Initially it is pleasant to read about how beautiful he thinks she is, and how her hair looks like a mermaid’s but there is also an undercurrent of unease, a stalker-ish quality to the way he watches her, and yet never speaks to her. He admires her and thinks her beautiful, loving her from a distance. Even when she moves to London to go to college he knows where she is.
He watches Miranda, an art student who lives in his village. Even from his own narration we can see that he is not comfortable with anything suggestive or sexual.
He is very formal and disapproves of any rude language or behaviour, and seems unduly horrified by his colleagues flirting with each other or making naughty jokes. Something that begins to come through in his narration, and is discussed in the section narrated by Miranda, is that he has very set ideas about what is right and good, and particularly what is “nice”. He works for the council and keeps mainly to himself he doesn’t seem to get on with other people. It is a strange book, fine, but it is also quite unlikeable – but at the same time interesting. But I do think that even if I had gone into it without any expectations, I still would not have enjoyed it. Perhaps my expectations ruined it for me. I can say now with absolute confidence that it was nothing like that at all. I don’t know what in particular it was that gave me this impression, maybe that’s just how I hoped it would be. Reading about the novel before I bought it, the story seemed interesting and a lot of people recommended it, and for some reason I expected it to be Victorian-ish, Romantic and strange, with a feel similar to Angels and Insects by A.
0 kommentar(er)
