Review: Wise Children by Angela Carter

Wise Children was written by Angela Carter in 1991, the last of her nine novels, published before her death in 1992.

The story is a complex tale – set on the day of identical twins Dora (the narrator) and Nora Chance’s 75th birthday, it is a memoir of their personal lives as illegitimate twin daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, a British theatrical legend, and their professional lives as vaudeville ‘hoofers’ – the Lucky Chances. All of the vignettes recollected by Dora lead towards the dénouement set at their father’s centennial party.

Central to the theme of the book – emphasised by the choice of quotations used at the outset of the novel – is the relationship between mothers and daughters ("Father is a hypothesis but mother is a fact"), and there is a very matriarchal slant to the story. This is very in keeping with Carter’s other works, which emphasise the power held by women in determining their own destinies.

At times the thread of the narrative is difficult to follow – the timeline jumps around incessantly and there is (fittingly for a novel about theatric types) a large cast of supporting characters – but Carter’s clever use of language to describe situations and events and her talent in bringing the principals to life make this a joy to read.

Wise Children requires one to suspend belief at times due to its use of magical realism, but if you can get to grips with the multiple pairs of twins, the numerous illegitimacies and the constant Shakespearian motif, then the highs and lows in the book will really tug at your heart strings. There’s also plenty of bawdy humour to keep the pace up.

A Love Poem

In the middle of a wood

     lived a man who understood

          what it felt like, to be alone



If it weren’t for the trees,

     gently blowing in the breeze,

          there wouldn’t be any sound



But on a fine spring morn,

     not long since the day had dawned,

          a carriage came his way



And as the horse went by

     it happened suddenly,

          the noble beast threw a shoe



Springing up upon the sound,

     he saw laying on the ground,

          a maiden, warm and fair



He felt his beating heart

     deftly pierced by Cupid’s dart

          on seeing loves true form



The maiden felt the same

     and they kindled passions flame

          vowing ne’er to be apart



They swiftly named a day,

     to be wed without delay,

          and plighted each their troth



So happy were the pair,

     so full of life, so free of care

          they couldn’t help but beam



So the home amongst the beech,

     where once love was out of reach,

          was filled with laughter e’remore.

Review: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s last finished novel, Persuasion was printed in 1818, one year after her death at the age of 41.

The story follows Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of a self-satisfied popinjay Baronet, who is persuaded against marrying Frederick Wentworth for love, at the age of nineteen, by her deceased mother’s friend Lady Russell, due to his lack of connections or fortune.

Eight years later Anne is still unmarried and, having lost the bloom of youth, has had ample time to regret being so easily swayed from her choice. Then, owing to a change in circumstance to her family’s fortunes, the now Captain Wentworth reappears in her social circles, with rank and wealth on his side, owing to an illustrious naval career in the Napoleonic Wars. Whilst he looks certain to become attached to one of Anne’s companions, Anne’s cousin William Elliot – on whom the family fortune is entailed – begins to court our heroine.

Whilst the outcome of the tale is never in doubt (it is Austen after all, where happy endings are de rigueur), the circuitous paths Anne must tread and the compassion that the reader feels for her, transform what could be regarded as too simple a plot in to an engaging love story.

The character of Anne Elliott has an added degree of poignancy when one knows a little more about her author. Austen accepted a financially advantageous proposal in her mid twenties but broke it off soon after, when she realised that she could not marry without some degree of affection. This was to be the only proposal she received, and it could be implied that Anne, in receiving her second proposal at such a late age, was her vehicle for experiencing romantic attachment vicariously.

Perhaps less well-loved that other Austen novels, Persuasion is nevertheless an outstanding read, full of the author’s usual rigorous observations on the human condition and ready wit.

Library Thing widgets

I've been browsing the excellent Library Thing website this morning and realised, now that I have this blog, I can use some of their blog widgets to brighten up this page. The first one I've decided to try is the random book covers doo-dah, so here it is.....



Fingers crossed it behaves itself!

Review: The Rotter's Club by Jonathan Coe

The Rotters’ Club is Jonathan Coe’s 6th novel and winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2001. The story follows the lives of teenager Benjamin Trotter – who composes pieces of music for a girl he has never spoken to – his friends and their families growing up in 1970s Birmingham. Set amidst a backdrop of economic turmoil, increasing struggles between Government and the workers, and more than casual racism, art too closely imitates life for a reader in late 2008…

The story is largely told from the point of view of Benjamin (or Bent Rotter as he is known to his school friends), but the narrative cleverly weaves in events from the perspective of other characters and often uses articles from the school magazine, letters and diary entries to fill in the gaps in the reader’s knowledge and round out the story. I’ve seen it labelled as a ‘coming of age’ novel, but really the issues that it deals with make it so much more than that.

All of the characters are engaging, and are always very clearly realised. From the Philip Chase, Benjamin’s best friend, who has a minor obsession with all things Tolkien, to Bill Anderton, having an extra-marital fling with a typist from the Longbridge factory where he works. True to life the cast are not always pleasant, but are very often laugh-out-loud funny.

Jonathan Coe is an author fast becoming one of my favourites. I enjoyed the Rotters’ Club immensely and would heartily recommend it, particularly if you’re old enough to remember the birth of punk, the three-day week, and the rise of the Thatcher government. My only criticism was going to be that it ended too soon, but then I turned the final page to see that there is a sequel. My bookshelves runneth over.