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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

Slavery’s shadow: A Tall History of Sugar & Tender Is the Flesh

10/2/2020

12 Comments

 
Both of these novels defy easy classification, but I’ve chosen to pair them for their themes of the legacy of slavery, or the way in which owning another person demeans us all. In the first, we follow a young man, marked by his unusual appearance, from babyhood in Jamaica shortly before independence to England and back. The second is a translated Argentinian dystopian novel about cannibalism. In both novels, a character, or characters, withhold or are denied their voice.

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A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes

In 1958, four years before Jamaica’s independence, Rachel finds a baby amid a tangle of sea grape trees and decides to keep him. Marked by his unusual appearance, with blueish translucent skin and two-toned and -textured hair, Moshe is kept away from other children until starting school at six. There he bonds with Arrienne, a big black and beautiful girl who, like Moshe, is intellectually streets ahead of her peers.
 
The friendship deepens, as Moshe retreats into silence, his sketchbook continually at his side. But, as puberty looms, Arrienne becomes intensely jealous of those who might come between them, such as Alva, a gay boy who takes a particular interest in Moshe. What happens to a friendship forged in early childhood when those friends become sexual beings?
 
At eighteen, Moshe stows away on a ship to England in the hope of finding his biological father while studying at art school. Of course, mid 1970s England is not what he expected: for one thing, the English don’t wash. Of greater concern, is the racism he encounters and other people’s confusion about how to place him: is he black, white, mixed race or something entirely different?
 
The young man’s identity is based on more than genetics and skin tone: that’s the legacy of sugar that has enslaved his ancestors and enriched the small island where he’s come to live. This manifests itself in an allergy to the substance: “Sugar’s by-blow a hex against sugar” (p170). He also suffers from “blood sweat”, “Hematidrosis. A disease of nearly ghosts” (p210), a perfect symbol of the ravages of colonialism.
 
With such arresting themes, I wanted to like this novel more, but I’m afraid I limped through it, snagged on a morass of detail, unclear where the author was leading me and whether I wanted to go. I still don’t know whether I took from it what’s the author intended, but it did furnish me with  another fictional toilet to add to my collection, and we English can never have too many reminders of the barbaric origins of our prosperity, although I found the Brexit references somewhat clunky. Thanks to publishers Canongate for my review copy.

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If you’re interested in the exploration of identity through fiction, you might like my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, about a woman who has kept her past identity secret for thirty years and my short story collection, Becoming Someone, with forty-two stories on the theme of identity.
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Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica translated by Sarah Moses

Marcos isn’t happy about the unsolicited gift a supplier has delivered to his home in rural Argentina. He hates his job as a manager of a meat-processing plant, misses his wife who has moved in with her mother after the sudden death of their baby; caring for another living creature can only add to his woes. But, when he’s cleaned her, got her house-trained and given her name, he becomes rather fond of Jasmine. If discovered, his fondness will get him into deeper water than if he’d slaughtered and eaten her for lunch.
 
Years before, animals became infected with a virus that rendered their meat poisonous. To replace them, humans have been bred for consumption in a legalised form of cannibalism, their vocal cords cut so their screams can’t be heard. Jasmine is one of the finest specimens from this breeding programme.
 
I found this quirky novel more entertaining than disturbing, but it might read differently for those who eat meat. (And Argentinians consume a lot of meat.) About three quarters of the book is taken up with world building, but this is never tedious as the parallels with our contemporary treatment of sentient beings reared for food, science or entertainment are cleverly crafted. (As well as specific detail on the mechanics of production and processing, we also follow Marcus to a research laboratory and to a game reserve where hunters collect trophy heads and dine on the creatures they’ve killed.)
 
It’s not until halfway through that Marcus transgresses with Jasmine and the tension cranks up. I was surprised, and initially disappointed, at the ending but, on reflection, felt it was a brave conclusion and a perfect fit. With themes of animal welfare, our collective disregard for humans deemed different to us, alongside the dehumanising culture of some types of work, it’s nevertheless not a heavy read. Thanks to Pushkin Press for my review copy.

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There’s an animal link in the latest flash fiction challenge, but I couldn’t find inspiration for my 99-word story in either of these novels. So my take on a dog in the daisies is about creativity, a.k.a. making things up.


My kind of dog

“What you need is a dog. A big brown dog with floppy ears and waggy tail.”

He was right I needed something. But I hated dogs as much as I hated people telling me what to do.

Even so, I heeded his advice, a sour taste in my mouth as I scrolled through canines online. Without luck: I’d find the eyes I wanted paired with the wrong kind of nose.

“Is that one of those crossbreeds?” they asked at the exhibition. “A labradoodle or somesuch?” I smiled, didn’t admit my dog among the daisies drew breath solely on canvas.
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12 Comments
D. Avery link
10/2/2020 11:08:12 pm

What you should do, is get a dog. Walk it, feed it, read to it, you'll see. Let it assist in freezer cleaning. From insufferable to inseparable, you'll see. Yes, you should get a dog.

I don't think I'll be reading either of these novels, though the second one sounds better than I first anticipated from the initial blurb.



Reply
Anne Goodwin
11/2/2020 05:55:24 pm

Thanks for your sound advice which of course I'm going to ignore. As I walk so much, people often suggest I should get a dog to keep me company but haven't I got more than enough company with the characters in my head?
Many years ago on our South American trip, we were adopted by a couple of dogs that lived in the place we were staying. They led us on a lovely walk and then followed us to a restaurant in the evening and waited outside to walk us home. I became quite fond of them but it wouldn't work for me here.

Reply
Norah Colvin
11/2/2020 09:35:28 am

You have a stronger constitution than I, Anne. Neither of these books appeal to me, though I agree with Moshe's thoughts about toilets and bathrooms and the theme of the second book reminds me of a Roald Dahl story that I read years ago but haven't been able to forget.
I'm not even sure that I'm keen on dogs on canvas, though I have to say that if I was to ever love a dog (or two) they would be my daughter's two. They have been so loved, they are nothing but love.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
11/2/2020 06:00:48 pm

I didn't find Tender all that scary because it was hard to believe it could happen – we can all live easy enough without meat and I'm sure even carnivores wouldn't want to go to all that hassle. Although some of it did remind me of the gas chambers so perhaps it was scarier than I'm pretending.
I hope your daughter doesn't expect you to babysit her dogs like you'd look after your proper grandchildren!

Reply
Norah Colvin
16/2/2020 10:59:42 am

She lives far enough way to not require my services as a dogsitter. (sadly)

Anne Goodwin
16/2/2020 04:24:14 pm

Can't you commute? ;-)

Charli Mills
13/2/2020 05:17:52 am

We just need to tell you, "Go take your characters for a walk." I do feel somewhat challenged to try and pen a story about a reluctant dog owner. I'll chase the tail on that one.

An interesting pairing of books. I'm reading your short stories at the moment, in between texts and required novels. I'm enjoying more than I think I'd enjoy these.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/2/2020 05:39:37 pm

Thanks, Charli, I'm sure you could write about a reluctant dog owner – that's if you wanted to and didn't have a million other things on your plate.

Reply
D. Avery link
16/2/2020 11:51:39 am

“Hey, Shorty. Heard Doc Ranger’s gittin’ a dog.”
“Leave off Kid. Says she don’t want one. ‘Sides a dog has ta be the one ta find their person.”
“What if I jist hep ‘em both out? Put ‘em on trail. Mebbe a fine hound fer the Ranger, one that kin keep up with her on her walks, but kin also sing along with her in the choir.”
“Kid, they don’t want no hounds baying in the choir.”
“No finer sound, Shorty. An’ a hound’ll hep her chase down all her pursuits.”
“Kid, Ranger’s dogged enough ta catch her quarry.”

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/2/2020 04:22:49 pm

I'm deeply honoured that this pair have called in at my blog – with or without the dog. I'm thinking that, although I'm not a believer, my favourite choral music tends to be about God … and I'm rather fond of anagrams. Over to you!

D. Avery link
16/2/2020 04:46:58 pm

Doggammit, Ms. Goodwin, that anagram's been done.
https://shiftnshake.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/dog-gam/

(I feel like Jules here, telling you that gam is also a term referring to when two whaling ships saw each other at sea and pulled along side to exchange news and socialize)

Sorry if that Kid is being a bother. Get's away from me at times. Just really thought you should have that dog I guess. I'll tell you, dogs are less bother than kids.

Anne Goodwin
17/2/2020 05:11:41 pm

And done very well, thanks for sharing!




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