Keeper wins Wellcome Book Prize

Keeper: Living with Nancy – a journey into Alzheimer’s by Andrea Gillies (Short Books) has won the inaugural Wellcome Book Prize (2009). The prize “celebrates the best of medicine in literature by awarding £25,000 each year for the finest fiction or non-fiction book centred around medicine.”

I read this unassuming paperback in the summer and was blown away with its emotional depth and by the literary quality of Gillies’ writing. I’ve reviewed it for print and will post a link on the ‘reviews’ page once it’s published. Meantime, here’s what the publisher says of Keeper:

Andrea Gillies made the decision to take on the full-time care of her mother-in-law, Nancy, an Alzheimer’s sufferer. With her family, she moved to a remote peninsula in northern Scotland to a house with space to accommodate Nancy and her elderly husband, and there embarked on an extraordinary journey.

Keeper describes the emotional strain of living with Alzheimer’s, the trials faced by both sufferer and carer, when patience and obligations are pushed to the limit. The book is also a brilliantly illuminating examination of the disease itself. It explores the brain and consciousness, and tackles profound questions about the self, the soul and how memory informs who we are. [Short Books]

In awarding the Book Prize the Wellcome Trust considered Keeper to be “a very humane and honest exploration of living with Alzheimer’s giving an illuminating account of the disease itself”.  Jo Brand, who chaired the judging panel said at the award’s ceremony:

 “Andrea Gillies’ account of living with Alzheimer’s is the perfect fusion of narrative with enough memorable science not to choke you. It’s a fantastic book – down to earth and darkly comic in places. The judges found it compelling”.

 Link HERE to go to the Wellcome Trust Book Prize website 

pondering…

David Vann’s latest book is a strange and wondrous beastie. I finished reading it a wee while ago and I’m still in the twilight zone - the betwixt and between stage of wondering what I just read and re-reading it while I sort my thoughts into a coherent form.

So what is it?

I got a third of the way into Legend of a Suicide before I realised it isn’t a novel but a collection of 5 interconnected short stories and a novella. The ’story’ as such, is centred around the life of Roy Fenn and it relates how his father’s suicide affected him in childhood and later life. The shifting point of view is key, I think, to getting to grips with the narrative.

Beginning in the first person we get Roy’s perspective. Within the first tale he tells us the details of his life: how, when and where he was born, about his parent’s unhappy marriage and divorce and his father’s suicide and its aftermath. Subsequent stories fill in more details, moving both backwards and forwards in time and shifting between registers with alarming ease. It’s simultaneously funny and tragic, shocking and poignant.

In the novella, the viewpoint moves to third person. It’s a significant change. Vann plays with our readerly expectations and packs a quite surprising punch at its conclusion.

The book is dedicated to Vann’s own father, who, it turns out, committed suicide. The short bio note at the end tells us that, like Roy Fenn, Vann ‘was born on Adak Island, Alaska and spent his childhood in Ketchikan.’ I think that’s why I’m having trouble writing about Legend of a Suicide. It’s a work of fiction, a fabrication woven out of the facts of Vann’s life. Postmodernists will have it that the author is dead – the text is king and nothing else matters. Here, though, it’s hard to separate out the author from his fiction. Vann knows this, of course, and toys with the reader.

To whet your appetite while I ponder on it some more, click to Penguin’s websitewhere they’ve an interview with David Vann, some critical comments and an extract from the first story.

Contents

1. Ichthyology, pp. 1-10

2. Rhoda, pp. 11-23

3. A Legend of Good Men, pp. 24-34

4. Sukkwan Island, part 1, pp. 35-128; part 2, pp. 129-199

5. Ketchikan, pp. 200-219

6. The Higher Blue, pp. 220-228

Already published in the US to critical acclaim, it will be published in the UK by Penguin on 29 October

-here’s the publisher’s blurb:

Roy is still young when his father, a failed dentist and hapless fisherman, puts a .44 magnum to his head and commits suicide on the deck of his beloved boat. Throughout his life, Roy returns to that moment, gripped by its memory and the shadow it casts over his small-town boyhood, describing with poignant, mercurial wit his parents’ woeful marriage and inevitable divorce, their kindnesses and weaknesses, the absurd and comic turning-points of his past. Finally, in Legend of a Suicide, Roy lays his father’s ghost to rest. But not before he exacts a gruelling, exhilarating revenge.

Revolving around a fatally misconceived adventure deep in the wilderness of Alaska, this is a remarkably tender story of survival and disillusioned love.

Q&A with Kathleen Kent, author of The Heretic’s Daughter

The Heretic’s Daughter

by Kathleen Kent (London: PanMacmillan, January 2009; September 2009)

ISBN 978-0-230-70443-5, 352pp • £16.99 hbk

ISBN 978-0-330-45630-2, 400pp • £16.99 pbk

 As much a coming-of-age tale as an eye-witness account of the witch-trials in New England, in 1692, The Heretic’s Daughter encompasses an ugly period of American history. For Kathleen Kent, though, Salem is not simply a metaphor for American extremism; it’s where history becomes ‘her-story’. In her debut novel, she interweaves family fireside tales with the written documents of the past to craft a compelling tale with grand themes encompassing extremism, slavery, and personal liberty.

Since first publication in the US in hardback in September 2008, The Heretic’s Daughter has slowly gained a large and dedicated readership. To date it has garnered a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, 91 reviews on Amazon (mostly 4 and 5 stars), reached the New York Times Bestseller list and received many glowing reviews in the national and international press. LINK HERE to the publisher’s website for reviews and book information.  

The UK paperback version of The Heretic’s Daughter was released on 4 September 2009.

Kathleen Kent graciously agreed to answer a few questions about her quietly assured debut novel.

Q: I’m very interested in the difference between personal history and documented history and the gap that often opens up between them. You say on your website that, to give authenticity to your story when writing The Heretic’s Daughter, you drew on your own family history and also researched widely in private and personal documents. What was your strategy for dealing with any uncomfortable ‘gaps’ between document and legend? Did you forge a middle way? Or did you choose one interpretation and follow it through?

 

A: I have always felt that the most interesting and compelling historical fiction is firmly anchored in fact and so I used many of the authentic names, dates and places from the Salem witch trials to give the reader a sense of life in 17^th century New England.  That being said, I wanted to unfold a very personal rendering of Martha Carrier, one that had been passed down to me by my mother and grandmother.  From an early age, I had heard stories of Martha being an outspoken, strong-willed woman.  That perception of her was reinforced by the witch trial documents which revealed she had had quite a few disagreements with her neighbours, some of whom, when deposed by the courts, stated they had long suspected her of being a witch.  In crafting the novel, though, I had to make some selective choices which changed the historical fact for the sake of pacing or believability.  For example, I made the decision to make Sarah, the narrator of the novel and Martha’s daughter, a few years older—nine years of age, instead of six— because I believed an older child would make a more convincing story-teller.  The Salem witch trials, in a sense, became the back-story in the beginning chapters of the book, albeit an important one, because I wanted to more closely illuminate the themes of religious intolerance, the destructive forces of superstitious dread and the corruption of a small community through hysteria and rumour- mongering; themes which I believed were timeless and universal.                                                                               

Hatchette Book Group provide a good index of source material consulted in preparation of The Heretic’s Daughter. CLICK this link

Q: Within the story, you allude to previous authors who have written of the Salem witch trials, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller.  Do you think, as they did, that we learn more ‘truth’ about our present situation from historical fiction than straightforward historical accounts?

A: History is written by the survivors and “factual” history is often taught within a very narrowly defined band of ethics and sensibilities.   Many people, authors included, have challenged that narrow band of what’s considered true and have revealed a greater spectrum of human emotions and experiences; especially from a woman’s perspective. Currently, there does seem to be a greater blurring of boundaries between “fact” and “fiction.”  There are genres of “historical fiction” and “fictionalized history” which can be tricky if you’re searching for archaeological remnants.   But I do think that bracing, accurate historical fiction can reveal so many philosophical, moral and cultural truths about our ancestors and our heritage that a dry recitation of dates and places cannot.

 Q: “Martha was not a witch. Merely a ferocious woman!” The women and girls of Salem and surrounding settlements were accused of witchcraft and ultimately condemned because of the testimony of other young girls. New England society, religion and judiciary was male dominated so that it could be argued that male society put women against women. Cotton Mather, the great seventeenth-century theologian, called Martha Carrier, “the Queen of Hell” because of her strength of character. How deliberate is your portrayal of Martha Carrier?  Did you begin with her strength and build the other characters around her or did her strength grow out of the weakness of the other characters?

A: When I first began writing the book, Martha was the narrator.  But this posed some problems right away because the trials and imprisonment of nearly 150 men, women and children continued after Martha was hanged.  I felt a big part of that story had not been told, so I made the decision to develop Sarah as the first hand witness to the cruelty and deprivation of the witch hysteria.  Sarah was arrested as a witch and tried, along with her three brothers, spending months in prison.  I felt that Martha’s character initially might not be likeable to the reader because she was so unyielding in her defence of her family and her property, but it was also important for me to illustrate her remarkable bravery and fortitude.   Martha was the only person, according to the surviving records, who not only held steadfastly to her innocence, but who confronted her judges for listening to a group of hysterical, accusing girls.   It is through Sarah’s eyes that Martha’s strength is revealed.

Q: Martha Carrier’s story has always been a part of your story – what made you decide to write it down for publication?

A: Since college, I always had in mind to write this novel.  But I lived in New York City for nearly twenty years working in various commercial enterprises before I felt I had the time and resources to devote to such an ambitious project.  In 2000 I moved with my family back to Dallas, my childhood home, and made the conscious decision to begin the research and writing of The Heretic’s Daughter.  I spent close to five years researching and travelling to New England, gathering historical fact, family legends and local Massachusetts lore about the Carrier family.

Q:The Heretic’s Daughter is as much about coming-of-age as about witchcraft. Did you have a teenage audience in mind as you were writing?

A: I wrote for an adult audience primarily, but because the book encompasses themes that are relevant to teenagers (peer pressure, gossiping and the vagaries of being in the throes of raging hormones), it has been discovered by younger readers as well.  There are currently schools, middle schools and high schools,  that are including the book in their curriculum and suggested reading lists as a companion reading piece to The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible.    Some of the most enlivening and enthusiastic audiences have been the students attending the schools where I have given talks.  

Q: Your next book fills in the gaps of Thomas Carrier’s past and delves into the mysterious Red Book so that, presumably, your focus moves to Cromwellian England. How difficult have you found it to research another country and an earlier time-frame?

A: There is a wealth of information available about Charles I and Cromwellian England, so it was relatively easy gathering the necessary historical facts.  And because the second book is also a fictionalized account, I had a lot of latitude in describing the life of Thomas Carrier, a man who lived to 109 years of age, stood over 7 feet tall (according to Benjamin Franklin’s paper “Poor Richard” of 1735) and who, according to Carrier family stories, was one of the executioners of King Charles I of England. 

Q: Some historical fiction writers, like Sarah Waters, Matthew Pearl and David Ebershoff, add a note about their source material at the end of their books. Do you find this kind of information unnecessary in a work of fiction?

A: I did not include a list of source material for The Heretic’s Daughter and many readers wrote to me, asking me to give them ideas for additional reading on the subject of the Salem witch trials.  For the second book I will be including a selected list of source material because separating fact from fiction can be a very satisfying discovery; a sort of treasure hunt for the mind.

Q: Most writers enjoy a love/hate relationship with book critics. The Heretic’s Daughter has generated a fair amount of reviews which have been mostly favourable or highly commendable. As a beginning author how much attention do you give to book reviews? Will they change the way you write?

A: Being a first time author, it was tremendously gratifying to see such great reviews.  But from the beginning I tried to let my agent send me the reviews she felt were the most significant and I tried to ignore the rest, because really it has nothing to do with writing.  I didn’t read many of the reviews for the same reason I didn’t go into a commercial book store during the years when I was writing this first novel; it would have been very easy to talk myself out of writing a book with so many terrific authors already on the shelves.   Paying too close attention to other people’s opinions will change the process and, first and foremost, I think writers should write for themselves.

I’m very grateful to Kathleen for providing such honest and incisive responses. Women play such an important part of The Heretic’s Daughter that it isn’t surprising to find their significance in the book’s genesis. In stating “that bracing, accurate historical fiction can reveal so many philosophical, moral and cultural truths about our ancestors and our heritage that a dry recitation of dates and places cannot“, she aligns her writing with American authors, like Hawthorne, who have followed the history/fiction trajectory plotted by Walter Scott. Male authors continue to dominate the historical fiction genre and it’ll be interesting to watch Kent’s progress in this field.  

You can connect with Kathleen Kent on The Heretic’s Daughter page on Facebook  at http://www.facebook.com/thehereticsdaughter 

Neglected Classics?

The ‘Open Book’ programme over on BBCRadio4 are currently running a contest to find the ’neglected classic’ that most deserves ‘to be re-read and re-instated on our bookshelves’. Over two weeks some well-known or ‘celebrity’ authors will champion their favourite, the public can also send their choice and the whole proceedings will culminate with a vote for the book that deserves to be ‘re-instated’.

Here’s the list of authors and their ‘neglected classic’:

Programme One: Sunday 18 October

 William Boyd

The Polyglots by William Gerhardie

Susan Hill

The Rector’s Daughter by F M Mayor

Hari Kunzru

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

Ruth Rendell

Many Dimensions by Charles Williams

Colm Toibin

Esther Waters by George Moore

 Programme Two: Sunday 25 October

 Beryl Bainbridge

The Quest for Corvo by A J A Symons

Howard Jacobson

Rasselas by Samuel Johnson

Val McDermid

Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Michael Morpurgo

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

Joanna Trollope

Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope

It will be interesting to learn which author has the most influence and also, how well the selected book actually sells.

Penguin Classics, Vintage, Canongate Classics, Oleander Press, Harper Perennial, Persephone and others reprint books that have fallen out of fashion or have dropped from public consciousness. The only difference that I can detect, if there is one to find is that, publishers reprint books they think will succeed commercially while BBCR4 is choosing books purely on personal recommendation.

Things are not as they seem, however, as a quick search of Amazon reveals that all the books on the list have been reprinted within the last 20 years. William Boyd wrote the introduction to an edition of The Polyglots published in 2001.

Neglected? Really?

All the ‘classic’ authors I know and enjoy reading are in print or their works are easily accessible.

Try it. Key in an author or title to Google, GoogleBooks or Amazon and you’ll find recent copies for sale in hardcopy, POD or some form that you can download or access.

So, which book is the true ‘neglected classic’ ?

Do you have it on your bookshelf?

currently reading

I’ve got to that stage in The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (London: Headline) [p. 220] where I want to finish so that I know the outcome but I’m enjoying it so much that I don’t want it to end. According to Headline’s blurb it’s ‘a dazzling story of greed, betrayal and murder’ and it is, but it’s so much more. The Brutal Telling is the fifth novel featuring the wondrous creation that is Chief Inspector Gamache and his team of detectives from the Sûreté du Quebec. I really wish I’d read her earlier novels, and I probably now will, but Penny fills in gaps about the characters and the place so easily and subtly that I feel as if I already have.

Penny’s style takes a bit of getting used to.  Her syntax. Is. Fragmented. But you get used to it. It certainly helps to build the atmosphere. Here’s an example. At this point, Gamache is mingling with the suspects at the Brume County Fair and has just taken part in the Wellington Boot Toss competition. Of course, his real reason is to get closer to the suspects, to observe how they interact, to inspect their relationships. He questions a carpenter and his wife known to locals as ‘Old Mundin and The Wife’ and meets their son Charles, who has Down’s Syndrome. Gamache wants to inspect Old Mundin’s workshop:

‘Is it okay if we take Charles? Old asked Gamache. ‘It’s hard for The Wife to watch him and look after customers.’

‘I insist he comes along,’ said Gamache, holding out his hand to the boy, who took it without hesitation. A small shard stabbed Gamache’s heart as he realized how precious this boy was, and would always be. A child who lived in a perpetual state of trust.

And how hard it would be for his parents to protect him.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Gamache assured The Wife.

‘Oh, I know he’ll be, it’s you I worry about,’ she said.

I think what I like most about the book is the way that Penny delineates human frailties as an aspect of the everyday rather than, as is often the case in crime fiction, as a special characteristic or failing that must be overcome. For Gamache, his team, and every one of the suspect villagers in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, human life is flawed, imperfect. Life is something we endure.

I like too, the way that the omniscient narrator slips into everyone’s thoughts and feelings to reveal their suspicions and their guilt and guilty secrets, which adds to the feeling of impending doom. Penny isn’t afraid to cut away to ‘white’ to leave a clue hanging, and she is confident in taking up a clue from where it left off, giving the reader credit with understanding and intelligence. The narration follows the fractured way thoughts cohere so that we don’t get a chronological retelling or uncovering but a gradual revealing, piece by piece.

Here’s a link to Louise Penny’s official website  http://www.louisepenny.com/