Wednesday 27 February 2019

Number 8 - Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Never has context been more central to my appreciation of a book.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's first novel - Uncle Tom's Cabin - was the first world-wide bestseller. It ahs been translated into scores of languages and has been credited as a contrbutary factor in the starting of the American Civil War.

It's place in history is undoubtedly huge.  It was a wake up call for Americans to the evils of the slave trade. HBS was a staunch abolitionist and she wrote this in response to a law that entered the American statutes that dictated that anyone in the North was legally obliged to send any runaway slaves they found back down south to their owners.

It caused an uproar on publication and was banned in many states. It provided a human face for the typical slave in Uncle Tom and a face of evil for slave traders in the vile Legree when he appears towards the end of the story.

In recent years Uncle Tom has become something of a symbol of sitting back and letting people walk over you, and aquiescing to all demands. True enough, Tom does let himself be walked over, but he stands up for his beliefs and refuses to bow to the will of his final owner when ordered to beat the other slaves or give up the location of escapees, so the lack of moral courage ascribed by some to the character is not true. This stereotype of the moral coward is certainly not present in the book.

It's one of the most important novels in American history almost without a shadow of a doubt.

However, as a 21st century Englishman, how does the book read? My first comment was about context and this book has to be taken in the context in which it was written.

The character of Uncle Tom himself is far from a moral coward, but is actually the archetype of the magical negro trope which is so prevalent today.  He is christ-like, eternally patient and accepts everything that happens to him as part of God's plan. His prescence and his failth causes those around him to convert to christianity on a regular basis. All the people he spends time with become better people. Even Legree finds his wickedness tested.

The narrative voice is far too willing to interject with its own commentary on what is happening.  After yet another child has been sold out of its mother's arms, or another slave has been beaten, the writer editorialises and tells us how bad what just happened was and all the reasons it goes against all that is good.

On the occasions when she allows actions to speak for themselves, the dramatic effect is so much greater.  Even when she uses the slightly more subtle approach of having another character in the scene passing comment on what just happened it improves things.  But when she herself interrupts the narrative... the pace of the book slows horribly.

The language used even by the omniscient third person narrator is horribly racist in today's terms.  There are so many sweeping generalisations about this or that being "typical of their race", the descriptions of some of the characters - especially when Topsy is introduced - can be cringe inducing to our modern ears. Characters are referred to throughout as quadroons and mulattos and n*****rs.

The book occasionally approaches levels of saccharine shmaltz that left me wondering if literature could make a person diabetic. The death of Eva is so overblown and sentimentalised that a modern reader will struggle to find sympathy. The escape of the Cassie and Emmeline wouldn't be out of place in an Enid Blyton novel.

The structure of the narrative is distinctly odd.  At the same time as Tom's first owner (apparently a nice guy but he would prefer to sell Tom and separate him from his wife and children than sell the spare sideboard from the 15th spare bedroom or some of his wife's jewellry) sells Tom, a pair of slaves (George and Eliza) escape with their young son who should be sold with Tom.  The early part of the book follows them as far as a quaker house not far south of Canada as well as following Tom to his new owners.

We then spend 4 years with Tom and his new owner before returning to Gerge and Eliza, still at the quaker house, newly escaped four years ago.  You would expect the narrative to now ftake them up to date with Tom, but it doesn't.  It follows for two days till they cross the border into Canada and then we jump back to four years later and back to Tom's narrative. The placement of this chapter is entirely wrong. It jarred massively with me.

Any non Christians may feel they're being picked on in this book. Atheism is generally seen as a lack of moral character and a deficiency. Although Augustine StClare is an atheist for most of his time on the pages, he is a jolly good fellow and a good owner to Tom.  Even he though is more of a non-church-goer than an atheist.  He's lost his faith in the church because he doesn't believe their teachings about why slavery is morally and biblically correct. His beliefs aren't strong enough of course for him to relinquish his slaves, it just means he doesn't have them flogged. And on his death ed, his moral character is restored when he accepts Christ into his life. Legree is an out and out atheist and theerfore totally evil.  His slave handlers on the farm are equally evil.


There were some plusses to the book.

The character of Marie StClare is wonderfully drawn. You wouldn't want to meet her in real life although we can all identify some people in our lives exactly like her.  No one could possibly suffer the way they do. No one ever had to udergo such trials in life as she. Her maid is so selfish for wanting to sleep at night while Marie has insomnia, etc etc

When HBS lets the action speak for itself, there are some very effective sections of writing. The characters in general are well drawn. The story is engaging despite the flaws in the narrative technique.

By many modern standards this is not a well written book - as listed above. But this is where the importance of seeing the context of the story comes from. It was written chapter by chapter as a polemic for an abolitionist magazine and compiled into the shape we know it in now. It's whole intent was actually to attack organised religion and its attitude towards slavery.

The church in America in those days believed that black people were inferior and without souls and therefore merely chattel to be used as one wished. One of the principle things HBS was doing was reaching out to the churchgoing public and pointing out the sheer hypocricy of the church's stance.

And it did what it set out to do. It hit the audience it needed to. It spurred people into action and advanced the abolitionist movement immeasurably.  There is a story (possibly apocryphal) that when HBS met Abe Lincoln after the civil war, Lincoln said to her "What do you think of the war you started?". The importance of this book is undeniable.

I'm certainly glad I read it.  I'm also very glad to have found a gorgeous hardcover dated 1904 complete with some beautiful artwork, 8 full colour plates and over 200 daguerrotype pictures scattered through it. The quality of the packaging was in places better than the contents.

6.5 out of 10.

Tuesday 19 February 2019

Musical interlude


Going to be a few days yet before I finish my current book

Meanwhile here's the most cheerful song you're likely to hear about nuclear holocaust. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkHSmDxX1t4

Nothing to do with the book I'm reading at the moment, but it is named after the fourth book in my favourite trilogy.

Friday 8 February 2019

Number 7 - Black Dog by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has long been one of my favourite authors so this was an easy choice for my next cheat read.

This story sees a welcome return to print of Shadow Moon, central character in American Gods. He's in England for some unspecified reason, and he stops for a drink in a country pub where he hears of a few local legends, including the Black Dog which if you see it you die. In true Neil Gaiman fashion, the truth is far more complex.

This is a fantastically easy read as per usual from NG. The illustrations throughout are gorgeously done and add to the atmosphere of weirdness. There are multiple layers to the storytelling with the black dog appearing in it's metaphorical sense as well as the terrifying beast stalking the village and surroundings.

I would advise only reading this if you've read American Gods first, otherwise there are sequences which won't make much sense at all.

If you have read American Gods, then by gods get thisbook too.  A great companion piece with Shadow taking on some very English creatures.

A solid 8/10, maybe higher.

Wednesday 6 February 2019

Number 6 - Death and The Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

Every now and then I pick up a book just because of the title, and/or the picture on the front cover.  This is one of those, picked up from the charity books section at the front of a local branch of Tesco.

Although Kurkov is a name I've seen in passing, he's not a writer I'd ever read before. After reading this one, I shall certainly be looking out for more.

The story - Viktor is a struggling writer in Kiev who lives alone with his pet penguin Misha.  When he lucks onto a job writing obituaries for the still living for a local newspaper, things seem to be improving for him, except that he doesn't get to see his writing in print.  Once the first of his articles is printed though, he quickly finds himself in a situation far bigger and more dangerous than he could have dreamt of.

This is told with a very dry sense of humour. The droll surrealism is accentuated by an ever growing sense of menace.  We experience this strange world only through Viktor's eyes and have to piece together the exact details of the threat around him. As the trap is woven ever tighter, we wonder if he's going to still be alive on the last page.

I read this with an almost constant grin on my face. Only on the unexpectedly moving moments and the times where the threat loomed closest to his vision did my smile fade.

This is so many things that I enjoy in fction - dark, funny, off-kilter, moving and unpredictable. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Saturday 2 February 2019

Number 5 - White Spawn - Marc Laidlaw

The writer of this book wins points from me immediately just for spelling Marc correctly 😉

This was one of my cheat reads to get the numbers up - A very fast read - at only 65 pages it couildn't be anything else.

It starts with an old man being freed from a courtroom by a rogue member of staff and taken to a river in the depths of the woods. There's a revelation about the reason for this at the end of the chapter before we move onto the main narrative.

The rest of the book follows a teenage girl (Kayla) recently taken to live in a house buried deep in these same woods by her mother and step-dad. Things are not good at home or at school. When she meets a boy her own age (Thor) by the riverside over a dead salmon, a relationship develops.  Things quite rapidly escalate (65 pages) from the first pangs of adolescent love to a batshit crazy insane story of lovecraftian fish demons and domestic terrorism.

There are a few nice subtle touches in the dialogue. I particularly liked the sequence where Thor is explaining his family circumstances to Kayla, revealing how little he knows about what's actually going on all around him.

This could actually be fleshed out into a much longer narrative. There are threads dangling that I want to know more about, but, maybe leaving it to the imagination is better sometimes as this does work extremely well at this length.

Recommended for those who like a little weirdness.

Available from PS Publishing