Book Review | ‘The Doll and Other Stories’ by Daphne Du Maurier

Tags

anime, Beginners, book review, daphne du maurier, Fiction, gothic fiction, japanese, locus solus, Manderley, raymond carver, raymond roussel, rebecca, science fiction, the monk

The Doll Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here is an early showcase of Du Mauriers’ literary prowess and her interest for certain themes that she would develop later into full length novels. In this little medley of tales one can spot a prototype of ‘Manderley’ house as well as recurrences of the blood-red azaleas that have become synonymous with it (the haunted setting of her most acclaimed novel ‘Rebecca’).

Overall, the stories centre on the varying degrees of sexual degeneration and the disintegration of relationships. These are explored from different angles, be it through the eyes of a prostitute or an emotionally disturbed violinist. I got a sense that as a young writer, Du Maurier understood the value of subtlety, as even her most extreme story mostly hinges on the power of suggestion. As in the fashion of the great gothic novels like ‘The Monk’ nothing is openly described but more or less alluded to.

Surprisingly, most of these were written during the authors younger years when I suppose her sexual curiosity was at its’ peak. But even then she approached her material with a maturity far beyond her years. This was raw talent trying to find its ultimate shape and form on some very sharp and often risqué ideas.

One particular story (and I can’t review without mentioning it) stands out as the most shocking. Nearly all her stories probe the dark recesses of the human psyche in one way or another, but this one tale really had me bewildered with its’ brazen pornographic twist. ‘The Doll’ is a story I can only describe as lurid and bold. It is dripping with sexual immorality and during its’ time must have caused quite a stir, as the immorality stems from a woman. The story is accessed through a fragment of letters discovered washed up on the shore. While the author is unknown, the account is legible enough to be understood, which turns out to be a strange confessional of an ex-lover who reveals one woman’s dark secret and her sickening fetish for a life-like, mechanical doll called Julio.

Now forgive me, but I didn’t know they actually HAD sex dolls back in the late 1800’s, especially ones that functioned. There is something very creepy about the thought of a cultured woman, carrying around this portable boyfriend in her trunk. The idea has a faint science-fictiony feel to it as I am reminded of the Japanese anime ‘Ghost-in-the-Shell: Innocence’, where the plot revolves around a load of ‘gynoids’ (robotic geishas) that suddenly go homicidal. Nothing like that happens here of course, but throughout the anime deep psychological questions were asked about why the dolls were created, and what they really represented outside their obvious functions. Because of this, I actually found myself attempting to relate with the doll as opposed to the other two characters, which as you can imagine made things more disturbing! Another book I should mention(and have not read yet) is ‘Locus Solus’ by Raymond Roussel, a surrealist take on the absurdities of scientific experimentation and the book which inspired a big part of the anime in question.

But I digress. As I read ’The Doll’, I got the feeling that this was evidence of Du Maurier playing in the sandbox of her ideas. There is an experimental quality to each story, but recurring characters like Maisie the prostitute shows she definitely had something in mind. It is also here that one can see early sketches of her now infamous Rebecca. If you like this book I recommend Raymond Carvers ‘Beginners’ for further reading, which is far sharper and more modern.

View all my reviews

Related articles

• The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne du Maurier, reprinted 1963 (carolynelw.wordpress.com)
• My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (skyebluepink.com)
• Scary stories for Halloween: The Birds by Daphne du Maurier (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier (kimbofo.typepad.com)
• Classic Gothic Tale to Give-away (clairemca.wordpress.com)
• Authors: Daphne Du Maurier (marygilmartin.wordpress.com)
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (mapleandaquill.wordpress.com)

Mailbox Monday & It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? (25/ 7)

Tags

benjamin zephaniah, carlos ruiz zafon, cats cradle, charlotte perkins gilman, civil war, emila zola, herman hesse, ian fleming, irvine welsh, Its monday what are you reading?, jm barrie, kurt busiek, kurt vonnegut, margaret atwood, mark millar, marvels, matt moylan, meme, mohsin hamid, patricia melo, Paul Auster, Paul Gallico, paul jenkins, peter pan, raymond carver, roberto bolano, siddhartha, stephen galloway, streetfighter world warrior encyclopedia, the angel's game, the cellist of sarajevo, the dream, the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society, the skating rink, the spy who loved me, the year of the flood, the yellow wallpaper, trainspotting, violette leduc, wolverine origins

Welcome to Monday Meme’s! (‘Mailbox Monday’ by Marcia at The Printed Page and ‘It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?’ by Sheila at The Book Journey are fun weekly meme’s that allow book-bloggers to share their reading progress and the books they have yet to read.

July has been a hectic month, but also fruitful in terms of books. Since I haven’t had time to post that often (due to my novel-writing) I’m taking this opportunity to pick up from where I left off in March. Here’s a review of the titles that have either wowed me, or left me a little disappointed:

Books Read | March/ April
(click for reviews)
Lost World by Patricia Melo (1/5)
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (5/5)
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano (4/5) – review pending
Kung Fu Trip by Benjamin Zephaniah (3/5)
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (5/5)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (3/5) – review pending
The Informers by Brett Easton Ellis (3/5) – review pending
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1/5) – review pending
The Paper House: A Novel by Carlos Maria Dominguez (4/5) – review pending

Books Read | May/ June
(click for reviews)
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (4/5) – review pending
2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut (5/5)
The Lady and the Little Fox Fur by Violette LeDuc (1/5)
Peter Pan by JM Barrie (5/5)
The Yellow Wall-paper and Other Stories by Charlotte Gilman (4/5)
Beginners by Raymond Carver (5/5)
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (4/5)
The Dream by Emile Zola (5/5) – review pending
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway (5/5)

 Other reviews:
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (4.5/5)

Books Read | July
Streetfighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia by Matt Moylan (4/5)
Marvels by Kurt Busiek (5/5)
Wolverine: Origins by Paul Jenkins (3/5)
Civil War by Mark Millar (3/5)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (5/5)

Currently Reading/ August Outlook

 

What a pick-n-mix! As someone who never just reads one book at a time, I’ve started off first with Bolano’s “The Skating Rink”, which is a strange mix of romance, political scamming, figure-skating and cold-blooded murder. This is my second Bolano book (gearing myself up for ‘2666’) and the story seems to be chugging along quite well, despite the weird elements he’s thrown together to make it. Meanwhile I’m also poking around in “Trainspotting”, which unbeknownst to me is written in a very thick Scottish accent! I’m slowly getting used to it (fitba = football, hame = home, jaykits = jackets). It would be useful to have a glossary, but on second thought might spoil all the fun. After all, the best thing about ‘The Clockwork Orange’ was the strange Russian street lingo.

The one I can’t let go of at the moment is “The Spy Who Loved Me”. It is quite cheesy (as most Fleming books are) and it does feel a lot like one of those guilty comfort reads. The Bond of the movies and the Bond of the novels are so very different! However if there is one book I class as top-grade reading material, it is the Atwood. I practically have to ration her out for fear of guzzling through her entire works. She is so AMAZING! “The Year of the Flood” is the second in the MaddAddam trilogy, the first being ‘Oryx and Crake’, and loosely follows on from it. I can’t wait to lose myself in the plot. Can’t imagine what Atwood has dreamed up for us dystopian fiction lovers. Oh bliss…

What are you planning to read this week?

Related articles

• Review: Kurt Vonnegut: Letters by Kurt Vonnegut (edited and with an introduction by Dan Wakefield) (stephenormsby.wordpress.com)

Book Review | ‘Beginners’ by Raymond Carver

Tags

book review, Haruki Murakami, love story, raymond carver, short story, south of the border west of the sun, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Beginners by Raymond Carver

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I picked this up, I didn’t look at the author properly. I saw the ‘Raymond’ and briefly a ‘C-er’ and just grabbed it thinking it was a gritty detective novel by Chandler. I was disappointed when I got home; however my embarrassing misobservation turned into delight, as I discovered what I could probably call the perfect example of the short story.

Yes, Carver’s precision and execution of this understated and overlooked
writing form had me reeling with wonder and envy. Here was finally an author I could enjoy on a reader’s level yet also learn about from a writerly angle, which goes to show the literary value of this collection.

Originally published in 1981 as ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love‘, these short stories soon gained a lot of attention in America and around the world for their candid and gritty exploration of ‘real’ relationships. As the title suggests, the stories are about love in all its’ various guises and is as bold an attempt to capture what love really is, as opposed to what we expect it to look and feel like. Carver’s stories oscillate between extremes, as he looks at what happens to the chemistry between two people when things willingly or unwillingly go wrong.

In ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ and ‘Viewfinder’ Carver examines the different ways people respond to a break-up. The former story stands out as the most powerful, as the protagonist completely guts the house of its contents and sets them up on the lawn outside exactly as they were when inside the house. This ‘gutting’ and remodeling stands as a metaphor for loss and underlines how spaces are sometimes saturated by relationships and become an extension of the lover lost.

In ‘Gazebo’, Carver paints the death-throes of what was once a stable relationship. The dialogue between the couple is key, as Carver times speech and prose perfectly to reproduce that unbearable ‘tug-of-war’ between two wills; the betrayed and the betrayer. The chemistry here is extremely volatile and is nicely offset by a side-story of the perfect married couple. This time a motel acts as the setting, showing the absence of ‘home’ and  how the negative energy of a space whose function isn’t to contain and nurture  a single relationship but is designed to be let out to strangers has a devastating effect on the couple.

Houses feature heavily in all Carver’s stories, no matter what aspect of love he is trying to capture. This gives his work a very sharp ‘domestic’ edge which when added with his eagle-eyed observations from real-life, makes his prose believable yet ascerbic and exceedingly uncomfortable. Having said that however, his stories aren’t all in this vein. In ‘A Small, Good Thing’ Carver approaches the tragedy of child loss with language that is throbs with anticipation and transparent fear. The story however ends on a gossamer-like thread of hope, showing Carver’s more merciful side, as the grieving parents find peace in the most unlikeliest of places.

What I ultimately loved about these stories was their honesty and how Carver did not sacrifice nor dilute his narratives for aesthetic or marketing purposes. These stories are also different because they come from a man’s perspective. Carver’s observations teach us that there is nothing separating either sex from the pain of betrayal, nor the act of betraying. Contrary to what we have been taught, there are no separate types or textures to the stuff of heart-break. We are all wonderfully and mutually the same; the only marked difference being perhaps how we deal with it as men and women.

Carver’s little medley of love stories are a rare treat, and for those who have enjoyed them I recommend Murakami’s ‘South of the Border, West of the Sun’. Again it follows along the same lines, except this is an even rarer thing; a confessional where the protagonist (a happily married thirty-something man)  begins a narrative documenting all the rights and wrongs he has done in the name of love.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in studying the art of the short story, or indeed any form of writing. Satisfaction guaranteed.

View all my reviews

Related articles

• “A SMALL, GOOD THING” by Raymond Carver (integrated4.wordpress.com)
• Richard Ford Reads Raymond Carver’s ‘The Student’s Wife’; One of 14 Podcasts of Famous Writers Reading a Favorite Story (openculture.com)
• Story-geek: ‘Raymond is no longer with us – Carver is dead’ by Ognjen Spahic, vs. Little Things by Raymond Carver (lane7.wordpress.com)
• Possibly my last book haul for the year (bookrhapsody.wordpress.com)
• Happy endings: How the short story genre is taking over the Costa Awards (metro.co.uk)
• Book Review: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (integrated4.wordpress.com)