annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • First two novels
    • Sugar and Snails >
      • Acknowledgements
      • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
        • Birthday blog tour
        • S&S on tour 2022
      • Early endorsements
      • Events >
        • Launch photos
        • Launch party videos
      • in pictures
      • Media
      • If you've read the book
      • Polari
      • Reading group questions
      • Reviews
      • In the media
    • Underneath >
      • Endorsements and reviews
      • Launch party and events
      • Pictures
      • Questions for book groups
      • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • The accidental series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
    • Lyrics for the Loved Ones
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read
  • Main site

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

The pain of being human: Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey

24/11/2014

12 Comments

 
Picture
On the night after Christmas, a middle-aged woman picks up her pen to write a letter to her estranged friend, Nina, without knowing where she might be or even whether she is alive or dead. Although they have had no contact for more than a decade, the pair have been friends since childhood and, for a few years shared a house as adults along with the narrator’s husband, Nicholas, and Teddy, their young son. Ironically, the narrator addresses her erstwhile friend by the name Teddy assigned to her on their first meeting, although as the novel progresses, its accuracy becomes more apparent (p158)


Butterfly: settling on nothing, at the window pane basking or trying to get out, batting at the light as if baffled by this lovely form that is (so it thinks) some fragile decoration of its ugliness.
Picture
Butterfly might be fragile and ephemeral, but we know from the title that she is also a thief, having helped herself to the narrator’s husband as well as her home.

Night after night, the narrator sits at her desk, trying to unravel, not what happened, since both of them know this already (although, of course, the reader can only piece this together over time), or even why, but rather what it means to be betrayed by two people she loved. The novel-length letter (although narrated in the first person, it’s another example of the ‘you’ point of view) becomes the vehicle for an outpouring of her sense of abandonment, her resentment, rage, grief and guilt.

And her eloquence! She tells us she writes as it comes, not going back to edit or alter; but her consciousness follows an extremely lyrical stream. For example, she says of her husband (p43):

He knew he had some lonely and pedantic habits that hardly needed a psychologist’s eye to be seen for what they were – digging in the soil, scratching at limestone for fossils, mudlarking on the shores of the Thames for washed-up trinkets. Each boy needs his father; those who have lost hope of ever having one never stop looking for something else instead.
and of being separated, but not divorced (p47):
Marriage is a construct easily put together, and painstakingly dismantled. The law makes it this way. To prise it apart, legally speaking, you have to take to it with a sledgehammer as if it were your worst enemy you were obliterating, and not the remains of your tenderest dreams. Not the little patch of fertile ground your only child sprang from.
I loved Samantha Harvey’s 2009 debut novel, The Wilderness, about a man gradually losing himself to dementia. However, with her second, All Is Song, I overidentified with the main character’s frustration with his eccentric brother’s philosophising, somewhat missing the point that this was a modern take on the story of Socrates, until I read a more erudite review. She has returned to philosophy in Dear Thief, addressing the helpfulness or otherwise of religion in confronting loss, particularly Hindu concepts of acceptance and detachment, but I must confess that some of the deeper meanings went over my head. It’s also, according to this helpful review in The Guardian that first brought Dear Thief to my attention, the novelisation of Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat (not one of my favourites of his, I must confess) complete with desert and a flower held in the teeth, with a cream shawl playing the part of the raincoat. More prosaically, the best I can do is locate the story as cross between the cheating husband subgenre and friend fatale, cut through with the quest for solace via self-understanding and a hyperawareness of death.

Overall, it’s about the push and pull of attachment, of our deep desire for connection and fear of what that connection can bring. Yet the narrator’s relationships with minor characters seemed more real than with her erstwhile friend – although that might well have been the point! When so many readers seem to want the same superficial story served up again and again, I have to congratulate Jonathan Cape (to whom thanks for my review copy) for publishing such a cerebral novel. Yet, while by no means a difficult read, Dear Thief joins the couple of other novels that I didn’t quite get. Perhaps I need to take a course on philosophy (or at least reread Norah’s helpful posts on the topic) before this talented writer brings out her next work of fiction?
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
Norah Colvin link
24/11/2014 02:06:39 am

Thanks for the mention and link Anne, though you won't learn too much philosophy from me directly. This does sound like an intriguing read, as does 'All is Song' seeing it has to do with Socrates. You are right, I do enjoy philosophy and would love to be a philosopher, amongst other things. But your mention of it reminded me of some of my favourite philosophy novels by Jostein Gaarder, especially 'Sophie's World'. Have you read any of his books? I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Reply
Annecdotist
24/11/2014 03:43:25 am

Always a pleasure to link to your wonderful blog, Norah, and I AM learning from your posts. I did read Sophie's World and very much enjoyed it but alas can't remember anything about it now (perhaps if you did a post on it it would jog my memory)!!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
25/11/2014 01:03:11 am

Now there's a thought. Unfortunately it is quite a while since I last read it, and though I read it three times (once to 12-year old Bec), I don't remember enough detail to write about it. I love Gaarder's work and have read a few of his titles more than once. I must check to see if he has anything new.

Annecdotist
25/11/2014 03:00:36 am

Perhaps you could get Bec to do a guest post

Quanie Miller link
24/11/2014 04:01:53 pm

I love your description of this book! I always find a cool new read when I visit your blog. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
Annecdotist
25/11/2014 02:59:29 am

Glad you liked it, Quanie, and thanks for letting me know.

Reply
geoff link
25/11/2014 10:06:33 pm

Ah, Norah, too quick. Sophie's World was on the tip of my fingers and then I saw I was too slow. What a great read that was. When I did Jurisprudence at Uni how I could have done with it to try and make sense of the links between Socrates and Aquinas to Mills and Hobbs and Nietzsche and on... The use of the little girl and her quest is a clever one and no I'm not going to blog it either! Another post to have the cogs churning over again.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/11/2014 05:29:11 am

Thanks, Geoff, for another endorsement of Sophie's World – if anyone hasn't read it, you've given it another shout!

Reply
Sarah link
27/11/2014 03:04:01 pm

Aaah! Sophie's World! I LOVED that novel. I think I was...around 23 or so when I bought a copy for everyone I know and gave it to them as a holiday gift. :-D

Fantastic post, as usual. This book seems like an amazing read.

Reply
Annecdotist
29/11/2014 09:18:33 am

Hi, Sarah, thanks for calling in, it's great to give our favourite our favourite reads as presents. I'm wondering now who hasn't read Sophie's World!

Reply
Litlove link
9/12/2014 06:25:28 am

I enjoyed this but found it hard-going in places. I think that was in fact the intention - because by the end I felt I'd had a glimpse into a full, many-layered life, and that the experience I'd had of knowing the narrator came precisely from that difficult push and pull with the narrative. But overall, you have to love the intricacies of language to get the most out of this book, and my personal preference is for novels that get as much truth out of what happens as out of the recitation of events. I should think, though, that you could do a very neat psychoanalytic reading of this novel, given the way it portrays memory, fantasy and the workings of attachment.

Reply
Annecdotist
9/12/2014 07:07:01 am

Thanks for sharing your experience of this novel which has helped me reflect a bit further on mine. I think I have an optimum level of how hard I want to work with a novel: I don't want to be patronised but I'm nevertheless a bit lazy and, while I'll sometimes enjoy delving deeply into the underlying meanings of a novel, I don't want to feel that I'm obliged to work hard to get anything from it. This one for me still less than a month since I read it is too ephemeral to stay in my mind but, as I said in the review, I'm so glad that deep-and-meaningful novels are still getting published.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    Available now
    Picture
    The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My third novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom, joshtasman, tedeytan, striatic, goforchris, torbakhopper, maggibautista, andreboeni, snigl3t, rainy city, frankieleon