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The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed

The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed

Tag Archives: Literary Fiction

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

02 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Anniseed in Book Review

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Adolescence, Literary Fiction

I was first attracted to this by the seventies-style cover, which cheekily introduces a rosy apple at the bottom; only if you look closely do you see that the apple is starting to go bad. It’s a good metaphor for this story which is raw and bitter, but leaves you wide-eyed as if drunk.

It’s told by a young girl whose brother has a brain tumour; with all the family attention focused on him, no one notices her, leaving her ripe to be picked by a predator. As she navigates puberty and adolescence she learns that her sexuality is her only currency, and her only power. But that power is an illusion, and she’s heading straight for catastrophe.

The most striking thing about this debut novel is the narrative style. The sentences are short and the words are often in the wrong order, grammatically incorrect and with conjunctions missing. The result is a raw, dislocated narrative – very intense, as you get a sense of her emotions punching through her thoughts:

“I know that look that vicious look of him to me now. And the usual inner throb in me. Knives in heart in lungs come a spoon scoop me out. Scoop me out for what he want. But I go past him still. Feel the busy silent want of me. Know. I know that, see that, know it now. How strange my baptise renders me. His want me. Fuck me if he could and I and I and I and I. I have that. And I do not. Do not need. Have something else I need to do. There’ll others. Some others. Some day more who want me I want to fuck them too. Thanks uncle for sage introduce. I left him dripping in the door. Ha. He did not get me after all.”

It’s certainly not an easy read, and one that I will definitely re-read – full of subtexts and hints and resonances that you don’t fully appreciate the first time round. But it’s utterly compelling, creating a unique voice, and the sense of being trapped inside her head is overwhelming. I think this novel justly deserves the prizes it’s won, and Eimear McBride is a novelist to watch.

Faber and Faber, 2013, ISBN 9780571317165

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Anniseed in Book Review

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Literary Fiction

Another interesting one to review – shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this has been quite hot property locally as Alison is from Nottingham. I’ve been fortunate to hear her speak at a couple of writing events.

It’s very much a mood piece – melancholy and thoughtful, about the random and tragic concidences and connections between lost and lonely people. Futh, separated from his wife, takes a walking holiday in Germany to reflect on his life so far. Staying at the Hellehaus (Lighthouse) hotel, he is barely aware of landlady Ester, who subsumes her own sorrow in a series of casual sexual encounters with guests. Both locked into their own problems, drifting through their own lives like ghosts, neither foresees the tragic consequences that await them.

It’s a very introspective, psychological story, immensely sad yet understated. Moore’s prose is very deft and she gets inside both her characters’ psyches confidently. The ending made me wince, although so much is left unsaid, and she carries it off with subtlety and poignancy. I can see why this was a shortlisted novel, and can certainly foresee it making its way onto A-level reading lists. However it’s an odd one in that I can’t say I enjoyed it as such – it moved me, and will stay with me, but it left me with a sense of melancholy rather than satisfaction. I think she’s got the length of the novel exactly right – it’s long enough to fully express her characters and ideas, but not too long that they outstay their welcome. It’s definitely worth reading and I’ll look out for her work in the future, but I do feel the need for a rollicking adventure for my next read… Rating:***

Salt Publishing, 2012, ISBN 9781907773174

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