Tinkers, Paul Harding

Dale Mathis, David Mechanica

(June 30) This is really a long poem, or that’s, at least, the kindest way of describing it... it’s another Housekeeping style description of lost souls, with the same aimless cataloguing of feelings and impressions as they wander in the wilderness. These people always wander in the wilderness for good lengths of time.

The thing is, it’s not a novel.

No wonder Marilynne Robinson is quoted on the cover (her comment: “Tinkers is truly remarkable”).

This is about the deaths of three generations of fathers and sons, all telescoping into one another. Because each of them tinkers in one way or another, I hoped that the climax of the “story” might be some tour de force of literary clockwork mechanics, something impressive in the invention of narrative. Alas, that was not to be.

Many BookCel members raved about it.

There were many beautiful moments in it; don’t get me wrong.

Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

Portrait of Vesta Tilley, 1901 (artist unknown)

(June 11) This is Waters' first novel and is quite different from the second and third. The latter were more carefully structured and full of clever twists, and lesbianism was incidental; here, the narrative is a picaresque life, with wildly disproportionate pacing (like life), and lesbianism is first and foremost.

Also, the "voicing" of the Victorian narrator is not trying to be as authentic as it is in Affinity and Fingersmith; in fact, the narrator sounds quite modern.

But these are just differences I didn't expect. I can see why Tipping was an impressive first novel and won prizes, but I think Waters' best was yet to come.

It's odd to have read the second and third novels first, I suppose, but I don't think I would have been so keen to read more Waters had I read Tipping first. So... lucky for me.

Affinity, Sarah Waters

Evelyn Pickering De Morgan, Hope in the Prison of Despair

(June 1) Like Fingersmith, another well done twist... oh, Waters is good at making unreliable narrators seem reliable. Everything is so plausible. And this was a fascinating exposé of spiritualism. A little darker than Fingersmith in some ways -- different kind of dark, anyway... so interesting how one is quick to identify with a first-person narrator and see all her good points and empathize with her struggles, and ignore her weaknesses and illusions, even though they are all there for the observing.

Waters so authentically captures the way Victorians thought and expressed themselves. She has read a shit-ton of diaries, letters and novels of the period, fo sho.

The Little Black Book of Style and The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own, Nina Garcia

(May 31, June 3) These are not "books" of course but, rather, really long fashion-magazine articles. But they're really good fashion-magazine articles. Nina Garcia has a good eye, in-depth knowledge and a charming writing style. Ah, it is so nice to read well-edited fluff! It's almost kind of "deep fluff." Garcia offers lots of practical, usable tips, as well as entertainment.





Ruben Toledo, Illustration for The Little Black Book of Style