Mslexia

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Books

This summer we recommend…

Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan
(4th Estate, £16.99)

Evening is the Whole Day is fantastically good. Portraying the tragedy of a wealthy, dysfunctional Tamil family living in Malaysia, and set against the backdrop of nationalist politics and the country’s conflictual multicultural society, it really deserves the rather hackneyed title of a ‘stunning debut.’ It is strongly reminiscent of novels by Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy: the family saga interwoven with the history of a community, the narrative focalisation through the eyes of children, the postcolonial theme, the linguistic innovativeness, even the hints of magical realism. But Samarasan has a powerful and compelling narrative style all her own that captures, with incredible and harrowing emotional precision, the cruelties that once-loving family members can pile on one another. There are some unambiguous victims: the youngest child, Aasha, first neglected by her socialite, aloof mother, and then by her beloved older sister Uma. The other victim is the maidservant Chellam. Brought into the house to look after the father’s aging mother, Chellam slowly becomes the scapegoat for the sins, misdemeanours, and bitterness of each family member in turn, until she is accused of accidentally killing the old grandmother.

The narrative is constructed as one continuous flashback – almost a psychoanalytic exploration of the family’s slow unravelling – showing how each character is alternately victim and perpetrator. The Malaysian setting is conveyed with cinematic vividness through food and streetscapes, and sheds a fascinating light on the complex relationship between Malaysia’s diasporic Indian community and its ongoing struggle to define its national identity.

reviewed by NEELAM SRIVASTAVA

This is a selected highlight from the current issue of Mslexia. To read the book reviews in full subscribe now. Other titles also featured include: What is She Doing Here by Kate Clanchy, Early Work by Patti Smith, The Battle for Gullywith by Susan Hill, The Host by Stephenie Meyer, Behnd the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson.

Mslexia Book Club: the verdict

Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
(Faber, £12.99)

We did not celebrate Molly Fox’s Birthday. In fact, Doreen didn’t even stay for the party but left before page 90, though Myriam and Lynne found it picked up towards the end.

So, what was our problem with this book that explores the relationships between three friends, and why Molly Fox – an actress with a voice that can, apparently, utter the word ‘drains’ and you smell them, ‘strawberries’ and you taste them – refuses to celebrate her birthday? Our interpretation: that after a slow beginning and a crawling middle, the writer did not do enough to make us care. (Myriam: ‘There was an awful lot of self-indulgent, personal philosophising, which is always dull for anyone who isn’t as drunk as the philosopher.’)

The narrator mentally meanders her way through the past; how the friends met, how their successful careers – hers as a playwright, Molly’s as an actress, Andrew’s as an academic – developed. She returns, every now and again, to her current situation – staying in Molly’s house, trying to write a new play on the day of Molly’s strictly uncelebrated birthday. The effect of all this is like riding on the London Underground’s Circle line for two hours: you struggle to recall where you got on, and there is a pervasive sense of disorientation.

(Doreen: ‘I really couldn’t be bothered; I went to do some ironing instead.’ Myriam: ‘There were an awful lot of non sequiturs and I found the flashbacks confusing.’)

One thing we all noticed was the narrator’s remarkably selective memory. Andrew is her oldest friend so how, pray, does she forget that she slept with him? They must be the only couple in history that haven’t discovered, to their cost, that hanky panky shifts the parameters of a friendship so that it’s never the same afterwards. But they carry on as if they have shared nothing more intimate than a day trip to Blackpool.

Something else we agreed on: The opening page did not entice any of us to go on. The narrator begins with a detailed description of a dream she has just had and then in the second paragraph says, ‘I awoke and couldn’t remember the dream.’ This immediately jolts you out of the magic spell a well-written book entices you into, and deposits you into cold reality and the fact that you still haven’t done last night’s washing up.

Our final verdict: There were moments of promise and some striking sentences, evidence of a style that was buried, we felt, amongst too much verbiage. Taken as a whole, the book felt to us as if the writer was having a great time but has forgotten that she had readers to entertain as well.

reviewed by SERIOUS SCRIBBLERS

Myriam and Rhiannon formed Serious Scribblers as a writer’s group to work on their novels; Lynne and Doreen joined a couple of months later. With a range of backgrounds, politics, religious beliefs and lifestyles, their meetings are often in danger of degenerating into a debating society. They range in age from 50 to 70 plus. Doreen writes mostly on her travel experiences, Lynne is working on a memoir, and Myriam and Rhiannon are on the second drafts of their novels.

This article is taken from the current issue of Mslexia. If you'd be interested in your reading group test-driving a book for the Mslexia Book Group feature please Contact Us.

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Sophie Baker is Mslexia's Listings Editor and has recently graduated from an MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. She is a poet who enjoys baking (true to her name), writing poems and reviews, ballroom dancing and drinking too much coffee in cafés around Newcastle. She also has a creative blog - please drop in.