I Read Therefore I Am discussion

Comment as soon as you like but please hide any spoilers.

I'm not too enraptured with Daughters Of The House - I'm not entirely sure why. It's the sort of thing that would normally appeal to me - dark secrets from WW2 slowly being discovered by 2 young girls and coming back to haunt them years later.
Perhaps it's that the chapters are all so very short so that it makes it a bit jumpy and hard to sink in to, or maybe it's because I can't latch on to any of the characters - anyway I shall keep going and hope for the best.

I really liked Ignorance, I liked her writing style - I think it was the first bit that won me over because she was describing a scene involving a painter in a very painterly way, almost impressionistic which I really liked. I haven't started 'Daughters of the house' yet so can't comment on that one.

I'm just over half way through Ignorance and enjoying it at the same time as finding it rather strange. I can't wait to see what happens at the end.

Finished Daughters of the House but didn't enjoy it - and the ending really annoyed me - perhaps I should give Ignorance a go.

Just finished Ignorance and although I enjoyed it very much, I found it also very strange. It's rather hard to describe. All written in the first person by three connected people, you get different views of the same situation. Because it jumps backwards and forwards in time, you are constantly being reminded of something you have read previously described from a different characters perspective. I think its well written and very original in fact I don't think I've read anything quite like it before. But the end leaves you slightly up in the air hoping that it did all work out for them in the end.

I enjoyed Daughters of the House as well, although I liked Ignorance better. Both had endings that didn't really resolve anything - there was an element of uncertainty in both as to what would happen to the characters after the end. I didn't really mind this but I can see how it would be really annoying! Really well-written books though.

Now am reading Paper Houses: A Memoir Of The 70s And Beyond which is interesting and Roberts writing is just as good in memoir form as it is in novel form.

Wow - you're being very thorough with this month's author I must say :0)

ha ha, there was a few of her books at the library! I'd like to be this thorough with all our monthly authors but availability issues and time constraints abound....

Very true

I've just finished Ignorance. I found it very unpleasant - characters, descriptions, style of writing: all pretty horrible. So much violent imagery that's over-extreme for the event occurring. Eg:
"Giant boots swung at me, kicked me in the belly" (opening a cupboard door)
"Cold air smacked my cheeks...sharp as a chisel was cracking me open"
(walking to market on a spring morning)
"The city flared open around me as though the bus were a knife tearing into flesh"
(bus journey through London). and so on.
At times I couldn't tell what was going on beneath the thick layers of metaphors, but when she calms down a bit, the style is much better eg. "a wounded city, pitted with craters...". On the plus side, the book does bring home the hardship/poverty/victimisation that took place during the Occupation

PS. Is it worth trying Daughters of the House or is that written in the same vein?

I don't remember the metaphors in The Daughters of the House being particularly violent . I didn't really like it though - Laurel was much more keen.

I really enjoyed it but if you didn't like the writing style in 'Ignorance', I don't think you'll like it any better in 'Daughters...', that's how she writes ;)

Thanks Laurel. I'll keep Daughters of the House on my TBR list but right at the bottom!!

Well behind times and catching up slowly, I finally got round to reading a Michele Roberts novel last week; I chose 'Reader, I Married Him' and I'm really not sure what to make of it. The narrative seems to jump around all over the place, and it's such an implausible storyline, that I found the whole thing rather disappointing when I got to the end. I don't think I shall be seeking any more of Roberts' work for my TBR list.