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padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }\u003C\/style\u003E\u003Cdiv class='embed-container'\u003E\u003Ciframe src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CtmQyfnALMs' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EIt was as if I had lost some special capacity to filter my own perceptions, one that I had only become aware of once it was no longer there … I was beginning to see my own fears and desires manifested outside myself, was beginning to see in other people’s lives a commentary on my own.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EFollowing a divorce, Faye turns inward and becomes absent from her exterior life – it hurts less than being present. An English writer, her narrative picks up as she embarks on a journey to Greece, where she will teach a short writing course. Along the way, she encounters many others with stories to tell – stories which are remarkably like her own. Through their words, the outline of Faye’s self becomes more distinct, even as she recedes from the story.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2VeyzZV\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EOutline\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E (2014) is a remarkable example of autofiction in which \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3jHHpZJ\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ERachel Cusk\u003C\/a\u003E creates a story where both she and her narrator are seemingly absent while at the same time constantly present. Cusk has experienced the consequences of writing straight, unflinching autobiography in the past [\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/120931\/rachel-cusk-outline-review-can-british-novelist-redeem-herself\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E1\u003C\/a\u003E] – autofiction feels like a smart response, an opportunity to defy and deflect at once. Faye’s passivity may be a reflection of society’s desire that women go about their lives quietly without upsetting the apple cart, but neither Faye nor Cusk are truly taking a backseat here.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3n34xnF\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Outline by Rachel Cusk book cover\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"475\" data-original-width=\"300\" height=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiVxAghdEVebtMHc6eOxHgtph9GegXAOQjluOQDqKcOBe9_7-VeIESGodHIjjJ_e_iFohoSxGdn3DxvOocAZDxqMZ5GlA8moNdKmG0K68ZYx2pDsCh-mhSnp_h7DksT7F__VnPXdkZx\/w343-h541\/Outline_Rachel-Cusk_Book-Cover.jpg\" width=\"343\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003ESome may read \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E as a series of conversations that mimic the rhythm of life. I disagree. The rhythm of the book is entirely Faye’s, as she stitches together different stories, bringing out the elements that stick with her. These conversations may have ‘happened’ but their curation and emphasis is all Faye. In this way, \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E is a depiction of the Writer’s mind but also the Individual’s.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EIf the conversations relayed are not as ‘natural’ as they may first appear, what does the reader take from the recurring themes each centres on – the failed bids for freedom, illusions being shattered, and the desire for a sense of belonging that no longer exists? Undoubtedly, here is a psychic picture of a person going through a watershed trauma, a divorce from a person and a past that has left them shattered by the experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EFaye’s most frequent conversational partner is a man she meets on her flight to Athens. She refers to him throughout as ‘my neighbour’ alluding back to their adjacent seats on the plane journey. Her neighbour is an older Greek man (although he has spent much time in England) who has been married and divorced three times. Yet, unlike Faye he is not broken by the experience of separation, not irreparably disenchanted by life. Faye’s response to divorce is to recede from the life of hope:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EThere was a great difference, I said, between the things I wanted and the things that I could apparently have, and until I had finally and forever made my peace with that fact, I had decided to want nothing at all.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EHis is blindly optimistic:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EHe has been disillusioned more times than he could count in his relationships with women. Yet part of that feeling—the feeling of excitement that is also a rebirth of identity—has attended all his experiences of falling in love; and in the end, despite everything that has happened, these have been the most compelling moments of his life.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EHis hope that love, recaptured or fresh, can return him to a blissful state of contentment is Gatsby-esque in its persistence but it is clear that he has not learned from his past failures and thus is doomed to repeat them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EWhile in Athens, her neighbour takes Faye out on his boat a number of times. On one of these trips, Faye sees a young family on a boat nearby:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EWhen I looked at the family on the boat, I saw a vision of what I no longer had: I saw something, in other words, that wasn’t there. Those people were living in their moment, and though I could see it I could no more return to that moment than I could walk across the water that separated us.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EFor Faye, the family – and what they represent – is outside of her existence. She cannot interact with them just as she cannot return to their state of complete, oblivious investment in life. Instead, she is sidelined, an observer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EWhile on first view her neighbour appears stronger and more resilient than Faye, it becomes clear that blind optimism - a failure to face the truth of things - makes him the weaker person, and one who will increase the sum of suffering in the world as he chases unreachable fantasies of contentment. When Faye rejects his groaningly ham-fisted advances late in the novel, she asserts that she is different from him: she will not go on, trapped in a cycle of repetition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EFaye is at a moment in her life when she is breaking from her past and determining that she must live for herself, whatever that means. Yet, at the same time she undermines the idea of identity and indicates that she does not buy into the idea of an Authentic self:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EI thought the whole idea of a ‘real’ self might be illusory: you might feel, in other words, as though there were some separate, autonomous self within you, but perhaps that self didn’t actually exist.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EAt the same time Faye, ironically given the way her story is told, suggests that identity cannot be formed through the lens of other people, that many of the crutches she had used in the past no longer seem viable:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EAs it happened, I was no longer interested in literature as a form of snobbery or even self-definition. I had no desire to prove that one book was better than another; in fact, if I read something I admired, I found myself increasingly disinclined to mention it at all. What I knew personally to be true had come to seem unrelated to the process of persuading others. I did not, any longer, want to persuade anyone of anything.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EHowever, Faye feels exposed as a woman moving into middle-age, who cannot fall back on the identity of mother and wife in the way that many of her peers can. As one of the other characters at the end of \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E emphasises, a divorced woman is subject to the gaze of many people, who suddenly see her afresh.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EFor most of the people she knew, people in their forties, this was a time of softening and expanding, of expectations growing blurred, of running a little to seed or to fat after the exhaustion of the chase: she saw them beginning to relax and make themselves comfortable in their lives. But for her, coming back out into the world again, the lines were still sharp, the expectations undimmed: sometimes she felt as if she’d arrived at a party just as everyone else was leaving, leaving to go home together and sleep.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E’s themes are not only reflected in the characters that populate the novel, but the places too. That Faye’s trip is to Greece is significant. Greece, with its great history but which is now “on its knees and dying a slow and agonizing death.” Like Faye – and many of the other characters – Greece as a country is shown to have taken its good days for granted and complacently drifted towards the jolt that has awoken it.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/p\/advertising.html\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Advertise with Bibliofreak.net\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"300\" data-original-width=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjY5_9Ucn-_zxUhyphenhyphenwf2FwqkqRLQeW39qppPcFElPeXZ1O92ln_7nXjSRkGkzfbGi3PMvAlKhQ4GrkQNIyDdsGETz-eT9zFUPKJSObtra47-uGwf6Tvxrgtte4wEGVtibdOUTeii71tl\/s1600\/Sponsor+this+post.png\" style=\"padding-right: 10px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EGreece is not only relevant for its place in the modern world, but for its rich cultural history. Like \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3kVZ9Qh\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EHomer\u003C\/a\u003E’s '\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WMY3y2\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EOdyssey\u003C\/a\u003E', Faye’s odyssey makes the idea of homecoming central, but in \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E there is no hope of return for Faye. Thus, \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E is very sharply severed from the literary tradition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EIt is not simply the traditions of classical literature that \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E separates itself from, but the idea of the novel – a far more recent invention – too. For there is no plot in \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E, no story arc, and no conflict between characters. It would be easy to label \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E a work of negation, but instead I prefer to call it an experiential piece. Stories do not need to have a beginning, middle, and end to qualify as stories, despite what the neatly packaged tales Faye relays may have you believe. In fact, Faye’s way of narrativising the stories of other characters is an amusing paradox to how her own story is relayed. Cusk is teasing the reader, asking if they will suspend their credulity as one character after another, purportedly, relays a story that encapsulates the essence of their self. It is a knowing wink to the writers and readers of fiction.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EFor the most part, Cusk’s style is tight, her prose economical. But occasionally there is a joke that may be superfluous but really hits the spot. Having been asked to write a short story that includes an animal, one of the class that Faye teaches reports the following:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EHe had got up early to write his story, he said, though he had found it hard to introduce an animal into his chosen subject-matter, which was the hypocrisy of our religious leaders and the failure of public commentators to subject them to the proper scrutiny.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EThis will tickle anyone who has studied Creative Writing. And that is maybe a statement that applies to \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E more generally. It is a book that requires the reader to work and which will, I suspect, prove more fruitful for those not interested only in the consumption of fiction but the creation of it too. By the novel’s end, Faye remains an “outline, with all the detail filled in around it while the shape itself remained blank.” For the reader who does not wish to do the filling in, I suggest they give \u003Ci\u003EOutline\u003C\/i\u003E a wide berth; for everyone else, this is a book worth grappling with.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELike the sound of this book? Find it at the following places:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mXUXSW\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Amazon UK\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRd_5ylAM0LmovUcRGxhlEO9xAaUAQ3XmP72If7lkSP8M9rXnUZiN8zIJ4TQYIQw0xLP8hs-3i3k29pe1j4H_MC1wJj3rLdhBJGw_OEeihbEWv_pF8fb31LOfNvayKZEe95RrMMDrY\/s1600\/Amazon+UK+button.png\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=8095\u0026amp;awinaffid=311269\u0026amp;clickref=\u0026amp;p=%5B%5Bhttps:\/\/www.audible.co.uk\/pd\/Outline-Audiobook\/0571367534\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Audible\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhru8qopW3ePPqWITseddhdql5glsrwmu7_8BfjFUUGQsDjK4BvqeTGjd1pIbv68AbC9Uejl1OC2mMewyYO8le19sakzuRgIuW39K0sGvSvnQZTlAjejiIGUpvlWcsghpsrbukosEsl\/s1600\/Audible+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/link?id=4nzTRC2dTbg\u0026amp;offerid=329812.14463797726\u0026amp;type=2\u0026amp;murl=https:\/\/alibris.co.uk\/Outline-A-Novel-Rachel-Cusk\/book\/28004853\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Alibris UK\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhnZ8CmJ4qKISXN4vozeYvWLi-nceKzgVrFL2cPtygkSn3AosDnLvmflYeri4rBgqphbpXvRQEWcJwcIB1gdo_jZZe_rc0jVCupmWelcyFpqRVt6jNApscO4f6K2EsPhDyyTl9w8mWm\/s1600\/Alibris+UK+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/link?id=4nzTRC2dTbg\u0026amp;offerid=189673.14463796832\u0026amp;type=2\u0026amp;murl=https:\/\/www.alibris.com\/Outline-A-Novel-Rachel-Cusk\/book\/28004853\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Alibris US\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgcYbC6XE-8XKMncvD5yil8wHmNfev6lLvz4IfWPVnRzqYKtFfDmwR2ZYOw5iAvOPKoyoUcNmVEGZdY4g1MIAoZleJ_230WoZfprqoKHRLhG3PQigHim2kgaUCsGPZKqDtcCl5ozDm5\/s1600\/Alibris+US+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/feeds\/5860954307108076406\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2021\/09\/review-outline-by-rachel-cusk.html#comment-form","title":"2 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/5860954307108076406"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/5860954307108076406"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2021\/09\/review-outline-by-rachel-cusk.html","title":"Review: Outline by Rachel Cusk"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Matthew Selwyn"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00723650905588749638"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjN7zmj1TFQ8goDTEJ37IJBABxrTWAZkcYGXrt1rh03Lc5OLdGKO7g5W_Sphqb8DATYTQ8if2Qadwc9WofqV5d4ts1bPYy8U7F4njzDZHql6Uw4ha0tZsPGkh-WXiVDXVw\/s220\/unnamed.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/CtmQyfnALMs\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"2"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600022529355932646.post-597129267634621523"},"published":{"$t":"2019-07-06T14:26:00.001+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-10-06T13:58:13.064+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"1960s"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Fiction"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Muriel Spark"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Girls of Slender Means"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Review: The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ciframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G6tHp4HHtbQ\" width=\"750\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\nLong ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\nIt is 1945 and the end of war is in sight. Britain’s young people are having to refocus their aims for a world no longer at war. For the girls at The May of Teck Club (an establishment \"for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years\" in Kensington, London), the end of war will effect no significance change: they will go on, each seeking their own personal goals, be they a job in publishing, an inch off one’s waist, or – most popular a goal – a nice young man who could be considered marriage material.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMuriel Spark\u003C\/a\u003E’s \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JeUdo6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Girls of Slender Means\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E (1963) is a patchwork tale of the girls who live at The May of Teck Club as their independent stories stitch together to form a shared narrative of the Young Single Lady. We have Jane, who works in publishing and eats heavily to fuel her “brain work”, Joanna with her religious assuredness, Selina who collects men, and many more besides. The narrative circles around the small quarrels that are unavoidable when so many people are thrown together, the stories the girls tell one another and the small cruelties that are inevitable, but also the collegiate spirit, the Schiaparelli dress that is shared between them for special occasions, the bartering of small rationed luxuries for necessities and vice versa. But while the narrative circles around the small issues of daily life, one cannot help but feel disaster looming for the girls given the backdrop of (albeit fading) war and the rather slender opportunities for young ladies.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Yx6MAx\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark book cover\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"500\" data-original-width=\"329\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhy8e0Rw5g7oLRMKNag75D9SbbFliWM85KEKoz-ami2hNjJ9F_z-0Id_aXsOMclRPN9Mg8VDuMgqmDV2AHowP-88gv-JM8_F-J3pT2McPk1UHWZCxQ9xkT4IyGMZfyyMizeLWSdWvXg\/s400\/Cover_The-Girls-of-Slender-Means.png\" style=\"padding-left: 10px;\" width=\"262\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E captures the essence of shared living - of small concerns over weight, what one might wear on an important date, how to negotiate rationing to continue with daily beauty routines, and the like – and demonstrates the essential skill of a novelist of foregrounding the mundane while cranking up the stakes in the background. It is a trick that \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Jane%20Austen?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAusten\u003C\/a\u003E pulled off in all her novels, where the heroine’s opportunity for happiness and security through a good marriage ticked away in the background. \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E achieves a similar balance here.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nHer characters may be concerned with whether they can barter some soap or how they can lose an inch from their waist, but they are all looking for a future, all preparing for the day when they must decide upon their raison d'être. \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E’s women may have more options available to them than \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Jane%20Austen?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAusten\u003C\/a\u003E’s did more than a century earlier, but they are not so spoilt for choices that they can afford to be profligate with their time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIt would be easy to miss the weightiness of subject in such a slim volume where the focus seems to be on the bickering of young ladies who are at a loose end, but that is \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E’s brilliance. She has created a narrative that has that rare thing in fiction – the ring of quiet but absolute truth. Written in short scenes that are arranged not in a linear chronology but jumping about, the narrative never lacks a sense of rootedness. Even \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E’s comedy is wry and straight-faced, and interweaves with (rather than jutting out from) necessary exposition. Take this description of one of the characters:   \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\"We come now to Nicholas Farringdon in his thirty-third year. He was said to be an anarchist. No one at the May of Teck Club took this seriously as he looked quite normal: that is to say, he looked slightly dissipated, like the disappointing son of a good English family that he was.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E is wonderful at clipped but effective prose and in \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JeUdo6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Girls of Slender Means\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E she avoids having the story carry her into extremes. This is a brilliantly simple but deceptively effective look at life in all its smallness at the end of the war. It is a perfectly formed nugget from (in my opinion) an undervalued writer.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/p\/advertising.html\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"300\" data-original-width=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjY5_9Ucn-_zxUhyphenhyphenwf2FwqkqRLQeW39qppPcFElPeXZ1O92ln_7nXjSRkGkzfbGi3PMvAlKhQ4GrkQNIyDdsGETz-eT9zFUPKJSObtra47-uGwf6Tvxrgtte4wEGVtibdOUTeii71tl\/s1600\/Sponsor+this+post.png\" style=\"padding-right: 10px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EAs much as this is Paul’s story, it is It would be easy to miss the weightiness of subject in such a slim volume where the focus seems to be on the bickering of young ladies who are at a loose end, but that is \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E’s brilliance. She has created a narrative that has that rare thing in fiction – the ring of quiet but absolute truth. Written in short scenes that are arranged not in a linear chronology but jumping about, the narrative never lacks a sense of rootedness. Even \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E’s comedy is wry and straight-faced, and interweaves with (rather than jutting out from) necessary exposition. Take this description of one of the characters:   \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\nWe come now to Nicholas Farringdon in his thirty-third year. He was said to be an anarchist. No one at the May of Teck Club took this seriously as he looked quite normal: that is to say, he looked slightly dissipated, like the disappointing son of a good English family that he was.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Muriel%20Spark?\u0026amp;max-results=6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESpark\u003C\/a\u003E is wonderful at clipped but effective prose and in \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JeUdo6\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Girls of Slender Means\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E she avoids having the story carry her into extremes. This is a brilliantly simple but deceptively effective look at life in all its smallness at the end of the war. It is a perfectly formed nugget from (in my opinion) an undervalued writer.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELike the sound of this book? Find it at the following places:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2JenejH\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Amazon UK\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRd_5ylAM0LmovUcRGxhlEO9xAaUAQ3XmP72If7lkSP8M9rXnUZiN8zIJ4TQYIQw0xLP8hs-3i3k29pe1j4H_MC1wJj3rLdhBJGw_OEeihbEWv_pF8fb31LOfNvayKZEe95RrMMDrY\/s1600\/Amazon+UK+button.png\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=8095\u0026amp;awinaffid=311269\u0026amp;clickref=\u0026amp;p=%5B%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.audible.co.uk%2Fpd%2FThe-Girls-of-Slender-Means-Audiobook%2FB009H9VWA2%5D%5D\" imageanchor=\"1\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Audible\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhru8qopW3ePPqWITseddhdql5glsrwmu7_8BfjFUUGQsDjK4BvqeTGjd1pIbv68AbC9Uejl1OC2mMewyYO8le19sakzuRgIuW39K0sGvSvnQZTlAjejiIGUpvlWcsghpsrbukosEsl\/s1600\/Audible+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/link?id=4nzTRC2dTbg\u0026amp;offerid=329812.14463797726\u0026amp;type=2\u0026amp;murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alibris.co.uk%2Fsearch%2Fbooks%2Fisbn%2F9780140024265\" imageanchor=\"1\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Alibris UK\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhnZ8CmJ4qKISXN4vozeYvWLi-nceKzgVrFL2cPtygkSn3AosDnLvmflYeri4rBgqphbpXvRQEWcJwcIB1gdo_jZZe_rc0jVCupmWelcyFpqRVt6jNApscO4f6K2EsPhDyyTl9w8mWm\/s1600\/Alibris+UK+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/link?id=4nzTRC2dTbg\u0026amp;offerid=189673.14463796832\u0026amp;type=2\u0026amp;murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alibris.com%2Fsearch%2Fbooks%2Fisbn%2F9780140024265\" imageanchor=\"1\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Alibris US\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgcYbC6XE-8XKMncvD5yil8wHmNfev6lLvz4IfWPVnRzqYKtFfDmwR2ZYOw5iAvOPKoyoUcNmVEGZdY4g1MIAoZleJ_230WoZfprqoKHRLhG3PQigHim2kgaUCsGPZKqDtcCl5ozDm5\/s1600\/Alibris+US+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\n"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/feeds\/597129267634621523\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/07\/review-girls-of-slender-means-by-muriel.html#comment-form","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/597129267634621523"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/597129267634621523"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/07\/review-girls-of-slender-means-by-muriel.html","title":"Review: The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Matthew Selwyn"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00723650905588749638"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjN7zmj1TFQ8goDTEJ37IJBABxrTWAZkcYGXrt1rh03Lc5OLdGKO7g5W_Sphqb8DATYTQ8if2Qadwc9WofqV5d4ts1bPYy8U7F4njzDZHql6Uw4ha0tZsPGkh-WXiVDXVw\/s220\/unnamed.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/G6tHp4HHtbQ\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600022529355932646.post-3694805090841556739"},"published":{"$t":"2019-06-25T17:14:00.018+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-08-14T09:10:05.848+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2010s"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Fiction"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Julian Barnes"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Only Story"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Review: The Only Story by Julian Barnes"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ciframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-5XX78dD_vs\" width=\"750\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E“Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.”\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/blockquote\u003EEveryone has at least one story to tell: the story of their first love. This is Paul Casey’s. At the green age of nineteen, Paul finds himself at a loose end during a summer break from university. Back at his parents in a leafy Surrey suburb, he decides to join the local tennis club for a little distraction. Boy does he get it. Stumbling into a mixed doubles pairing with a Susan Macleod, there are more hormones than tennis balls flying about on court. Susan is intriguing. She is also 48 years old, married, and mother to girls older than Paul.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nTrapped in a loveless marriage with a throwback to the days of British Empire, Susan is tame (read dull) by cougar standards but to Paul she is a life-shaping story waiting to happen. Carrying on such an affair must have its downfalls but ringing disapproval from the locals and expulsion from the tennis club do nothing to dampen the romance. Indeed, for Paul, a little adversity only makes for a better tale to tell his chums. As he confesses, “I seemed to have landed on exactly the relationship of which my parents would most disapprove.” \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2ZO215U\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"The Only Story by Julian Barnes cover\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1600\" data-original-width=\"1018\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEh5YmlraaXnYNO-UWMYE0UDWSwh2U4B0NWYxpcUk6cXqO6BfSnX2N9dzXTUMTlG_NMJXoAojeODqVFvWT1h3mwa8f1JvKKYSOpwrDUMsrGaAI4abK2KlNrnqlQ1K6Tw5mVYEUZMSWfb\/s400\/81lyDFHG3OL.jpg\" style=\"padding-left: 10px;\" width=\"252\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nDespite Susan’s entreaties to find himself a young lady to go steady with, Paul refuses to leave his Mrs. Robinson. Sticking out the suburban adversities they face is admirable but when the older Paul (who narrates the story) begins to describe the uncomfortable domestic setup the lovers try to create as Paul reaches his twenties, catastrophe lurks. Susan, it turns out, is a drinker. Having split her family apart to be together, she is a lot for a young man to take on as Paul will learn. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAlmost forty years on from the publication of \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2013\/08\/review-metroland-by-julian-barnes.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMetroland\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/search\/label\/Julian%20Barnes\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EJulian Barnes\u003C\/a\u003E finds himself back in the suburbs for more growing pains. \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2XvYo6Y\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E (2018), however, comes from a more mature writer and there are traces of the melancholy of the old looking back on their youth that was so brilliantly done in \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2012\/05\/review-sense-of-ending-by-julian-barnes.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Sense of an Ending\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E. Where that novel was awarded the Booker Prize in 2011, \u003Ci\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/i\u003E has received a more luke warm reception from the critics. Indeed, “luke warm” is a pretty accurate two-word review of the book.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIt is always unfair to judge a book against its authors back catalogue, but it is also inevitable. Here we have an older Paul looking back across formative periods of his life; in \u003Ci\u003EThe Sense of an Ending\u003C\/i\u003E we had Tony Webster appraising his younger self. But where Tony’s story – despite his resistance to experience - managed to evoke a great deal of suffering and self-deception that amounted to a beautiful rumination on the power of memory to deceive and the melancholy pains of a life viewed from its end, Paul’s feels lifeless by comparison no matter how wildly he attempts to break from his parent’s ‘boring’ generation.   \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPaul’s telling of his only story is different to Tony’s. Barnes allows his latest creation to slip into indulgences and asides, bringing him closer to the reality of one’s own self-narrative. As he discusses his own storytelling technique, Paul observes that, “there are things I can’t be bothered to tell you.” But there are things he certainly \u003Ci\u003Edoes\u003C\/i\u003E bother to tell us that are not required for the story’s progression – whole characters, in fact, crop up who serve very little purpose in moving the plot forward. With details sprinkled somewhat haphazardly and characters evolving out of the reader’s sight, there is something very affecting about a story viewed from a narrator who cares only partly about the art of fiction.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSome readers will find this style too dry to be enjoyable, however. For myself, I had forgotten within a few weeks of finishing the book that I had ever read it. I can also recall more lines and details from Barnes’s previous three or four novels than this one, despite having read them some time ago (and my memory being appalling). I am not sure this is a condemnation of \u003Ci\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/i\u003E but I think it does mark it out as a very particular type of fiction. For those that embrace psychological realism, this will be a book to excavate with psychoanalytical detail; for others who prefer a little more artifice in their fiction (and I think I may fall into this camp), \u003Ci\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/i\u003E will be less exhilarating.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGiven that the narrative is told in a strongly realist style, the content of the story is groaning with fictional conceit. A young man seducing (and seduced by) an older woman who will offer him a way out of childhood but later cause him no end of questions and regrets, is the sort of plot that could be pulled from countless French novels – \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2012\/05\/review-sense-of-ending-by-julian-barnes.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EFlaubert\u003C\/a\u003E, one of Barnes’s acknowledged pleasures, would have happily settled on such a plot. Paul would deny it - “You might think: French novels, older woman teaching ‘the arts of love’ to younger man, ohh la la. But there was nothing French about our relationship, or about us. We were English, and so had only those morally laden English words to deal with: words like scarlet woman, and adulteress.” - but it does not have the ring of reality. Or, perhaps it is fairer to say, it smacks of being an exceptional story. By telling the story in such a realistic manner, Barnes creates a problem for himself: the content of the story must be out of the ordinary to keep the reader’s attention but by doing this, the overall tone of psychological realism is compromised.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nDespite that, Barnes is at his normal level of technical excellence. His prose is crisp and unobtrusive, even if there are fewer sparkling sentences to admire in this than in some of his recent efforts. Paul’s story is told from the first-person perspective at the novel’s start, but this gives way to second-person, and finally third- as Paul grows more distant from his youthful, vital self. This works nicely and by the end, Paul is detached not just from himself but from the idea of love, which he treats more as a philosophical question than an emotion to be experienced. Love still affects him, however, even if it is observed rather than experienced. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E“He was at ease with the world, watching other people’s lives develop. No, that was too grand a way of putting it: he was observing the young get cheerfully drunk and turn their minds to sex, romance, and something more. But though he was indulgent — even sentimental — about the young, and protective of their hopes, there was one scene he was superstitious about, and preferred not to witness: the moment when they flung away their lives because it just felt so right—when, for instance, a smiling waiter delivered a mound of mango sorbet with an engagement ring glittering in its domed apex, and a bright-eyed proposer fell to bended knee in the sand […] The fear of such a scene would often lead him to an early night.”\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/p\/advertising.html\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"300\" data-original-width=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjY5_9Ucn-_zxUhyphenhyphenwf2FwqkqRLQeW39qppPcFElPeXZ1O92ln_7nXjSRkGkzfbGi3PMvAlKhQ4GrkQNIyDdsGETz-eT9zFUPKJSObtra47-uGwf6Tvxrgtte4wEGVtibdOUTeii71tl\/s1600\/Sponsor+this+post.png\" style=\"padding-right: 10px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EAs much as this is Paul’s story, it is Susan’s too. Indeed, without Susan – with her shy, suburban frustration – there would be no story. She bridges the gap between the “played out” wartime generation and the new, freer youth coming through. There is no happiness with her alcoholic husband but her escape with her young lover proves barely more successful. Her wry witticisms give way to drink-induced slurs, and Paul becomes as useful as her past husband, neither of whom truly understand her.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe fact that Paul is unable to pull Susan from her depression and alcoholism having taken her away from her family, causes him to search his soul. That he is still doing this 50 years after the affair gives the title an ironic bent: is first love the \u003Ci\u003Eonly\u003C\/i\u003E story, or is it \u003Ci\u003EPaul’s\u003C\/i\u003E only story having allowed it to clip his life beyond opportunity for any further stories of note. Just as he clung to Susan for longer than was sensible in his youth, Paul is guilty of holding onto (and being defined by) his only story for longer than is healthy. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/i\u003E is a funny sort of novel. The premise has been so heavily done in fiction as has its period (Paul is a young man who experienced the 1960’s sexual awakening) that its bare bones sound rather trite. But Barnes’s ability to permeate to the foundations of his characters and wrench every last drop of pain from their story lifts the novel. It is an interesting comparison piece to \u003Ci\u003EThe Sense of an Ending\u003C\/i\u003E – one protagonist running from youthful love, the other embracing it – but \u003Ci\u003EThe Only Story\u003C\/i\u003E never really erupts into anything spectacular and I strongly suspect it will not go down as one of Barnes’s ‘must-read’ efforts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELike the sound of this book? Find it at the following places:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2X6v0oj\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2X6v0oj\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Amazon UK\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRd_5ylAM0LmovUcRGxhlEO9xAaUAQ3XmP72If7lkSP8M9rXnUZiN8zIJ4TQYIQw0xLP8hs-3i3k29pe1j4H_MC1wJj3rLdhBJGw_OEeihbEWv_pF8fb31LOfNvayKZEe95RrMMDrY\/s1600\/Amazon+UK+button.png\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2FJx7DX\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Amazon US\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" 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src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgcYbC6XE-8XKMncvD5yil8wHmNfev6lLvz4IfWPVnRzqYKtFfDmwR2ZYOw5iAvOPKoyoUcNmVEGZdY4g1MIAoZleJ_230WoZfprqoKHRLhG3PQigHim2kgaUCsGPZKqDtcCl5ozDm5\/s1600\/Alibris+US+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/feeds\/3694805090841556739\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-only-story-by-julian-barnes.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/3694805090841556739"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/3694805090841556739"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-only-story-by-julian-barnes.html","title":"Review: The Only Story by Julian Barnes"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Matthew Selwyn"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00723650905588749638"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjN7zmj1TFQ8goDTEJ37IJBABxrTWAZkcYGXrt1rh03Lc5OLdGKO7g5W_Sphqb8DATYTQ8if2Qadwc9WofqV5d4ts1bPYy8U7F4njzDZHql6Uw4ha0tZsPGkh-WXiVDXVw\/s220\/unnamed.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/-5XX78dD_vs\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600022529355932646.post-7110318623371398230"},"published":{"$t":"2019-06-18T07:47:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-07-04T15:27:07.522+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"\/ Review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"2010s"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Ann Morgan"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Crossing Over"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Fiction"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Review: Crossing Over by Ann Morgan"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ciframe width=\"750\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I0AAdpg-3eY\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nFor many, crossing a border barely registers as an experience; for others, it can be a matter of life and death. Jonah falls into the latter category. A young man from Malawi who is driven from his homeland by a savage famine, Jonah comes to England on the promise of a better life. But before he has set foot on British soil, the rest of his party have lost their deadly gamble and he is left alone to finish his journey. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nFor many, one’s memories are the bedrock of identity; for others, they are a troubling puzzle to be solved. Edie falls into the latter category. Frustrated by all that lies beyond her grasp, she is struggling to hide her troubles from the ‘meddling’ WI women in town but struggling just as much to cope alone.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2XSxGm3\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Crossing Over by Ann Morgan book cover\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1600\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiwubSYZEoYtNPmdQsJnMGd5pTPvSyDwIa8etAG5bXcwmQ_H-afb1KhiOy9DRM-Pw26ABi96imLvUffL8X_-akVkybHE-_2hM1ubJALLFyoY2n5Yllh57y4poSb5Jv-3kB8kjPzAS1n\/s320\/Crossing-Over.jpg\" style=\"padding-left: 10px;\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Ilo4ux\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECrossing Over\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E (2019) is the story of these two very different lives intersecting. Arriving in England alone, Jonah takes refuge in an empty barn – \u003Ci\u003EEdie's\u003C\/i\u003E empty barn – but little does he know, this is not the first time the barn has been used to harbour someone avoiding the authorities. When Jonah is eventually discovered by Edie and pulled into her life as an unofficial carer, it becomes clear that during the second world war a young deserter had also hidden out in the barn. Back then, a pubescent Edie had fallen into a lopsided romance with the soldier; now, her new stowaway sparks memories long forgotten. Can Jonah help Edie navigate her deepening dementia, and can he get himself to London and the life he was promised in England among these strange Mzungu people? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nFrom the story’s blurb, it is fairly clear how the story will unfold – we have two lives that will be brought together, and an unusual but mutually beneficial connection will be formed. However, with the volume of media stories about (failed) crossings of the English channel by desperate asylum seekers, it is no bad thing to have a story that begins to humanise the experience of the desperate folks who make such a perilous journey. Equally, those who suffer with dementia often do so out of sight. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe parallels between Jonah’s and Edie’s current predicament are well drawn out without being heavy handed. Both have felt the links to their past ruptured almost to the point of failure. Jonah struggles to contact his friends and family back home in Malawi and when he does, he finds that it is not just his new geography that separates him from his previous life. Conversely, Edie is rooted in the same spot she has spent her past 70+ years, but her mind allows her only confused glimpses of her past. Whether spatial or temporal, the distance from the main characters’ pasts aches throughout their shared narrative. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWith two central characters experiencing such distinctive crises, it is a challenge for an author who won’t have first-hand experience of either circumstance to write their characters sensitively. \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2IHjqWE\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAnn Morgan\u003C\/a\u003E does this. For those who aren’t familiar with Morgan, a few years back she set herself the unenviable task of reading a book from every country on Earth (details of which can be found on her blog: \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ayearofreadingtheworld.com\/\"\u003Eayearofreadingtheworld.com\u003C\/a\u003E). Couple this with a good deal of travel, and an author is about as prepared as they can be to approach characters whose experience is so vastly different from their own.   \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/p\/advertising.html\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"300\" data-original-width=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjY5_9Ucn-_zxUhyphenhyphenwf2FwqkqRLQeW39qppPcFElPeXZ1O92ln_7nXjSRkGkzfbGi3PMvAlKhQ4GrkQNIyDdsGETz-eT9zFUPKJSObtra47-uGwf6Tvxrgtte4wEGVtibdOUTeii71tl\/s1600\/Sponsor+this+post.png\" style=\"padding-right: 10px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003ELet’s unpack this a little bit. Jonah is travelling from Malawi (a place Morgan has spent some time) and is fascinated by many British customs. It is amusing and tender to find him perplexed by so many of these and one can’t help but smile when he mishears Edie’s name and refers to her as ET for most of the story (the significance of ET as an allusion should be clear). But while one smiles at instances like this, Morgan does hit a few discordant notes. These tend to come not in the dialogue of her characters but when she makes use of free indirect discourse. Here we find prose that squeezes odd words (like gelatinous, for example) or colloquial phrases into Jonah’s voice. For a character that is often baffled by the nuances of the English language, this feels awkward. However, \u003Ci\u003ECrossing Over\u003C\/i\u003E is only available as an audiobook currently, which makes it a little harder to determine what comes from the page and what comes from the actor’s interpretation in terms of whose pattern of speech the narration is mimicking.         \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBy contrast, Edie is roundly a success: her defiance, her jumping self-identity that frequently skips back to her as a young woman, her swings of mood, are all handled well. When she (internally) ferociously chastises her friends of many decades for small mistakes, it is amusing and evidence of both her current and previous selves. As one learns more about Edie and her past romance with the stowaway soldier, the ticks of her personality become clearer and more understandable. She is vulnerable and spiky – a combination that feels apt for her situation. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003ECrossing Over\u003C\/i\u003E has the feel of a pleasantly predictable dive into two worlds, neither of which are comfortable. As a reader, one has very little fear about where things are going but instead invests in empathising with the main characters. For me, this felt a little safe – the type of book I could comfortably recommend to anyone’s mum without fearing they would be confused or disturbed by it – and I wanted to be challenged more. This is all me in terms of expectations, however. If this was a nice, nine o’clock drama on the BBC (as it could easily be), the \u003Ci\u003ERadio Times\u003C\/i\u003E would give it two thumbs up, but I would skip it.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELike the sound of this book? Find it at the following places:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2RjzjGM\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRd_5ylAM0LmovUcRGxhlEO9xAaUAQ3XmP72If7lkSP8M9rXnUZiN8zIJ4TQYIQw0xLP8hs-3i3k29pe1j4H_MC1wJj3rLdhBJGw_OEeihbEWv_pF8fb31LOfNvayKZEe95RrMMDrY\/s1600\/Amazon+UK+button.png\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2MQ7cjP\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiKDidc2X-pXXBrkc7rWxDPiA2GyJ15dUDBmxVG8W20yqOgX-kqqVioVdNz5Wg6llztObhq7FHIAjRDhDTz-TH69qpxoSK-Jny-UVlb2AqvAHRumMP0FwACftskrVnS1bNI4xLlK5P1\/s1600\/Amazon+US+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=8095\u0026awinaffid=311269\u0026clickref=\u0026p=%5B%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.audible.co.uk%2Fpd%2FCrossing-Over-Audiobook%2FB07P149YK9%5D%5D\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgtZB7A7pSkBYUY8i2Yw9ZFe_pZvCpVHCM5-uCqbARgQeLgDQy6TaBnBifWolVX9y_4bFIF5lskWVRp984Nv6LXqilEKyCenmUO1tzUfDoPAju2NOzt_2DfiFbBLUcgayzd7llfPVa3\/s1600\/Audible+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/feeds\/7110318623371398230\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-crossing-over-by-ann-morgan.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/7110318623371398230"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/7110318623371398230"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-crossing-over-by-ann-morgan.html","title":"Review: Crossing Over by Ann Morgan"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Matthew Selwyn"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00723650905588749638"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjN7zmj1TFQ8goDTEJ37IJBABxrTWAZkcYGXrt1rh03Lc5OLdGKO7g5W_Sphqb8DATYTQ8if2Qadwc9WofqV5d4ts1bPYy8U7F4njzDZHql6Uw4ha0tZsPGkh-WXiVDXVw\/s220\/unnamed.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/I0AAdpg-3eY\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6600022529355932646.post-7886700031231894799"},"published":{"$t":"2019-06-04T08:54:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-07-04T15:28:39.727+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"\/ Review"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"1980s"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Anne Tyler"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Fiction"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Accidental Tourist"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Review: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Ciframe width=\"750\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-VD_qAa13mM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E“People could, in fact, be used up -- could use each other up, could be of no further help to each other”\u003C\/blockquote\u003EMacon and Sarah Leary are failing. After years of marriage, the death of their son in a hold-up a year back has given them each a fresh view on the world. A fresh view on each other. Macon enjoys himself in moderation: routine and stability give him a way to negotiate life. Sarah (outwardly) feels more. Sarah also wants a divorce.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nNothing typifies Macon Leary better than his job. Macon writes guidebooks for businessmen who have to travel but prefer not to. His series (entitled The Accidental Tourist) guides these unwilling travellers through the pitfalls of unknown experience and details exactly how they can make any trip a home-away-from-home: \"Other travellers hoped to discover distinctive local wines; Macon's readers searched for pasteurized and homogenized milk.\" \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WdU3AL\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler cover\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"475\" data-original-width=\"313\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiZ6n1OfLg3lm9pcQdKOqqFo4KZ5D6JsgS6Lt1PFegKpfNCh1wZRp6z1TLewNgudIG5pOpp47SVxRbft_cWzudmZ6IrbMhgMbzDpQ4_Zc8UXQstxqd2ti3Pk8qH3tMI-x1YEUwgNLXa\/s400\/60792.jpg\" style=\"padding-left: 10px;\" width=\"262\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EBy comparison, Sarah is – according to Macon – sloppy and disorganised. An English teacher who expresses herself very differently from her husband, she no longer finds amusement in Macon’s strict routines. After their son Ethan’s murder, Macon and Sarah grew apart: there were \"months when everything either of them said was wrong.\"  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGrief is a very personal thing: there is no right or wrong way to negotiate it. Shared grief is a more complex situation. Where Sarah needs hope and support, Macon retreats into his routines and his pessimistic view of life. When Sarah admits, “Now that Ethan's dead I sometimes wonder if there's any point to life,\" Macon responds, “It never seemed to me there was all that much point to begin with.” With such markedly different coping strategies, the Learys are headed for separation. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nEthan gone and Sarah moved out of the family home, Macon’s life of order is plunged into relative chaos. Where previously he had retreated into his work to ward off a sense of danger, left alone he falls into a depression that sees him failing to care for his home or himself. He pops corn in the bedroom and cocoons himself in a set of sewn up bedding. When Sarah told Macon, “there's something so muffled about the way you experience things ... You're encased. You're like something in a capsule. You're a dried up kernel of a man that nothing real penetrates,” she was right but after her departure he drifts into an ever more extreme isolation from the outside world. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nTwo things help move Macon’s story forwards. Firstly, he breaks his leg and goes to live with his siblings where he is cared for by his sister Rose, who also plays maid to Macon’s brothers, Porter and Charles. Secondly, he encounters Muriel Pritchett. A single mother who does all sorts of jobs to make ends meet, Muriel trains Macon’s dog after it turns nasty on a few people. She is a scrappy younger woman from the other side of Baltimore who brings Macon out of himself (where have we seen a plot like this before?) and dried up Macon Leary finds a surrogate for his wife in Muriel and for Ethan in her son. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIronically, it is Macon’s apathy following his wife’s departure that allows the plucky Muriel to move in on him. Like Meursault in \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2012\/02\/review-outsider-by-albert-camus.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Outsider\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E, he is swept along by life. Muriel will eventually change that. She gives him a chance to connect with his grief, to make decisions for himself, and to care about the world again until he finds \"a pleasant kind of sorrow sweeping through him. Oh, his life had regained all its old perils. He was forced to worry once again about nuclear war and the future of the planet.\" The question is, in causing this transformation in Macon, has Muriel offered all she has to give – will Macon return to Sarah a refreshed man, or is it his marriage that is used up? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhile the themes of \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2KpaHeh\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Accidental Tourist\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E are heavy – incoherent violence, isolation, grief – Tyler wrings a great deal of humour from her story too. Macon’s fastidious following of rules he sets himself creates a series of small domestic farces that are as laughable as they are melancholy. Being able to laugh at Macon’s flaws while also recognising them as acutely human, gives the reader a way into the book. Tyler does this brilliantly. However, \u003Ci\u003EThe Accidental Tourist\u003C\/i\u003E does not rely solely on its humour to bring readers in. Open any page and one finds not the long, dense passages or experimental grammar of literary fiction, but punchy paragraphs and plenty of dialogue. This is a book for any reader. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPerhaps the greatest achievement of \u003Ci\u003EThe Accidental Tourist\u003C\/i\u003E is how brilliantly Tyler inhabits the male psyche. Her portrayal of Macon and the inner workings of his mind shows a deep understanding of a reality of which Tyler does not have first-hand experience. Fundamentally, this is the key skill of any novelist and for an aspiring writer, \u003Ci\u003EThe Accidental Tourist\u003C\/i\u003E is a case study in adopting a foreign viewpoint. In fact, Tyler has the edge over many male novelists, who allow their middle-aged male characters to run into fantasy. Macon is burdened with no contrived virility or masculine posturing: he is a man without glamour, without stimulating flaws.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/p\/advertising.html\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"300\" data-original-width=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjY5_9Ucn-_zxUhyphenhyphenwf2FwqkqRLQeW39qppPcFElPeXZ1O92ln_7nXjSRkGkzfbGi3PMvAlKhQ4GrkQNIyDdsGETz-eT9zFUPKJSObtra47-uGwf6Tvxrgtte4wEGVtibdOUTeii71tl\/s1600\/Sponsor+this+post.png\" style=\"padding-right: 10px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EMacon does, however, embody a paradox played out in most of the characters here: the nostalgia for home but also an aversion to its reality. When Macon breaks his leg and goes to stay with his siblings, the reader sees this played out over several different lives. All the Leary children oscillate between marriages and returning to the family home for a different kind of domesticity. The sibling relationship is important and it appears that none of the Learys are able to find a partner who can recreate what they have when they are with their siblings. The relationship between brothers and sisters is underrepresented in fiction given how formative it is. There are no sexual undertones here, no sense that there is anything odd about the Leary troupe. They are simply a group of siblings who have found a way to co-habit and are constantly looking to replicate that in wider relationships. The card game they invented and play regularly but which none of their partners can understand, is symptomatic of this. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003EThe Accidental Tourist\u003C\/i\u003E is the sort of book aspiring writers should read. It is brilliant without showing off, and full of lessons to be learnt. Like all of Tyler’s fiction (and most fiction worth reading), it is chiefly concerned with how people affect one another, how one person can bring out certain qualities in another. As Macon reflects towards the end of the novel: “[M]aybe it's not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when you're with them.” The order of his life needs the chaos of another’s to bring it balance.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nI do have one problem with the novel and that is the ending. With the rest of the story lacking in sentimentality, the finale seems to hurl the reader into a quite different story where ends must be tied up neatly. To that point, however, the book is so well executed that I can forgive it a slightly soggy ending. I’d recommend this to anyone who is interested in life in fiction (as opposed to glamour and escapism).   \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELike the sound of this book? Find it at the following places:\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2QM36YC\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRd_5ylAM0LmovUcRGxhlEO9xAaUAQ3XmP72If7lkSP8M9rXnUZiN8zIJ4TQYIQw0xLP8hs-3i3k29pe1j4H_MC1wJj3rLdhBJGw_OEeihbEWv_pF8fb31LOfNvayKZEe95RrMMDrY\/s1600\/Amazon+UK+button.png\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WmPbhr\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiKDidc2X-pXXBrkc7rWxDPiA2GyJ15dUDBmxVG8W20yqOgX-kqqVioVdNz5Wg6llztObhq7FHIAjRDhDTz-TH69qpxoSK-Jny-UVlb2AqvAHRumMP0FwACftskrVnS1bNI4xLlK5P1\/s1600\/Amazon+US+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=8095\u0026amp;awinaffid=311269\u0026amp;clickref=\u0026amp;p=%5B%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.audible.co.uk%2Fpd%2FThe-Accidental-Tourist-Audiobook%2FB00KB7KGE2%5D%5D\" imageanchor=\"1\" target=\"blank\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"Find book at Audible\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"46\" data-original-width=\"103\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhru8qopW3ePPqWITseddhdql5glsrwmu7_8BfjFUUGQsDjK4BvqeTGjd1pIbv68AbC9Uejl1OC2mMewyYO8le19sakzuRgIuW39K0sGvSvnQZTlAjejiIGUpvlWcsghpsrbukosEsl\/s1600\/Audible+button.png\" style=\"padding-left: 5px;\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/feeds\/7886700031231894799\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-accidental-tourist-by-anne-tyler.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/7886700031231894799"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/6600022529355932646\/posts\/default\/7886700031231894799"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https:\/\/www.bibliofreak.net\/2019\/06\/review-accidental-tourist-by-anne-tyler.html","title":"Review: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Matthew Selwyn"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00723650905588749638"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"32","src":"\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjN7zmj1TFQ8goDTEJ37IJBABxrTWAZkcYGXrt1rh03Lc5OLdGKO7g5W_Sphqb8DATYTQ8if2Qadwc9WofqV5d4ts1bPYy8U7F4njzDZHql6Uw4ha0tZsPGkh-WXiVDXVw\/s220\/unnamed.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/-VD_qAa13mM\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});