Customer Reviews

A Curious Earth: A Novel

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(4.5 stars) Aldous Rex Llewellyn Jones, an elderly widower living alone, has nothing to look forward to. A former art teacher now living an isolated life inside a house for which he takes as little care as he does for his own hygiene, Aldous avoids contact with the outside world, even with his own children. It is not until he opens a cupboard and discovers that a forgotten bag of potatoes has sprouted and taken over the entire inside of one drawer that he recognizes how little interest he has in his own life. His garden is in the same state of wild neglect.

Sardonic and filled with darkly humorous imagery, A Curious Earth, by Man Booker finalist Gerard Woodward, is an old-fashioned novel, more an extended character study and meditation on aging than a traditional plot-based novel. Very much in the style of British authors Elizabeth Taylor (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont) and Molly Keane (Time After Time (Virago Modern Classics)), whose sly humor and pointed observations about people and society make their novels such wry delights to read, Woodward also creates in Aldous a character who is so universal in his concerns and needs that the reader cannot help but empathize with him, even when he is being impossibly self-absorbed.

When Aldous goes to see The Winter's Tale, he befriends some of the young people there, and soon he begins visiting the National Gallery, where he is fascinated by Rembrandt's painting of Hendrickje Stoffels, his young mistress. The possibilities of an old man enjoying life with young people, and especially a young woman, offer Aldous new hope, and when his son Julian, living in Ostend, Belgium, invites him to come for a visit, Aldous, looking forward to new scenery and new opportunities, goes with his eyes open. In Ostend Aldous meets "the most beautiful woman he has ever seen," and upon his return to England, rejuvenated, he is soon drawn to another younger woman at his night class.

Throughout the novel, Aldous misreads signals and invests far more emotion in his relationships than do his new friends, and Aldous learns the hard way that life takes work, just as the potato tuber must work to keep on growing in the darkness of a closed drawer. Aldous continues to see "human contact as the only thing keeping him from death," but he is surprised at how incomprehensible the lives of other people are, especially when he views them through the bottom of a bottle.

With his unique imagery and eye for the ironic or bizarre detail, Woodward makes Aldous come vividly to life in this quiet, unpretentious novel. Though there are moments of profound sadness, there are also moments of hope for Aldous's belated self-awareness and enlightenment. Woodward never descends into pathos or sentimentality, reminding the reader that life is often absurd and that ironies can be found and appreciated even in the tedium of every day life. Readers who enjoy character studies of ordinary people and those who appreciate black humor will delight in the irreverence with which Woodward approaches the subject of old age. n Mary Whipple

August: A Novel

I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Novel

This is the concluding novel in a trilogy that begins with "August" and is followed by "I'll go to Bed at Noon". All three novels center on an unusual family living in North London in the 60s through the 80s. The members of the family are creative, artistic, musical, highly intelligent and loving. A number of them struggle with alcoholism and/or substance abuse. But the novelist never patronizes or condescends to them. In fact, his love for his characters is so profound that when I finished the third novel, I found myself missing the characters' presence in my life because I'd fallen in love with them as well. All three novels beautifully capture their time and place. They're filled with wit as well as humor both dark and light.

When I was in my twenties I loved my grandparents fiercely, but thought of them at times as old-fashioned. They loved me but seemed to be stuck in their version of how life should be. The main character of this novel, is a grandfather and in his seventies. Aldous Jones, great name Aldous, isn't it? Aldous sits in his kitchen in his old home which is outside of London. He is trying to stay warm, sits next to the cooker and sips at his whiskey. He revels in his memories. He is allowing life to pass him by while he sits and ruminates. His wife has died, his oldest son died and he has three children who have all left home. The house is falling in beside him and that may be his future.

At some point Aldous gets up from his chair and falls. Eventually his daughter finds him and he is transported to the hospital where a bleeding ulcer is found. He is given pints of blood and in the infusion of blood, infusion of new life begins. Aldous receives an invitation from his son Julian in Belgium to come and visit. Off he goes and on the ferry he loses his false teeth, gum less and older Aldous walks into a new life. Julian has many friends and Aldous fits into the group. Aldous taught art to high school students, and he also painted scenes. This is a group of artists and Julian meets his future.

Aldous returns to his home in England and spends time at the National Gallery and discovers a Rembrandt's painting of his lovely young housekeeper and mistress, Hendrickje Stoffels, which resonates with Aldous. He visits London often and renews his love of art. He goes to night school to study Flemish and meets a young woman, Maria, with whom he is very attracted. They meet off and on and a friendship develops. Aldous feels more deeply than Maria, and they eventually stop seeing each other. However, one of her suggestions of turning his home into a gallery, resonsates with Aldous. He decides to do just that. He works hard to turn his home into a gallery that will be visited by all.

'A Curious Earth' sees Aldous working hard to turn his home into an art gallery, and this gesture shows us that Aldous is inseparable from his home and his memories. The novel's title, from an early poem of Emily Dickinson, highlights this oddity: "And I'd like to look a little more / At such a curious earth!")

Highly, highly recommended. prisrob 1-12-09

August: A Novel

I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Novel

So, I have now finally finished Woodward's trilogy with the reading of this book, and, no doubts at all, it's a masterpiece. It's one of the few books of any trilogy, tetralogy etc - actually the only one that comes to mind - that can be read on its own without too much lost from not having read the previous two books.

It's all about Aldous, who, now in his senescence, has indulged in the preoccupation that led to the deaths of so many on his wife's side of the family, including Colette herself, to wit, drinking himself to death. But, it comes in fits and starts, and when not pie-eyed from drink, he embarks on a series of darkly humorous escapades to fill in the void left by the death of his wife and his own loneliness and aging.

Much of the book, like the previous one, I'll Go to Bed at Noon, is filled with a, literally, unutterable sadness, as Aldous contemplates:

"Sadness is really too simple a word for it. Not sadness, but a mixture of feelings - fear, loneliness and the gradually dawning realisation that one is alone in the world and that in a fairly short time one will be dead and will never be allowed to see a beautiful woman or a sunny day again for eternity ever - for which there isn't a word, there should be."

What saves Aldous, though not from death, and makes this book so masterful is the triumph of art over life. "Vita brevis, ars longa." has seldom been borne out so triumphantly and gloriously - and, it must be added, in such a wickedly hilarious manner - as in the closing chapters of the book. It must be remembered that Aldous is an artist and Woodward had several volumes of poetry to his name before he embarked on this quest.

The book takes its title from an Emily Dickinson poem, part of the last stanza of which reads:

"Going to heaven!

I'm glad I don't believe it,

For it would stop my breath,

And I'd like to look a little more

At such a curious earth!"

And what a truly curious earth it is through which Aldous muddles his last years. Sad, yes. But also filled with all manner of madcap oddities. The title of this review comes from the ending of the book. Those who know their Latin gerundives can twig it on their own or, of course, one can always google it. But I'd rather it be a teaser, even if one does so, for the reader to plunge into this startling, bittersweet literary coup.