No Subject

[Jessica Conoley]

If you are a person who is concerned with the story then Virginia Woolf is probably not for you. She is neither straight forward, nor is she easy. If you can let go of the idea that moving from point A to point B is important, then her work is absolutely spell binding. In Jacob's Room she moves through descriptions and events at a dizzying pace. She has a remarkable ability to show the whole of everything, and avoids the limited one character point of view that many authors place upon themselves. Her story traces the life of Jacob in the period of time just prior to WWI. His development is traced through the eyes of characters he meets, and his perceptions on the world around him. His character is not as developed as characters in her later novels, and I left the book without a true connection to the main character. It feels like Woolf is still figuring out how to use her round-about style to the best advantage of the novel, and it stumbles at times. There are moments that are captivating, and moments I wanted to skim. Overall I would say it's not a waste of time, and the strength of the style of her writing overpowers the weakness of character development. I didn't love it, but I certainly enjoyed it. I would reccomend Mrs. Dalloway as an introduction to Woolf, but for anyone who is still interested after Mrs. Dalloway this is a good investment of time.

[cquirke]

If you are a person who is concerned with the story then Virginia Woolf is probably not for you. She is neither straight forward, nor is she easy.

I've read more written about Virginia Woolf than written by her; in fact, Jacob's Room is the first of hers that I've read.

She has a remarkable ability to show the whole of everything, and avoids the limited one character point of view that many authors place upon themselves.

This novel is fairly centered on Jacob, but it is a hollow center as we read about him only through the views of others. I like the way she writes from multiple perspectives, but this isn't really focusing on multiple characters the way one sees is more recent novels and interlinked short stories (e.g. Disch's 334, or Winton's The Turning).

On the other hand, she doesn't curve her space around her central character, the way one finds in some French movies for example.

Her story traces the life of Jacob in the period of time just prior to WWI.

I got a bit mis-cued, as initially I thought Jacob's father (Seabrook) had been killed in that war; only when a meeting with Kaiser was mentioned as news, did I realize I'd got that wrong.

His character is not as developed as characters in her later novels, and I left the book without a true connection to the main character.

I'd have to read her other works to figure if this is intentional, or due to her still developing her style.

There's a cemetary convention of using a broken bough to indicate a life cut short before its prime, and the abrupt last chapter conveys this. To me, this is why Jacob is portrayed as frustratingly "hollow", and why we don't hear his own voice; he literally does not exist, leaving only echoes in how others remember him, and their expectations of what he will now never become.

I had an uncle I never met, whose life followed a similar trajectory - Oxford in his case, well-written and witty letters from exotic travels, until he was shot down on a training flight when the Zeros arrived at Singapore.

It feels like Woolf is still figuring out how to use her round-about style to the best advantage of the novel, and it stumbles at times. There are moments that are captivating, and moments I wanted to skim.

I think she falls into a common trap, and that is to use her novel, or the utterence of her characters, to carry her opinions and obersevations that aren't really connected to the novel itself.

As to patchy style, or flagging energy - that can happen in novels, even short ones if they were intense and slow to write. It mars most of P K Dick's works, with Through A Scanner Darkly as a stark exception - that book seems stylistically perfect, the way it starts as a "Cheech and Chong" style dope farce and ends as terminal tragedy, with no single perceptable changing of gears along the way. Nothing else I've read has pulled that off!

Dick's ideas were so strong, and make so much more sense in recent times, that it's easy to see why they make such good movies - a process that can work around the patchiness of the novels themselves.

I didn't love it, but I certainly enjoyed it. I would reccomend Mrs. Dalloway as an introduction to Woolf, but for anyone who is still interested after Mrs. Dalloway this is a good investment of time.

I'll be looking out for more of her works; perhaps Mrs. Dalloway will be the next to come my way.