This new interface that Blogger have got has its ups and downs, but it did bring the Blog-on-your-phone option to my attention. I don't know if any of you ever do look at my blog on your mobile/cell, but now if you do it looks all attractive and clever, rather than squidged up and confusing.
Go on, test it now... you know you want to...
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Stellar Stella?
Just a quick update on my previous post, since a few of you were asking in the comments which Stella Gibbons should you read first... I wrote in my review that I couldn't choose a better novel between Cold Comfort Farm and Westwood because they were so different, but I do think you should Cold Comfort Farm first. If you only read one Stella Gibbons' novel, it should be that one - because while Westwood is brilliant, there are lots of similar(ish) novels out there, whereas Cold Comfort Farm really is one of a kind. Plus hilarious novels are pretty rare. There you go, that's my dictat on starting reading Stella Gibbons....
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Westwood - Stella Gibbons
Firstly, many thanks to lovely Vintage books for sending me this copy, and super praise to Pep Montserrat who did the beautiful cover illustration. Like everyone who has read it, I love Cold Comfort Farm and was excited when I heard that Vintage were hot on Virago's heels, in publishing more of Gibbons' work. Then I read Lynne Truss' excellent introduction, published in the Guardian (but now not available online) and simply had to read the novel.
In her introduction, Truss writes that 'If Cold Comfort Farm is Stella Gibbons's Pride and Prejudice, then Westwood is her Persuasion.' Those of you who know my thoughts about the relative merits of Austen's novels may be surprised to learn that this actually encouraged me to read Westwood(!) Obviously Truss' analogy can only be taken so far, but she has a point - Westwood is not a comic novel (although it has funny moments), rather it is slightly melancholic and very contemplative.
The heroine of the piece is Margaret Steggles, a plain and uncertain type with a thirst for learning and an appetite for adventure which she keeps sensibly subdued. She is only 23, unhappy with her job as a teacher and with her home life - her father is prone to affairs, and her mother is disappointed that Margaret is not more like her feisty good-time-gal friend Hilda. But naturally things do not remain thus. Margaret finds a ration book on Hampstead Heath and, when returning it, becomes embroiled in the lives of self-important playwright Gerald Challis, his spoilt, snobbish daughter Hebe, and her husband, the painter Alexander Niland. They are an eminently fashionable set, full of ideas of Art and Beauty, and Margaret wants in. The nearest she can get, to start off with, is the somewhat hysterical Jewish refugee Zita, who lives with the family and is not quite a housekeeper but definitely not one of the family.
"I like you, Miss Steggles."As you can see from the 'iss' and 'Zo' used so liberally, Zita does border a little on stereotype - but she is the liveliest inclusion to the novel, and that which most demonstrates Gibbons' comic touch. I am guilty of that which Truss does in the introduction, presumably as inadvertently as I am, of quoting the sections which amused me most. For, as I said, this isn't, broadly, a comic novel. At its heart is Margaret's awkward attempts to become part of a society which only tolerates her. There is a desperately sad moment where Margaret overhears Hebe's opinion of her - it's in the same area as 'consciously naive' and 'you will be limited as to number - only three at once.' (Ten points if you recognise those references!)
"Thank you. I like you too," sais Margaret, who in her present mood would have liked anyone.
"Good. Den we are friends," announced Zita, putting out her hand while her eyes overflowed. Margaret took it and they exchanged a solemn clasp. "Oh, Miss Steggles - what iss your name?" she demanded, interrupting herself.
"Margaret."
"Zo. I shall call you Margaret. You will call me Zita?"
"I'd love to, Zita."
"Margaret, I haf a many sadness. I tell you about it."
Margaret was so inexperienced as a confidante that no feeling of dismay overcame her on hearing this threat; indeed she hardly heard what Zita said, so overjoyed was she at the prospect of frequent visits to Westwood as Zita's friend.
She especially wants to be involved in Challis' life, and falls rather in love with him - although from the reader's perspective it is a trifle difficult to see why. He is pompous, with high-blown ideas about Beauty which would make Keats seem like a materialist.
"A landscape without hills," he suddenly pronounced, "is like a woman without mystery."But Challis' Achilles' heel (and one of the other funny threads through the novel - although funniness laced with tragedy) is his belief in the Beauty of the common innocent girl, provided she be physically attractive, of course. And the one he sets his eye on is Hilda - remember her? Margaret's feisty friend who would, in contemporary soap parlance, undoubtedly be described as a tart with a heart. Challis bumps into her walking home from the train ("I have been sent by Providence especially to escort you") and he decides to call himself Marcus Antonius, and she Daphne. Hilda's good-natured willingness to put up with him until she is bored, and his slavish (would-be adulterous) devotion to a girl whose nature he has so completely misunderstood, is both farcical and saddening.
There simply was not any answer to this, especially as his unhappy audience realized that whatever she said would be wrong, so she replied feebly:
"Oh - do you think so?"
"The monotony of an endless plain," continued Mr. Challis disparagingly surveying the mild meadows on every side, "drives men mad."
Indeed (sweeping generalisation alert) that is how Gibbons treats a lot of the material in Westwood. It is the kind of plot and the (large) cast of characters which could easily be tragic or comic, and Gibbons treads a path between the two - lingering, perhaps, on the tragic, but never fully abandoning the comic. Being asked to empathise with Margaret, rather than laugh at or with her, takes Westwood away from the hilarious tour de force of Cold Comfort Farm, but also creates a more thoughtful, thought-provoking work. Both novels introduce a whirlwind of characters, but while Cold Comfort Farm can rely upon the witty epithet to describe someone, Westwood delves deeper - which does, at times, make the novel feel a bit overcrowded and perhaps overlong - but is also ultimately perhaps more satisfying. If I were one of these novels to reread next, I must admit it would be Cold Comfort Farm - for an uproarious escapade - but I doubt I would gain as much, and I certainly wouldn't think as much. The novels are so different that it is nigh on impossible to say one is better than the other, but what is obvious is that Westwood should never have gone out of print, and Vintage are to be commended for rectifying whosever oversight that was.
Others who got Stuck into this...
I'm going to copy Jackie's lovely idea of quoting other bloggers who have reviewed the book, and point you in the direction of their reviews. I think it's a great addition to Jackie's blogposts - I'm all about the blogging community. I'll just pick two or three each time, so as to feel more like I'm including people in a selective list rather than accidentally excluding people from an exhaustive list!
"[...Margaret] is a masterpiece and definitely earns Gibbons the right to be compared with Austen.[...]" - Hayley, Desperate Reader
"[...] do read this if you love a warm, witty, beautifully written and leisurely novel [...]" - Hilary, Vulpes Libris
Holy Crap!
Holy crap. We just got our first REQUEST!
Someone actually survived our query? Someone not only survived but actually wants to READ OUR MANUSCRIPT?!? Wow. We're speechless. We really are.
Let me start at the beginning.
It had been a month or so since we last got our asses handed to us. Since then, we've basically thrown out the query and started over, deciding to go in a totally different direction, not to mention made some fairly major edits to the manuscript itself.
Now, every year in Toronto there's this festival called The Word on the Street. It's basically a big literary festival where authors, agents, and editors gather to do workshops, book signings, and all that kind of stuff.
So, finally ready to brave a fresh new round of rejections, we suit up and prepare to unleash our new, improved, Sharkified query into the world.
In all honesty, we weren't really expecting anyone to actually like the damned thing. At best, we were hoping that someone would tell us no, but to explain why they hated it. Our expectations were low.
Ironically, we met him at a workshop called "No, No, a Thousand Times No!" He's an editor for a publishing house named Dancing Cat Books, and the talk was about all the mistakes first time authors keep making that gets them landed in the trash bin. We took a deep breath and prepared for a verbal smackdown of epic proportions.
So imagine our surprise when he actually liked it. And then he asked to see a Full.
Yeah. We're still reeling from shock.
Someone actually survived our query? Someone not only survived but actually wants to READ OUR MANUSCRIPT?!? Wow. We're speechless. We really are.
Let me start at the beginning.
It had been a month or so since we last got our asses handed to us. Since then, we've basically thrown out the query and started over, deciding to go in a totally different direction, not to mention made some fairly major edits to the manuscript itself.
Now, every year in Toronto there's this festival called The Word on the Street. It's basically a big literary festival where authors, agents, and editors gather to do workshops, book signings, and all that kind of stuff.
So, finally ready to brave a fresh new round of rejections, we suit up and prepare to unleash our new, improved, Sharkified query into the world.
 |
| We came prepared this time. |
Ironically, we met him at a workshop called "No, No, a Thousand Times No!" He's an editor for a publishing house named Dancing Cat Books, and the talk was about all the mistakes first time authors keep making that gets them landed in the trash bin. We took a deep breath and prepared for a verbal smackdown of epic proportions.
So imagine our surprise when he actually liked it. And then he asked to see a Full.
 |
| Wait, what? |
In My Mailbox # 45
For my Kindle:
The Darkest Surrender by Gena Showalter (already read it and loved it!)
What did you get this week?
BTW, winners from my 800 followers giveaway and Banned Book Week giveaway had been announced. Congratulations and thanks to all the participants. :P
October is NetGalley month!
Yay! October is NetGalley month! That mean I will read and review as many NetGalley books as possible :P
I really need an extra push to read these days...I have been super busy with work and my NetGalley to read and review pile is growing....
Anyway, if you want to sign up, you can do it at Read House Books. Thanks again for hosting this fantastic month again Emily!
My goal: To read as many as possible....maybe five?
I will read: No idea, just going to pick random NetGalley books on my Kindle.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Song for a Sunday
This suggestion for a Sunday Song comes at least third-hand - Carly told Clare; Clare told me; I'm telling you. I suspect soon a lot of us will have heard of Lana Del Rey, who (quite accurately) describes herself as "a gangster Nancy Sinatra" - this song took a couple of listens before I loved it, and now I'm addicted. Over to you, Lana, and 'Video Games':
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