I picked this month’s read – I’m a big Sarah Waters fan, and this was the only novel of hers that I hadn’t read. It’s a bit of a departure from her usual setting and themes: a ghost story set in a post war rural town where all is not well at the local stately home…
The book received a mixed response from us. Nicky and I seemed to like it the most, and we were the only ones who’d read the previous books. We’d really enjoyed her earlier books and possibly had good will left over as the others were not impressed. Paddy thought it was ‘bland, bleak and boring’. Ciara had enjoyed it (I think) in the beginning, but had lost interest after the dog mauling. Ann thought it was boring but loved the end. Nicky disagreed, feeling that there was a missed opportunity for a classic Sarah Waters plot twist!
This is the first book where Waters has used a male narrator and I think it worked well. Dan and Paddy felt that Dr Faraday was a sympathetic character. I thought that he presented himself in a very rational light, but was actually a very odd obsessional character. Ann thought that he didn’t come across as disturbed enough, but for me, this was the most intriguing aspect of the book. Ann thought that characterisation was a weakness of the book, feeling that the characters existed to feed the plot. We disagreed over the identity of the ‘little stranger’. Nicky thought that it was definitely a supernatural story. I interpreted the conversations between the doctors about the hysteria of the Ayres family, and its possible manifestation, as an indication of a metaphysical explanation for events. I thought that the suggestion that the unhappiness of Caroline, Roderick and their mother created the supernatural events was a sleight of hand, and tha Dr Faraday’s obsessive desires were a possible cause of the mysterious evil. However, I think I was completely on my own with this explanation!
Apart from the ending, the only scene that we discussed at length was the botched pass that the doctor makes at Caroline when he’s driving her home. This was an interesting discussion as we had dramatically different interpretations of what actually happened. I read this scene as quite violent, possibly even an attempted rape. Ciara agreed with me to some extent. Ann and Nicky completely disagreed, pointing out that Caroline kisses him at the doorway before he leaves. I thought Caroline’s character is supposed to be under an incredible amount of pressure and maybe deals with this by not allowing herself to admit that she is vulnerable. At the doorway I wondered if she makes a decision to pretend that it hasn’t happened. This scene is very ambiguous.
Although the book appeared to be dealing with some heavyweight themes: class, death, madness, Daniel felt that it presented a very light treatment of these, barely scraping the surface. He saw the theme of class as a smokescreen, arguing that we were actually presented with a feminist perspective. The writing wasn’t thought of very highly amongst the group. Dan and Ann thought it was far too descriptive; Ann thought that the writing was telling the reader what to think rather than fuelling the imagination. Paddy dismissed the writing as populist.
As Nicky and I were the group members who enjoyed the book the most, I would not suggest this as an introduction to Sarah Waters. Try Affinity.
