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Margitte's Reviews > The Past
The Past
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by
Margitte's review
bookshelves: 2017-read, british-author, british-novels, family-sagas, fiction, reviewed
Dec 17, 2017
bookshelves: 2017-read, british-author, british-novels, family-sagas, fiction, reviewed
Just remember: three stars mean I liked it.
"Placid" comes to mind when I think back on this book of four siblings coming together in their old family home to make an important decision about its future. As usual they come with memories and baggage as well as children who must carry on their legacy.
The American blurb reads like a cheap premonition of a porn storm: With uncanny precision and extraordinary sympathy, Tessa Hadley charts the squalls of lust and envy disrupting this ill-assorted house party, as well as the consolations of memory and affection, the beauty of the natural world, the shifting of history under the social surface. From the first page the reader is absorbed and enthralled, watching a superb craftsperson unfold the lives of these unforgettable siblings.
Instinctively an experienced reader should up and run. To turn the dullness of a somber bucolic landscape into a passionate play of words, is permissible, but dishonest. Trying to turn ordinary into extraordinary with a few sales gimmicks is really sad. This book in all its splendorous mediocrity had me constantly, for months, considering turning my back on it and watch paint dry on the walls as alternative form of excitement. Yet, I did not do it. I came back. Again and again.
Ok, so that's my gripe. And it's the only one.
Otherwise the very well-written story, perhaps a little character-driven and only hot on stream of consciousness movement, did manage to tell the story of a ordinary British family struggling with life's challenges and the memories of the life they used to enjoy and love. It was like being nostalgic again about a landscape in which they could not embed themselves again as participants in it. They were out of it for too many years. The three sisters were like a seraglio of Fate. So the same, yet so different, with a bond that eventually would prove to be stronger than destiny. Their last reunion in the old home, being a typical British pastoral as pastiche, brought more than just a last effort to be a united family, drenched in old traditions and values.
Pilar, Roland's third wife, subconsciously triggered the changes to come. In almost three weeks of isolated, bucolic bliss, which Pilar despised, she loved cities and excitement, the three sisters would be forced to perform their family life for her scrutiny, with each scene lathered with pretentiousness. It felt false. Their actions, their words, their meanings. One by one the threads of their lives would loosen itself and lay bare the real people behind the performance. Pilar was the Gorgon in their midst. The stranger who walked into the narrative and changed the plots of their lives without them realizing what was happening. A pilar? Mmmm ...
Harriet, Alice, Fran and Roland would walk out and close the doors of Kington, liberated from themselves and everything that kept them chained to their own limitations. There was enough time left for new beginnings.
I tried many times to get into this book. It was just so dull. In the end I just grabbed it and got on with it. A good read. Not overly exciting, or breaking any glass ceilings of any new discoveries, but a relaxing realistic experience. A quiet, graceful story. There is a lot to the book. A Creative Writing marvel for those who thrive on it. In that sense it is recommendable. In any other way it lacked the magic needed to steam up the windows and boil the blood. It simply wasn't there, for me at least.
Another stranger walked into the plot and change the ending considerably, perhaps not for the family, but for the reader for sure.
A good family saga.
"Placid" comes to mind when I think back on this book of four siblings coming together in their old family home to make an important decision about its future. As usual they come with memories and baggage as well as children who must carry on their legacy.
The American blurb reads like a cheap premonition of a porn storm: With uncanny precision and extraordinary sympathy, Tessa Hadley charts the squalls of lust and envy disrupting this ill-assorted house party, as well as the consolations of memory and affection, the beauty of the natural world, the shifting of history under the social surface. From the first page the reader is absorbed and enthralled, watching a superb craftsperson unfold the lives of these unforgettable siblings.
Instinctively an experienced reader should up and run. To turn the dullness of a somber bucolic landscape into a passionate play of words, is permissible, but dishonest. Trying to turn ordinary into extraordinary with a few sales gimmicks is really sad. This book in all its splendorous mediocrity had me constantly, for months, considering turning my back on it and watch paint dry on the walls as alternative form of excitement. Yet, I did not do it. I came back. Again and again.
Ok, so that's my gripe. And it's the only one.
Otherwise the very well-written story, perhaps a little character-driven and only hot on stream of consciousness movement, did manage to tell the story of a ordinary British family struggling with life's challenges and the memories of the life they used to enjoy and love. It was like being nostalgic again about a landscape in which they could not embed themselves again as participants in it. They were out of it for too many years. The three sisters were like a seraglio of Fate. So the same, yet so different, with a bond that eventually would prove to be stronger than destiny. Their last reunion in the old home, being a typical British pastoral as pastiche, brought more than just a last effort to be a united family, drenched in old traditions and values.
Pilar, Roland's third wife, subconsciously triggered the changes to come. In almost three weeks of isolated, bucolic bliss, which Pilar despised, she loved cities and excitement, the three sisters would be forced to perform their family life for her scrutiny, with each scene lathered with pretentiousness. It felt false. Their actions, their words, their meanings. One by one the threads of their lives would loosen itself and lay bare the real people behind the performance. Pilar was the Gorgon in their midst. The stranger who walked into the narrative and changed the plots of their lives without them realizing what was happening. A pilar? Mmmm ...
Harriet, Alice, Fran and Roland would walk out and close the doors of Kington, liberated from themselves and everything that kept them chained to their own limitations. There was enough time left for new beginnings.
I tried many times to get into this book. It was just so dull. In the end I just grabbed it and got on with it. A good read. Not overly exciting, or breaking any glass ceilings of any new discoveries, but a relaxing realistic experience. A quiet, graceful story. There is a lot to the book. A Creative Writing marvel for those who thrive on it. In that sense it is recommendable. In any other way it lacked the magic needed to steam up the windows and boil the blood. It simply wasn't there, for me at least.
Another stranger walked into the plot and change the ending considerably, perhaps not for the family, but for the reader for sure.
A good family saga.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
December 17, 2017
– Shelved
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
2017-read
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
british-author
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
british-novels
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
family-sagas
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
fiction
December 17, 2017
– Shelved as:
reviewed
December 17, 2017
–
Finished Reading
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Deanna
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Dec 17, 2017 01:42AM
Great review!!
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Deanna wrote: "Great review!!"Thank you kindly Deanna :-)
Hahaha, are you expecting to be lynched by the Hadley fans? :-) I haven't read her yet, but I'm curious.
Bianca wrote: "Hahaha, are you expecting to be lynched by the mob for Hadley fans? :-) I haven't read her yet, but I'm curious."Yep, so be it then :-))) I'll take it.
I'm chuckling, Margitte, because in the first paragraph of my review, I say " It is hard to describe this and other Hadley novels and stories without them sounding a little like watching paint drying." :))))But I'm one of those Hadley fans - I especially loved this one and Clever Girl. And I really liked reading your take on The Past! Definitely no blood-boiling with Hadley!
I still need to read your review, dear Suzy. Haven't had time yet. This book has some meat to the bones indeed. Great character development, so much nuances in the descriptions of landscape, so rich in emotional overtones, but sadly too much of a good thing. Compared to 'Far From The Madding Crowd', my previous read, it felt like overkill in this book. I still enjoyed the author's penmanship very much. She is an excellent author. :-))
Going to your review right this minute. So great to see you!
My soapbox, Bad-Monday-Morning-Mood-Oration, Suzy :-)) When I decided to finish this book at last, I tried to remember to add to my review that the reader needs a lot of patience and a lot of time to digest the scope of this literary novel. It will be rewarded. I still think it was a satisfying read, if we ignore the dullness - and now I am running away!!!!
Seriously, I do suspect that I have read too much about so-called suffering women (man-bashing troupes/gangs), anti-religious, pro so-called liberation odes to appreciate another try at it, like in this book. I have a grave suspicion that many of these prophets don't even realize how successfully they promote The Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, with its modus operandi of creating chaos and then suppress it with much worse autonomy than religion and everything else they wanted to replace. My goodness, this ideology have killed more people than all world wars combined. And it was mostly governments killing their own people by the millions all over the planet. Their tract record all over history stinks to heaven and back. The sad thing is that they move from society to society like a bad virus and then revel in the tragic aftermath without ever admitting their role in it or being unable to address their own follies. And no, they do not flock in their millions to the countries where their ideology destroyed everything, or where their own ideas are/were implemented. Indeed, they have the attitude of 'let's change this new society and try to improve on the mistakes made elsewhere', and then vanish into the woodwork when their big stink hits the fans. But wait, they mourn nothing. They celebrate instead the death of freedom-of-choice.
And then I hope 'pathetic' would not end up being a social asset - a source of celebration. Unfortunately it has nestled nicely into the social psyche already, with much fanfare accompanied by the cacophonous noise of a thousand trumpets.
I've had it with the Freudian mojo of 'I am what I am because of my parents, and I don't have to accept responsibility for my own actions'. I often listen to complaints, with much patience, I must add, and then ask, oh so sweetly and nicely, the complainant, 'now what are YOU going to do about it" - only to observe a total chaotic bewilderment on their faces. It spells out a mag-fudging-nificent confusion, like; "What?! Do you actually think it is my responsibility to change my life/circumstances/attitude or entitlement?!?" and I want to reply: "Yes, like for instance, clean up your act, grow up and leave your parents, government, society and anyone/anything else in peace. They're not going to do it for you." And I'm talking to a physically being, 40 year-old, with an emotional equivalent of a five year old bratty child who have kids herself and don't know or want to accept the consequences of her own actions. It is alwayssssssss someone else's fault, of course.
I'm personally livid with women who have up to 24 children by different men, because she has a right, who expect other WORKING mothers, often with three jobs to support her children, to pay through taxes for this mother's idiotic entitlement to have as many children as possible and expect other people's taxes to support her RIGHT to do so. She feels nothing for this mom with three jobs suffering to survive. Yes, it's always someone else's responsibility, indeed.
Dr. Phil explores this tragic actions of parents and children so well in his programs. Yes, some parents need to be spayed like animals and locked up, and some of those bratty spoiled kids should be prevented from procreating too. lolol. Two sides to the pancake, as he says. I agree. Dr. Freud was not entirely wrong. But boy, did society grabbed his concepts and turned it upside down!
It's the basis of the book that did not excite me. We all have screwed-up lives, but some of us face it as ADULTS, take the good from our experiences and challenge the future. We take what we have and run with it, right? So yes, I probably was not in the right frame of mind for this book right now. I don't think my attitude will change soon, though :-) So forgive me, dear friend.
But I did appreciate the exposure to modernism and its consequences in this book. It's fodder for gray matter for sure. I just lack a little bit of sympathy/empathy at the moment. :-))
I actually liked Pilar, the Argentinian 'interloper' in the family who came from utter social chaos, much much worse than these sisters could ever dream of, and established herself successfully in her new life. She's down-to-earth, open-minded, hard working, and celebrates her own discipline to succeed. The sister in this tale did not like her. My oh my. Eye-opening, but sad. Oy, what a great character was added to this family. Kudos to the author for this! How these pathetic lot despised the voice of reality and reason. But she impacted them all in the end.
This author has a magnificent way of describing everything.
Harriet: It was extraordinary that this creature in all her physical perfection sat here beside her on her own poor bed: she looked as displaced as a queen out of a tragedy, or a god in an old painting, descended from another world to ravish mortals. In the presence of the god, the protests of righteousness were puny. Anyway, Harriet’s old confidence had collapsed long ago, that the world could be sorted out into the damned and the righteous. In flawed reality, who could blame Pilar for her resistance to being enlisted in some horrible old story? It wasn’t her fault, if friends of her friends had once dropped the bodies of dissidents from helicopters into the sea. Who could want to belong to people they didn’t know and be claimed by them, even if their wrongs stretched out beyond counting?
Another character, although only a peripheral one, was 'pathetic' Jeff, sweet child-like naive Fran's missing-in-action husband, retreated from the Paris upheavals, where revolutionary chaos reigned in the streets and was supported by admirers with coffee and food. That leaves another message of discontent for the reader to consider.
Maybe I should rate it four stars just for that :-))
Goodness, sorry, I'm off my soapbox. Sorry again.
Margitte wrote: "My soapbox, Bad-Monday-Morning-Mood-Oration, Suzy :-)) When I decided to finish this book at last, I tried to remember to add to my review that the reader needs a lot of patience and a lot of tim..."
Just scrolling through reviews of this book, Margitte, shows that it causes a very strong reaction. So many 1-2 stars and so many 5 stars. And I can see by your soapbox that it caused a very strong reaction for you! The fact that Hadley has pushed our buttons - positively and negatively - is to me somewhat of a testament to her insight into the human condition. Depending on our own experience, it is so open to interpretation as to what it is "about".
Suzy wrote: "Margitte wrote: "My soapbox, Bad-Monday-Morning-Mood-Oration, Suzy :-)) When I decided to finish this book at last, I tried to remember to add to my review that the reader needs a lot of patience..."
Indeed, Suzy, especially when we dig deeper through all the layers in the story. It's quite powerful. And I appreciate the privilege to have a great debate, right? I really love the British authors' knack to stimulate thought and debate in their literature. I just love reading these books with so much meat on the bones.
I've read one of your referenced reviews of the book, and need to explore further. Hopefully today. Thanks for your comment. So appreciated.
Miriam wrote: "Excellent review Margitte 😊"Thank you kindly, Miriam. Happy New Year to you!
Awesome Review Margitte! Sorry this one wasn't for you, hope the book you are reading now, is a five star. XO
Mary wrote: "Awesome Review Margitte! Sorry this one wasn't for you, hope the book you are reading now, is a five star. XO"Aw thanks Mary. Three stars for me is a good book but not outstanding. There was a grey-ish tint to it, but perhaps that was the intention, to contrast the bright color that Pilar brought into their lives.
