH from the point of view of the servant who partially narrated the story. In it, Nelly has written her story down addressed to Mr Lockwood without sending it.

I think the most important thing about this is whether it adds to the story of WH, and out of the #backstairs books I’ve read, I think this one adds the most to the story. Nelly is a fully imagined character who sheds a great deal of light on Mr Earnshaw and particularly on Hareton who she has a really close, motherly relationship with. She also has a relationship with Hindley and sheds light on the way that he degenerates due to alcohol. The book doesn't go into a great detail about Heathcliffe and Cathy's relationship, but I don't think it needs to. However, it brings in all the themes of the moors, doomed love and the supernatural in anyway.

Aside from the WH characters, the author also brings Bodkin, the son of the family doctor who is a friend and advisor to Nelly. He brings in a welcome outside perspective to a story that can seem insular with its settings of the home and the Moor. The story can be heartbreaking at times, especially when Nelly is seperated from Hareton but her relationship with Bodkin often lightens the book without taking away the tragedy of the situation

A selection of books on a similar theme

The Trouble with Lawrence

Lady Chatterley's Lover has probably got to be the strangest comfort reading, yet about every couple of years here I am reading it again. I also have a very strange relationship with Lawrence, unlike other authors he both impresses me and irritates in equal measure, and I am drawn to this book and to it's forerunner. I don't entirely know why I should feel like this about the book and the author. Lawrence write with such expressive lyricism, his descriptions of the landscape is beautiful, and I agree wholly with his sentiments that men and women should feel open to experiencing true sexuality. I think the trouble I have is that Constance and Mellors are quite questionable characters. I am not sure that Lawrence manages to convey a lasting relationship between equals and his attitude to sexuality doesn't encompass homosexuality or even the sexuality of any relationship that doesn't involve running naked in the woods worshipping the eternal phallus. I am more drawn to the pastoral romance of The First Lady Chatterley than the brutally philosophical novel it ended up being. That might seem a odd thing to say about it, but I think it is quite nihilistic at times in the way that it portrays the end of the Chatterley family and that of the mining village.
Yet I am still drawn to it and keep reading.
This year I've also read The Virgin and the Gypsy, which was also quite questionable, but has got me to thinking about reading more Lawrence as the only other thing I've read are his short stories. So hopefully, I will get started on that soon. I am getting nowhere with the Proust right now, with the new job I just haven't had the brain power. I haven't forgotten it completely though.

Within a Budding Grove (Part 1)

I don't know if it is my state of mind, but I found that after the gentle, meandering of the first book this was a little more difficult to read. Perhaps this was deliberate on Proust's part, after all, this is 'Marcel's' autobiography and we are  moving away from childhood.

The book opens with yet another party described in meticulous detail, this time a dinner party given by the narrator's parents who have invited the old ambassador, M. de Norpois over for dinner. It is some time after the narrator encountered Swann at his grandparent's house and he has fallen out of favour with the narrator's family due to Odette. Dr. Cottard, on the other hand, is enjoying the popularity that seems to have deserted Swann. Norpois, as a representative of the politica, is described satirically and is full of gossip about the Swann family.

The narrator is still somewhat obsessed with Gilberte, but is also completely obsessed with the actress Berma. He eventually manages to see her but is disappointed by her performance, only changing his mind about her when Norpois praises her.

Norpois scandalises the family by confessing he's been dining with Odette. She runs a kind of salon where married man go without their wives to meet women from the 'Republican world'. Swann has gone from discreetly associating with the pinnacle of society to openly boasting about the lower class people he invites over, and Swann's own aunt is trying to stop people from assoiciating with her. Norpois believes that Swann is 'not unhappy' although Odette uses Gilberte as a weapon to blackmail him. They seem to have found some sort of equilibrium where she is grateful for the marriage, although he worries about presenting her to the Duchesse. However, Norpois tells the narrator that Odette has already met her husband the Prince four years ago (before she married Swann), who likes her. Norpois met the writer Bergotte at the salon but disliked him so much that he puts the narrator off writing. Norpois offers to tell Odette and Gilberte about how much the writer admires them out of politeness but soon regrets it due to his gushing.

There is something sad about the way that Proust depicts Odette and Gilberte. I think that in one way the reader is meant to look down on them and on Swann for being in love with Odette, and the way that she is depicted is somewhat common and unattractive, particularly as she ages. Yet I think in some ways I sympathise with them. Swann seems to be terribly concerned with the opinions of society and despite Odette's commonness, there is probably something to be admired in a courtesan who manages to firmly cement her position in society despite all the problems she encounters. There is something sad about the narrator's obsession with Gilberte too, as if he can't help but follow Swann's example. Society, it turns out, does not make one happy, and the narrator is swayed by the opinions of the people around him, particularly his father's poor opinion of his ambition to become a writer.

Yet Proust also portrays society in such a satirical way that it is difficult to read the romance is a straightforward way. The opinions of the narrator's parents are not really either the narrator's opinions nor that of the writer. In retrospect the narrator does not seem to be that enamoured of Norpois even though his parents seem to believe he has class and the narrator himself takes his opinions as the truth, he is portrayed as being a bit shallow and gossipy. It's as if the people in the society have a kind of dual persona, the Swann who visits the grandparents is not the Swann of society, nor is he the Swann who is married to Odette giving dinner parties in the salon.

The narrator's ambitions to become a writer lead to major theme within the novel, that of the passing of time, which is capitalised. The narrator's childhood is behind him; his father believes that his personality is now fixed. something which the narrator finds rather depressing.

The new year brings a fresh determination to become acquainted with Gilberte, and resolves to write to Swann. Gilberte confesses to him that in actual fact her parents detest him and believe that he is 'a young person of love moral standard' whose 'influence over their daughter must be evil'. The narrator is rather offended and falls ill with chocking fits. The doctor prescribes caffeine along with whatever alcohol the narrator fancies, including beer, champagne and brandy. Dr. Cottarde then comes over and prescribes purges and milk (his wonder drug of choices), his parents are sceptical at first but eventually he tries it and recovers (due to not drinking more than anything).

Gilberte writes to him to invite him to tea. It is a kind of a parody of an adult tea party. He encounters Odette, who has become a copy of Mme Verdurin. They treat him like an honoured guest and the narrator imagines getting close to them. They are a bit too obsessed with impressing society, however, which amuses the narrator's parents. Then the Dreyfus affair happens, which affects society and no doubt society's opinion of Swann.

Otherwise, he tolerates and is even amused by Odette's ignorance, as the family tolerate the narrator, even though they seem to look down on him, probably because his parents are not really part of society.

Love and Inheritance by Fay Weldon (spoilers for both books)

 First, a general update. Although I am doing pretty well on the general reading and keeping up to date on my Goodreads target, I am not doing that great on the Proust, particularly during the half term I have just enjoyed. This week I am hoping to get to a point where I can start writing another section for BIHNR. Otherwise, I have two reviews that I want to write for books that I have read recently.

I have recently read two books out of the Love and Inheritance trilogy. I have previously read some Fay Weldon, but not that much. I admit, I was expecting the books to be a bit more literary and I found them quite a disappointing read overall, although they were quite entertaining and readable, they could also be quite frustrating at times. 

The books chart the fortunes of a rich family at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the first one there are descriptions of both the lives of the family and the servants, but in the second book Long live the King there is not as much description of the servants. The primary reason I think that the first book is a let down is that the family are both quite dislikeable and the use of reported speech seems to remove them from the reader so that they don’t come across as being that realistic. Rosina, the daughter, seems to fair particularly badly. She is a complete prig with seemingly no redeeming features or much of a reason for being the way that she is, so she just puts the reader off. By no means am I saying that a writer should write characters that readers would want to be friends with (as Jennifer Weiner has spouted off about recently), but there should be something that makes the reader want to follow the course of their story. 

To be honest, none of the characters are really that interesting, and I doubted the veracity of Isobel (the wife’s) title and position as a leader of society considering she was the illegitimate daughter of a showgirl and a coal magnate and her parents never married.  They are really snobbish towards the Baums (Robert’s lawyer who tries to save their fortune) in particular, for little reason. 

The plot of Book one (Habits of the House) centres around the attempts of the family to marry the son off to a wealthy meat heiress as they have lost money during the war in Transvaal, and to organise a dinner party for the Prince of Wales. The dinner party is never covered, the book ends on the invitations being sent out, and the loss of money is never that keenly felt. Just as Arthur is about to marry his meat heiress, the head of the family (Robert) saves them all anyway by winning a fortune on a horse and the book ends abruptly.

Book Two opens a couple of years later with Arthur and his meat heiress married (there were some problems as Minnie had left America having had a well-publicised affair with an artist which she had foolishly admitted to Arthur) and the introduction of Adela, a cousin who lives with her strict religious parents. There is a little less emphasis on the servants of the family, and a bit more on the Baums, who I found interesting, particularly Mrs. Baum the Zionist scientist; I think I would have preferred it if there was more emphasis on her. 

There is less use of reported speech, thankfully, but Rosina still gets short shrift. This time, she has a romance with an artist which is scarcely described, I wonder if Fay just didn’t like writing about her? The parts with Adela start off promisingly but descend into a ludicrous plot about clairvoyancy culminating in her saving the King’s life by touch alone. The King and the Queen are good friends of the family and there are lots of dinner parties where Isobel advises the Queen on what to wear and what crown to have created. It doesn’t lend an air of realism to the book. 

Lucky they've got the illegitimate daughter of a showgirl and a coal baron to advise them

Overall, the first book got two stars and the second book got three (out of five). I feel a little bit like I am being a bit harsh here and giving the books a hatchet job, and they are both readable and entertaining, I think the most disappointing thing about them is that there are good books poking out in places, which makes it frustrating for the reader. There is a sense that she was cashing in on Downton, but at least with Downton you feel some sympathy with the characters and the plot is engaging, even when it’s being more like a period soap. I will read the third book, but I’m not in a hurry to buy it or get it out from the library as soon as it comes out.

Swann’s Way Part 3 – Mobile Proust

Mobile, because I am attempting to do this on Kindle with my notebook, not the giant copy of Proust I’ve made notes in. Not quite as easy to search, but I’ve been having trouble finding the time to do any more writing about it and part of me wants to finish more of that before I go on to read any more as I am conscious I’ve got quite a lot of book to analyse. This is going to be a rather long post as there wasn’t really anywhere convenient I wanted to stop. Kindle Proust is not that bad a method of writing, although I miss page numbers. Some Kindle books have them, but the version I have doesn’t. Onto the Proust.

The narrator describes the ‘Guermantes Way’ which is harder than the ‘Meseglise Way’, and in the course of the description we learn more about the Guermantes family, who were also the Counts of Combray. There is a sense that they belong to the past in the way they are associated with ruins, but also with beauty in the sense of the landscape and of Mme Guermantes, whom the narrator imagines asking him to go fishing and questioning him about his writing. He develops a sort of obsession with her but his ideas are shattered when she attends the wedding of Dr. Percepied’s daughter and he finds that she doesn’t look that much like her portrait and she looks quite ordinary instead of like some sort of being from another age. Nevertheless, he convinces himself that he is in love with her and that she is beautiful because he thinks that she looks down on him. There is something rather obsequious about ‘Marcel’, perhaps because of his innate snobbery but his feelings of inferiority are linked with his fear that he is not good enough to be a writer.

He introduces the topic of Swann’s love affair that occurred before he was born. The next part of the novel switches from first person to third, which can be quite disorientating as I didn’t realise at first that we had gone back to the past, and it does switch back at times to the narrator’s recollections of his family’s opinions of the situation. Swann in Love opens with a description of a middle class couple, the Verdurins, who are horrendous social climbers who like giving embarrassing Abigail’s Party style ‘soirees’.  To make it classier, they invite a doctor, a pianist and a painter and Madame Verdurin pretends to be highly affected by music and art. They look down on everybody who is not part of their group as ‘bores’ or ‘nuisances’.

Like this, but in 19^th Century France and less dead people (link)

Odette is also a frequent visitor, although it is not clear why – perhaps, as a courtesan, she has associated with some wealthy men and the Verdurins think that she will start bringing them along.  Swann attends the party as Odette’s ‘guest’.

Swann, meanwhile, is a bit of a roué. He’s not snobbish about women’s appearances, but has associated with aristocrats in the course of his search for variety and pleasure. If he runs out of current women, he writes to his friends for letters of introduction, much to the grandfather’s disgust- the family can see how Swann quickly ‘drops’ women after they have been introduced, which is quite embarrassing for them.

When Swann meets Odette he doesn’t find her that attractive: ‘She had stuck Swann not, certainly, as being devoid of beauty, but as endowed with a style of beauty which left him indifferent, which aroused in him no desire, which gave him, indeed, a sort of physical repulsion…’ (p197). She, however, begins to visit him, ostensibly to see his collections of art. He somewhat regrets that he doesn’t find her attractive.  Odette seems quite obsessed with Swann; it is related how she begs to see him again soon in an ‘anxious, timid way’ (p198) and entreats him to teach her about Vermeer. As we only really see her from Swann’s perspective, it is not always easy to tell what she is really thinking or what she is really like, but re-reading this passage I get the sense that she is skilfully manipulating him, especially as Swann’s friend has told him that she is particularly difficult to seduce, but she seems to be trying to seduce him. It does work; Swann begins to obsess over her.

Part of this seduction is inviting him the Verdurins’ party .The grandfather is inevitably unimpressed by the Verdurins, thinking that they are too bohemian and severing acquaintances with them, so he can’t write a letter of introduction for Swann. The parties that they give are quite comical, particularly with the disparate guests like Dr. Cottard who has a bit of an odd sense of humour, probably caused by him having few social skills, he is in fact, sort of Asperger’s, being unable to tell whether someone is joking or not and unable to have the right manner or facial expression to suit the occasion. He’s also got an obsession with figures of speech, ‘plays on words’ or puns, which he has memorised by rote. Mme. Verdurin thinks he is wonderfully clever but even she gets offended after she foolishly asks for his opinion about Sarah Bernhardt meaning to be modest about the tickets she’s paid for and he takes her at face value telling his hostess he’s sick of Sarah. In return, they send Dr. Cottard a ruby worth 300 francs and pretend that it cost 3,000. They forgive him after that, and laugh like hyenas in a really false way whenever he comes up with another dreadful pun.

The Verdurins fear that Swann is going to be another ‘bore’ but are comforted by his manner and he is  pretty much a perfect guest, even getting past Dr. Cottard’s inspection.  In the course of the dreadful party the pianist plays a piece of music which deeply affects Swann, even though he doesn’t know who composed it.  Before he listens to the music he has no ‘ideal goal’ and pursues ‘ephemeral satisfactions’. He takes ‘refuge in trivial considerations’ and does not express an opinion with ‘any warmth’ – just supplies facts and details, or pretends that he is being ironic (p210). Proust returns to the motif of the invalid from the overture to describe how he feels; like an invalid who starts to hope that he is beginning to recover. He asks who the music was composed by and discovers that it was Vinteuil. As he listens to it again he begins to discover more, there is a sense that the composer  was ‘disenchanted with life’ (p217).  Mme Verdurin pretends to be deeply affected but doesn’t really appreciate it. The Cottards don’t understand it (and in fact are totally oblivious to cultural appreciation), so don’t give an opinion. Swann doesn’t believe that it was the work of the music master at Combrey, but it marks the start of his affection for Odette.  

The Verdurins are impressed with Swann but Dr. Cottard is surprised to discover that Swann associates with the Head of State as well as other members of the upper echelon. Even though the Verdurins are portrayed as being rather vulgar, Swann continues to visit for the sake of seeing Odette. He doesn’t want to see her alone as he is afraid that she will assume that he is falling in love with her and he prefers to spend the first part of the evening with a working girl that he has fallen in love with. He does, however, return her home in his carriage at the end of the night and keeps a chrysanthemum that she impulsively gives him.

Throughout their romance Odette is associated with flowers. Although in France chrysanthemums are associated with death and bereavement, they were a craze in Paris at the time, a flower that Swann looks down on usually but is somewhat pleased when he sees them in her lobby. The other flower that she is associated with, the cattleya, is a type of orchid, associated with beauty, royalty and love. Both flowers are known for their ‘showiness’. 

Link

She also has a penchant for oriental decoration and treats him like some sort of potentate or god when he visits her for tea, arranging the surrounding around her to their best effect and showing him all her knick-knack in turn. He is beguiled by her, considering what it would be like to always have a woman he could go to for a cup of tea, and he begins to try to find her attractive, comparing her to Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter in a fresco in the Sistine Chapel (painted by Botticelli).

Link

This allows him to see her as a romantic, beautiful figure rather than as he saw her before, and he places a copy of Botticelli’s fresco on his study table so that he can admire it.

The trouble is, she has not really changed except in his mind and they still have very little in common and little to talk about. To add a frisson when conversation is growing dull he sends her a letter ‘full of hinted discoveries and feigned indignation’ (p224) in the hope that she will declare her love for him, which she does, allowing him to act indifferently toward her in return. Yet, one day when he is late to the Verdurins and she has already gone, he realises how much he has come to expect her to be around. M. Verdurin notices, but Mme believes that it is purely platonic and they are somewhat dismissive of her.

Swann goes in search of her, but is continually held up and can’t find her in any of the restaurants, this causes him to realise how much he has changed, that he can no longer fool himself that he doesn’t care for her. However, I think it’s fair to say that Swann doesn’t love her in the traditional sense, there is a sense of obsession and wanting to posses her as he would posses a piece of art rather than a woman; he blinds himself to her faults in a conscious way and it is difficult to see who the real Odette is. In his searching for her, his obsession is magnified by her absence.

This seems like a convenient place to stop as I want to do a close reading analysis of the next part, and this has been far too long a post already!

References

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4195444/Avoiding-the-French-faux-pas.html

http://justaddiceorchids.com/_blog/Orchid_Blog/post/The_Symbolism_of_Orchids/

The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (some spoilers)

Wonderfully appropriate cover image

First, a word about the edition.  I’ve been reading the 2003 Penguin edition edited by Douglas Brooks-Davies and not been that keen. His introduction and notes are peppered with numerous spoilers and he has a tendency to over-analyse everything. If I was studying the book properly or re-reading it I would be really happy with it, but as it is a book that should be read without that much knowledge of the plot, I was disappointed with the heavy-handed editing. Having read the Colm Toibin introduction (available here on the NYRB Classics website), I think I’d prefer that edition. 

Leaving the edition aside, I really liked this book.  Hartley uses lyrical, evocative prose which perfectly captures the voice of young Leo and gives a sense of the period. I could see the resemblance between Hartley’s narrative style and Proust’s, but it wasn’t quite as difficult to read – paragraphs are shorter and are interspersed with dialogue. 

The plot is quite simple, but builds tension well. It begins with Leo remembering the summer of 1900 spent at Brandham Hall with a school friend. Leo innocently agrees to pass love letters between Marian (the school friend’s sister) and Ted (a local farmer) not realising why he is doing it or the implications that it will have for the family and for himself. 

The book works because of the way it is narrated in the first person with Leo gradually discovering what he is doing. He is an incredibly naïve character who is teased by the family because of it, and several humourous incidents in the novel occur due to his misunderstanding or interpreting something too literally. He lives with his widowed mother with whom he has a close relationship and is a rather sensitive child, who believes that he can affect circumstances with magic. With a lack of male guidance at home and feeling an outsider due to the fact that he is from a lower class than his friend Marcus, he is attracted to Marian, to Lord Trimingham (Hugh) and to Ted in turn.  

His relationship with Ted is peculiar; there is a suggestion that he is sexually attracted in the way that he admires Ted’s body and particularly in a deleted scene where Ted gives him a swimming lesson.  But this is a book which is about sexual awakening, Hartley uses belladonna as a symbolic device suggesting the ‘poisonous’ sexual undercurrents, alongside the imagery of the zodiac signs of the Virgin and the Water-Carrier and the changes in temerature.  Although it isn’t as explicit, the passage describing the swimming scene where Leo first observes Ted reminded me of Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, there is a similar overlap between the natural world and sexuality, and like Mellors, Ted is unashamed of his body and sexuality:

His clothes were lying at his side; he hadn’t bothered to seek the shelter of the rushes. Nor did he now. Believing himself to be unseen by the other bathers, he gave himself up to being alone with his body.

The first person narrative leaves the relationship between Ted and Marian open to interpretation.  Marian can be read as a rather selfish, cold character who intends to use Leo from the moment he arrives at Brandham Hall, and is using Ted as a bit of fun before she marries Hugh, or as a rather mixed-up woman who is about to be forced into a marriage with a man she doesn’t love for the sake of the propriety of marrying within her own class and living at Brandham Hall who has an intense relationship with a local farmer. By the end, many years later, it is clear that she is still deceiving herself about the relationship with Ted, having intended to carry it on even when she was married.  Hartley apparently intended the reader to disapprove of the relationship, particularly of Ted apparently seducing Marian, but despite Leo’s suspicion that he is being used by both parties, there is something nice about the character of Ted, he is probably the most likable character in the book as the upper class characters can be rather cold and distant. 

The ending, before the epilogue is devastating. Although I knew what was going to happen, it was still a surprise. It is done in such a quick way.  People have criticised the prologue and the epilogue as a framing devices, in some ways the epilogue could be seen as somehow ‘softening’ the impact of the end of the story, but in other ways this is a book about the past and its effect particularly on Leo, but also on other characters in the novel, both the events of the novel and the significance of the wars the characters have participated in. The prologue and the epilogue show that Leo has rejected relationships completely. Perhaps this is because of his latent homosexuality, but there is a sense that after his nervous collapse, Leo not only finds it difficult to form romantic relationships, but also finds it difficult to trust anyone. 

Overall, it's one of those books that stays with you, and having thought about it since finishing the book I find myself realising more about the book. It will quite likely become a re-read in the future.