Another World

Rating:
Summary: A vivid and powerful depiction of the tyranny of memory.
Review: Barker might have entitled this novel Still Another World, so many overlapping worlds does she present here. On the surface it is the story of Nick and the complex life he now shares with his second wife and new son, his ex-wife and daughter, and his strange stepson. It is the story, too, of the Fanshawe family, a much earlier, and also troubled, family that once inhabited the house Nick is now restoring.

But it is especially the story of Geordie, Nick's 101-year-old grandfather and the worlds he has known, including the world of war. Although Nick learned as a child that "You had to be two people, one in each world [of family and of school]," he has always believed that his grandfather "never changed; belonged to only one world." Now that Geordie is dying, however, Nick learns of Geordie's other worlds: his family life, his difficulties after World War I, his marriage, his war nightmares, the haunting death of his brother in battle, and his mother's comment that the wrong son died. And we see the tyranny of memory as Geordie relives his brother Harry's dying moments. Geordie himself says, "I know that what I remember seeing is false. It can't have been like that, and so the one thing I need to remember clearly, I can't ....It's as clear as this hand...only it's wrong."

These vividly depicted battles, real and symbolic, all raise questions of responsibility and blame as each character assesses the accuracy of his own memory. Even the supernatural is evoked, peripherally, as characters consider whether they have really seen what they think they have seen. As Nick gains knowledge through his time spent with Geordie, he recalls their visit to the "ageless graves" of Thiepval, which keep perpetually alive the traumas of a terrible war, and he recognizes the contrast to the graves of the tiny churchyard in which Geordie will lie, with names hidden by moss, old mourners dead and forgotten, and gently decaying stones. And he and the reader recognize that "there's wisdom too in this."

Barker's tightly constructed plots and themes, her vividly drawn characters, her evocation of atmosphere, her deft use of settings to enhance the drama, and her ability to communicate new visions, all testify to the brilliance of this novel, one which may, itself, escape the erosions of time and its "obliterating grass."

Rating:
Summary: Survivor's guilt
Review: Gareth is Fran's son. Miranda, a stepchild, is to visit for six weeks. Nick meets Miranda at the train. Their house says Fanshawe 1898. Miranda points out it is like Wuthering Heights.

When Gareth isn't in school he plays computer games. The authorities at his school feel that he has a propensity to bully younger children. His mother Fran disagrees with the assessment. Jasper is the baby of the family. Another child is expected. Nick and Gareth, his stepson, do not get along. Miranda is visiting because her mother, Barbara, has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.

The family scrapes wallpaper in order to redecorate. A sort of Victorian portrait is discovered. Unfortunately the portrait of the family is anatomically correct and not in very good taste.

Nick visits his grandfather Geordie at the hospital. Nick's father had been the headmaster, and his mother the matron, of a small preparatory school. As a boy Nick had been devious and deceitful trying to curry favor with others.

Geordie is 101 years old. He has cancer. He seems to be having flashbacks of his service during World War I. The story with Geordie is that he believes that his mother said that she wished his brother had survived the war instead of him.

Nick reads that a child of the Fanshawes, the previous owners, died under mysterious circumstances. Members of the family were acquitted in a murder trial. When Nick's family goes to the beach, Gareth throws stones in the direction of the baby, Jasper, and wounds him. Miranda witnesses the incident but denies being present.

The grandfather dies. Just before this happens Nick learns more details of Geordie's experience in the war. Gareth is to start a new school and is upset. One of the themes of this excellent novel is the complexity of truth.

Rating:
Summary: Another World is good, but not another classic
Review: I went through phases while reading this novel. The first 50 pages or so seemed awfully slow in moving along, but by page 100 I thought it would be brilliant (when they discover the drawing below the wallpaper). But then, Parker seems to be more involved in Geordie's passing (and fascinated by Geordie's shriveled genitals) and abandons the Fanshawe family story, and abandons Gareth's revolt story, and abandons Miranda's lonely musings. These never became resolved to satisfaction in my mind.

Barker has gifted narration skills and she has some excellent ideas started in this novel, but that's all that I can say that is good about it. I haven't read any of her other novels so I can't compare her other work to this one.

Oh, well, I'm not complaining. I'm just moving on. For you: read it if you want, or move on, too.