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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
This is fine, but it's kind of one-note. An interesting character study - Golding does like to delve into a single psychological viewpoint. But this protagonist is less interesting than others he's created.
A heady account of (I think) religious-flavoured psychosis. Golding is very effective in conjuring up how his passionate dean experiences the world - almost as great slices of solidified air, charged with psychological relationships and divine imperatives.
The style is a bit intense and rich for my preference - three stars for me, but if you've more of an adventurous taste you might well love The Spire.
Not a book to discuss with a Freudian-inclined academic, I'd advise.
The style is a bit intense and rich for my preference - three stars for me, but if you've more of an adventurous taste you might well love The Spire.
Not a book to discuss with a Freudian-inclined academic, I'd advise.
It’s an odd feeling when you both really like and really struggle with a book but that’s how I feel about The Spire.
The novel was published in 1964 and is set in an unnamed medieval cathedral (it is said to be loosely based on Salisbury). Dean Jocelin has been told in a vision to build a spire on his cathedral, although it has no foundations. His master builder, Roger Mason, tells him it is not possible, and that the cathedral will collapse. The work disrupts the life of the cathedral, its routines, its delicate networks of status and affection, but Jocelin will not back down.
It’s a dark story of obsession, very concentrated and intense, and almost every scene takes place within the walls of the cathedral. I was fascinated by the story, by how one man’s vision, in the face of all the evidence, can wreak havoc with an entire community, if that man has institutional power.
Jocelin’s vision is counterpointed with that of Roger Mason. The two men are locked in struggle, but Mason is, in his way, as much a visionary as Jocelin. He uses techniques which have never been used in their isolated corner of the world (though Jocelin has a vague idea that such buildings exist ‘elsewhere’).
Jocelin is at turns wheedling, bullying and inspiring. As the delicate social balance of the community is strained, the text is ambiguous enough to leave you to make up your own mind. Are they really all the victim’s of Jocelin’s obsession, or are these forces that were already coming to a head?
Despite all the positives, I might have struggled to get through The Spire without Benedict Cumberbatch’s dramatic narration to help me navigate the text. (I looked at the Kindle sample wondering if it would be easier to read it instead, and decided definitely not.)
Jocelin’s intensity is fascinating but it makes him a difficult character to be around. The imagery that Golding uses is dense and at times hard to follow. There is also an awful lot of physical description which I struggled with at times (unlike Jocelin I’m not good at visualising something that I haven’t seen).
In the end I resorted to listening to the book in short bursts, and that got me through. I’m glad I persevered. Sometimes reading is about learning and experiencing something and not entertainment in the narrowest sense.
The novel was published in 1964 and is set in an unnamed medieval cathedral (it is said to be loosely based on Salisbury). Dean Jocelin has been told in a vision to build a spire on his cathedral, although it has no foundations. His master builder, Roger Mason, tells him it is not possible, and that the cathedral will collapse. The work disrupts the life of the cathedral, its routines, its delicate networks of status and affection, but Jocelin will not back down.
It’s a dark story of obsession, very concentrated and intense, and almost every scene takes place within the walls of the cathedral. I was fascinated by the story, by how one man’s vision, in the face of all the evidence, can wreak havoc with an entire community, if that man has institutional power.
Jocelin’s vision is counterpointed with that of Roger Mason. The two men are locked in struggle, but Mason is, in his way, as much a visionary as Jocelin. He uses techniques which have never been used in their isolated corner of the world (though Jocelin has a vague idea that such buildings exist ‘elsewhere’).
Jocelin is at turns wheedling, bullying and inspiring. As the delicate social balance of the community is strained, the text is ambiguous enough to leave you to make up your own mind. Are they really all the victim’s of Jocelin’s obsession, or are these forces that were already coming to a head?
Despite all the positives, I might have struggled to get through The Spire without Benedict Cumberbatch’s dramatic narration to help me navigate the text. (I looked at the Kindle sample wondering if it would be easier to read it instead, and decided definitely not.)
Jocelin’s intensity is fascinating but it makes him a difficult character to be around. The imagery that Golding uses is dense and at times hard to follow. There is also an awful lot of physical description which I struggled with at times (unlike Jocelin I’m not good at visualising something that I haven’t seen).
In the end I resorted to listening to the book in short bursts, and that got me through. I’m glad I persevered. Sometimes reading is about learning and experiencing something and not entertainment in the narrowest sense.
I almost gave up on this book within in the first two chapters, but i’m glad i didn’t. It was a bit too much like a soap opera for my liking, with nothing to string the chapters together except Jocelin’s very slow descent into madness, and the drama (bullying, rivalries, affairs and family) between the characters.
In his obsessive behaviour towards the spire, and his determination to ignore everything else (the lives of the people around him, his own feelings and even his own illness), made me view Jocelin as quite one dimensional. That may be unfair, but it is how he viewed his limited world, so it is how i chose to view him.
I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see the spire fall. I was hoping Jocelin would be crushed under it; his folly truly accomplished. But i can live with the idea that Jocelin didn’t get to see it fall.
My longer review with spoilers can be read at: http://marvelatwords.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/the-spire/
In his obsessive behaviour towards the spire, and his determination to ignore everything else (the lives of the people around him, his own feelings and even his own illness), made me view Jocelin as quite one dimensional. That may be unfair, but it is how he viewed his limited world, so it is how i chose to view him.
I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see the spire fall. I was hoping Jocelin would be crushed under it; his folly truly accomplished. But i can live with the idea that Jocelin didn’t get to see it fall.
My longer review with spoilers can be read at: http://marvelatwords.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/the-spire/
Couldn't follow, at all.. Didn't find out more than the blurb already told me :(