10-11-2011, 07:55 AM
My review:
This story has a couple of layers. The first person to speak to us is Margaret Lea, aged about 35, who is invited to write the biography of the present-day best loved living author, Vida Winter. Although Margaret lives and breathes novels, manuscripts and anything written, she has read none of the fifty-six books by Vida Winter. One book stands out because at first printing it was titled "Thirteen tales of change and desperation", but contained only twelve stories. The whole world is curious to know about this missing thirteenth tale.
Margaret visits Vida Winters in her home in Yorkshire. The old lady starts telling her her story in bits and pieces, as she is slowly dying and is in a lot of pain.
From the start the reader is confronted with mysteries. There's the missing thirteenth tale, Margaret won't tell the reader about something in her past, why does Margaret's mother not love her, will Vida Winter be telling the truth and why has she been lying all the time to reporters and biographers?
The reader never learns exactly when the stories take place. It's before the age of computers and cell phones. Margaret won't even use a taperecorder for her work with Miss Winter. She makes notes and transcribes later using paper, pencils and a pencil sharpener. Which she doesn't hesitate to screw to the edge of her host's furniture... Next she removes the floor-length heavy curtains from the window across the desk where she is to work, so she can look up through the window and see her reflection in the glass. Oh no, it isn't her reflection, it's the ghost of her twin sister who died long ago and of whose existence she didn't learn until she was about ten years old... You may gather I didn't care for Margaret and her story at all, whining about this ghostly twin all the time. The actual story, told by Vida Winters, is much better. It's also about twins and although Margaret claims to understand the relationship between twins like no other, the similarities between both stories are nil.
In telling Vida's story the reader will be cheated. She wants to tell her story "Beginnings, middles and endings, all in the correct order. No cheating. No looking ahead. No questions." Margaret soon establishes Vida is not lying about the facts this time, but she is lying with the telling sequence. Nevertheless, it's an interesting story, albeit rather far-fetched sometimes. All the mysteries raised will get their more or less proper answers.
The gothic atmosphere is there in both mansions, the one where Vida grew up and the one where she is telling her story. There is no heroine in peril, though. People and places are described very good, the prose is excellent. Many references are made to the real gothics like Jane Eyre, which seems to be done more in order to enhance the gothic feeling than that it actually pertains to the story.
Again I find an author who feels the need to bash a classic gothic, in this case Henry James' The Turn of the Screw: "For the book is a rather silly story about a governess and two haunted children. I am afraid that in it Mr. James exposes the extent of his ignorance. He knows little about children and nothing at all about governesses." This is said by the governess in Vida's story, which may or may not be Ms. Setterfield's own opinion, but I think an author should refrain from making such denigrating remarks about colleagues who are much more famous than themselves.
Apart from being annoyed a lot by Margaret, who decides not to publish Vida's story!, I enjoyed my time reading the rest, so I'll give it a 7 out of 10.
This story has a couple of layers. The first person to speak to us is Margaret Lea, aged about 35, who is invited to write the biography of the present-day best loved living author, Vida Winter. Although Margaret lives and breathes novels, manuscripts and anything written, she has read none of the fifty-six books by Vida Winter. One book stands out because at first printing it was titled "Thirteen tales of change and desperation", but contained only twelve stories. The whole world is curious to know about this missing thirteenth tale.
Margaret visits Vida Winters in her home in Yorkshire. The old lady starts telling her her story in bits and pieces, as she is slowly dying and is in a lot of pain.
From the start the reader is confronted with mysteries. There's the missing thirteenth tale, Margaret won't tell the reader about something in her past, why does Margaret's mother not love her, will Vida Winter be telling the truth and why has she been lying all the time to reporters and biographers?
The reader never learns exactly when the stories take place. It's before the age of computers and cell phones. Margaret won't even use a taperecorder for her work with Miss Winter. She makes notes and transcribes later using paper, pencils and a pencil sharpener. Which she doesn't hesitate to screw to the edge of her host's furniture... Next she removes the floor-length heavy curtains from the window across the desk where she is to work, so she can look up through the window and see her reflection in the glass. Oh no, it isn't her reflection, it's the ghost of her twin sister who died long ago and of whose existence she didn't learn until she was about ten years old... You may gather I didn't care for Margaret and her story at all, whining about this ghostly twin all the time. The actual story, told by Vida Winters, is much better. It's also about twins and although Margaret claims to understand the relationship between twins like no other, the similarities between both stories are nil.
In telling Vida's story the reader will be cheated. She wants to tell her story "Beginnings, middles and endings, all in the correct order. No cheating. No looking ahead. No questions." Margaret soon establishes Vida is not lying about the facts this time, but she is lying with the telling sequence. Nevertheless, it's an interesting story, albeit rather far-fetched sometimes. All the mysteries raised will get their more or less proper answers.
The gothic atmosphere is there in both mansions, the one where Vida grew up and the one where she is telling her story. There is no heroine in peril, though. People and places are described very good, the prose is excellent. Many references are made to the real gothics like Jane Eyre, which seems to be done more in order to enhance the gothic feeling than that it actually pertains to the story.
Again I find an author who feels the need to bash a classic gothic, in this case Henry James' The Turn of the Screw: "For the book is a rather silly story about a governess and two haunted children. I am afraid that in it Mr. James exposes the extent of his ignorance. He knows little about children and nothing at all about governesses." This is said by the governess in Vida's story, which may or may not be Ms. Setterfield's own opinion, but I think an author should refrain from making such denigrating remarks about colleagues who are much more famous than themselves.
Apart from being annoyed a lot by Margaret, who decides not to publish Vida's story!, I enjoyed my time reading the rest, so I'll give it a 7 out of 10.
