tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369127277021590195.post9076786913776974236..comments2023-06-09T15:16:38.867+01:00Comments on It Doesn't Have To Be Right...: 2008 Reading Challenge: The One That Made It All WorthwhileIan Saleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15375389971610069381noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369127277021590195.post-53423505366306756962008-10-31T10:23:00.000+00:002008-10-31T10:23:00.000+00:00The Jewel in the Crown is told by an unnamed narra...<I>The Jewel in the Crown</I> is told by an unnamed narrator - presumably Scott himself - with some of the background "fictionalised", some of the characters directly adressing their reminiscences to him (and in one section, he makes direct observations and draws conclusions himself), while other sections are the texts of letters addressed to him. That's as postmodern as <I>The Alexandria Quartet</I> or <I>The French Lieutenant's Woman</I>. I can't think offhand of anything by Burgess which plays similar narrative games - <I>The End of the World News</I> is experimental, but not in the same fashion.<BR/><BR/>I don't think that expats writers find abroad unfriendly. If anything, I suspect their writerly natures makes them more willing to engage with their surroundings, and so often makes them more welcome than those who refuse to do so. That much is as obvious in <I>My Family & Other Animals</I> as it is in <I>The Jewel in the Crown</I>. On reflection, Lawrence Durrell seemed to engage with the place, but not with its people - many of the personalities in, for example, <I>Reflections on a Marine Venus</I> are expats like himself. Um, but then there's the Hosnanis in <I>The Alexandria Quartet</I>. Not to mention Justine herself...Ian Saleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15375389971610069381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369127277021590195.post-50795275044686219832008-10-31T09:54:00.000+00:002008-10-31T09:54:00.000+00:00Certainly I had no idea the book was experimental ...Certainly I had no idea the book was experimental along Durrell / Fowles / Burgess lines - and those three are certainly his coevals (if that's the word). It's surprising possibly given the sentiments in _The Magus_ that Fowles spent most of his life in Lyme Regis - perhaps he realised that too many expat writers find that these faraway places are friendly to their own but not to outsiders. Byron set the bar high for an excessive expectation of Greece; so many were disappointed. Lawrence Durrell's brother Gerald, arriving very young and without many expectations at all, seems to have got the best of it, finding not a mystic romantic land but a country of friendly rurals.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369127277021590195.post-49093218533137027062008-10-30T22:25:00.000+00:002008-10-30T22:25:00.000+00:00I seem to recall you prefer a more direct prose st...I seem to recall you prefer a more direct prose style, which <I>The Jewel in the Crown</I> certainly isn't. Scott's prose is perhaps more considered than Durrell's - it's certainly better controlled - but where Durrell appeared to have an organic approach to plotting (as, I suppose PK Dick had too), Scott paints around his plot in <I>The Jewel in the Crown</I> but never quite fills in the centre of his picture...Ian Saleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15375389971610069381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369127277021590195.post-80948881355662753142008-10-30T22:03:00.000+00:002008-10-30T22:03:00.000+00:00Excellent, in-depth review and analysis, Ian. As p...Excellent, in-depth review and analysis, Ian. As per usual. I would've said before reading your piece that JEWEL wasn't the type of book I'd be interested in but now I think I've had a change of heart. Of course, regardless of the subject matter or era, one should approach a book because of the excellence of its prose and, clearly, you have found much to admire in this offering. I'm willing to take you at your word...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com