Nobody else' s book club: The Lesser Bohemians, by Eimear McBride
I confess, this is the first book in my book club, just because it is the book I was reading when I started it.
If you'd like a professional review, I can recommend this one. What follows is my humble opinion.
This book is written through out in the first person. What you "hear" is the voice of Eily, she is a young Irish girl who has just moved to London to attend Drama school. In the beginning, you hear of her excitement for London and the people she meets, the friends she makes, the grown-up life she's just beginning to live. Then she meets a much older man and their relationship turns in to a vortex in her life. With him, she learns sex, desire, heartbreak, anguish, pleasure, and more. Their relationship is not an easy one, partly because they're mismatched (by their difference in age), partly because they each have to deal with the inner demons created by their past lives. Still, it is these inner demons that allow them to find a common ground, a reason and a need to stay together.
The book is formed of two very distinct parts. The story is always told in the first person by Eily and in the first part we hear her voice, rich, musical and poetic, and she is unequivocally the main character. In the second part, the man, Eily's lover, becomes the central character and we learn the story of his life as reported to Eily. Even though it is still Eily's narration, it is now his voice and those of other characters that dominate the book. The language changes completely it becomes decisively standard and it looses the poetic, rich musicality of the first part.
What I liked about the book? I love Eily's voice in the first part. Eimear McBride's writing style as been compared to that of Joyce, and, even if the comparison may be misplaced, it is the quality of her writing that is the strongest point in the book. This is mostly lost in the second part, but there I liked the lover's story. It is daunting and compelling in equal parts. After reading this book I couldn't start a new one, his story obsessed me for days, I felt I needed time to digest it. What I also liked about the book through out is the way McBride creates extremely realistic characters, to the point you often have the feeling of reading autobiography and end with the feeling you now know a real person intimately. This is an author who has an unusual sensibility to human nature.
That said, the book has some obvious flaws. The source of these is mainly in the choice of narrator. Insisting on continuing to write in Eily's voice,—even when the lover becomes the central character and his story, mostly narrated to and not witnessed by Eily, takes centre stage,—generates a challenge that the author never overcomes. This begins with a very long monologue by the lover, which is contrived, even if some justification is given to why Eily never interrupts him. Partly the problem here is that the monologue sounds more like written text than real speech. It is obvious that Eimear McBride strongest quality, her ability to transmit the personal voice of her main character, is lost here. She has not found the voice of this character, and that is the main reason why the second part of the book is so detached from the first one. Had she found his voice and even if she had chosen to make it the main voice in the second part (which would have made it sound more natural) the book would have not lost its unity. As is, the writing feels lazy and sloppy at times, with parts of the story being told by characters speaking to Eily in ways that real people never do. This reaches a ridiculous level at a time when we hear the lover tell her, that his ex-wife told him, that his father told her, that his mother told him that… There must be a better way to convey this story and, I'm sure that, with a bit more work the author could have found it. And it is a pity to see a very good book being partly ruined this way.
But I'm being harsh. This is still a book very much worth reading despite its faults.
One last point: if you think about it, this is standard romance, not only because it's a love story, but because the story line is standard romance stuff. Young virgin meets experienced, but flawed man, who initiates her in the pleasures of sex. Their relationship is haunted by past trauma, but together and through their love they overcome it. Happy ending. 50 shades without the kink ;)—OK the guy is not a millionaire either (and, thank god!, this is written in one reasonably-sized volume). The reason you won't find the book in the romance section of your bookshop is, obviously, the undeniable quality of the writing. But who said that romance novels have to be poorly written? If you've been looking for good quality contemporary romance, this may just be your book. A rare one. I wish more good authors would forget the fear of ridicule and dare doing it.
If you'd like a professional review, I can recommend this one. What follows is my humble opinion.
This book is written through out in the first person. What you "hear" is the voice of Eily, she is a young Irish girl who has just moved to London to attend Drama school. In the beginning, you hear of her excitement for London and the people she meets, the friends she makes, the grown-up life she's just beginning to live. Then she meets a much older man and their relationship turns in to a vortex in her life. With him, she learns sex, desire, heartbreak, anguish, pleasure, and more. Their relationship is not an easy one, partly because they're mismatched (by their difference in age), partly because they each have to deal with the inner demons created by their past lives. Still, it is these inner demons that allow them to find a common ground, a reason and a need to stay together.
The book is formed of two very distinct parts. The story is always told in the first person by Eily and in the first part we hear her voice, rich, musical and poetic, and she is unequivocally the main character. In the second part, the man, Eily's lover, becomes the central character and we learn the story of his life as reported to Eily. Even though it is still Eily's narration, it is now his voice and those of other characters that dominate the book. The language changes completely it becomes decisively standard and it looses the poetic, rich musicality of the first part.
What I liked about the book? I love Eily's voice in the first part. Eimear McBride's writing style as been compared to that of Joyce, and, even if the comparison may be misplaced, it is the quality of her writing that is the strongest point in the book. This is mostly lost in the second part, but there I liked the lover's story. It is daunting and compelling in equal parts. After reading this book I couldn't start a new one, his story obsessed me for days, I felt I needed time to digest it. What I also liked about the book through out is the way McBride creates extremely realistic characters, to the point you often have the feeling of reading autobiography and end with the feeling you now know a real person intimately. This is an author who has an unusual sensibility to human nature.
That said, the book has some obvious flaws. The source of these is mainly in the choice of narrator. Insisting on continuing to write in Eily's voice,—even when the lover becomes the central character and his story, mostly narrated to and not witnessed by Eily, takes centre stage,—generates a challenge that the author never overcomes. This begins with a very long monologue by the lover, which is contrived, even if some justification is given to why Eily never interrupts him. Partly the problem here is that the monologue sounds more like written text than real speech. It is obvious that Eimear McBride strongest quality, her ability to transmit the personal voice of her main character, is lost here. She has not found the voice of this character, and that is the main reason why the second part of the book is so detached from the first one. Had she found his voice and even if she had chosen to make it the main voice in the second part (which would have made it sound more natural) the book would have not lost its unity. As is, the writing feels lazy and sloppy at times, with parts of the story being told by characters speaking to Eily in ways that real people never do. This reaches a ridiculous level at a time when we hear the lover tell her, that his ex-wife told him, that his father told her, that his mother told him that… There must be a better way to convey this story and, I'm sure that, with a bit more work the author could have found it. And it is a pity to see a very good book being partly ruined this way.
But I'm being harsh. This is still a book very much worth reading despite its faults.
One last point: if you think about it, this is standard romance, not only because it's a love story, but because the story line is standard romance stuff. Young virgin meets experienced, but flawed man, who initiates her in the pleasures of sex. Their relationship is haunted by past trauma, but together and through their love they overcome it. Happy ending. 50 shades without the kink ;)—OK the guy is not a millionaire either (and, thank god!, this is written in one reasonably-sized volume). The reason you won't find the book in the romance section of your bookshop is, obviously, the undeniable quality of the writing. But who said that romance novels have to be poorly written? If you've been looking for good quality contemporary romance, this may just be your book. A rare one. I wish more good authors would forget the fear of ridicule and dare doing it.
Next book: William Trevor's "A bit on the side". Here is a link to a review of this book by Hermione Lee.
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