Mandoa Mandoa (Holtby) 88

Mandoa Mandoa! is Winifred Holtby's last novel, and really quite a different book to her other novels. It was written at a time of national disillusionment during the Depression when the Labour government had just collapsed. Personally, Holtby had begun to suffer from the kidney failure that would eventually kill her, and wrote the book whilst trying to recuperate in Monks Risborough. It's also partly a result of Holtby's tour of South Africa in 1926 where she became interested in the differences between the African and European ways of live and the notions of being "civilised".

Mandoa is a small state to the West of Abyssinia, predominantly savage, and relying on the slave trade. After a film company are temporarily stranded there, its leaders begin to think of modernisation. At the same time, in England, Maurice Durrant, believes that he can expand his business, Princes' Tours, into Mandoa and sends his brother out there to work. An airport and hotel are built and a wedding is planned to try to put Mandoa on the map.

It's a strange book which is very much a satire on Western industrialised society; whilst social commentary is certainly a key feature of Holtby's other novels, it is very different in this one. And somehow it didn't quite work for me - I'm not sure whether it was that I wasn't gripped by the plot or that I didn't really identify with the characters, or whether the issue that Holtby tackles is just hideously dated, but it really didn't do it for me.

It's just been published once by Virago in an original green edition, and the rather striking cover image is a picture of some Andalusian mountain ranges.




Whilst I'm on a Holtby title, I should briefly mentionPoor Caroline, another VMC which I read before embarking on this challenge:
And that's it for Holtby for this challenge! I'm sad that I didn't enjoy Mandoa Mandoa hugely as I loved South Riding, The crowded street, Anderby Wold and Poor Caroline.

Surfacing (Atwood) 8

One of the earliest VMCs, Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood is a slim volume but a complex read. On the surface, it is the story of a woman who returns to the island with three friends (one of whom is her lover) where she spent part of her childhood in order to seek out her father who has gone missing. Delve a little deeper and it is a rather dark story of a woman trying to figure out who she is. Go further (and I didn't make it to this level I'm afraid, but there was quite a good introduction) and the novel is full of religious imagery. It is thus a novel that can be read on many different levels.

Whilst this fitted into the non-sci-fi sort of Atwood novels that I enjoy more, it was very different to the longer, meatier narratives of books such as Alias Grace and Cat's Eye. I couldn't help wondering if perhaps this could have been elaborated into something like one of those.

I still need to read Lady Oracle, and then I'm done with Margaret Atwood as part of this venture.

It's been published four times with very different covers (I own the original green version)

Open the door! (Carswell) 201

Open the door is a fantastic novel by Catherine Carswell which relates the story of Joanna Bannerman, a young woman seeking the freedom that has been denied to her by her religious upbringing. The story starts with her as a young girl - we meet her scatterbrained mother and siblings, and see how their haphazard, but otherwise reasonably normal life changes on the death of her father as Juley (the mother) becomes increasingly involved in evangelical circles. As Joanna grows up, the relationship with her mother becomes somewhat strained due to Joanna's apparent lack of spirituality. Joanna's world expands considerably when she attends Italian lessons and ends up getting married and moving to Florence. But this was not straightforward; Joanna has already lost the first man that she was engaged to when he decided that he was not in love with her - this loss continues to haunt Joanna. Her time in Florence is short-lived when she is suddenly widowed, and we follow her back to Glasgow where attends the Glasgow School of Art which really starts to broaden her horizons. She still seeks love, and this time embarking on an affair with a married man, much to Juley's horrow. I found it fascinating reading as I wasn't quite sure what would happen next to Joanna or quite how the book would resolve itself.

Virago have just published this once, with an original green cover. Isn't the hair of the woman on the front absolutely fantastic? The painting by the way is called "Ill omen", by Frances Macdonald and comes from the Hunterian Art Gallery at Glasgow University.

More fan mail!

I've had another lovely comment this week on the blog, which I wanted to share, not only because it made me feel good, but because I was tickled by what JRSM said:

£Hi! I just discovered your blog, and it's an absolutely amazing resource. I've been collecting VMCs for some years (my eyes jump straight to them in second-hand bookshops), and have about 250 of the older green-spined ones. Whenever I look at ABE or Amazon for out-of-print VMCs, there's usually no blurb or description of what the book is about, so I don't know whether to take the plunge or not. Now I've printed off your whole blog so far and will use it to guide my future buying and reading. Fantastic stuff! Thank you. PS: I have to admit I did the printing at work, and used the binding machine to give it an appropriately olive-green cover. "

I emailed him and he kindly supplied me with pictures of his print out. I want one too (though maybe when the project is completed!)


JRSM has his own blog, Caustic Cover Critic, and mentioned that he interviewed the cover artist for the most recent Angela Carter books recently, which you can find here.

Sapphira and the slave girl (Cather) 237

Sapphira and the slave girl is Willa Cather's last novel and quite different to her earlier work. Set in Virginia as opposed to the frontier, it was written (according to the introduction) at a time in her life when she was becoming more reflective, and thus she began to draw on the experiences of her early life, living in this area until she was eight years old.

It tells the story of Sapphira, a millers wife, confined to a wheelchair, who in the 1850s is one of the few West Virginians left owning slaves; her husband Henry is increasingly unhappy about this. Nonethless when Sapphira becomes irrationally jealous of her young slave girl Nancy and wishes to sell her, she is overruled by Henry. So she comes up with a plan to ruin the girl.

I didn't feel that this book packed the punch of the other books that I have read by Cather - Sapphira wasn't especially likeable nor the storng female-lead character that I encountered in My Antonia and O Pioneers. But it was well worth reading for the contrast that it makes to her other works.

It's been published twice by Virago, and I'm lucky enough to have the original green version with a very pretty cover. Unfortunately this scan isn't terribly clear.

Alexander's bridge (Cather) 339

Alexander's bridge was Cather's first novel. And it is a very different read to the Cather novels I've read to date. The principle character, Bartley Alexander, is a male, and the book lacks the concept of a strong female lead which seems to characterise the other books by Cather (admittedly I have not read even half of her work). The story is also simple and simply told, it is a slim volume.

Bartley Alexander is an engineer, with a specialism in bridges. He has forged a hugely successful career in America, and has a stunning, almost "trophy" wife, Winifred. But this would be no story. The book sees Alexander torn between this world and another, following a visit to London where he meets an old flame, Hilda who represents a different sort of life - more free and exciting (or is that because it is just different from the norm), and describes his ensuing mid-life crisis. The book has a sudden and shocking ending when a bridge that Alexander is working on collapses, killing him and many of those working on it in the process. But while it could be seen as retribution for Alexander's dilemma, Cather is clear to demonstrate that it is a genuine accident.

But I still enjoyed it, although perhaps not as much as O Pioneers or My Antonia. It's been published in two different green editions by Virago and I borrowed the more recent one from the library.

A woman's guide to adultery (Clewlow)

The woman's guide to adultery sounded like an intriguing title and the book itself was interesting. It is the tale of a group of men and women belonging to a university community who are all brought together through a network of extra marital affairs. The principal character Rose is violently against this culture and hugely disapproving of the relationships that her two best friends have with married men and their determination to break up the marriages. But then Rose falls in love with her tutor, Paul, who is also married...

Ultimately, I didn't like this book because I disagreed so violently with the premise. I believe strongly in monogamous relationships and fully believe that in the right relationship there would never be any need for adultery, and I would rather not be in a wrong relationship than one which needed to be supplemented by extra-relationship activity. On the other hand, the message of the book was also that affairs with married men cause pain for the women involved, which some way goes to support my beliefs.

It's just been published once by Virago, with a modern style cover.