Book Review: Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature by Emma Donoghue

This fascinating non-fiction book examines the representation of desire between woman in literature in six section: 'Travesties', 'Inseparables', 'Rivals', 'Monsters', 'Detection' and 'Out'. While it's full of detail and so will please any scholars interested in the subject, Inseparable is also an easy, sometimes amusing, read for non-academics. Donoghue infuses her non-fiction analysis with the same edge of humour that I enjoy so much in her fiction. Though, for me, this subject could never be dry and boring, she ensures it isn't so.

The 'Travesties' section looks at cross-dressing within texts from 990 onwards, including brief discussions on Shakespeare, Margaret Cavendish and Theophile Gautier amongst others. It examines the recurring depictions of 'The Female Bridegroom' and 'The Male Amazon' in a chapter that looks at the causes and consequences of cross-dressing and its heyday in the drama of the seventeeth century.

'Inseparables' begins with the Biblical account of Ruth and Naomi and covers the representation of love based on similarity. As this is one of my areas of interest, I perhaps found this chapter the most interesting, particularly the discussion on Charlotte Bronte's Shirley. It also highlighted some works I want to read, both for pleasure and study - as every chapter did.

'Rivals' is a fascinating analysis of what happens when a woman and man compete for the same love. It starts with Sappho and goes through Shakespeare, Richardson and some rather brilliant-sounding French texts before moving on to discuss what happens when the rivalry bubbles over. It examined some texts I was already familiar with, such as The Rainbow and The Fox, but, again, the ones I found most intriguing were the ones I've yet to read, most notably The Bostonians.

Perhaps the chapter on 'Monsters' contains the themes most familiar to observers of fiction about desire between women. It's interesting to see the texts these stereotypes stemmed from then we take a short tour through Dickens, Hardy and others. This is quite an uncomfortable chapter, though I particularly liked the section on ghost stories.

The fifth chapter on 'Detection' provided me with plenty of books I want to read somewhere down the line. Again, desire between women is a theme pretty familiar to readers of the crime genre and it looks at writers including Ruth Rendell, Agatha Christie and P.D. James. Given my sensation fiction roots, I was also pleased to see a discussion of The Woman in White in this chapter followed by an examination of two novels by Sarah Waters.

'Out', the final chapter, looks at the 'awakening' motif in texts from George Moore onwards. It's a nice shift in tone from the other chapters, looking at declared love instead of coded texts, but it also highlights the complexities of modern life. There's a section here on 'first love' which covers several texts I was already familiar with and, once more, a number of works mentioned in this chapter are now begging to be read.

Ultimately, Emma Donoghue has written a book that is both informative and fascinating. Her subject knowledge is exemplary and her style engaging. I've already referred back to Inseparable for academic work and I have no doubt I'll be doing that again fairly frequently. Highly recommended!

Book Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Room is an entrancing story about Jack, a boy who's just turned five and lives in a locked room with his Ma and believes that they are the only things that are real at the things in Room. Through the eyes of this little boy, the reader experiences an unimaginable situation that he perceives as normal. Then his Ma tells him the truth - that everything he sees on the television screen is real and that there's a world outside of Room.

What a draining book this is to read. With a book as lauded as this, you sometimes doubt it'll be as good as they proclaim and perhaps that's why it's been sat on my shelf for years. However, it was well worth the wait and is one of those books I'll envy others for still having the opportunity of coming to it fresh. It certainly isn't a happy book so I can't say you'll 'enjoy' it in any conventional sense of the word. Nevertheless, it's extremely well-written and engrossing and I can't think of a negative aspect of it. The detail of Room is astounding. Every action and situation is carefully thought out and depicted through Jack's eyes, with the reader able to interpret both the situation itself and the frustrations of his mother. Donoghue spends just the right amount of time in that stasis situation before altering it and the rest of the book is engrossing for very different reasons.

It's difficult to review a book like this without explaining everything and it's also very difficult to appreciate it if you haven't lived for at least a few pages in Jack's company. So I'll leave this review as a short one, just saying that Room lives up to every fantastic thing ever said about it.

This book was read as part of the TBR Challenge 2014, details here.

Book Review: Love Alters ed. Emma Donoghue

Love Alters: Lesbian Stories, previously released as The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Short Stories, includes 29 stories split into the categories of 'Child's Play', 'Present Tense', 'Family Values', 'Past Times' and 'Possibilities'. These rough categories allow for some distinction as you go through the book but, really, the stories are generally wildly different to each other. It draws together authors from across the world with some brilliant stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, which analyse the finer points of life. The overarching banner may be 'lesbian short stories' but there's far more to this collection than that.

There are two stories that stick in my mind. The first, 'Self-Deliverance' by Elise D'Haene, is a checklist compiled by a dying man, Teddy, and his two friends, Alf and Ginnie. Meandering back and forth, D'Haene creates a story that's both rooted in the immediate problem yet tells you all you need to know about the characters. The second story, 'Did'ja Ever Hear of a Goolieguy?' by Anne Cameron follows a woman fleeing from her suffocating life with her partner who travels back home. Part myth, part reality, this one really struck me for reasons I can't define. Perhaps it was only that everything the narrator experiences is a thought-provoking metaphor for something else.

The 'Past Times' section throws up some interesting work. 'The Catherine Trilogy' by Ingrid MacDonald, the longest piece in the book, follows the life of a woman who passes her life as a man in 18th century Europe. I was hooked by the first part, endured the second and enjoyed the third, though I see the need for all of them. Also in this section was 'The Burning Times' by Sara Maitland, a potent tale of jealousy in the time of witchcraft trials, Emma Donoghue's 'The Tale of the Kiss' which tells of another 'witch' in a cave and the captivating 'The Woman Who Loved the Moon', a story that defies simple analysis.

Of course, there were stories in this collection that didn't take my fancy as much but I found something in most of them to appreciate. For example, Madelyn Arnold's 'See You in the Movies', about a woman going on a trip with her new partner and kids, made me laugh out loud while Dorothy Allison's 'River of Names' is a haunting look at the tragedies around one woman which she tries to share with her partner. Finally, one of the early stories 'Pamelump' is similarly thought-provoking, as it examines a girl and her disabled friend, utilising the simplicity of children to analyse very adult notions.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed this collection. I don't think anybody would love all of these eclectic stories but that just means there's something in it for everyone.

August Rereads

Despite the fact that I acquired a mountain of new books for my birthday, I felt the irrepressible urge to go back and reread some of the ones already on my shelves. I don't reread as much as I'd like to. I often glance at my collection and think 'I want to take another look at you' but then the TBR pile gets in the way. However, I must've needed the comfort of books I know because I've been on a rereading blitz.

First up was Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw (reviewed here). It's no exaggeration to say this is one of my favourite novels - this is my fifth or sixth reread since 2010. It's become an annual treat to pick it up when I'm feeling low and submerging myself in a forbidden relationship set in the 1950s. At least I've got out of the habit of needing to read it all in one day because now I can fully appreciate the final chapters without my eyelids drooping. What I haven't got out of though is wanting to read it again as soon as I've put it down.

My second reread was All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West (reviewed here). The story of an 88 year-old woman sick of being treated like a child by her family struck a chord. Rereading this affected me much the same as watching Angela Lansbury on-screen in Driving Miss Daisy did - it reminded me to focus on the person, not the age. There's an irony attached to all this that I'll maybe explain one day soon.

My third book was Landing by Emma Donoghue (reviewed here). Definitely a departure from the two above, it was my first Donoghue and therefore retains a special little place in my heart. I've been meaning to reread it and, for the most part, I enjoyed it again. However, like All Passion Spent, it made a point that I could've done without.

Finally, I reread Emma by Jane Austen (reviewed here). I actually read this two years ago this month and I've been looking at it longingly all year. I think my desire to reread Emma was actually what started this little rereading spree. I enjoyed it once again, of course, finding it amusing and still completely relevant to modern life. But, on a more personal level, Emma's journey led me on one of my own. Perhaps that was why I wanted to reread it all along.

Book Review: The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Slammerkin, I had high hopes for my next foray into Donoghue's historical fiction. I wasn't disappointed. The Sealed Letter is a fictionalised account of the Codrington divorce case of the 1860s, a scandal that was heavily reported in the press at the time and every salacious detail lapped up by the public. As Donoghue notes in her interview at the end of the book, the case feels modern because of the urban setting and - I believe - because the same sort of salacious gossip pleases the public now as it did 150 years ago. However, aside from being an enjoyable read, it's an educational one that reminds us how far we've come in terms of marriage and, perhaps, how similar we are to our Victorian ancestors.

Emily 'Fido' Faithfull encounters her old friend Helen Codrington on a busy London street after years apart. She finds herself drawn back into Helen's world and, much to her displeasure, finds herself involved in Helen's affair with a young army officer. Helen's husband Harry finally grasps what's going on and tries to divorce his wife - but Helen won't be silenced easily. Fido herself becomes integral to the outcome of the case.

The Sealed Letter utilises all three major viewpoints, although Fido is arguably the most important. The three protagonists are well-defined and explained, something which could've been difficult considering the historical context. First and foremost, this is an enjoyable novel, though the author's note at the end explained a lot of the detail around the case that I'd been wondering about as I progressed through. Donoghue uses the present tense, something I don't always find easy to deal with, but after a few pages the story took over and I barely noticed the tense. Her descriptions rival those of Slammerkin and are equally invocative - the foray of Fido and Helen into the Underground during their first reunion meeting feels so oppresive and vile, even to a reader with 150 years distance. I think that's one of the chief features of this novel: the immediacy of the present tense combines with the expert descriptions to create a Victorian England the reader does actually feel a part of.

Fido is one of those exceptional Victorian women, someone who prefers to work for her living than find a clergyman and settle down like her family wished her to. She is very involved with early women's movements which leads to cameos from people like Bessie Parkes and Emily Davies. Occasionally these scenes feel documentary-like, with characters speaking lines their real-life counterparts probably wouldn't have said because they were too obvious, but they serve a purpose. Helen is a twisted character, understandable in some areas of her life but deeply manipulative. Her reaction to her separation from her children is easily her most redeeming feature. Finally, Harry slowly shrinks in his own estimation as his married life becomes public knowledge. It's difficult to read about and I did eventually pity the man who was being manipulated by almost everyone around him.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. Read it if you like Victorian fiction, fictional accounts of real-life cases or intricate divorce proceedings. We're still as interested in the latter as the Victorians themselves were.

Book Review: Touchy Subjects by Emma Donoghue

I picked up this short story collection after reading Donoghue's novels Landing and Slammerkin. There are nineteen stories in this collection, grouped under the headings 'Babies', 'Domesticity', 'Strangers', 'Desire' and 'Death' - all certainly touchy subjects. There wasn't a story in the collection that I didn't enjoy although, of course, I had some favourites!

'Expecting' examines the way a lie to a stranger can spiral out of control. I particularly enjoyed the way this contained very little dialogue but I didn't notice until afterwards because it was so well written. That was the case in 'Good Deed' as well, when a man stops on the street when he suspects a homeless man might be seriously ill. In both of these, the narrative voice is strong enough to make dialogue redundant.

There are a couple of LGBT themed stories in the collection which I really enjoyed. 'The Cost of Things' is about a lesbian couple and their sick cat, while 'Team Men' looks at young man discovering his sexuality while on his father's football team. 'The Welcome' is another excellent story which I won't ruin for anyone.

My absolute favourite was probably 'WritOr'. It follows the unnamed writer-in-residence in his year-long role at a college. He has to deal with intimidating parents, students who mask their own life badly in fiction, poets who spew word vomit onto the page during a first draft and refuse to change a word of it. All sound familiar? I guarantee 'WritOr' will bring a smile to any writer's face.

All in all, I loved this collection. Short and snappy stories with distinctive voices and little jolts of surprise scattered throughout. If I didn't already adore Emma Donoghue's writing I'm sure this would've converted me.

I read this collection as part of the Library of Clean Reads 2012 Short Story Reading Challenge.  

Reading Challenge: Short Story Challenge

At the beginning of the year I condemned myself for not reading as many short stories collections as I should have. Unfortunately, I haven't really rectified that problem this year so when I came across a reading challenge from the Library of Clean Reads blog specifically to encourage reading short story collections I knew I had to participate. More details about the challenge can be found here.

I'm going for the 'Tales Galore' category which is seven to nine books, mainly because I already have seven collections sitting on my bookshelves. Here is the list so far:

1. Night Shivers - Charlotte Riddell
2. Sensation Stories - Wilkie Collins
3. Wish I Was Here - Jackie Kay
4. The New York Stories - Edith Wharton
5. The Collected Stories - Katherine Mansfield
6. Daughters of Decadence - Various
7. Touchy Subjects - Emma Donoghue
8. ???
9. ???

I'll add the final two collections later and the list is subject to change. I'm looking forward to delving into these collections, several of which have been festering on the shelf for quite some time. Although Riddell and Collins have links to my PhD work, I promise that this is all fun reading.

Book Review: Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

Slammerkin tells the story of Mary Saunders, an eighteenth-century girl who is attracted by a bright piece of ribbon and pays a heavy price for it. Cast out by her family, she falls into prostitution, though when the winter weather bites she voluntarily enters a home for fallen women. After that she is propelled out to a country town where much of the novel takes place.

I found this to be an exceptional book. While it was thoroughly readable, it was also completely immersed in the eighteenth-century. Something some historical fiction writers struggle with is appropriate tone and language but Donoghue doesn't have this problem. The language certainly feels authentic and that's one of the most important things for drawing you into this novel. Another important aspect is the characterisation of Mary. She's an excellent creation, one completely comprehensible no matter what unexpected lengths she goes to. Alongside her, all the secondary characters are well-drawn and individual in their own right, from fellow prostitute, Doll, down to the child, Hetta, who Mary encounters later in the novel. Nothing felt out of place or wrong.

Donoghue has taken the very bare bones of a newspaper story and made them into something tangible and touching. She explains the basis of the novel in an author's note at the end of the book but I would urge you not to read that until you're finished with the story. I was surprised by the climax in a way I wouldn't have been had I read that note.

One final point: Donoghue creates a gloomy eighteenth-century London which doesn't seem false. Both her descriptions of London and then of Monmouth are excellent and evocative. That was the final jigsaw piece for making this into an exceptional read. As you might've gathered, I thoroughly recommend it!  

Book Review: Landing by Emma Donoghue

I read this as part of my mission for the LGBT Reading Challenge 2011 (see logo on sidebar for details). As a consequence I didn't discriminate against the book. I believe I could've easily talked myself out of buying it if I'd tried. As it happens, I'm glad I didn't.

Donoghue is a very accessible writer. She doesn't sanitise her language so if a swear word is appropriate then a swear word is used. This certainly helps the authenticity of her characters and gives the book an altogether more adult feel than the plot alone might suggest.

Landing tells the story of two women, Jude (living in Canada) and Sile (pronounced Sheelagh, living in Ireland). They meet on a plane journey when Jude is travelling to England to bring back her sick mother. Sile is a stewardess on the plane and the two are initially brought together by an unexpected incident on board. From this they grow to know each other and ultimately end up in a long distance relationship, separated both by the Atlantic and their individual lives.

Donoghue paints her characters extremely vividly at the beginning of the novel. Primarily, she manages this by showing their interactions with the people in their established lives. Aside from demonstrating character this also shows the power of the relationship into which they later fall because these interactions inevitably alter. There are perhaps too many of these secondary characters to know intimately but that could be an attention problem on the part of this particular reader.

What struck me was the poignancy of the book. It so accurately depicts the issues surrounding long distance relationships and why they can't immediately be resolved. It seems loaded with pearls of wisdom that could probably conspire to make their very own self-help guide but they don't feel too preachy when slotted into the novel as a whole.

It is a very readable book which draws on human insecurities and desires. At one point Jude and Sile keep missing each other and are forced to leave a series of frustrated messages on the answering machine. Anybody ever compelled to spend time away from the one they love will easily identify with that sequence.

It isn't a novel that will raise any profound questions. At its core is the idea of identity and whether separating yourself from a certain place fractures who you are. It is also a clever love story and I can certainly see myself rereading it in the future.

Landing is available to purchase here.