Just thought I'd put that out there first. With books anyway, I'm pretty set in what I think, although the best part of discussion is seeing something in a different light.
Gathering my thoughts...I read the first two chapters on Monday and forced myself to stop so I wouldn't spoil anything unintentionally.
It is one of the strangest structures for a novel I've encountered. I'm most curious at who the narrator is. Because the way she (assuming it is a 'she', it is after all Jane Austen books) talks about everyone's Jane Austen, "six of us," but never says who she is, well, it's just very mysterious. And the first two people she details for us in the chapters she speaks about distantly. Maybe she's each of the members, a sort of universal all-knowing second person point of view. Kinda weird, but it works as far as I can tell.
I'm not offended terribly by the sexual encounters that were more or less detailed about Jocelyn or Allegra. I think for the most part it was tastefully done. I actually had to read it twice to make sure I assumed what happened correctly. And in the description of each member, I find myself intrigued to know each one's story, even if I have nothing in common with them (which at this point is how I feel). Maybe I'm dense (a possibility), but I haven't really attached any of them with Austen's characters yet. Maybe it'll hit me later.
I get annoyed with sexual encounters being the 'life-changing' experiences when people give us characters' pasts. It's just so cliche, so that bugs me. Although, I like the take on Allegra and her ex and how her ex used her for story material. I thought that was not so typical, at least not the way Fowler presented it. I won't do that to you guys, not without your permission. :)
What kid cries over the colour white????? This is what annoyed me about this book. The self-awareness of the members as young people. Not that we can't be self-aware at a young age. But the idiosyncrasies seem very unrealistic. Very artsy and writerly/literary. Does that make sense? I don't care if the character's artistic or whatever, that just seemed a bit over the top for me. Maybe I'm being unfair.
I agree with sarahbear's comment about the Austen-bashing by Grigg. The women are so snooty about Austen, and heaven forbid if you call her Jane. I think she'd like that. If her readers felt so close to her that they could call her by her first name.
I dig Jocelyn, I must say. The feeling of power about the boys and not meaning to lead them on, while I can't directly relate, I get it. And I do think that these women are real in a lot of ways. Maybe a little too quirky in the way that independent movies have their quirky damaged characters that are great, but get on your nerves.
But I like the characters, despite my issues. I do want to know their stories.
That's it for now, I guess. So, should we figure out what Austen characters we each are? :)
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Okay, I was going to save some of my narrator issues until my post, but I'll put them in here, too. Right now, I don't like the narrative style. It seems poorly conceived to me. I don't know that there's ever going to be a specific character put to the first person, just a general plural "we." But, then we have these very omniscient third person sections after the prologue, which I cannot believe a homodiegetic (part of the story) narrator could tell. Perhaps something cool will happen, but right now it just seems like its trying to be different for the sake of being different, which ends up in my blerg category (not a good thing).
As far as the overly self-aware young people, I didn't get the impression that the characters themselves were so self-aware, just that the god narrator was providing commentary on their motivations, which doesn't fit with the initial first person narrator, adding to my confusion and displeasure.
'Self-aware' probably wasn't the best word to use. Sadly, I can't think of a better one at the moment.
Even if the character's aren't self-aware (which I think works well enough to describe what you're getting at Carse), still this 3rd person narrator is implying too much child psych on it all.
I went back and looked up the paragraph. I don't have a problem with a 4 year old not liking white, and could even see them going nuts trying to color in all the white. But, here's the weird comment either from Allegra or a 3rd person point of view (hard to tell since the narrator is unknown) "She was sobbing because she could see that she would never be done; her whole life would be used up in the hopeless, endless task of amending this single lapse in taste. She would grow old, and there would still be white sheets, whites walls, her own white hair." So, not sure if the symbolism intended here is that Allegra is a bit of a free spirit, and wants to wipe out anything that smacks of purity which would be in stark contrast to how most would view her lifestyle. Regardless, it doesn't work to put thoughts of growing old and having white hair on a 4 year old. A 4 year old might despair because there is so much white in one magazine, or perhaps in her room. However, I don't see a 4 year old despairing about the rest of her life to come, of growing old or whatever. That's too out there, and yet another reach for this author who's trying too quickly to develop characters. You can get across these character traits by actually having a plot, but to stuff it into a paragraph on a 4 year old is a cop-out and lazy.
"I get annoyed with sexual encounters being the 'life-changing' experiences when people give us characters' pasts. It's just so cliche, so that bugs me. Although, I like the take on Allegra and her ex and how her ex used her for story material. I thought that was not so typical, at least not the way Fowler presented it."
I agree on both points here. After reading the first chapter, and knowing that there was a lesbian and divorcee in the book, I figured that she was going to go through each story and tell us how some sexual experience changed their whole life and created their present-day quirks and problems. Don't get me wrong, I know that in some people that one event can and does completely and sometimes horribly change a life forever, however it can be worn out a bit in a book that on its cover doesn't seem to be about that issue. So, hopefully that is not the direction this book is going.
I also agree that I really enjoyed the whole trust breaking episode with Allegra and her girl. Thought that was a pretty unique storyline. So does anyone else think that Allegra was getting cheated on by her girl? I thought when Allegra came to the room that time as the other girl was leaving and that other girl was being so haughty that it was clearly alluding to some unfaithfulness going on there. Emily, doesn't think so, so I thought I would see what ya'll thought.
I definitely agree that Fowler or the narrator or whomever seems to put thoughts in the heads of the 4-year-old Allegra, which don't belong there. I also think she's being a bit Freudian in her portrayal of childhood sexual experiences, suggesting that all children have these sexual experiences, which shape who they are.
I'm still not sure about the whole voice/narrator thing and the more we discuss it, the more I want to read the next two chapters and see if I can figure it out. If we get through them and find that 2/3 of the way into the story we still don't understand it, that suggests that the technique, whatever it was she was trying to do, just didn't work. Of course I suppose she could pull it together in the end...we'll see...
I don't think Allegra's girlfriend was cheating on her, but perhaps I'm assuming we have a reliable narrator, and clearly that is still a question. I buy the fact that she was just mining Allegra for stories and was worried that her writer friends (and Allegra) would find out that she was a fraud. I loved that part of Allegra's indignation was that her stories weren't written up better, into a publishable way!
Maybe I have a suspicious mind, but I thought along with Chris that Allegra's girlfriend was cheating on her at first. Although, probably not, because I don't think Fowler has been really subtle in anything that's happened in the character's past. She's pretty much come out and said whatever has happened.
I do agree with everyone else that I like how Allegra's girlfriend (sorry, can't remember her name! And I can't blame it on Sarah having the book because I still have it, although she seems to find it a convenient excuse because she's stated it about 3 times in this blog already...) stole Allegra's stories, pretty unique break-up.
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