Customer Reviews

The Game: A Novel

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

 

 

Julia, a writer, and Cassandra, an Oxford professor, are two sisters pushing into their 40s that have been estranged for 20 years ever since a man named Simon Moffit came between them and then disappeared from their lives. One day as they are watching television they learn that Simon has now become a naturalist similar to the Crocodile Hunter who likes to get close to dangerous animals in their native habitat. Simon is also coming back to England after being away filming his documentaries and back into the two sister's lives. Julia has gotten married in the meantime and has a child that looks suspiciously like Simon while Cassandra has tried to distance herself from reality, shying from human interaction, cocooned in her office at Oxford. Simon's return will force both of the sisters to examine the loss of their childhood bond when they played an imaginary game, a la the Bronte sisters, in which they chronicled the exploits of knights and ladies to make the time go by. They will also have to figure out their feelings for Simon after spending half their life pining for what has become a man they know now only through tv images and imagination and memories.

This was A.S. Byatt's second novel, published in 1967, the summer of love and all that business. It is a masterful work. Julia runs into trouble when she writes a book about Simon and Cassandra and all the mess they went through. Both sisters begin to question whether their lives have become fiction or whether the fictions they made up as kids have become their lives. It is an interesting question for a writer's second work and one which I've seen taken up by Dostoyevsky. The Game is really about whether other people's perceptions of us is stronger than our own self-image. It illustrates what happens to those who are strong enough to shake that image and those weak enough to have their personalities shaped by those they love.

I had always known of Byatt by reputation but this is the first book I have read by her. I am very happy that she did not disappoint and look forward to reading the works of her maturity.

This earlier novel deals with many of Byatt's favorite themes: the relationships between sisters, the creative process, literary criticism, the academic world, the struggle of married women to retain their intellectual and personal identity within a circumscribing institution. The game of the title is an Arthurian fantasy devised in childhood by two intense, competitive, and willful sisters, now estranged. To the sisters, the game retains even in adulthood a vibrance and power to which real life cannot compare. To the reader, however, the game is frustratingly vague. In later works, Byatt would have articulated the game as an alternative and interwoven narrative, but here Byatt refuses readers access to the tantalizing imaginative world of her characters. Thus, the characters remain slightly repellent ciphers and the novel seems merely a earlier draft for the richer novels Byatt had not yet written. This books seems to be more closely autobiographical than some later works on the same themes, and perhaps for this reason she feels compelled to keep the reader at arm's length.

An unsatisfying exercise interesting only in the context of Byatt's later writings.

Although it's some years since I read this excellent book, the reviews thus far in my view, do not do it justice. Many people know of Byatt's writing through her book "Possession" but although this is a fine example of her work, all her writing demonstrates a wonderful story-telling ability, embroidered throughout by her extensive literary and historic knowledge. "The Game" is a very "readable" novel, drawing the reader in as the tale evolves. To over analyze "The Game" is to miss the beauty of the mystery and intrigue; to miss the interplay between the main characters and the complexities of family emotions. "The Game" is a wonderful book for any mystery-loving reader and for anyone who has not already been drawn in by Byatt's writing is an excellent place to begin a reading relationship with her work.

Like [others], I, too was disappointed somewhat with The Game. In Byatt's other work, her characters seem more fully developed and their problems seem more real. In this work, Julia and Cassandra are superficial actors of a cerebral plot, and because of this I found it difficult to care about what happened to either of them. I thought Byatt's plot had the potential to be quite intriguing; however, it was difficult to understand at times the interplay between what was actually happening in the lives of Julia and Cassandra and how they made those occurrences "real" for one another. I rate this book a 3 because it fades considerably when compared to Byatt's other work, most notably Possession. This is not to say that it is poorly written -- Byatt has a familiar style that carries the reader along quite nicely. The flaws here are a plot that fails to truly engage the reader and characters who do not demand the reader's sympathy.

I think the Ingram reviewer above was on something when he wrote of the "danger" that grew from the sisters' game, and of the "evil man determined to control their thoughts". I didn't get any of that out of _The Game_.

_The Game_ is basically the story of two sisters: Julia, a sociable but shallow novelist who writes about the boredom of domestic life; and Cassandra, a nunlike scholar who hides away from real life in the cloistered world of high academia. The "game" referred to in the title is an imaginary Arthurian world invented by the sisters when they were children, but it has little bearing on the rest of the novel, except in that Cassandra went on to become an Arthurian scholar, and Julia uses it as an example of Cassandra's condescension. It could have been dropped from the plot without much effect, which is sad for me, since the Arthurian element is the biggest reason I wanted to read the book in the first place.

Leaving out Arthur, who is mostly irrelevant anyway, we have Julia and Cassandra, who are just repairing their estranged relationship, when Simon Moffat comes back into their life. Simon was both women's first love; Cassandra adored him from a distance, while Julia slept with him. This triangle was the reason for their estrangement. When he reappears, so do the tensions between the sisters.

_The Game_ failed to engage me; most of the characters were pretty one-dimensional and cold. Cassandra had a few moments of stunning dignity, but she didn't seem real either. A.S. Byatt has gotten much better since.

In contrast to the other reader reviewers, I loved this book. I've not read anything else by the author except for the Matisse stories, which did not hold my attention. I am certainly looking forward to her other novels if this is, to her fans, a second-rate effort.

I find the two lead female characters richly drawn and interesting. The younger is the prototype of a writer who must publish as she wills even though she hurts those dear to her. Her self-knowledge is finally revealed to be nothing but complete self-absorption, in contrast to her pretensions. The older sister, shut off in an arid cell of her own making, is gradually learning to live and accept people again before the final climax.

The philosphical concepts and conflicts which are argued throughout are apropos to the plot and well developed. I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

Although A.S. Byatt is my favorite modern author, I must agree with the reader who says this seems like a draft for one of her later novels. I found it very frustrating that I could never connect with either of the two sisters in the novel, nor understand what game they were playing--either literally or figuratively--with each other. The description of the childhood game of imagination Byatt gives is not at all compelling; it's very difficult to believe that this game could have controlled the sisters' lives. In addition, the story is unremittingly dark and hopeless. Although Byatt often explores dark themes, there are usually also "bright spots," of love, joy, or at least everyday happiness to counterbalance them. I was happy to finish this book but, since it is the ONLY Byatt work I have disliked, I continue to look forward to what comes next!

This is probably the worst book I've ever read, especially disappointing because I heard so much about Possession: A Romance (Modern Library), highly praised by my friends (although pretty much everyone told me, "I skipped all the poetry."). This badly crafted tale of two sisters' rivalry for the attentions of an arrogant TV star is both irritating and dull, full of overwrought descriptive passages and clumsy attempts to "get into the mind" of the main characters. The plot eventually gets lost in all of the pseudopsychological meanderings, but in the end no one is really happy (is that a spoiler?). Byatt opens every scene by telling us what people are wearing, for no discernible reason, and much time is spent describing Quaker meetings, which are in some way supposed to be fascinating but I found pointlessly dull. I only finished the book because I was at a remote outpost in the Brazilian rainforest and had nothing else to read. I suppose I should read Possession, but I guess I'll wait till I'm back in the rainforest.

I had read _Babel Tower_ before I found _The Game_, so I was
already somewhat familiar with Byatt's style. _The Game_, though its plot is not as complex as _Tower_ per se, is much more rich in many ways. The novel deals intimately with the lives of two sisters (and secondarily, a daughter), and Byatt keeps all her characters in perspective. Though several male characters are in the book, Byatt makes sure the reader knows they are only part of the game the sisters play. This is especially evident when reading two seperate fight scenes: the first is between one sister and her husband, and though it describes violence (hurled furniture, angry shouts) its tone stays amazingly static and aloof. On the other hand, when the same sister and her daughter have an about equally violent fight, the language is much more emotional and gripping. This is just one example of the almost perfect control Byatt has over her words. I would have to say she is one of the best masters of diction and style I have come across yet.

This is the first book of A. S. Byatt that I have read. I have only read half-way through, and was so frustrated that I wanted to read some other people's thoughts on this book. The book could be very interesting if it were not for SO MANY philisopical, and religious arguments the characters have between eachother and themselves, in much too much detail. Additionally, it is a very bleak book thus far, and I am not interested enough to continue. I have purchased POSSESION, and honestly do not look forward to reading it, if this book is any indication of what I have to look forward to.