Ducks, Newburyport

This is what I wrote as an Amazon review, when still only half way through reading this book:

It’s likely that not everyone will appreciate a novel that runs to almost 1,000 pages without a full stop. For me, the length of the book was not an issue, but rather it helped clench my decision to purchase an electronic rather than a paper version of the book. As for its structure – well, I find chapter breaks less useful in an e-book anyway. Plus the fact that a long book is not necessarily harder to read than a shorter, denser novel.

If this – as well as some less positive reviews – has not put you off, then please take the plunge.

I’m glad that I did. Ellmann’s characters are entirely believable, as is the plot that gradually unfolds. The main (unnamed) character is as real a person as you are ever likely to meet in fiction, defined as she is by the inner monologue that all of us carry on but few ever give expression to. Like all of us, she finds life challenging but also exhilarating. She lives a life circumscribed by family, work and home, yet takes an active interest in the world around her and the views of others – in particular, those she disagrees with. She is very much an introvert, internalising the encounters that cause her stress, anger or embarrassment. I find I can identify with her, and perhaps this is one reason why I find the book so appealing.

I agree with other reviewers who suggest that this book needs to be read in longer chunks if possible – like Proust, whose A la Recherche du Temps Perdu I am also reading, a long reading session allows you to immerse yourself in the character and their inner as well as outer experience. But I have also necessarily been found to read this (and Proust) in shorter chunks, and this works too.

I am still only a little more than halfway through this book. Already I don’t want it to end. Please, Booker judges, don’t dismiss this novel on account of its length and structure. I imagine you won’t, or it wouldn’t have got this far!

I gave it five stars, but admitted that this is a ‘marmite’ book.  And I still think so – but I would still award five stars.  I really enjoyed reading this novel, and didn’t want it to end. T he more I learned about the narrator (still unnamed by the end of the book), the more I empathised with her feelings, her actions and her decisions.  I like to think that I am more confident, less isolated and with more people I can call friends.  But this doesn’t stop me understanding what makes her tick.  Perhaps this is the great value of the ‘stream of consciousness’ approach – letting the reader get inside the character’s mind.

I was pleased to see this book on the Man Booker shortlist for 2019, and was rooting for it for the prize.  Alas – and perhaps predictably, given the book’s length – it did not win.  But I am looking forward to reading Bernadine Evaristo’s winning novel too.

 

P.S. I loved the parallel story about a mountain lion searching for her cubs.  I am no psychologist, but for me this natural experience of motherhood balanced and enhanced the narrator’s human experience.