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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin writes entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice. She has published three novels and a short story collection with Inspired Quill. Her debut, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Her new novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, is rooted in her work as a clinical psychologist in a long-stay psychiatric hospital.

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The emotional climate in the age of Trump: Right after the Weather & Weather

22/5/2020

3 Comments

 
The titles themselves are reason enough to pair these recently published American novels. What I didn’t expect when I picked them from my TBR shelf is that they’d both feature the painful shock, especially among women, of Donald Trump’s election to president. The first zooms in on alienation, perceived inadequacy and a painful discovery of one’s own propensity to violence. The second forefronts the anxiety engendered by the climate crisis and rampant capitalism. I wonder if either of these authors is considering a sequel about their characters’ relationships with the coronavirus pandemic!

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Right after the Weather by Carol Anshaw

Cate, a theatre set designer in her early 40s, has just begun a relationship with Maureen which, despite their ideological differences, she hopes is going to last. But Neale, her best friend since childhood, and mother of an almost-adolescent, disapproves. Meanwhile, Cate’s ex-husband, and his dog, is camped out in her flat; she loves the dog and doesn’t mind Graham, although she worries about him staying indoors so much following ever darker conspiracy theories online. Cate thought she’d be more settled by her age, with a decent home, a long-term partner plus or minus a child, and a job that wouldn’t leave her financially dependent on her parents.
 
The characters are convincingly drawn, complete with quirks, flaws, and credible back stories, as are the web of relationships between them. But what of the weather? Carol Anshaw documents the sunshine, breezes and showers of ordinary lives amid the shockwaves of a political and personal tsunami. Cate’s Chicago community is devastated by the results of the 2016 election, but there’s another trauma waiting backstage, foreshadowed by first-person passages from Nathan, a disturbing drug addict living in Neale’s neighbourhood. When Cate surprises him attacking Neale in her kitchen, she’s introduced to a side of herself she’d rather have not had the chance to meet.
 
The assault irrevocably alters the weather between the two friends, yet this novel seems to be less about the aftermath of trauma than about the constancy of change. Fiction might impose a pattern, but this novel is more faithful to the randomness of real life. That, along with fine prose, made it a welcome read for me (I found the politics more painful than the attack), although I suspect it will prove less memorable than one with a stronger narrative arc. Thanks to publishers Fig Tree for my review copy.


Weather by Jenny Offill


Lizzie is a mother, librarian, wife and chronic worrier. When the anxiety levels drop in relation to her family – especially her recovering addict brother and her young son adapting to a school of Brobdingnagian proportions – there’s plenty to preoccupy her in the outside world. Trump, the climate crisis and the overall atmosphere of impending doom. So why does she add to her burden by agreeing to manage the mailbox of her former mentor, now famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water?
 
Composed of tight paragraphs scrubbed of extraneous detail, it’s a quick read with a mix of humour and depth, and scattered with survivalist tips which the reader might want to squirrel away for the apocalypse. Written and published before our current crisis – rendering the author as much ahead of the game as her fictional podcaster – it seems both startlingly familiar and a time-travelling trip to more innocent times. But the message – if fiction can ever be said to have a message – is consistent with my mood when I read it as manifest in recent blog posts: fit your own mask before helping others if you don’t want to disappear down the rabbit hole! And readers can go to her website for tips on how we lily-livered types can take action: obligatory note of hope. Thanks to British publishers Granta books for my review copy.

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After an extremely wet winter, we’ve had no rain here on this rainy island for several weeks – apart from ten minutes early this morning – and, sadly, some of the orchids in our garden meadows are struggling. But, on a brighter note, an especially sharp frost brought an extra ripple of joy to my early-morning walk last week. Gardeners here know to expect frosts up until the end of May, but I’ve never noticed iced buttercups and dandelion clocks before. Luckily I had my phone to prove it to Mr A who’s still abed at that time of the morning.


How’s the weather – emotional, meteorological, political – where you are right now? Would either of these novels suit your mood?

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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.
3 Comments
Norah Colvin
24/5/2020 12:20:45 pm

Hi Anne,
Your frosty plants are rather beautiful. We don't often get frosts here in Brisbane, but yesterday we had our coldest May day for almost a hundred years. The max was only 15 Centigrade. Does that make you smile?
Both these books sound interesting but I don't think I'm ready for either at the moment. I finished We're All Completely Beside Ourselves yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for the recommendation. I found the whole concept rather interesting, particularly written in the first person. This morning I began listening to another one that I have been looking forward to since I first heard about it. It is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Australian author Pip Williams. It's also told in the first person and is about words omitted from the Oxford dictionary.

Reply
Anne
26/5/2020 12:11:45 pm

Thanks, yeah, I was pleased with the photos, frost can be pretty and hard to think of not having it.

Glad you enjoyed WAACBO. I'd love to have had that idea and remember enjoying lectures on that topic at uni. Your current read/listen sounds interesting. Took a look but doesn't seem to be published yet in the UK/

Reply
Norah Colvin
27/5/2020 01:32:18 pm

Hopefully soon, Anne. I'm enjoying it. :)




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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
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    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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