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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Facing Their Demons in the Fight for Freedom: After Before by Jemma Wayne … and a 99-word Flash

19/9/2014

12 Comments

 
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The best part of Jemma Wayne’s debut novel is the part the reader might feel tempted to skim over. We know what’s coming – Emily/Emilienne is a traumatised Rwandan refugee – but, even so, when it comes, the account of her family’s massacre is so harrowing we might prefer to look away. In a previous post, I asked how does one write about the feeling of terror? Jemma Wayne has produced a credible account of terror both in the here and now and its longer term repercussions via Emily’s panic attacks and episodes of disassociation.

This novel addresses various other serious topics I’ve foisted on my blog readers. A diagnosis of terminal illness leads Lynn to confront her lack of fulfilment in the traditional women’s role of mother and homemaker:

new priorities constructed themselves around her. Their foundations rested robustly upon that single new word, wife, shooting taller with each passing month so that it became harder and harder to peer over them as they arched into a protective dome above her, their oculus, that ever-present possibility of another word, mother. (p90)

as she struggles to remain active in the process of her own death:

They talked about themselves. All three of them seemed united in this end, though the lunch had been, Lynn knew, a symptom of their guilt at the fact she was dying […] She should humour them, act the grateful parent, but she couldn’t help the surge of bitterness inside her […] Every now and then one of them […] made an inquiry into her health: was she experiencing any of those dizzy spells she’d been warned about yet, any sickness, any lethargy? This was the topic on which she was consulted, her illness, though even this was not something they considered her to be an expert in. They knew better it seemed. They were young, they’d been on the Internet, Googled it, had a better grip on these things (p198)

It’s also a novel about the comforts and conflicts of religion. Lynn is happy to go through the motions, but she doesn’t really believe:

[the priest] conducted sermons now in modern language, trying to be accessible but Lynn thought him a tad foolish. There was little left in the bible she counted as true, no matter how you wrapped it up; better then to preserve its mystery so that other people wouldn’t also notice the contradictions, the false hope, the passivity of the teachings that had led her to this. (p88)

Emily also feels abandoned by God while Lynn’s elder son, Luke, like the characters in Alison Moore’s He Wants, “fills his void with Jesus” (p65). Like Claire in Carys Bray’s A Song for Issy Bradley, Vera is drawn to Luke because she perceives in the constraints of his religion (including the taboo on sex before marriage) the sacrifice that will assuage her guilt (p64).

While I admire the author’s courage in exploring these uncomfortable issues, I did feel that the novel would have been stronger if there were less of it. At just over 330 pages it’s not excessively lengthy, but I found myself reading with an imaginary red pen, scoring out in my mind redundant sentences and paragraphs that slowed down the narrative. Although the three strands are successfully interwoven (Emily becoming Lynn’s carer and Vera her prospective daughter-in-law) I wondered, as I had with Jill Dawson’s The Tell-Tale Heart, if it were one too many. Vera’s regret at how she managed an unwanted pregnancy, although poignant, seems slightly self-indulgent in a novel that attempts to bear witness to the Rwandan genocide in its twentieth anniversary year.

What do you think? Would you read a novel focusing on civil war atrocities? As a writer, have you ever tempted to cover too much?

This novel came to mind when I read the latest flash fiction prompt from Charli Mills to write a 99-word story on the subject of freedom. As for Charli, my inspiration came from an item on the local news but I’ll let you read it without any further introduction:

They stopped at the first layby after the ferry. Jack hopped out to fetch their fleeces, the fog thick as their dread of returning to deskwork after three months drifting across Europe like a couple of hippies. “Fuck me!”
Darren rushed round the back as a bedraggled figure staggered to his feet from under the dormobile. “How the …?”
“Must’ve tied himself to the axle at Calais.” Jack grabbed his phone. “Gotta report it. I’m not getting done for harbouring illegals.”
The man shivered. Darren wondered if it were fear or cold. “Gotta get him a cup of tea.”

I wanted to add a touch of compassion to the real-life version of this story which was reported with an emphasis on the inconvenience to the people returning home with unexpected baggage, while staying true to the reality of the refugee narrative, a theme I also addressed in my short story Stepping into Dan’s Shoes. Let me know whether it works for you.

Since no-one complained the last time I posted a Leonard Cohen song, I'm pushing my luck a bit further with Bird on the Wire; to my mind, a beautiful meditation on freedom.

Thanks to Legend Press for my review copy of After Before. For another novel from the same publishers see my review of Linda Huber’s The Cold Cold Sea.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
12 Comments
Safia link
19/9/2014 10:32:59 am

I found your review very interesting, Anne. Does the novel focus on Rwanda, or is it just there for backstory for the character of Emily? Is the book more about the 3 women finding common ground despite their different experiences, beliefs, and cultures (at least in one case)? From the details you give, I got the impression that the theme of death might dominate - the dying Lynne, Vera's abortion, and death with a capital D in the Rwandan massacres Emily witnesses.

Reply
Safia
19/9/2014 10:35:46 am

Sorry, I got cut off in my last comment - I've had a few probs posting to your blog from my iPad. I wanted to say, given the 3 story lines and the focus on death, it would take a very talented writer to pull this off successfully. Do you think the author manages it?

Reply
Annecdotist
20/9/2014 09:29:14 am

Good questions, Safia. (And sorry my blog cut you off before you’d finished posing them.)
The publisher’s background information describes it as “an intimate and beautiful novel about three women whose lives interweave” and “explores the universality of guilt, regret, and grief”. They don’t actually use the d-word, but I think you’re right, death is definitely one of the themes. I wouldn’t say myself that the characters find common ground in terms of their attitudes to their experiences; more that the reader recognises the commonalities across their very different circumstances and backgrounds.
I hadn’t quite thought of it that way but it doesn’t read as a novel about Rwanda, more, as you suggest, as backstory for Emily. However, the author has researched the genocide thoroughly, again quoting the media sheet “through first-hand interviews with a Rwanda Genocide survivor and reading UN War Crime Papers”. I’m only speculating here but I wonder if she, or her agent or publisher, was afraid that too much focus on such a distressing subject would discourage readers and so broadened the focus.
As to whether it works, I kept reading to the end (which I don’t always do, these days) and there are some quite glowing reviews to be accessed through the Twitter hashtag #100reviewsin100days. I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading but, in my view, it’s overly ambitious for a first novel. But we all have to write whatever is in our hearts at that particular time.
Thanks for pushing me to think it through a bit further and do let me know if I haven’t sufficiently answered your questions.

Reply
Lucy Chamberlain link
23/9/2014 08:43:28 am

Hi Safia,

You can read a free sample of After Before on Legend Press's website http://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/legend-press/books/9781909878846-after-before

The central theme of the novel is betrayal. You can listen to an interview with Jemma on the BBC News here to learn more about the book - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28165328

Reply
Charli Mills
19/9/2014 04:38:53 pm

I read a lot about the American Civil War and one of my favorite novels is Cold Mountain. While not genocide, there were plenty of atrocities and retribution committed against neighbors and family. Sometimes novels can help us understand and reflect on these events. As to the temptation to cover too much, that's a concern I have. My first novel, I tried to keep simple. Historic fiction is my love, but I felt I needed to master commercial fiction first. If the connections work, they can be brilliant. I'm no where near brilliant to even try yet! Another great book review, and bravo to all the connections you make.

What I'm learning about you as a writer, is that you are not afraid to take on tarnished characters. An interesting examination of clashing freedoms--the desperate refugee, the inconvenienced tourist, the difference living on one side or another of a border. The second character's compassion also works to highlight the insensitivity of the first character, and humanize the "extra luggage." Great writing and thanks for inspiring the idea of freedom this week with your previous posts.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/9/2014 09:35:58 am

I love how you pick out these connections, Charli, and recall now that you’ve flagged this up before about the American Civil War. From this distance we tend – or I tend – to think of the two sides as quite separate but often it’s neighbour against neighbour, and Jemma Wayne brings this out quite nicely in this novel.
I think you’re right to try to keep things simple in your own writing. I’m always afraid I haven’t got enough to keep people’s interest – or sometimes my own – so do have a tendency to shoehorn in more than is needed but I am getting better at it. Perhaps that’s one of the advantages of practising our weekly flash?
I like that you think I’m taking on “tarnished characters” and thanks for your feedback on my flash.

Reply
Geoff link
20/9/2014 02:27:42 am

You do get under the skin don't you. The genocide is such an important and, not meaning this ghoulishly interesting topic I would certainly read it yet, like you I become irritated if too much is creamed in. Your flash captures the picture perfectly. There's a beautiful unspoken sadness in Darren who you sense would like to let the man go and take his chances given what he's been through. As for Leonard Cohen, so long as it doesn't play while I'm reading that's fine. I saw his film of the same name Bird on the wire' back in 1976 I think at university and if there was ever a more self indulgent piece of cinematography I've not heard of it. Ghastly. Music to die to. Takes all sorts!

Reply
Annecdotist
20/9/2014 09:43:47 am

Geoff, how can we be friends when you’re so hostile to Leonard Cohen?
Seriously, I very much appreciate your feedback and I’m happy to get under the skin.
It’s important for us to reflect on what happened in Rwanda and, for me, fiction is a good way of addressing this.

Reply
geoff link
20/9/2014 11:27:27 am

I'm a standing joke in the family, re my musical 'taste'. All you need to know is that the first two albums I bought with my own money were by Gilbert O'Sullivan and The Carpenters.
Yes, I agree, sometimes the moderation of fiction helps understanding. A journalist who does pieces for Woman's Hour and Today amongst others, Angela Robson, was on a creative writing course with me. Her draft novel was based on her visits to Rwanda to look at the aftermath and the stories of the child soldiers. While the rest of us absorbed her writing she found a lot of it difficult to write because it was so intense. She's yet to finish it (when last I heard from her) and I suspect she might not.

Annecdotist
23/9/2014 11:36:20 am

I remember now you mentioned your colleague on your writing MA and it's such a shame she wasn't able to finish her novel. It must be hard when you've got insider knowledge of a subject that would be interesting to readers but you don't yet have the necessary distance to make it work. I wonder what she'd think of After Before?

Norah Colvin
29/9/2014 09:09:25 am

Great flash, as usual, Anne. You always give an interesting slant on Charlie's prompt. An interesting difference in attitude between Jack and Darren as well.

Reply
Annecdotist
30/9/2014 02:59:33 am

Thanks, Norah. I reckoned Jack might have had his own struggles for freedom, but didn't necessarily make him more sympathetic in this case.

Reply



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