Customer Reviews

Still Life

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Second in A.S. Byatt's ongoing Yorkshire quartet (the first and third novels are "The Virgin in the Garden" and "Babel Tower") I couldn't put Still Life down from the moment I picked it up. Tracing the Potter clan's lives through Stephanie's childbirth (and lingering chillingly on the degrading way mid-50's medicine treated expectant mothers), Still Life is one of the few books I've read in many years that brought me to the verge of tears. Strongly recommended.

Still Life is the second of A.S. Byatt's sequenced novels that begin with The Virgin In the Garden. The novel continues to chronicle the Potter clan in the late 1950s. Can you dive into the second without having read the first? Probably. In the early part of Still Life, Byatt provides just enough background to situate the characters. Of course, "just enough" will never be the same as reading the first novel.

Still Life reads differently from The Virgin in the Garden, the author less obssessed with moment-to-moment reporting through painstakingly-gathered details. It is more sprawling, emphasizing characters' growth over a wider span of time (relatively speaking). What hasn't changed is Byatt's love for and mastery of language, and concern for the life of the mind. The novel contains many passages where Byatt boldly, and almost intrusively, airs her provocative views on everything from writing, visual perception, love, to politics (i.e. delivered in the authorial first person instead of through a character's mouth or mind). But she is also an astute observer of the ordinary, whether depicting childbirth, adultery, or domestic vignettes. There's something for everyone here. The final section is a shocker. I finished the book not quite convinced that a freak accident belongs in a literary novel. All the same, be prepared to read some moving passages on grieving.

This is a breathtaking novel. I was not that enthusiatic about The Virgin in te Garden but this book was amazing on every level. I love the development of these characters (who seem very real, very Known to me). Frederica is especially well developed. Her intelligence and lack of self-knowledge are an endearing package. I personally love the intricate explanations of ideas- it is refreshing to read about things that I think about and yet have never found elsewhere. My only real probelm with the book is that the author's voice intrudes too much; it isn't necessary to me to be AWARE of the fact that this is a novel. Byatt almost wants us to be aware that this is fiction when I would always rather be in that pleasant state of believing in the fiction. But overall, I couldn't put this book down; what happens at the end is shockingly sad. I wonder what book 3 in the series will bring.

I must disagree with the reviewer who found it ultimately "empty," perhaps because my favorite character is different. Yes, it is sad. One of the main characters dies. I knew this was going to happen, but I still mourned for her; the death affected me more than any fictional character since Alcott's Beth. Odd, since there is nothing sentimental or cloying about Byatt's writing. I would recommend this book highly, although I think readers should start with the first in the series, _The Virgin in the Garden._

I respect all those who like or love this book.
The intellect and wisdom in the author are obvious.
Yet for me, it had almost a shorthand style--as if written
for the author's own circle of friends who can
automatically decipher her particular meaning in every phrase
or reference. It's very rare that I don't finish a book--
perhaps 5 times in the last 20 years. But by page 60 or so,
I realized I was never going to care much for the characters,
and was never going to enjoy the act of reading it. I'm a HUGE
Iris Murdoch fan, I've read 15 of her books. I had always
imagined Byatt and Murdoch as contemporaries--indeed they
endorse each other's books, and Murdoch raved about this one.
But for me, Murdoch offers all the human insight and philosophical
genius and engrosses me in the stories at the same time.
This writing is from an impressive mind, but I simply can't
call it a good read.

I finished this novel just last week; and I must say that it is a beautiful, incredibly thought provoking novel.
Byatt's characters are some of the best developed that I have seen in a very long time. Frederica was one that I partially despised, and yet was intriguing because of her life choices. I also loved the development all across the board of supporting characters.
It is also an exquisite metaphor for the intertwining of lives; as well as the stages of life. Everything flows along with Byatt's choices of words and her ties of "intellect" are wonderfully done without being too over the top.
It is a true art however, to be a writer that makes their readers laugh and cry in the same book. The ending made me cry real tears, and it is a book that you think about days afterwards. Few writers possess this gift, but Byatt does it spledidly.
This novel does take a little longer to get through, as it is so thought provoking and poignant. However, it is well worth it as you will be rewarded by having a true novel instead of one that tries to sound deep but comes across as trite. I HIGHLY recommend it for the perfect summer read during a vacation or just when you have some time...
This book will become a classic someday. It is a truly rich and absolutely amazing masterpiece of words!

Having read The Virgin in the Garden, I couldn't wait to read the second part of this so far wonderful series about the Potter family. Still Life centers on Frederika, Marcus and Stephanie and their struggles with their Yorkshire upbringing and their thirst for all things intellectual. Stephanie has abandoned the life of academia and opted for a family of her own. She is somewhat content with her life, but things fall apart for her after a tragedy ensues. Marcus has some struggles of his own. He does not know his place in the world. Does he belong in Yorkshire, or should he do what his sister Frederika did? She goes to Cambridge to quench her thirst for knowledge. What transpires is a story about various intellectuals and the changes in their respective lives. There are various twists throughout this novel.

Still Life, like The Virgin in the Garden, has beautiful, flawless language that you cannot help but devour in one sitting. I love A.S. Byatt's writing. Hers is a voice that I cannot get enough of. This trilogy is literary, thought-provoking and lyrical. It is difficult to write a review about it without giving some piece of imperative information about the plot. It is something you have to read and later discuss with friends or book club members. I cannot wait to tell friends about this amazing novel. Still Life is a literary marvel. I am still thinking of Frederika, such a memorable character. This is a truly superb story by an obvious master storyteller. I recommend Still Life, but I advise readers to read The Virgin in the Garden a whirl before this one.

Byatt's use of words, language, create beautiful mental images. I've never run across an author who is able to "paint" with words. I didn't like Frederica Potter, introduced in the first novel of Byatt's four-book series, A Virgin In The Garden. I didn't sympathize with her. I didn't understand her cold, passionate, intellectual personality. By the end of Still Life, I desperately cared for her. The third book, Babel Tower, disturbs me. That's a different review. Still Life is superior to A Virgin In The Garden. I couldn't put it down. If you're a Byatt fan, don't miss these novels. The seem to be more unwieldly than Possession, but Byatt's genius is all there.

One thing I have to say about Byatt's books is that while I'm reading them, I do nothing else. Both this book and Possession were all-nighters for me. Still Life was fun for me because of the Van Gogh connection and seeing one of the characters fall hopelessly in love with a Cambridge don. But when it was all over, I felt empty. The ending is eerily sad, my favorite character remains ungrounded, other characters end up hanging out in strange places, and I ask myself, why bother? Having said all this, I don't hesitate recommending it to any past Byatt reader who wants more tale telling.

This book, the sequel to The Virgin in The Garden is, or is an attempt to be, somewhat confusingly, about everything under the sun, particularly in the light of the sun as Van Gogh saw it, or in the light as Van Gogh described it to his brother Theo in his letters, or as the character, Alexander, who writes a play based on Van Gogh's life conceives of how Van Gogh saw it based on these letters - at least this is part of it. Let me say something here that I've never said before to the prospective reader: DO NOT BOTHER WITH THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU ARE HIGHLY STEEPED IN ALL THINGS LITERARY. - The scene I identified with most in this book was my favourite character, alas, Stephanie's crying for her book of Wordsworth's poems, while she was undergoing painful contractions and about to give birth to her first child! I've done the same thing in a dire situation in a hospital, and screamed for my books....as soon as they let me off the ventilator. - Personal anecdotes aside, you simply aren't going to be on Byatt's wavelength unless you are some sort of litterateur. There are so many allusions, intentional or not, that it doesn't seem to me that you need bothering with this book if they don't register with you. It's no use saying that you may skip the literary parts of the book, for THEY ARE the book. For instance, during what I suppose we'll call one of Byatt's "authorial interludes," for which the other reviewers have taken her to task - near the end of the book, she describes Daniel "like the seventh wave ready to break against the harbour wall." Do you know what the "seventh wave" is, prospective reader? Unless you've read a great deal of and about Tennyson, you won't. And, you'll have nobody to tell you what it signifies, except me. The seventh wave is a rewriting of Tennyson's "ninth wave" from "The Coming of Arthur" in his "Idylls of The King":

"Wave after wave each mightier than the last
`Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame"

I won't get into why it was changed to the seventh is most scholarly editions. It's enough for this review to know that it was. Anyway, this is just one example (the last I noted in the book) among many of the in-depth literary allusions here. Well, I suppose if the two quotes from Proust, en Francais, and the Latin quote from The Venerable Bede, serving as introductions here, don't discourage you, this allusion won't either.

But for all this intellectuality, Byatt is to be commended for her unflinching portrayal of the mundanities of family life. A particularly lengthy passage which gives an intensely detailed, almost pointillist, description of diaper-changing comes to mind. And, for all Byatt's literary pyrotechnics (which I rather enjoyed), what she is all about here, in different ways in portraying Stephanie, Frederica, Daniel, Alexander, Rafael and all the other characters is exploring what is classically known as the mind/body problem. In other words: What does it mean to be a creature with a mind? How does one get on at all?

Almost the last words from the gentle, Wordsworthian Stephanie's lips before the "accident," as she attempts to comfort Gabriel's wife about his, hm, amorous proclivities, are, "Energy is sex, in many ways, good and bad."

If this statement makes sense to you, reader, then, despite everything, plunge into the book. This Potter family doesn't need wands to make it magical.