The Passion - Book Group Discussion thread
7 watchers
Nov 2016
3:35pm, 26 Nov 2016
26,887 posts
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McGoohan
Hello. A few days early but that's the way I roll, sometimes. This here is a thread for the discussioning of Jeanette Winterson's third novel The Passion as chosen by Daz the Slug as the December 2016 book. Spoilers ahoy for the unwary. |
Dec 2016
1:57pm, 5 Dec 2016
1,757 posts
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DazTheSlug
I am half way through, having read the first 2 of the 4 parts part 1 was good, but Part Two "The Queen Of Spades" has just blown me away - *absolutely superb* - only 28 pages but *PERFECT* piece of writing! |
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Dec 2016
2:03pm, 5 Dec 2016
26,976 posts
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McGoohan
I have finished it. It is done. I started off hating but it grew on me a bit, but never to the extent of liking it at all. Soz. I'll do a proper review later.
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Dec 2016
10:29am, 6 Dec 2016
1,431 posts
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westmoors
Definitely not a book I would have chosen to read, but I did find myself enjoying it. I was a little disappointed when I started to read part 2 as it didn't have any connection with part 1 and I was worried it was going to be another collection of short stories. Thankfully the two did merge in parts 3 and 4. Very thought provoking on what "being free" means to different people. |
Dec 2016
9:51pm, 9 Dec 2016
815 posts
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Serenmerrily
I remember loving oranges are not the only fruit. Then I remember a disillusionment so strong it put me off her. I was afraid *this* was the book but it was not - I enjoyed it and was glad to reread it. I gave it an 8 because bits I really enjoyed. But not more because the narrators voice sometimes rang false. Magic realism was in vogue for a bit - full of similes coming to life and structuring tales by repeating certain images or phrases - this book has dated a bit because of it, it tends to distance me as a reader
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Dec 2016
4:57pm, 11 Dec 2016
27,054 posts
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McGoohan
About time I wrote my review. Why didn’t I like it? Others are clearly loving it. I loved OANTOF but hated her second book (Boating for Beginners) so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I guess it came somewhere in between the two. One of the big problems for me is that JW clearly likes to take a plunge through the Magic Realism Tree but is also very selective about which branches she hits on the way down. So – that first part about Henri. That’s initially presented as a sort of Historic Fiction type thing. But almost immediately we get the Napoleon myths being trotted out again. He was very short. He didn’t allow anyone taller than him to work close by. Any fule kno that was British propaganda. It struck me that she wanted to write historical fiction, but CBAed to do any research. So I regathered a bit and thought, OK, read this as an alternate Napoleon. She’s clearly going to pull the Magic Realism card out soon. We get that in the second part, The Queen of Spades, where you get full-on MR. Half-way through reading this, I went to check up: yes, she’d never been to Venice when she wrote the book, it was all imagined. Even accepting it then as a fantasy landscape I still couldn’t get into it. The third and fourth parts tie the strands together and I started to find it more interesting but not enough to redeem the book as a whole. Overall, I think my problem is with JW’s skills as a writer. She’s very fond of the leitmotif. You get the orange demon in OANTOF (and it crops up again in BFB, annoyingly and inappropriately). Here, she has repeated phrases such as “Trust me. I’m telling stories.” and “You play, you lose. You play, you win. You play.” I think she thinks they’re profound or give the air of profundity but “You play” is a mundane motif and “Trust me. I’m telling stories.” is a sort of Get Out Of Jail Free card for the writer of Magic Realism. Don’t like it? Hey, I’m just telling stories here. Most of all, it seems to me to be writing that’s telling me how great it is, without actually achieving that greatness. Example: “Somewhere between fear and sex passion is.” That one crops up a lot too. Just try saying that in Yoda’s voice and adding, “Young Skywalker” to the end of it. I quite like a bit of MR when it’s done right, or done consistently, but Winterson seems to want to use it almost randomly to pep up otherwise dull writing. I recall loving Midnight’s Children – as an example of Magic Realism done right - but I wonder if I would on a re-read? It’s a bit of an 80s trope, perhaps. |
Dec 2016
5:07pm, 11 Dec 2016
88,187 posts
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GregP
Nice review Maccers-Gooers - although the chances of me reading the book have now plunge from slim to zero.
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Dec 2016
5:10pm, 11 Dec 2016
27,056 posts
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McGoohan
Er... you might like it. It's very short.
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Dec 2016
5:43pm, 11 Dec 2016
819 posts
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Serenmerrily
I liked your review too McGoohan. I just reread Shame to check how much magic realism had dated and came to the conclusion it had but it served a purpose in Shame and is only a form of laziness in the Passion. I passed over all that "between ..." nonsense as the filler it was and enjoyed the brevity and the story.
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Dec 2016
4:49pm, 13 Dec 2016
1,289 posts
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Lorraine
This is the first book of hers I have read. At first I really wasn't sure and like westmoors I was a little disappointed when it appeared to be a collection of short stories, how wrong was I. I loved the way the stories merged into one and it really does make you stop and think about life in general especially how we all interpreted 'free' I went from not enjoying it to really loving it. |
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