As mentioned earlier in the week, this week I am going to
review three works from Peirene Press as part of my female reading for “Women
In Translation Month”. To date eight of Peirene Press’ eighteen published
titles have been written by female writers, and in 2016 two of the three
releases are written by women so 50/50 representation here, a great result when
you look at some other publishers and their lack of female representation.
Next year they are releasing “Her Father’s Daughter” by
French author Marie Sizun (translated by Adriana Hunter) and “The Empress and
the Cake” by Austrian writer Linda Stift (translated by Jamie Bulloch).
Translator Adriana Hunter translated Peirene Press’ first ever release, the
work I look at today, Véronique Olmi’s “Beside The Sea”.
Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this is a nice
seaside story, one of “sea change” tales of endless blue skies, soft sands,
rolling waves, romance and finding one’s self in a new open environment. There
are family seaside snacks, local fairs, sand castles and waves but not as you’d
expect. For starters there is no sunshine; the weather is grim from the start,
with incessant rain:
The next day was really bad luck,
it was raining again. Apart from the dim morning light it was hard not getting
day and night confused in that town. There wasn’t much room for the light, no
one had arranged for it, you could tell that right away. I don’t know what the
time was when I woke, but the kids were already up, there were by the window
having a raindrop race: they each chose one at the top of the pane and the
first to reach the bottom was the winner.
I wondered what they could see
through the window, what the rain was hiding.
Our novella starts with a night-time bus trip, the last bus
out of town, towards the sea, for our first person narrator and her two
children Stan and Kevin. We know right from the start that this is their first,
and last, ever trip, even including holidays.
A bleak scene slowly builds to be even bleaker as everything
deteriorates, even the weather, and as a reader we learn more and more about
our narrator, the evidence of a broken single mother starts to become compelling
as we learn of simple things, like the children having to carry the bags
“because ever since I broke my collar bone I’ve had trouble carrying stuff.”
As the dark undertones build your mind starts racing towards
a horrendous conclusion, a predetermined reason why this will be the last ever
trip by this family. Our narrator’s world is thoroughly BLACK, it is dark, it
is doomed, every waking hour is a struggle, and how on earth can you let your
own children loose into a place as desolate as her own world? When the only
shining light in your day is your kids, how can you let them grow in a place
that’s barren of warmth, love, affection?
That’s how I should have spent
the rest of my days, in bed with my kids, we could have watched the world the
way you watch telly: from a distance, without getting dirty, holding on to the
remote, we’d have switched the world off as soon as it fucked up.
Our book captures the darkness of depression, the mark of
“black-dog” the depths of despair for sufferers and does it in such a
sympathetic tone, that as a reader you want to reach out and rescue this woman.
The treatment meted out by strangers, the clinging to hope by the innocent
children, forced to grow up too soon, the poverty and attempts at trying to
instil some dignity all build and build until you hope the pre determined
conclusion is not a reality. “Page turner” that’s what a short Amazon blurb
should read!
It’s not often you come across sad works, depressing books
that are at the same time engaging , the ones that come to mind generally
include substance abuse as well for example “Even The Dogs” by Jon McGregor,
but here we have a thoroughly wretched story that you can’t avoid reading.
If you want a portrait of a single mother suffering
depression look no further, this is the one character study you should pick up,
I promise you’ll be impacted.
As an aside, Peirene Press donate 50 pence from the cover
price of £8.99 to the Maya Centre, an organisation who provides long term
counselling and psychological support to some of the most vulnerable women in
the British community, victims of domestic violence, childhood abuse, even war
and conflict. They provide a service for women who do not have access to other
options, free of charge. So even purchasing this book helps, in a small way,
the realities that the work addresses.
Next up in my week of Peirene Press reviews, something
completely different, the Finnish “Herra Darwinin puutarhuri” (‘Mr Darwin’s
Gardener” by Kristina Carlson).
2 comments:
I think you've got this exactly right - it does brilliantly convey the feeling of depression but at the same time it's a book which is difficult to put down.
Thanks Grant, a difficult one to review if you don't want to refer to the ending.
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