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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Fictionalising the famous: de Beauvoir & Freud

9/12/2016

6 Comments

 
Following on from my review of The Fortunes, which fictionalises the lives of ought-to-be-more-famous Chinese Americans, I’m reviewing two novels featuring well-known European intellectuals at either side (in the temporal rather than allegiance sense of the word) of the Second World War.
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One bitterly cold night in 1947, a French woman newly arrived in Chicago rings up a local resident, whose number has been passed onto her by a friend, to ask him to show her the real city. After a tour of dingy bars, burlesque clubs and the police station in which they view the electric chair, they return to his apartment, and his bed. Not such a promising start to a romance, I would’ve thought, but the long-distance affair between feminist icon and sidekick of Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and the American writer Nelson Algren (who I’d never heard of) is set to continue for over a decade.

I loved the voice in the opening, when Nelson heats up his beef stew for the seventh dinner running, but I did grow weary (as perhaps the lovers did themselves eventually) of the countless taxi rides and glasses of beer and whiskey. Although the author seemed more sympathetic to de Beauvoir than to Algren, with his petulant sulks and silences, she does cry a lot in the novel and (not that there’s necessarily any contradiction between cleverness and emotional lability, or even anything wrong with shedding tears), without much exploration of their intellectual sides, I felt I had to take on trust that she was one of the world’s leading thinkers. I don’t know where the balance lay between fact and invention, but I was shocked and appalled that de Beauvoir, despite her apparent sexual confidence, cannot ask Algren to use contraception (as Mr A said when I told him, they’re not called French letters for nothing) and has to ask a friend to take her to a New York doctor, feeling “bewilderingly stupid, because of France, because of Catholic, backward France, not quite knowing what to do” (p70), to be fitted with a diaphragm – although that might be one of the many contradictions of women’s lives that spurred her writing.

Those quibbles aside, Noon in Paris, Eight in Chicago is a fascinating portrait of post-war bohemian life and the pressures of a long-distance relationship, especially when those involved have competing passions and competing egos. Thanks to Myriad Editions for my review copy.

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When his mother’s benefactor dies, seventeen-year-old Franz is obliged to leave his home in rural Austria for a job as a Viennese tobacconist’s apprentice. There he forms an unlikely friendship with that famous cigar-smoker Sigmund Freud, who advises the young man to follow his dreams both literally in writing them down and figuratively in pursuing the slightly older Bohemian woman to whom he has formed an attraction. The story starts in the late summer of 1937 and, before too long, Hitler has annexed Austria and Franz finds the city changing in most uncomfortable ways. In understated slightly ironic prose (a tone reminiscent to me of
The Winterlings), this is a moving account of a simple country boy’s coming of age in a nightmare world. However, despite its important premise, I didn’t connect with this novel as much as I’d hoped. Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins, The Tobacconist is published by Picador (thanks for my review copy) with one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve seen this year! (Not that Cowie’s isn’t rather nice too!)

For another post on fictional celebrities,
follow the link.

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.
6 Comments
Jeanne Lombardo link
10/12/2016 03:49:42 pm

Fascinating historical period and what intriguing characters to fictionalize. I admire any writer that takes that challenge and can honestly portray a historical figure. I remember being surprised by de Beauvoir's contradictions when reading her Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. But indeed, her upbringing must have worked against a healthy psychological state as did her relationship with the womanizing Sartre. She was a trailblazer but one, I think, that internalized the sexual double standard of her day (and to some extent ours). So perhaps her vulnerability is credible. And Freud! Now there is a character with his own psychological hangups. Have not read a fictional account of him, but just re-watched the brilliant film about his relationship with Jung and their mutual patient and colleague, A Dangerous Method. Thanks again for another great review. I can't read all these books, but am a huge fan of the book review to fill in my gaps.

Reply
Annecdotist
11/12/2016 03:20:24 pm

Thanks for that, Jeanne. It’s so long since I read de Beauvoir, I didn’t feel competent to include it in my review, but my memory chimes with yours in that she didn’t live up to my expectations. And, having been introduced to Sartre first, perhaps I saw her with the male gaze.
Not knowing as much as I ought to about Freud as a person, rather than through his writings, or more often others’ interpretations of his writings, it was interesting to discover, if the novel is to be believed, that he left Vienna for London so late in the day – I wonder what he made of his position giving him an exit card denied to so many of his fellow Jews.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
11/12/2016 09:23:48 am

I agree with Jeanne. I can't read all the books but I love your reviews to fill in the gaps and keep me updated. I would be interested in both of these books, I think.
I was interested in your comment about the line between fact and invention. I often think about that when watching movies based on the lives of others. I recently watched "Saving Mr Banks" about P.L. Travers, for example.
I was about to say that I'd rather they'd stick to the truth; and then I thought about Charli's writing about Rock Creek. I guess if the facts aren't known authors need to fill in the gaps.
But maybe my comment indicates that, while I enjoy both novels and biography; I'm a little unsure of fictionalised biography. I like to know which parts are fact and which are fiction, and not be misled by fictionalising unnecessarily. I think if you want to write fiction, write a novel, invent a character.

Reply
Annecdotist
11/12/2016 03:08:15 pm

That’s a good point, Norah, as in reading both of these I had an uncomfortable feeling about not knowing enough about the real-life characters – I guess others would be motivated to find out, but I tend to be too lazy and want my fictional world self-contained.

Reply
Charli Mills
14/12/2016 01:37:41 am

A couple of interesting reads, although I'm not certain either capture my attention to read. I do like the cover of The Tobacconist, though looking at it draws my eye to Sugar and Snails. I like that cover better! As for the sexually liberated woman, I think there are varying degrees. Often women pretend at it but really are not as confident as they come across. Then again, getting fitted for a blasted diaphram is enough to knock off any woman from her confident stance.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/12/2016 04:00:48 pm

I did think the colours were similar and of course I love the cover of Sugar and Snails, but there’s some extra appeal for me in those rooftops – strange as I tend not to prefer urban landscapes.
Indeed, the indignities of womanhood are manifold, it’s amazing any of us manage to be confident in our bodies.

Reply



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