Border lines (Turner Hospital) 335

I hadn't come across Janette Turner Hospital before finding Borderline in an Oxfam bookshop; I picked it up merely because it was an original green Virago and the picture on the front was a little horrifying. It turns out that she is quite an eminent writer - you can find more out about her here - from Australia with a whole string of novels to her name.

The book had a very slow start, and I never actually really got into it. It's the story of three people who meet at the border between America and Canada. Felicity and Gus end up helping Dolores, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, rescuing her from the freezer where she is hiding and taking her to a remote cottage in Quebec to hide.

Much of the commentary that I have seen about this book suggests that it is much more complex than a straightforward thriller, using the concepts of immigration, border crossing and identity to explore boundaries, both personal and political, and where the lines are and should be drawn. I have to say that I felt that JHT's desire to explore these issues didn't make the book particularly enjoyable for me to read.

Still, I've got another chance to give JTH a go, as her book The last magician is also a VMC.

It's been published twice by Virago in both original green and modern green covers.

I will not serve (Mayhere) 142

From the blurb on the back of this book, I will not serve sounded like a bit of a mix between something by Antonia White and Olivia (schoolgirl in love with teacher expelled from a convent school). In fact, when I opened the book I found that it had been translated from the French by Antonia White.

It is a book about Sylvie, 17 years old. She has fallen in love with one of the nuns at the convent where she has been studying and is expelled. The book opens with a number of letters from Sylvie to Julienne, the nun, trying to sort out her feelings. But Julienne is advised by the convent to remain silent, which she does, until Sylvie deliberately makes herself ill in an attempt to get her attention back again. The book also uses extracts from Sylvie's journal and letters to her cousin Claude to build up the story, and the reader is forced to consider huge and weighty themes of religion, love and obsession. But because the writing, and White's translation is so lyrical and beautiful, the book is an absolutely lovely to read.

There is an absolutely lovely review of this book by Fleur Fisher here...

It's just been published once by Virago, in an original green cover, and I think it is comparatively rare.

Sights unseen (Gibbons) 439

Not knowing anything very much about Sights unseen, I was certainly compelled by the opening passage:

"Had I known my mother was being given electro-convulsive therapy while I was dressing for school on eight consecutive Monday mornings, I do not think I could have buttoned my blouses or tied my shoes or located my homework. I see myself fumbling with the snap on my skirt, trying to connect the sides, turning around in a circle like a cat chasing its tail. I was twelve, deemed too young to be told what was happening to her and in fact too innocent to surmise it".

As regular readers will know, I am interested in books about madness, and there have been a number of VMCs that fit the bill (The Ha-Ha by Dawson, Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Colman, Antonia White, Janet Frame's autobiography), so it was good to stumble on this, especially as there are less books about the condition of bi-polar disorder (although beyond the scope of this blog I do recommend anything by Kay Redfield Jamieson).

The book is a portrait of Maggie Barnes, told through the eyes of her daughter Hattiw, and how her manic depression affects both Maggie and the family. What is particularly good about this book is the insights it gives into suffering the condition as well as what those close to the sufferer are going through. Gibbons shows that it is hugely destructive, but at the same time uses humour in some situations; and this strikes true with regards to my experience of having a very close friend with it.

I've not read any Gibbons before, but she has two other VMCs, A virtuous woman and Ellen Foster. This one was published just once by Virago in 1997 in a modern green edition.

Loving without tears (Keane) 286

As regular readers will know, I've struggled to get into Keane's writing and remain indifferent about her - it was only spotting a lovely original green edition of Loving without tears with a really lovely cover image (see below) which convinced me to pick it up (ok, yes, I'm a sucker for book as object as well as book as something to read...)

It was a reasonably enjoyable read - like many of other Keane's books it centres around a family living in a country house. Angel, the mother of Slaney (a girl!) and Julian, is widowed and relies on her family and servants to run her life according to her desires. Julian went away as a result of the war, and when he returns, it is with an American fiance. This is not what Angel planned, and the book develops the story of Angel discovering that she can't necessarily run things exactly as she wants them. I didn't find Angel particularly likeable, but at the same time, she wasn't especially dislikeable - she was a bit of a nothingness, but I was relieved to find nonetheless that she did get some comeuppance at the end.

It's only been published twice by Virago, it doesn't seem to have made it into the recent highly coloured reprints that some of her other work has seen.

Delta wedding (Welty) 79

Delta wedding is Welty's first proper novel, if Robber Bridegroom is seen as an extended fairy tale. Having read Robber Bridegroom, which I had very much enjoyed, and a little while ago, Losing Battles, which I hadn't, I was interested to come to this. Like Losing battles the story is concentrated over a short space of time, the weekend of a wedding. Eight year old Laura travels from Jackson, Missisippi, to Shellmund, the family plantation, following the death of her mother, and for the purposes of attending a wedding between Dabney and Troy. Welty paints a fascinating picture of plantation life and of the relationships within the family.

The introduction particularly interested me; apparently Welty was also interested in photography as much as writing, especially in the early stages of her career, and Paul Binding suggests that this had a big influence on this novel. I could see what he meant; the plot was secondary to the descriptions of the characters, and the chapters were almost like snapshots or vignettes. Character is certainly one of Welty's strongpoints.

Still not convinced that Welty is for me - guess I need to try The optimist's daughter which I believe is her "big one".

Published twice by Virago, I have the later "modern" green edition.

Rhapsody (Edwards) 204

I loved Dorothy Edward's Winter Sonata, so I was keen to get hold of Rhapsody to read as well. This is a book of short stories by Edwards which pre-dates Winter Sonata. As I wrote in my ealrier post, Edwards only wrote one novel and some short stories before tragically committing suicide at the age of 21.

The stories have similar themes and settings to Winter Sonata; they feature country houses, walks, and a world which was very different to Edwards' socialist upbringing and then fairly poor adulthood. Music is a recurrent motif. Not my favourite short story collection but certainly interesting to read as a companion to Winter Sonata.

Like Winter Sonata, it was just published once by Virago with this original green cover.

Celia (Young) 332

Having enjoyed a number of EH Young's novels as part of this challenge, I was pleased to come across a copy of Celia. Set in Radstowe, like many of her other books, it's a book about marriage and relationships. Celia, the main character, has been married for years, and is bored and disappointed by both marriage and life. Rather than a plot driven book, it is more about the characters. I warmed to Celia and her daughter Catherine, a 17 year old school girl, and enjoyed reading about their lives. Ultimately, I don't think it was my favourite EH Young, but it was certainly enjoyable. And I am particularly looking forward to the last EH Young VMC that I have to read - Jenny Wren.

It's been published twice by Virago, in original green and italicised green covers. But both use the same image. My copy is the original one :)