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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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Two novel encounters with the wild: Under a Pole Star & Green Lion

21/8/2017

4 Comments

 
A historical novel about Arctic exploration or a novel set in a near-future South Africa? A romance or an account of a relationship falling apart? A motherless girl or a fatherless boy? Wild animals or ice? Both of these novels explore the conflict and compassion that connects us to the natural world, but it was a bonus for me to read that the protagonist of Green Lion told his friend that his father was killed in a hunting accident in the Arctic, the setting of Under a Pole Star. Read on to see if I was right to pair these reviews.

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Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney

Flora Mackie was twelve when she told her father she’d reach the North Pole one day. Sixty-five years later, in 1948, the special guest among a party of scientists and film crew, it looks as if she might finally make it. But there’s a young journalist on board the plane with a particular interest in covering the story of the intervening years. In Stef Penney’s telling, it might interest you too.
 
Flora’s father was a whaler with a land base in Dundee. On her mother’s death, instead of sending Flora to boarding school, he decides to take her with him into the Arctic Circle. Flora loves it and is furious when, on reaching eighteen, she is deemed “a smouldering match in a heap of tinder” (p78) and no longer permitted to accompany the men. Determined to revisit the climate and people she loves, Flora trains as a meteorologist and, while still a young woman, leads an expedition to the frozen north. There she meets New York geologist Jakob de Beyn, a member of a rival expedition led by the overambitious Lester Armitage who’s searching for new territory on which to plant the American flag.
 
Under a Pole Star is a story of love and obsession set in the golden age of exploration with a fair amount of well-written sex and some beautiful descriptions of icy landscapes, for example (p449):
 
The air is as clear as gin, and plays tricks – it turns a white Arctic hare into a polar bear, a black turd into a seal. Flora can make out the contours on a rock, miles away; she has the sense she could reach over and pick it up.
 
It’s also a meticulously-researched account of
fictional research, exploring how the egos of both researchers and funders introduce an element of bias (or outright fraud, in some instances) and how Western researchers exploit people from less developed cultures (with a shocking museum visit reminiscent of Orphans of the Carnival). At almost 600 pages of fairly small print, it is a long read, but never boring. Thanks to Quercus books for my review copy.
 
As a writer, I did wonder about the authorial and editorial decisions that left this twice as long as the average novel. Not that I found obvious places where it might have been cut, and perhaps the success of Stef Penney’s debut, The Tenderness of Wolves, also set in an extremely cold climate, gave no need to worry about readers being put off by the length. I also wondered about the ending of part one of the novel at a point that looks like a “reversal” in the classical “hero’s journey” structure (Jakob has just discovered that a fact about his family is actually a fiction). The positioning suggests this is going to play an important part in the story but, although it does impact on Jakob to a degree, in the narrative it’s not a big deal. As a writer who isn’t a great fan of this structure but is nevertheless curious about it as a possible route to making her fiction more commercial, this puzzled me, although I doubt the average reader would notice. If you’re reading this as a writer, I’d be interested in your opinion.

Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes

Returning to Cape Town after several years in London, Con finds himself unemployable, his basic work experience as a security guard in museums and galleries not easily transferable to South Africa. Lodging with his younger, wealthier, and more energetic girlfriend, Elyse, he spends his time cleaning and examining her possessions. Then the call comes from the mother of an old school friend, Mark, now languishing in a coma after being mauled by a lion, asking Con to collect his possessions from the breeding park for endangered species on Table Mountain where Mark volunteered. Before long, Con is not only wearing Mark’s old uniform, but he’s slipped into his role as keeper for the world’s last remaining black-maned lion. As Con becomes more embroiled in the world of the zoo, with the conflicting interests of visitors, funders, conservationists and a cult of animal lovers, he becomes more estranged from his girlfriend.
 
As a boy, Con felt a “hollowness at the heart of things” stemming from
the absence of a father in his life. He was drawn to the more confident Mark and his almost perfect family until the death of Mark’s younger sister pushed them apart again. Since then, he’s never quite got it together. One wonders whether his work at the wildlife reserve will provide the opportunity for redemption.
 
I was looking forward to reading Green Lion after enjoying Henrietta Rose-Innes’ debut,
Nineveh. Although I can’t put my finger on why, her second novel didn’t grip me as much as her first (hence the shorter review). Thanks to Gallic books for my review copy. For another novel about reintroducing predators to the countryside, this time in England, see my review of The Wolf Border.

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4 Comments
Norah Colvin link
22/8/2017 12:04:55 pm

Interesting the way your reviews influence me as a reader, Anne. Under a Pole Star appeals to me more than Green Lion. I'm not sure I like the reference to Orphans of the Carnival when talking about museums. I think I find the thought of those pieces more distasteful now that I'm further from the reading.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/8/2017 04:47:43 pm

Green Lion was harder to capture and I might not have done justice to it in the review. The museum bit in Pole Star doesn’t last for long but it is similar to Orphans. There’s also taxidermy in Green Lion – are you okay with that?

Reply
Charli Mills
22/8/2017 03:36:52 pm

The Arctic might be desolate, but it's a place that captivates our collective imaginations. Both my daughters have explored. One as a student, in company of modern explorer Will Steger. The other lives in Svolvard, Norway and has sent home pictures of polar bears. Thus, I have heard many stories and even interviewed a few explorers who've told me it's do black and white. Yet, the description you've clipped from the book is a stunning demonstration of that phenomenon. I'm definitely up to your challenge: "If you’re reading this as a writer, I’d be interested in your opinion." The Hero's journey is one I favor as a structure.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/8/2017 04:50:12 pm

How interesting you have that Arctic connection, Charli. I think you’d enjoy the book. And, of course, you’re my hero’s journey expert, so I await your verdict.

Reply



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