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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

What’s wrong with an angry woman?  The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

18/1/2016

18 Comments

 
When Fleur Smithwick, one of the early endorsers of my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, likened my central character, Diana, to the narrator of The Woman Upstairs, I was flattered. I knew that the author, Claire Messud, was well regarded by the literati and, although I hadn’t read it, the reviews suggested The Woman Upstairs was my kind of book. I also recalled some fireworks around the publicity, when (presumably male) reviewers and interviewers had queried the creation of an angry female character. Having finally read the novel, I followed this up to discover an article in the New Yorker on character likeability. Interesting as that article is, I’m shocked that it stems from an unchallenged assumption that readers will agree that Nora is unlikeable, not someone you’d want as a friend.
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The book opens with an angry, slightly sweary, middle-aged woman, before backtracking a few years to account for how she got that way. Now, I have particular issues with anger, my own and other people’s, so perhaps I’d avoid a real-life woman in that state. But nevertheless, I warmed to Nora in those opening pages: she was eloquent and lively, a complex and contradictory woman, and, most importantly given her anger, unarmed. That she’s resentful for having been a good daughter only endears me to her; too many mental health problems, in my experience, arise from impossible standards of goodness. Flawed characters are not only more appealing in fiction, they’re more robust in real life.

Like her almost-namesake,
Norah Colvin, she’s an extremely empathic early-years teacher, as well as a loyal friend. She’s not entirely to blame for taking her friendship with all three members of the Shahid family too far; for each of them, she’s an all too convenient stopgap for the relationships they’re missing during their year’s sabbatical in the USA.

Given her reputation as unlikeable, I was expecting Nora to behave like Barbara in Notes on a Scandal (incidentally, another single schoolteacher), using her inside knowledge to control her friend. But on the contrary, it’s Nora who’s betrayed, certainly by Sirena, and quite possible by Sirena’s husband, Skandar, too. Perhaps she’s as romantically naive as twelve-year-old Frankie in The Member of the Wedding in her wish to be part of something that isn’t hers. But she’s not stupid. Despite her fantasies of happy ever afters, all she wants is for the friendship she’s apparently offered to be genuinely meant.

As well as being a decent human being, there’s a lesson in Nora for all of us in how to live. If we don’t want to end up fuming at life’s disappointments, perhaps we need to
put limits on how much we’re prepared to forego our own ambitions in order to serve the needs of others. Compassion for ourselves should come first. And if we have a friend who seems all too willing to compromise in our favour, perhaps, if we don’t want to lose them, we need to be careful not to take advantage of their good nature. Perhaps too, without giving away the ending, we could use Nora as a role model, and become motivated by our anger. Maybe that’s what the male critics didn’t like.
In contrast to Nora, my character Diana’s anger in Sugar and Snails is pretty tame. Apart from a couple of fucks, this is probably as good – or bad, depending on your position on anger – as it gets (p123-4):

A trail of soggy footprints followed me upstairs. I considered grabbing a yellow hazard sign from the cleaners’ cupboard, except that the danger wasn’t the wet floor, but me: a simmering rage that, most of the time, not even I registered.

I needed a door to slam behind me, but the one to my office had a top closer that eased it sedately into the frame. I needed hail pelting the window, but sun streamed through the glass, the deluge abated. I needed to kick my bike over, but the space between the bookshelf and easy chairs was so narrow, the saddle was caught by the chairback and all I got was an aching toe.


The Woman Upstairs is a fine novel about envy and creativity, friendship and jealousy, about how difficult life is when there’s no-one who thinks you’re special. It’s about the pull of fantasy versus making a good life from the cards you are dealt. It’s published by Virago and, as I bought my own copy, I’m not contracted to write a proper review. But I would like you to read it, if you haven’t already, and come back and tell me whether you like Nora too. For writers, she’s a great example of the awkward character I’d like to see more of.

Interestingly, I hadn’t read this book when Caroline Lodge post me some questions for a blog post on
Is There Discrimination against Older Women Writers? I felt I’d let her down in a way as, while I’m sure we must be subject to ageism and sexism in publishing as in other areas of life, I wasn’t conscious of having received any. But I had wondered if there’d been discrimination against my character, a mere toddler at forty five. If so, then with Nora, Diana’s in good company.

Have you ever found yourself liking fictional characters everyone else considers unlikeable? Do we, women as well as men, unrealistic standards for female friendship? What’s wrong with an angry woman?
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.
18 Comments
Naomi Frisby link
18/1/2016 08:37:08 am

I loved this book and didn't consider Nora unlikeable at all - but then I find that with lots of characters that are considered unlikeable by others. I thought she was an average woman but because she doesn't conform to the women should be people pleasers school of societal thought, she's labelled other. I think there's a bit of a surge in these 'types' of female characters at the moment. Lots of young women in novels like this - Paulina & Fran, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark - but also a few older (and not necessarily single ones) too - Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs, American Housewife. Perhaps it's time female characters were allowed to be complex too.

Reply
Marianne link
18/1/2016 09:12:23 am

This is my book club's read this month so I was really interested to see your review. Nora sounds fascinating, looking forward to meeting her.

Reply
Annecdotist
18/1/2016 12:00:36 pm

Oh, interesting, Marianne, I think this would be a great book club read and would be interested in how it goes.

Annecdotist
18/1/2016 11:59:52 am

Thanks for your input, Naomi. I have to say that after the spin about this novel, I was surprised how normal Nora seemed to me. I wonder if younger women characters are leading the way in this struggle to be allowed that complexity. Thanks also to blogs like yours bringing them to the reader's attention.

Reply
Poppy link
18/1/2016 11:29:39 am

Yes! Like Naomi I often really like the so called unlikeable heroines... the protagonists from Hausfrau & Disclaimer, Elena Ferrante's 3 novellas just from last year alone (there were others too but these seem to spark most debate). I find so called flawed heroines more exciting to read about & realistic; whilst I may not relate to every flaw I certainly relate to having imperfections... I welcome women being portrayed more honestly, warts & all and not to the expected cultural 'perfection' that stems from the archaic Victorian 'Angel of the House' remit ... I've got The Woman Upstairs, Olive Kettering & others lined up for reading this year - chosen for not only their so called unlikeable heroines but 'middle-aged' too... I will report back as along with Caroline's posts about the older women in fiction too, I think there's lots more to be said!

Reply
Annecdotist
18/1/2016 12:03:44 pm

Thanks, Poppy. I was interested that you mentioned Hausfrau as had some interesting Twitter discussion about this with one of my good blogging friends. I also liked and had sympathy for Anne, although I do find it hard when mothers are so neglectful of their children.
Look forward to your further thoughts on this theme, and I do hope you enjoy The Woman Upstairs.

Reply
Sarah link
18/1/2016 03:14:44 pm

I love a character with some depth. You can't really get that without being unlikeable in some way. I like how this book dips into her past to show readers how she got to where she is.

Reply
Annecdotist
21/1/2016 04:47:14 pm

Yes, real people are a real mixture of such different and sometimes contradictory characteristics – I'm sure we'll both agree on the need for the dark to show the light. But poor Nora has been given a bad press because she's not really unlikeable at all.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
19/1/2016 11:26:17 am

Ha! When I read the first paragraph of the article in the New Yorker I thought Clare Messud had been spying on me! Then you also made the link! I think I would love this book.Like Poppy says, I love the twisted characters, warts and all and rather dysfunctional. I think they probably make me seem (to myself) not so bad after all. I loved reading the dysfunctional characters that Patrick White wrote about. I read all of his books and couldn't get enough of them. If I was to write fiction, I'd like to write like Patick White. I think there was even a Nora character, albeit a small one, in one of his books. It is a long time since I read them but I still remember them as being perhaps the most engaging and powerful books I have read. Anyway, for many reasons and not just the name this one is going to the top of my TBR pile. I'd love it if it was an audiobook, but sadly it isn't. Thanks for the review, and the mention. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
21/1/2016 04:52:18 pm

Ha, indeed, Norah, I think you'll just have to meet your almost namesake. But, as I said, she's really not dysfunctional at all, just unlucky, and perhaps rather gullible, and I think her anger is a source of hope for something better.
I'm afraid I haven't read anything by Patrick White – I don't know if that's just me or that he is better known in Australia, and now I'm focusing very much on contemporary fiction so might not get to meet him on the page, unless you nudge me a bit more …

Reply
Caroline (Bookword) link
23/1/2016 07:20:14 pm

Thanks for the mention of older women series on Bookword Anne. I haven't read this novel but it's now on my tar thanks to this recommendation. It was mentioned as a possible read for the older women series. I think that old women are sometimes seen as unlikeable and too feisty and perhaps that is why she was proposed, I've she shares traits with unlikeable older women. I the novels have been recommended in the same way - like Lolly Willowes.
I certainly think that the traditional heroines should move over and make space for the more active heroines in fiction, as I life!

Reply
Annecdotist
24/1/2016 11:57:22 am

You're welcome, Caroline, and thanks for taking the time to comment. It is interesting that this novel was suggested for your older women series, as Nora is only in her late 30s when the story begins! I'm reading a novel at the moment we are one of the point of view characters is about sixty, she's no longer working that has had an active life as an investigative journalist in troubled parts of Africa, yet she refers to herself as old. I find it hard to imagine a real woman doing so – even if she feels too old to continue the pressurised job that she had, surely she'd expect to have a lot of life and opportunities ahead of her.

Reply
Caroline link
13/3/2016 05:19:46 pm

Thanks for recommending this Anne. I have read it and was thrilled by Nora's anger. I would probably avoid her if I met her, a little needy and intense, but I didn't find her unlikeable at all. But then women aren't supposed to be angry out loud, and her book explores how she is betrayed and lonely. None of that assuages anger!
Caroline

Reply
Annecdotist
14/3/2016 11:43:44 am

So glad you enjoyed it, Caroline. I always love it when someone tunes in to one of my recommendations!

Reply
Charli Mills
13/3/2017 08:50:37 pm

The unlikable woman seems villified in the US. Angry women are often described as shrill and unhinged. Although political in origins (relating to outspoken Senator Elizabeth Warren) #shepersisted is a movement that owns the anger as not giving up or giving in. As a reader, I like unlikely characters and don't consider them unnecessarily unlikeable. Great review and connection to Norah!

Reply
Annecdotist
14/3/2017 10:32:54 am

Thanks, Charli. It’s certainly timely for women in the US to be angry, though we are raised to be ashamed of it. Persistence is to be commended.

Reply
SR
4/1/2023 09:37:11 pm

I found the Nora character self pitying and a bit silly. Also it spoke of her character when she hooked up with her friends husband .
It is ironic she regretted not going anywhere with her art- yet Sirina immortalized Nora by filming her and she’s now actual art. She kind of did her a favor imo. I also disagree she was empathetic, she seemed to only do for others for herself.
Loved the ending though.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
6/1/2023 01:38:23 pm

Welcome to my blog and thanks so much for sharing your views on this provocative character. I'm afraid it's so long since I read this novel, I've forgotten the ending!

Reply



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