Just finished this. A rum one. When it proceeds with action and dialogue it's so successful and evocative, with such a sly economy of emotive language, but too often I also felt myself wading through the many, often contrived, and often infuriating reflections of the narrator. If you went through this novel and took out every single single it would be so very improved. It tries to tell, so copiously, when it achieves everything it needs to through showing. I suppose this is a commonplace pitfall of debut novels; I'm told the Gilead uses the hokey-simile voice as well, but much more appropriately
― imago, Monday, 6 January 2020 12:53 (four years ago) link
Every single simile, even. Some of them work, but to be safer they all need to go
― imago, Monday, 6 January 2020 12:54 (four years ago) link
Bookkeeping
I suppose there's an argument that the unrestrained figurative tower is redolent of the unrestrainedly Other lifestyle our heroines fall into
― imago, Monday, 6 January 2020 12:57 (four years ago) link
I didn't really get on with Housekeeping, possibly for similar reasons; as for Gilead I can't recall how simile prone the immensely likeable narrator is but concur with Alfred above that it is very different from Housekeeping, and an unforced masterpiece.
― Paperbag raita (ledge), Monday, 6 January 2020 13:49 (four years ago) link
I said that, eh?
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 6 January 2020 14:51 (four years ago) link
40 pages into Gilead. This is the most any writer's prose style has improved between their first and second novels, ever
― imago, Sunday, 9 April 2023 20:49 (one year ago) link
Glad you're enjoying it---I've read the four follow-ups as well, with Jack's 2020 publication encouraging my greed for just one more, despite the author's age and how far she's taken the cycle---I won't say who I'd like to be the central character of the next one, since you haven't heard about (x) yet---despite my being not even an atheist, no more than a dog or a cabbage is, I got hooked on Gilead, and MR's great subject as an Xtian novelist and artist period, has to do with many the toils and snares of faith, Religion, the human mind (re xpost Glory overthinking etc) as part of life---she's next to Graham Greene in that, maybe more consistent, less (or not at all?) the tricky yarnspinner with it.
― dow, Sunday, 9 April 2023 21:32 (one year ago) link
Also coping with the weird American historical thickets that you gradually become aware of being in, greater and lesser awareness and pressure of that at different times.
― dow, Sunday, 9 April 2023 21:35 (one year ago) link
(relatable)
― dow, Sunday, 9 April 2023 21:36 (one year ago) link
But still need to read Housekeeping (kind of remember the movie, at least that Margot Kidder seemed good in it)
― dow, Sunday, 9 April 2023 21:38 (one year ago) link
Sorry! Actually *three* follow-ups, not four: Home, Lila, and Jack.
― dow, Sunday, 9 April 2023 21:57 (one year ago) link
Well, I picked up Home at the same time as Gilead, so that'll follow. Housekeeping annoyed me (see upthread) but in a way that made me interested to read more of the author, and this one is as I'd hoped a full embrace of formerly evident strengths with none of the weaknesses even detectable. Could change - I've only just begun it - but I suspect it won't
― imago, Sunday, 9 April 2023 22:09 (one year ago) link
Jack's the weakest, most strained of the bunch.
If you haven't watched Bill Forsythe's adaptation of Housekeeping, waste not ime.
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 9 April 2023 22:12 (one year ago) link
I didn't know about Jack (the book)!One thing I got from Gilead, as an atheist, was the value and efficacy of prayer. Not as a means to divine intervention, obviously, but as a way of meditating on a problem.
― ledge, Monday, 10 April 2023 08:24 (one year ago) link
Yeah, and she (Rev. John's creator) gives him opportunities for that---I really enjoyed Jack shuffling, turning around in St. Louis, Memphis, Chicago, and Gilead's still on the map.
― dow, Monday, 10 April 2023 17:58 (one year ago) link
was not expecting an extended comic setpiece about the underground railroad, this book continues to amaze
― imago, Sunday, 23 April 2023 07:27 (one year ago) link
In Gilead? Can't say I remember that bit.
― ledge, Monday, 24 April 2023 09:56 (one year ago) link
(And I've read it maybe three times)
Housekeeping.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 April 2023 10:11 (one year ago) link
the horse/tunnel bit!
― imago, Monday, 24 April 2023 10:32 (one year ago) link