Customer Reviews

Featherstone: A Novel

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Kirsty Gunn's Featherstone is a beautiful and evocative novel that is to be read more for the writing than the story itself. There are some wonderful novels that don't have much of a plot in there and Featherstone is one of them. If you like plot-filled novels, perhaps this one is not for you. If, however, you derive pleasure from pure, wonderful writing, give Featherstone a try. The novel opens as Sonny, an elderly gentleman from the town of Featherstone, is out gardening and believes he sees his niece Francie before him for a brief moment. Francie left town years ago, in search of greener pastures, more exciting times. Over the course of the weekend, the rumor of Francie spreads through the town and ultimately has an effect on people who never knew her. The writing here is just beautiful. There is a passage where Gunn describes the town as daybreak hits that is one of the better pieces of evocative writing I've read in a while. Featherstone is an enjoyable novel, a little short on plotting, but quite strong on writing. Enjoy.

author seems to be in love with her own prose at the expense of telling an actual story. Talent is evident, but her stylized efforts at creating evocative effects were far too obvious.

I loved her book " Rain" and couldn't wait to read this one. How dissappointing! There were parts of the book that had a wonderful dreamlike quality that I just loved. There were other parts that were so bazarre and confusing that I had no idea what was going on. I finally gave up and never finished the book. Kirsty has some amazing talent but needs to bring it down a few notches and write a book that has an actual plot and is understandable.

I agree with the other reviewer here - read this for the writing, not the plot.

The story's an old one, and somewhat predictable, but I found myself glued to the pages anyway, the tension builds and builds as you near the end of this great book.

Kirsty Gunn's writing style is unique, evocative, stellar. This book is written in 3rd person omnicient point of view - you can see what all the characters are experiencing, but she never resorts to the easy fallback of quotations. (Ex: Jane thought "I think I'll chase Spot today.") Gunn sometimes throws grammar and convention to the wind and writes freeform - like a thought or a dream or a stream-of-consciousness line or two or six. The result is that you get to live inside the characters' heads and you feel what they're feeling and you *relate* to them - even the ones you don't like. Any confusion you may feel over the allusions is I'm sure, deliberate. This writer is certainly one to watch.

Her other books (Rain, The Keepsake) are also well written, but neither made as big an impression on me as this one. This book reads like an independent movie screenplay - except you get a better look at the inner lives of the characters. Truly an amazingly written piece of literature.

If you've read her other books and liked them, I'd certainly pick up this one too. If you like to read (and reread) books for the writing style (think "The Outermost House" by Henry Beston) then you'll love this book. If you really want a fast-paced story with twists and details and subplots and all that - pass on this and pick out something different.