94. Wide Sargasso Sea

Well, at least it was short.

 I read Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys yesterday. I started it at around 11 am and was done by 730 pm. It’s only 155 pages, which is very short to me.

This book, to me, is like slowing down to gawk at a car wreck. You don’t really want to see it, but you can’t look away. I didn’t particularly enjoy this book; the writing is choppy, silted and a little confusing. Yet I was compelled to keep reading to find out just how and when Antoinette goes stark raving mad.

It was disappointing, the going mad part, given the reviews of the book I was expecting a lot more drama, but it just wasn’t there. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters what so ever.

I used to watch the TV show Party of Five, not because I liked it, but because I hated the characters and I enjoyed watching their lives derail every single week. Charlie was ineffectual, Bailey selfish, Julia whined way too much and Claudia was just annoying. I got a perverse joy in watching their lives suck continuously while mine always looked better and better.

The Germans have a word for this. It's schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun: A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others. Read about it here.

It’s possible that if I had read Jane Eyre I might feel differently about Antoinette and her madness, but I haven’t. I have tried, but I couldn’t get into it. I’ve ever attempted a couple different versions of the movie, but no luck; I’ve never seen it all the way through.

As far as reading about a woman’s descendent into madness I can think of far better books to read. ‘The Bell Jar’, By Sylvia Plath and ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden ’, by Joanne Greenberg.  Personally I preferred ‘I Never Promised you a Rose Garden’ over ‘The Bell Jar’. It’s a very well written story about a young girl being treated for schizophrenia in the early 60’s. This is before any drug therapy was used with regularity, so it’s all about talking and cognitive behaviour therapy.  Deborah, the young girl, has a deeply personal fantasy world that is portrayed in a wonderful way. The writing is descriptive, creative and while reading about a girl going insane isn’t exactly ‘enjoyable’, it’s a good book.

I felt a lot of sympathy for Deborah and her struggle to remain sane. I didn’t feel any of the same sympathy for Antoinette. In the end I was left with the feeling that she brought it on herself.

Jean Rhys writing style was not one that I enjoyed, there’s very little description of characters thoughts and one must infer a lot by their actions and things they say. While this works in movies where one can also read body language it caused the characters in the book to remain singular in their dimensions. I didn’t feel I really got to know the characters’ befriended them. In a way it was as if I was hiding in the bushes watching all these things happen while lacking any context that helped their actions and words make sense.

I do not know how this book got on the 100 list. I certainly wouldn’t put it there. The back cover of the edition I have says “A masterpiece, surely one of the best novels of the century”, Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph. I don’t think we were reading the same book. 

Sure, maybe if you’re a Charlotte Bronte obsessed fan, this book will tidy up some parts of the Jane Eyre Story (I don’t know, as said, haven’t read it) but it’s FanFic. And while, as a Jane Austen obsessed fan who thinks ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is AWESOME, it’s NOT one of the best novels of the century and I would never try to put it there.

And just to back pedal, I think FanFic is very cool. I like it a lot, there’s some interesting  Harry Potter FanFic out there  just watch out  for the creepy (NSFW or Children) stuff. 

I’m not ‘looking down’ on this novel for that. It’s just that it’s not very good FanFic. That’s my problem with it.

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