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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please Let There Be Justice, February 24, 2008
This review is from: Red Audrey and the Roping (Paperback)
If the gods of literature exist, they are smiling right now. Jill Malone's debut novel has certainly made me smile. I've just had the pleasure of reading an advance copy, and I feel like an explorer who has just discovered a wondrous territory, and I can't wait to tell everyone, show them this miraculous landscape that Jill Malone has created for us.
The blurb posted mentions Sarah Waters and Margaret Atwood. Throw in any author whose skill and maturity and dexterity with language makes you happy, and it won't be overkill. Joan Didion's novels. Jane Rule. Jane Smiley. Jane Hamilton. I am not overstating when I say that Red Audrey and the Roping measures up, more than meets that standard.
Honestly, I got chills reading this novel. It's that good. It's not often that a writer of such skill, such ease with tone, style, dialogue, setting, comes along.
Set in Hawaii, the story moves with Jane Elliott through a series of failed relationships, a series of disjointed scenes that all have to do with Jane's inability to trust herself and trust that anyone can love her. She struggles to come to terms with her dissociated life.
"The fire flickered without much warmth or enthusiasm. Emily rubbed her hands against the outside of my legs like a trainer. Her hands burned the surface of my skin. I shivered into a towel, her body bright and warm against mine as if I still shielded the match in my palms. I name that moment, I name that place, as the one that moved beyond what I could handle. As the one that moved."
What Jane can't handle is the crux, the heart of this novel, set in rich language, lush descriptions of both physical setting and the emotional geography of Jane's constant attempts to break free of the scars left by her mother's death. Until her repeated efforts to feel something lead to jumping off cliffs, until she can't feel anything. Hurling herself at challenges, at walls, at lovers, at anything she thinks will break her, Jane finally finds that, like Icarus, brief moments of flight that bring her closer to destruction don't just burn away her wings but burn scars that begin to show on the outside as well as inside.
Tethered to the ground, tied to the thing she would throw herself against, Jane breaks.
This is a novel of such depth and skill and beauty that I can only record my awe at Malone's immensely engaging, readable, memorable first novel.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully complex, wonderfully compelling, January 30, 2009
This review is from: Red Audrey and the Roping (Paperback)
As other readers mentioned, this is not an easy read -thank the gods of writing for complex, rich novels!
This isn't a linear story, it goes back and forth, and it took this reader a tiny minute to understand that the physical situation, the factual events, don't have as much weight as the emotional journey, which is absolutely linear and thoroughly consistent through the novel.
Events have weight in so far as they describe Jane's emotional turmoil and struggle, but this isn't a book about deeds, it's a book about feelings. In that regard, the book builds in intensity and anxiety as it develops, it's painful to witness Jane's struggle to trust that she's worth anything as an individual, the struggle to overcome a conviction -born and deeply rooted in the tragedy of her mother's death when she was a kid, that she's not worth anyone's love, or worse, that love can't be durable and it's best to expect a sudden death of it.
It's uncertain what the outcome will be, I hoped, but couldn't figure out how it would all end -that's a major plus for me, the fact that the character has a life of her own and I can't just expect the author to give her a break at will.
Major kudos for the 'secondary' characters--they have a life and a mind of their own, too, their relationship with Jane helps construct Jane's inability to trust and at the same time provides a much needed emotional crutch -for the reader more than for Jane.
This is a compelling and poignant read, there are so many memorable and very quotable passages that I felt the need to take it slow and savor it -this is another major plus, the desire to re-read a paragraph or a page because it left such an impression that you can't help but want to feel it again.
I recommend this book to readers that are patient, fond of introspection, fond of being challenged by complex literary quality. If you're that type of reader, you'll love this book.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Well Written Awful Book, February 16, 2010
This review is from: Red Audrey and the Roping (Paperback)
This is a portrait of a self destructive, emotionally immature and self-pitying woman whose two best friends are thin and rich. Our heroine is also very thin and highly skilled at putting down fat people as grotesque. The protagonist is not just very thin; she's also very fit though her body is trashed from an inevitable accident and from letting her boyfriend tear up her back and wrists. Here's the thing I don't understand. How did a character of Chamorro descent come to bear such revulsion for fat people? Aren't many people from Guam big?
My biggest problem with the book is that it pretends to be deep but is actually shallow. It's clear Malone can write English and reveres language though I wish she had put her skills to more mature and illuminative use.
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