Post by wheelspinner on Feb 23, 2010 3:18:03 GMT -5
The Little Stranger is one of a clutch of recent literary takes on ghosts, magic etc, probably inspired by the rise of that genre in the mass market (viz, Potter, Twilight et al).
It's tempting to compare The Little Stranger with Her Fearful Symmetry as two notable ghost stories, and there are good grounds for doing so. As I read it though, I was reminded more of other literary classics:
Brideshead Revisited. Faraday, as a working-class boy, encounters an eccentric aristicratic family in their declining years, with a marriageable daughter and a damaged son. He falls in love with both the daughter and the house they live in. His attachment to the family becomes a cause of class-based resentment, he ultimately is forsaken by the heiress and returned to his proper place outside the aristocracy.
Jane Eyre. A young female retainer works in a creepy household and is convinced that there are eerie happenings going on. Her suspicions are confirmed; the eerie goings-on are associated with a hidden family tragedy.
How to Be Good. This book was laddish author Nick Hornby's first attempt to write a novel from a female perspective, and was pretty successful. Similarly, this is Waters' first attempt to make a male character her focus. It also succeeds, although I couldn't help thinking that Caroline was a classic Waters heroine; her reluctance to marry Faraday could well be latent lesbianism.
These associations are maybe a bit tenuous, but they constantly came to my mind as I read. In particular, Faraday constantly came across to me as a kind of grown-up Charles Ryder. I guess what it suggests is that Waters' book is a bit more old-fashioned and classical in style and setting than Her Fearful Symmetry. The latter is more Gothic in setting, but I think that The Little Stranger is a more Gothic ghost story in style; Niffenegger's book is utterly modern.
The love story between Faraday and Caroline is both more interesting and more convincing than the relationship between Robert and Valentina in Symmetry. This sub-plot is intricately woven in with the details of the haunting of Hundreds, greatly enhancing the novel. Unlike Niffenegger, Waters disguises her plot punches well. While the reader knows what is going on at Hundreds, there are very few clues left as to what is doing it and why. Even at the end of the novel, it is still open to the reader to conclude that the hauntings were explicable without resorting to the supernatural. By contrast, Niffeneger lays out her ghost story form the outset and signals her plot twists from a mile off, and her book is all the poorer for it.
In my mind, The Little Stranger confirms and enhances Waters' reputation as a great novelist. Like Hornby, she has shown that she has a range beyond her traditional strengths, and I look forward to her continuing to move outside her comfort zone.
It's tempting to compare The Little Stranger with Her Fearful Symmetry as two notable ghost stories, and there are good grounds for doing so. As I read it though, I was reminded more of other literary classics:
Brideshead Revisited. Faraday, as a working-class boy, encounters an eccentric aristicratic family in their declining years, with a marriageable daughter and a damaged son. He falls in love with both the daughter and the house they live in. His attachment to the family becomes a cause of class-based resentment, he ultimately is forsaken by the heiress and returned to his proper place outside the aristocracy.
Jane Eyre. A young female retainer works in a creepy household and is convinced that there are eerie happenings going on. Her suspicions are confirmed; the eerie goings-on are associated with a hidden family tragedy.
How to Be Good. This book was laddish author Nick Hornby's first attempt to write a novel from a female perspective, and was pretty successful. Similarly, this is Waters' first attempt to make a male character her focus. It also succeeds, although I couldn't help thinking that Caroline was a classic Waters heroine; her reluctance to marry Faraday could well be latent lesbianism.
These associations are maybe a bit tenuous, but they constantly came to my mind as I read. In particular, Faraday constantly came across to me as a kind of grown-up Charles Ryder. I guess what it suggests is that Waters' book is a bit more old-fashioned and classical in style and setting than Her Fearful Symmetry. The latter is more Gothic in setting, but I think that The Little Stranger is a more Gothic ghost story in style; Niffenegger's book is utterly modern.
The love story between Faraday and Caroline is both more interesting and more convincing than the relationship between Robert and Valentina in Symmetry. This sub-plot is intricately woven in with the details of the haunting of Hundreds, greatly enhancing the novel. Unlike Niffenegger, Waters disguises her plot punches well. While the reader knows what is going on at Hundreds, there are very few clues left as to what is doing it and why. Even at the end of the novel, it is still open to the reader to conclude that the hauntings were explicable without resorting to the supernatural. By contrast, Niffeneger lays out her ghost story form the outset and signals her plot twists from a mile off, and her book is all the poorer for it.
In my mind, The Little Stranger confirms and enhances Waters' reputation as a great novelist. Like Hornby, she has shown that she has a range beyond her traditional strengths, and I look forward to her continuing to move outside her comfort zone.
