Author | Jeanette Winterson |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Philosophical novel |
Published | 2004 |
Publisher | Fourth Estate (UK) Harcourt (US) |
Media type |
Lighthousekeeping is a 2004 novel by Jeanette Winterson. The novel depicts the perilous unbalanced psychology of the narrating character Silver, who becomes an apprentice to a lighthouse keeper. [1] and follows in Winterson's typically mythological and metaphorical writing, exploring themes of storytelling, love and history.
The novel received mixed reviews, with some reviewers seeing it as a continuation of Winterson's success of as a literary writer, while others appeared frustrated by her writing.
Following in Virginia Woolf's metaphor of To the Lighthouse , the novel focuses on the lighthouse metaphor where "the continuous narrative of existence is a lie... there are lit-up moments, and the rest is dark." [1] The novel has both a present-day narrative, and one which flashes back 100 years, exploring the views of Charles Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson. [1] In this context, The New York Times describes the novel focusing on two themes: storytelling and love. [2]
The novel follows the richness of allegory and metaphor that is evident in much of Winterson's other works, including Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit . [2] New York Times reviewer Benjamin Kunkel, describes novel as doing this too much: "metaphors have altogether slipped free of their sponsoring facts; her figurative language has turned into so many solemn doodles. The novel concentrates the worst qualities of her writing." [2]
The novel is a mix of both exploratory metaphor and stories tolled by Silver's mentor, the lighthouse keeper. The Guardian reviewer Joanna Briscoe thought the first few chapters returned to the best of Winterson writing, describing the novel as a series of "self-contained tales" in which "the flavour of The Shipping News is tangling with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase via Heart of Darkness ". [3]
The Guardian reviewer Anita Sethi positively reviewed the novel, highlighting it philosophical and stylistic richness. The review concludes that "the power of Lighthousekeeping is in its stylistic dynamic between holding itself together with the pared-down precision of its language, each word smoothed into a finely polished pebble, and spilling out in the consciousnesses, narratives and disparate times that bleed seamlessly into each other." [1]
The New York Times had a decidedly negative review, noting that Winterson's style of writing takes over the storytelling. The reviewer, Benjamin Kunkel, concludes that in the novel "nothing gets in the way of lyricism or love, and the result is rhapsodic inconsequence and vacuous romantic uplift." [2] The Guardian reviewer Joanna Briscoe reaches a similar conclusion, calling the novel "a flawed return to form". [3] Within some of this critique, Briscoe still finds some positives about the novel, saying that Winterson is "a true innovator of form" and that the novel is "not only to be admired, but enjoyed." [3]
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which is disjointed or has irregular punctuation. The term was first used in 1855 and was first applied to a literary technique in 1918. While critics have pointed to various literary precursors, it was not until the 20th century that this technique was fully developed by modernist writers such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf.
Jeanette Winterson is an English author.
To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centres on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920.
Atonement is a 2001 British metafictional novel written by Ian McEwan. Set in three time periods, 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England, it covers an upper-class girl's half-innocent mistake that ruins lives, her adulthood in the shadow of that mistake, and a reflection on the nature of writing.
Benjamin Kunkel is an American novelist and political economist. He co-founded and is a co-editor of the journal n+1. His novel Indecision was published in 2005, and Utopia or Bust: A Guide to the Present Crisis and Buzz: A Play & My Predicament: A Story were published in 2014.
Depths is a 2004 novel by Swedish writer Henning Mankell.
Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works. Time magazine called Ferrante one of the 100 most influential people in 2016.
Hiding in Plain Sight is a 2014 novel by Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah. The novel follows the experience of Bella in the wake of a terrorist attack that kills her brother, Aar, a Kenyan UN worker in Mogadishu. After the death, Bella returns to Nairobi to help care for her brother's family. The ensuing conflict between Bella and her brother's widow becomes a central element of the novel. Hiding in Plain Sight is Farah's twelfth novel.
Tessa Jane Hadley is a British author, who writes novels, short stories and nonfiction. Her writing is realistic and often focuses on family relationships. Her novels have twice reached the longlists of the Orange Prize and the Wales Book of the Year, and in 2016, she won the Hawthornden Prize, as well as one of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes for fiction. The Windham-Campbell judges describe her as "one of English's finest contemporary writers" and state that her writing "brilliantly illuminates ordinary lives with extraordinary prose that is superbly controlled, psychologically acute, and subtly powerful." As of 2016, she is professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University.
The Middle Ground is a 1980 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. It is her ninth published novel. The novel explores the "crisis of British urban life" through the eyes of a middle aged journalist, Kate Armstrong.
The Red Queen is a 2004 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel describes the trip of a British academic on a trip to Seoul to give a paper at a conference. At the beginning of the novel, the academic, Dr. Babs Halliwell, reads the memoir of a 19th-century Korean princess.
The Pure Gold Baby is British novelist Margaret Drabble's 18th novel, first published in 2013. The novel was her first novel to be published in seven years, following The Sea Lady. In 2009, Drabble had pledged not to write fiction again, for fear of "repeating herself."
The Seven Sisters is a 2002 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel reflects on a mid-life crisis of an estranged Candida, when she moves to a rundown London apartment. The novel largely follows Candida's evasive and sometimes deceptive representation of events, including an epistolary section which is her "computer diary".
Heroes of the Frontier (ISBN 9780451493804) is a 2016 novel by American Author Dave Eggers. Alfred A. Knopf published the book on July 26, 2016. Set in the rugged wilderness of Alaska, the story follows Josie, a disillusioned single mother who goes on a road trip with her two children to escape her troubled past and societal expectations. The novel explores themes of parenthood, modern disillusionment, and the possibility of personal redemption.
Hag-Seed is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published in October 2016. A modern retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the novel was commissioned by Random House as part of its Hogarth Shakespeare series.
Middle England is a 2018 novel by Jonathan Coe. It is the third novel in a trilogy, following The Rotters’ Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004). The novel explores the experiences of characters from those earlier novels against the backdrop of the major events taking place before, during and after the Brexit referendum.
The Possessions of Doctor Forrest is a 2011 contemporary thriller novel with a gothic style by British novelist Richard T. Kelly.
Maggie Humm is an English feminist academic and emeritus professor of cultural studies at the University of East London. She has written on feminism and modernism, particularly the work of Virginia Woolf.
Ayşegül Savaş is a Turkish writer who publishes mainly in American literary media.
Veronica is a 2005 novel by American author Mary Gaitskill. The book has been praised for its lyrical exploration of friendship, beauty, illness, and identity. The novel draws on Gaitskill's signature themes of emotional complexity, societal norms, and the nuances of power dynamics in relationships.