I quite enjoyed it but I felt like I was missing nuances. I wasn't sure if it was some of the dated language (what does it mean to be a "having" sort of person?") or references I was missing or the author's desire to be ambiguous.
One thing that happened a lot with minor characters was that I wasn't sure of their ethnicity. For example this passage, which begins with Irene speaking:
Quote:
“I can’t see it. I’m going to write Clare. Today, if I can find a minute. It’s a thing we might as well settle definitely, and immediately. Curious, isn’t it, that knowing, as she does, his unqualified attitude, she still—”
Brian interrupted: “It’s always that way. Never known it to fail. Remember Albert Hammond, how he used to be forever haunting Seventh Avenue, and Lenox Avenue, and the dancing places, until some ‘shine’ took a shot at him for casting an eye towards his ‘sheba’? They always come back. I’ve seen it happen
|
It's fairly clear that Hammond is someone dating outside his race and that's causing an issue for him but I'm really not sure if he's white or black. I presume Seventh Ave and Lennox Ave are predominantly black or white areas but I don't know which. What's a 'shine' or a 'sheba'?
I
think that Hammond is a white guy who liked to frequent black dance halls and got a rough reception from a possessive boyfriend. But he may have been a black guy in a white neighbourhood.
The context is they are discussing the incident where Clare's white husband went on a racist rant with Irene present. Brian's anecdote about Hammond is supposed to illustrate the fact that "they always come back". Is he talking about Clare or her husband? Does he mean that Clare, having tried to 'pass' in white society will eventually want to return to her roots? (something which does sort of happen?) Or is he making a point about Bellew?
I'm probably being dim but the combination of the language, references and style meant I felt this sort of confusion three or four times.
Fortunately the further you get in the book the more clear it is what's happening.
I wouldn't say the ending came out of nowhere but it was definitely abrupt. It also made the whole thing feel like a long short story rather than a short novel.
I did think there was something interesting about Irene's attitudes towards her race and 'passing'. On the one hand she judges Clare quite harshly for her choice. On the other she's happy to 'pass' herself to get served in a fancy restaurant, and there's something I can't quite put my finger on about her attitude towards her husband and his desire to travel. Is it relevant that he's darker skinned than her? He's also supportive of the sons learning about sex (albeit through jokes), and about the harsh realities of racism, in a way she's not.
I kind of got the feeling she's trying to be "respectable" in a way he's happy to let go. She's not trying to 'pass' in white society, and she's heavily involved in black social events etc., but there is a almost a sense of trying to fit into a social hierarchy that's not necessarily based on race, but on class?
But again I feel like I'm groping towards something that was too subtle in the text. At least for me. Again I can't help feeling if I'd been a African-American New Yorker in 1929, rather than a British white guy in 2018 I might be "getting it" in a way I'm not.
Final thought/question: I read the Wikipedia article on this to try to de-mystify it a bit and was surprised to read they thought it was an ambiguous ending (based on the idea that Irene is an unreliable narrator).
What do you think? Was she pushed or did she jump/fall?