55 reviews for:

Lord Jim at Home

Dinah Brooke

3.8 AVERAGE

joe_olipo's review

2.0

Mother, might we have Lord Giles?
We have Lord Jim at home.
Lord Jim at Home:

On the "Anti-Psychological" Novel

The novel that repudiates the so-called "psychological" novel's play of pellucid characters, traceable motivations, and tractable metaphysics; and which is instead outfitted with automata, absent inner lives, whose actions don't appear to follow from psychic etiologies, might be called the "anti-psychological novel." Mechanical characters have long been the mainstay of satire, from Aristophanes to Oscar Wilde, but Brooke is taking the next step in which the so-called "psychological reading" is also being satirized; such readings are dubious because they are always providing explanations that function as post hoc justification of Tragedy. Of the many editorializations of Jim's behavior in the text, the reading of an "Oedipal" crime is mentioned once, and fits as sloppily as the explanations fabricated by the prosecution. We recall Jim's old schoolmaster, who can't punish him for chewing holes in his urine-soaked sheets — there's no precedent on the books for something like that — but is happy to spank him for lying about it. (Foreshadowing the judiciary that later functions in the same capacity.) The anti-psychological character is not developing quite how we would otherwise expect. i.e. The abused, orally-retentive child doesn't develop "aberrant" relations with women. (He does do one rape, but in a way that's socially acceptable.) Against expectations, Giles is admirably applying a leaded pipe equally to mother and father (and the Oracle of Delphi). It can't even be said that this event is the culmination of a lifetime of problematic family relations; rather, the proximate cause appears to be impressionable Jim's happenstance perusal a provocative novel in which an obstructing parental figure is removed in a similar manner. Jim here, in all his atypia, displaying a resistance to unifying narrative with much more fidelity to reality than the so-called "psychological" novel that wraps it up so nicely.


On the "Psychological" Novel

Bad reading is always threatening to turn the "anti-psychological" novel back into a "psychological" novel. Those who are reading Lord Jim without awareness of the legacy of the Victorian novel that it's playing off of (especially now in its most recent re-printing), are reading Jim as if he's the psychological product of his upbringing rather than an alien element introduced into the plot for the purpose of satire. As an element of pure receptivity, alien Jim exposes his relations when they stretch out their necks at him. Because he never learns to respond to incentive structures, he elevates the satire of his compatriots who are doing only this. (The old judge and his nurse are perhaps the most mordant pair of examples.) The psychological reading of Lord Jim is cutting across this interpretation in an effort to assign blame, yet quickly becomes quite messy. We are disturbed to read the details of the wetnurse's abuse of young Giles. If these events produced his lethal character, one might hold the lower class nurse, who is "more Catholic than the Pope," to be responsible for it. The secret of British class satires is that one can always read them as pro-Tory. One can delineate everything bad in Jim along class lines, or instead use that master-slave (dialectical) approach with the recognition that this outsider is the only one with the guts to put upper class principle into practice. How much do we blame the mother for her timidity and comically aberrant value system, or the father with his own millennium of daddy issues. Luxury (karma) dissolves into the atmosphere like a perfume. (This is prophetic!) Surely decadence is sometimes worth protecting for its own sake (if we follow Huysmans or Adorno). Yet, even a bit disgusted by the machinations of these wealthy automata, we also recall those encounters with lower-class, cat-food-eating journalists who are producing a most insalubrious psychological influence on unlucky Giles — proles not any better than the devil we know. The psychological class critique has been reversed; the circle makes a complete revolution, and we want at least a little douceur — Coming to appreciate the decadence of grand-pater Judge who wants petite (grande?) mort in a horsehair wig. Oh, how hard it is to write the anti-Tory novel!


Aside: on the Novel as Torture Device

Ottessa Moshfegh states, in the introduction to the 2023 edition, that this book is a kind of torture device for novelists: Dinah Brooke is doing it — writing babyhood without sentiment — so much better than you that it makes you want to die. I can think of another sense in which this book is a torture device for writers: moments in which you recall how Brooke's books have remained in abeyance for decades despite such talents, such that you, who aren't writing anything even a fraction as good, are commended to die to death.

Some sentences (which I believe Brooke has originated):
"She is built on a grand scale” (legs)
“Plain English cooking is good enough for her.” (wrt phallingus)
“She is famous throughout the town” (fabulous girlfriend)

booktender's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What a ride. Obscure AF. Horrific, silly, disturbing, sad. Very interesting writing style- I love it but understand it may not be for everyone. Definitely worth a read if you're looking for obscurity in literature!

kalev308's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

shoba's review

3.0

How will things be after the war, when we get back...Will the ordinary bloke have more of a chance, or will the spivs take over...Are we being the mugs, allowing ourselves to be smashed, burned, our wives left widows, weeping real tears, our children orphans, so that some bright young idiots can dance the night away on some lawn by the Thames? Has the simple offering of our lives made any difference?

tsol's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

claire_fuller_writer's review against another edition

5.0

Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke is a re-issue from 1973, which apparently was met with horror on its first publication. I can see why, but I loved it. It is repulsive, disturbing, grotesque, and mordantly funny - I laughed out loud many times and then felt bad about laughing. It's a clever writer who can make a reader feel both delighted and appalled in the same moment. Dinah Brooke's writing is clear and crisp, and the images she creates in the reader's head are vivid and nightmarish.
Lord Jim at Home is a story in three parts about the life of Giles Trenchard, born between the wars into an upper middle class family where he is cruelly treated by his father and his first nursemaid. He learns to keep his head down, and by doing this he survives school and escapes to the Navy. The second part is about long stretches of time doing nothing, and an hour or two of intense and terrible fighting. When Giles returns to England he finds he doesn't fit in anywhere, can't understand what he's supposed to be doing, and the third part is completely unexpected and yet makes complete sense in a weird and very dark way. Highly recommended.

augustusbeau's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i was expecting to absolutely love this book + its definitely good but i struggled with it. some scenes were very difficult to get through, though i know that was the intention. i tried not to let my expectations influence my rating. i found her way of writing the childhood portion very interesting and i enjoyed what she explored with the book, i just didnt quite connect with it like i wanted to. but i do think she achieved what she wanted to + its an interesting read.

tinaargh's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Complicated

4.5

An amazing work of fiction. So cruel and hard to read but compelling to feel for the protagonist. Deeply dark and twisted and maybe a bit conflicting but amazingly written!

hydee's review

Obsessed with this book

floraglyph's review

4.0

3.5? Beautiful writing, but I struggled to stay engaged through parts. I think I would’ve enjoyed this more in book form rather than audiobook, but that’s on me.