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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

Picturing identity: Mothlight & Trick

10/2/2019

4 Comments

 
I wondered, initially, whether the fact that these two short novels include images would be sufficient reason to pair them in a post. But, while different in style, they’re both about identity (among other matters). In the first, a young man uses photographs he has inherited to try to understand the woman who kept them, as his own identity seems to merge with hers. In the second, an older man finds his identity as an illustrator losing out to his role as grandfather.

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Mothlight by Adam Scovell

When, as a boy, Thomas accompanies his grandfather on a business visit to the home of sisters Billie and Phyllis Ewans, he has no idea it’s the start of an enduring obsession. While Billie is the friendliest of the women, it’s the other sister’s career as a lepidopterist that incites his passion as well as the persona of Phyllis herself.
 
Moving to London for his academic studies and research, he reconnects with Phyllis towards the end of her life. Together, Thomas pushing her wheelchair, they embark on moth-capturing expeditions; eventually, he becomes her carer and executor of her will. Even before her death he feels the boundaries between them blurring, his memories melding with hers.
 
In a house thick with the dust of decaying moth-wings, Thomas sorts through her possessions, particularly captivated by her moth collection and photographs of a woman and place he recognises although he’s sure they’ve never met. He longs to know why, despite their many conversations, Phyllis never mentioned her, and whether she might be the key to her animosity towards Billie, even when the sisters shared a house.
 
Thomas’ oddness is manifest in his indifference to other topics or relationships, and the formality of the voice. I shared his excitement at coming across a hummingbird hawk moth – and the symbolism in the killing and displaying of beautiful creatures is interesting, likewise the menace of parasitic wasps. I’d have appreciated more about his childhood to contextualise the mental health theme, and I couldn’t share his curiosity about the secret of Phyllis’ photos.
 
These – reproduced from photographs bequeathed to the author by a real-life Phyllis – accompany the text in the tradition of WG Sebald as the publisher points out. Which goes some way towards explaining why I didn’t warm to film maker Adam Scovell’s debut as much as I’d hoped – especially when the gorgeous cover is attributed to the designer of my own first two books! Thanks to Influx Press for my review copy.


Trick by Domenico Starnone translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

I’ve often wondered if parents appreciate the complexity of the task when inviting trusted friends or relatives to babysit their young kids. You are the adult, but the child understands the domestic arrangements better than you. You might have decided the balance you want to strike between play and discipline, but you don’t know how it will work out for this particular child, or how carefully you need to tread around their sensitivities about missing their parents.
 
Seventy-five-year-old widower Daniele grapples with these issues and more when he travels from Milan to Naples to care for his grandson while the boy’s parents, both mathematicians, attend a residential conference. Four-year-old Mario is a delightful amalgam of precociousness and bossiness, determined to capitalise on his mother’s father’s stay. Weary from old age and recent surgery, the reader wonders how Daniele will cope.
 
On top of this, the apartment where his daughter and her family now live is the one in which he spent his childhood years. He’s haunted by memories of his mother’s fear of the windy balcony and his rage at the father who condemned them to poverty by gambling away his money at cards. Daniele couldn’t wait to leave. Driven by his mother’s faith in his artistic ability, he’s channelled his energies into his work as an illustrator, to the neglect of family and social life. Now, insulted by an editor’s feedback on a recent commission, as well as the raw reaction of the four-year-old boy, he wonders not only if his talent has left him but whether it was ever as great as he believed.
 
With so much to delight the reader in the battle for supremacy between infancy and age, we almost don’t need the trick Mario plays on his grandfather, putting them both at risk. But it beautifully exemplifies the precarious nature of what seems simple on the surface, spending a few days looking after a lively young child.
 
There’s an extra layer of reward in this novel for those familiar with the short story, “The Jolly Corner”, by Henry James. As the translator outlines in an introduction, there are parallels here with Trick. This is also the story Daniele is illustrating and an appendix of notes and sketches from his diary revisits some of the novel’s material from a different angle. For me, unfamiliar with the story, it neither enhanced nor detracted from my reading of the text.
 
Domenico Starnone is the author of thirteen works of fiction, this being the third translated into English from the original Italian. I can only hope that publishers Europa Editions, who provided my review copy, have plans for more.
 
Identity is a common theme for readers and writers of fiction; it just happens to be the common thread between the stories in my collection, Becoming Someone. Two of those particularly connect with the issues in these reviews: “Habeas Corpus” in which a professional photographer uses selfies to recover his sense of self; “I Want Doesn’t Get” about a woman whose identity has merged with her mother’s. You can hear me read the opening of the first and the entirety of the second:


I’ve been operating under par for the past week or so, and had no new thoughts for last week’s FF challenge. But editing my possibly third novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home about a brother and sister separated for fifty years against the backdrop of the longstay psychiatric hospital closures, I thought I could conjure 99-words to include a sign. Even so, I’m not sure I managed to recycle the opening of chapter 2 into a story. See what you think! PS the links to the reviews are images and lepidoptera.

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The universe isn’t interested

A white P against a blue background: Janice was almost level with the sign when she swung the wheel and shunted into the layby. A horn blared as a truck sped past.

Silencing the engine, she clambered out onto the verge. Shaking both fists, she dropped her jaw and screamed.

Traffic roared by, indifferent. The slate fellside frowned as it had done for millennia. A small copper danced from daisy to dandelion, oblivious.

Her throat remained raw from their argument. Was love as ephemeral as that butterfly or would theirs emerge resplendent from this ice age, like the land?
 
 
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.
4 Comments
Charli Mills
12/2/2019 02:12:22 am

These two books seem to have enough story substance to be interesting. And yet, not all stories have to be neatly contained in a template or even expectation. I think your flash fits into an ongoing story interrupted by a moment, when a person contemplates their own sense of belonging to the passage of natural sequence. I also find that your P-sign photo echos the colors and placement of my prompt photo the way the two book covers pair together artistically. Hope you are feeling better!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
12/2/2019 05:26:48 pm

I took the photo on my way home from my research trip last year, but it wasn't the actual one I had in mind for the scene in my book. Although that might exist only in my head!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
16/2/2019 07:23:39 am

Interesting reviews, Anne. Both books sounds quite engaging. I like that one references photographs and the other a short story. I like that connections are sometimes made, as long as they are not too obscure.
I also like that you made the link to two of your stories in "Becoming Someone". Your stories are always a great read, and being able to listen to you read them is an added pleasure. I've read and listened to both of these at least twice and am happy to recommend them to others.
I don't recognise the story from your book. (How could I? I haven't read it. :)) but your flash is a recognisable story expressing very recognisable emotions. For someone with a fuzzy head, you've done very well.
I do hope you are feeling better and are back to all your normal activities real soon.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/2/2019 10:09:38 am

Thanks, Norah, on all counts! I'm recovering, but very slowly. I'm missing my singing and my walks :-(

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