Customer Reviews

The Cloning Of Joanna May

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I started reading a copy of this I'd found in an airplane seat pocket. Really! The cover looked as if it had been gnawed half off. After an agonizing slog to halfway through the book, if occurred to me the cover hadn't been damaged by a pet or teething infant. I think the previous reader had chewed into it with furious anger at the fact Weldon gets paid royalties to write such spectacularly BAD crap. Subsequently, I saw a BBC adaption of the novel and, on film, the book's ridiculousness is even more obvious - explosive, even - as some really fine actors try hard, very hard, to create believable characters out of the wacky, infantile cartoons Weldon has given them. I watched simply because I'm a Brian Cox fan; always brilliant, he came off best as the doggie-raised tycoon. In book form, I could never picture him; he remained a cypher, not really human, kind of a talking blob, a vapor. None of the characters are really flesh and blood; they're painted canvas drops with a rickety tape recorder behind rasping out their "conversations". And Fay Weldon is one of the BEST writers here in the forlorn first years of the New Millennium. Our standards have fallen off a cliff. If there was a minus-star rating, I'd give it that.

I'd gone along to the BBC Radio 4's Book Club in Sep 08 with my copy of the novel in hand.

Fay Weldon had remarked on this novel to an author friend sitting next to her, in the hospitality room, where we waited before going into the studio, saying how she'd realise how different the characters appear, from a reader's perspective and that she didn't recognise them! She went on to say, it was the book she liked writing and reading most.

The author articulates a sense of precision in how she wanted to portray the main character Carl May, his ex wife, Joanna and her siblings, four very different characters, whose lives we follow, with interesting consequences.

Jane, Julie, Gina and Alice are Joanna May's clones, which he first reveals to Bethany his young lover, after the divorce. Yet this revelation makes Carl feel vulnerable and this puts Bethany at risk of being disposed of. at some point yet, he did think about cloning her, to create the perfect woman who, 'looked, listened, understood and was faithful.' (Ch 16.p78) but thought against it as it would have taken too much time and effort.

All four girls turn out differently: Jane achieves academic qualifications and lives an independant life in spite of having known her boyfriend Tom, since 16 and a spate with another, during their 6 yr breakup; Julie, a Secretary, marries but has an affair, seeing her husband is always on business trips and she feels lonely; Gina is more the `wild child' of the four; by 13, she was already hitchhiking, then pregnant at 18 and marries a wannabe pop star/garage mechanic, after a disturbing childhood, brought up by her grandparents and punished by teachers for her unruly behaviour at school. With one child and possibly a result of a one-night stand, life continues for her and her husband, who thinks the child is his. Alice, the fourth clone, likes her own company more than men or marriage and has numerous rencontres with men but never wants to settle to a life of being a wife and mother.

The surprising factor is, the four clones come from one single egg, taken from Joanna without her knowledge and implanted in the wombs of four women from different backgrounds.

Dr Holly and Carl May are the creators of these 4 human beings and Carl looks to the past now to see whether an ancient Egyptian body had enough cells for living DNA to be nuclei transferable and this time Holly expresses doubt at finding such possibility, thinking more of the ancient curses of the Pharaohs than the experiment itself.

Having seen documentaries on Egyptologists who've died of cancer, another in a car crash and another in a suicide bid, the character Holly brings to light such mysteries yet the voice of reason is seen in Carl's dismissal of such incidences as `the merest, most vulgar of superstitions' (Ch18.p95); this is a sub theme which is a light relief from the already intriguing lives of 4 people who the readers are introduced to and become familiar with. The suspense is in the timing of the meeting with Joanna and the consequences, which is very surprising.

The novel is vibrant in the theme, the characters and the sub plot and the ending, a twist, which for Joanna is a deserving finale to a nondescript start where we see her in her house, wanting things to go back to what they were before the divorce but not finding her true 'path'.

Fay Weldon is, whether she likes it or not, most famous for writing the advertising slogan "Go to work on an egg".

Having read The Cloning Of Joanna May, I wish Fay had gone to work on her prose instead.

At first it was merely irritating; then the professional editor in me wanted to get hold of it and turn it into something rather more polished and readable.

The plot was original, exciting and interesting. There were some extraordinary observations and insights into the human condition. But her writing style left a lot to be desired.

It wasn't as if Fay was telling the story through the voice of an inarticulate narrator and thereby limited herself. It's just that her sentences and paragraphs could have flowed better, been less jerky, or simply have benefited from more judicious punctuation.

Admittedly Fay Weldon is a famous writer and no-one's heard of me, but that doesn't let her off the hook. However good the plot and her own insights, we readers deserved better than that.

So while it's well worth reading, it's harder going than it needs to be. As Fay's so fond of eggs, it's fitting that this should be a curate's egg of a book: good in parts.

I first read 'The Cloning of Joanna May' over a decade ago, and often find myself revisiting it.

Despite many people's criticisms with the book when it first came out - I found it to be an interesting piece on expectations regarding women's identity. Some of the themes are dated (i.e., women's role regarding child-rearing, careers, and age) but there is still a biting edge to the book that resonates.

A criticism is that many of the characters are unlikable - but I think that is Weldon's point. Weldon was showing how arbitrary choices can sometimes drastically alter a life - a point proven in the very distinct pathways each of the clones' life took.

It was a clever way to explore how identity may not be always pre-determined - but at times can be shaped by happenstance.

A good read if you are looking for something that is brief and slightly frothy.

I was surprised by the review below, granting this overlooked masterpiece one star. The characters within the book are brilliantly drawn and startlingly humanistic, and the story unfolds at a gentle but engaging pace. Here we have dazzling insights into the very essence of what makes a person a person (or as Weldon refers to it, the 'I') but there is nothing patronising or overloaded about her conclusions. Rather, the irony of the book is wonderfully funny, with some real laugh out loud moments...all cunningly disguised within insights of amazing originality. I have never read a book like this before. Her prose is to be admired. The differing threads of the clone's lives are a pastiche, a carefully woven tapestry of how one person, one being, given seperate choices (or having those choices predetermined), could be so different from their blueprint. This is illustrated with the use of Tarot within the story, and its interesting asides into the very science of prediction. The central tenet the book proposes is this: if there were four younger 'yous' with radically different circumstances and predicaments, would their basic individuality unite or destroy them? A fascinating look into cloning, but instead of scientific mumbo jumbo, the subject is presented with humour, verve and grace, all wrapped neatly inside an intriguing fiction story. The Times were right to call this book 'a triumph of complex entertainment' upon its release, and I for one, will definately read more of Weldon's work.

Can one find another collection with this many despicable characters in one plot? I don't think so. I cannot think of one decent character in the book, not even the chauffeur.

A very engaging story which gives insight into what it is to be a woman desired, and what happens when desire is perverted. A refracted life seen through the clones of one woman, this is a novel worth reading and re-reading.

Can one find another collection with this many despicable characters in one plot? I don't think so. I cannot think of one decent character in the book, not even the chauffeur.