Reflections on the puddle of life

I recently had the good fortune to be chosen as a 'first look' reviewer for Virago, who are an UK based publishing house focused on female writers. Given recent surveys which indicate that female writers still find it harder to get published and reviewed, and receive less time and page space in the literature magazines, I think the women's press needs all the support I can give and having a space which promotes excellent female writers is, in my opinion, a great thing, though it would be greater if one day such an institution became unnecessary.

You can read a bit more about Virago, and Virago's writers here: http://www.virago.co.uk/

Virago has, for a long time, been a publishing house I admire (being the publishers of my all time fave Angela Carter), so it's quite an honour to have the opportunity to advance review their books, and it also has the added bonus of meaning I receive free books, so it's great all around. I'm also trying to find ways to get more involved in the world of literature, and this seems like a fantastic vehicle. I'm also pretty rubbish at book reviews. I read a lot, but often can't quite articulate what I think about a book afterwards. So this is good practice for me.

I'm therefore resolved to try and write more regular book reviews, and where I do I'm going to post them here in this blog.

The first book I was asked to review is a book called We Had it So Good by the Booker nominated writer Linda Grant. Here's my review.

We Had it So Good, Linda Grant

We Had it So Good follows the life of Stephen, an American ‘baby boomer’ who came to Britain for an education and stayed, initially at least, to avoid the draft. Whilst studying in Oxford, Stephen meets Andrea who he marries for convenience but who becomes the love of his life. The story follows Stephen’s and Andrea’s life together, their family, their friends and the events that go on around them. It is a tour of recent history that many readers will recognise and associate with.

In many ways this is a story about ordinary people, and because of this it can come across as superficial and a bit dull. You’re left with the sense that they never quite have a direction, but seem, somehow, to end up leading a blessed and uneventful life. At the same time, these are not quite ordinary people. Stephen and Andrea meet whilst both are studying at the ‘exclusive club’ of Oxford University, their friends have money and, eventually, Stephen and Andrea get great jobs and a house in Islington which is worth £3m. This is a couple who fall on their feet. As the title of the novel says: ‘we had it so good.’

Yet there is an aura of dissatisfaction about the novel which pervades all of the characters except, perhaps, Andrea who seems to be the only one content and at peace with her life. Stephen is never quite ‘in place’, neither in Britain nor in the States does he seem to fit in. He spends a lot of time questioning what he has ‘done with his life’, particularly in light of his short association with Bill Clinton, and the one time encounter with Marilyn Monroe’s stole. The characters of Max and Marianne also have their own dissatisfactions, the rejection of the life which had been passed down to them. One of the more interesting points about this novel is the evidence of each generation rejecting the choices of the previous one. Just looking at the career choices of each generation is revealing in itself. Stephen and Andrea’s parents worked in the service industry (fur storage/hoteliers) servicing the wealthy; Stephen and Andrea’s chosen professions were science and psychology, exploring and exposing the inner workings of things; Marianne and Max go the opposite way choosing careers based on image and withdrawal – Max as an illusionist and Marianne as a photographer. Somehow I don’t think these were random choices. And then there is Grace, Andrea's friend from Oxford, the failed hippie who never quite got to grips with what it was she wanted out of life. She spends her life travelling the world, but there’s a small distance between ‘travelling’ and ‘running’ and, in the end, Grace’s life seems to run away with her. There’s not a great deal of sympathy in the characters in this novel.

I found it hard to get to grips with whether I enjoyed this novel or not. It’s a deceptive piece of work. On the one hand the accusation of superficial seems appropriate, we seem to rush through Stephen and Andrea’s life and not a great deal happens. Terrible events go on around them, but despite this they seem remarkably untouched. Their children thrive, in their own ways, their daughter Marianne comes closest to tragedy and yet she manages to recover, largely unscathed. Grant uses shifting perspective, both in terms of the narrative point of view (which shifts from third person to first person in places) and tense (which shifts from past tense to present tense when referring to the past) and the result of this is a sense of dizzying confusion, particularly in the beginning of the novel, which somehow distracts from the otherwise compelling story. And perhaps that is the strangest thing about this book, because despite the apparent lack of significant events, and despite the apparent light touch into Stephen and Andrea’s lives, it is a compelling story. I found myself, particularly towards the end, finding it difficult to put down, yet I am somewhat at a loss to say quite why.

I think this is a deceptively clever book, which would benefit from a second reading. I enjoyed the way that the lives of Stephen and Andrea are presented without judgement and yet the challenge, ‘what have I done with my life’, is one that every reader can associate with. It doesn’t make a moral judgement, but it asks the reader to reflect on what they’ve read and ask the question themselves: if Stephen and Andrea don’t move me, does my own life move me? Because we are all these ordinary people, and like Stephen and Andrea we all, probably, have it pretty good. The story leaves you with things to reflect upon, both in terms of the ‘baby boomer’ generation, and the next.

In the end I have to conclude that it is pretty hard to care too much about Stephen and Andrea, they’re too recognisable and they reflect badly upon us, and I think, in some ways, this is both the novel’s greatest flaw and it’s genius.