Sunday, August 1, 2010

Who's telling the story?

It's no secret that I read books mostly by women authors as I can relate better to the female perspective. And then along comes a male writer who writes a female character very effectively. In Brooklyn, Colm Toibin describes two years in the life of Eilis who leaves Ireland in the Fifties for a better life (or so it seems) in America. The voices in this novel are predominanatly female with the male characters mostly playing minor parts. The three major males are very kind and sympathetic men, making this appear to be a gentle read. It does however raise some important questions about family and loyalty and appreciation of others and can best be described as a thoughtful read. My list of favourite male authors has now increased to three!



Sometimes I also experience difficulty with a female writer who takes on a male perspective but was pleasantly surprised by Lionel Shriver's latest book So much for that. Shriver's narrator ends up caring for three sick people from different generations - some special person. This well developed story has a political and financial theme but it is the way the individuals deal with their problems that moves the story along and makes the male voice quite acceptable!

1 comment:

  1. Of these 2, I've only read the Shriver. I've read several of her books now - while nothing has surpassed the shocking power of "We have to talk about Kevin", I have still found them, & her voice, nonetheless very powerful.

    I liked "So much for that" a good deal. Her main character is believable & realistic, which is basically what I am looking for in this type of work. I thought the other characters were reasonably well-developed (that maybe took a bit longer to establish?*), & completely believable.

    There's been some comment (not here, generally about this book) about the way people have reacted to life-threatening illness. My experience is that this is totally believable, likely. It may not be a common US experience possibly, or maybe it's that the commentators (commenters?) haven't had that close an experience with what is definitely a desperately sad & difficult situation.

    *On reflection: I'm not sure that it's a bad thing for it to take time to kind of "grow into" a character, or for it to take time for the character to grow on you, the reader ...

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