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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
I simply loved this!
I loved the writing, I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the atmosphere, I loved its many layers. Been thinking about it a lot since I read it as well.
I loved the writing, I loved the characters, I loved the story, I loved the atmosphere, I loved its many layers. Been thinking about it a lot since I read it as well.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading this novel brought in me a whole range of reactions. And though I struggle, and still feel undecided on my overall experience, on the whole, I will say I really enjoyed it and it's one that will stay with me. My experiences ranged from: an allure of the descriptive writing, the fluidity of gender and the love for land described with a genuine, disarming honesty of the dirt beneath your feet; to a tedium of unnecessary detail at parts.
Elmet, at its heart, is story of landownership, of the divide between the privileged and hands that actually work the land, but it's also a story of family living the cusp of contemporary society, caught between confines of modernism and what is perceived as normal, and a more liberal, outlandish, unconventional choice of lifestyle. Daniel and Cathy, aged 13 and 15, uproot their lives & education, after the demise of their caregiver Granny Marley and move with their father to a secluded, wooded area, away from the thrum of civilization to build a home, and lead a life as defined by them.
The entire novel, is a first person narrative from the perspective of Daniel who makes for a fantastic narrator. Daniel is gentle, sensitive, with a love for cooking, decorating, reading and generally appears more feminine, while Cathy is more like a feral child, loving the outdoors, fearless in her own way, protective of her brother, not bothered with confines of what society expects of a young girl. I loved this genderless aspect of the story, where at times I had to remind myself that it's Daniel who was narrating and not Cathy. The fluidity in gender roles is so seamless, and never feels like it was inserted or forced into the narrative to serve as a plot device. Daddy, is a man of muscle, morals and strength, a wrestler who's name transcends the borders of England and Ireland, a man whose love and understanding of the land goes deep down like the network of roots of a giant oak.
While the story does appear placid on the surface, there's a dark undercurrent of violence threatening to break the surface. The feud over the ownership of land, building up to a gradually increasing crescendo, culminating in the extreme and disturbing actions that people are capable of when their limits are tested to the fullest. Despite the slow nature of the story, there was much that I really appreciated and enjoyed. And now having let my feelings and thoughts settle, I've only come to appreciate it even more. While this is only third novel from the Women's Prize longlist that I've read, it's my favourite so far. I did prefer this to Eleanor and Sight.
Elmet, at its heart, is story of landownership, of the divide between the privileged and hands that actually work the land, but it's also a story of family living the cusp of contemporary society, caught between confines of modernism and what is perceived as normal, and a more liberal, outlandish, unconventional choice of lifestyle. Daniel and Cathy, aged 13 and 15, uproot their lives & education, after the demise of their caregiver Granny Marley and move with their father to a secluded, wooded area, away from the thrum of civilization to build a home, and lead a life as defined by them.
The entire novel, is a first person narrative from the perspective of Daniel who makes for a fantastic narrator. Daniel is gentle, sensitive, with a love for cooking, decorating, reading and generally appears more feminine, while Cathy is more like a feral child, loving the outdoors, fearless in her own way, protective of her brother, not bothered with confines of what society expects of a young girl. I loved this genderless aspect of the story, where at times I had to remind myself that it's Daniel who was narrating and not Cathy. The fluidity in gender roles is so seamless, and never feels like it was inserted or forced into the narrative to serve as a plot device. Daddy, is a man of muscle, morals and strength, a wrestler who's name transcends the borders of England and Ireland, a man whose love and understanding of the land goes deep down like the network of roots of a giant oak.
While the story does appear placid on the surface, there's a dark undercurrent of violence threatening to break the surface. The feud over the ownership of land, building up to a gradually increasing crescendo, culminating in the extreme and disturbing actions that people are capable of when their limits are tested to the fullest. Despite the slow nature of the story, there was much that I really appreciated and enjoyed. And now having let my feelings and thoughts settle, I've only come to appreciate it even more. While this is only third novel from the Women's Prize longlist that I've read, it's my favourite so far. I did prefer this to Eleanor and Sight.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
A bit torn by this as I really didn’t enjoy this book but did appreciate some of the writing. I think 3 stars will have to do. I found the voice very hard to pin down. It felt like Daniel was a much younger child and I had to keep reminding myself that he was a teenager but perhaps that was deliberate.
I wanted to like this book so badly. I read the first chapter three times, at three separate points, thinking I would get into it. I just couldn’t get there.
Mozley is the rare author who seems to genuinely believe that poor people have souls. Elmet has a consideration for the philosophy possible in any life that is almost Dostoyevskian. This book is beautifully written, it clearly loves women without reducing or flattening them, and Mozley’s world and characters are fully realized. The relationship between family and community security, the tensions of that, is a theme that I think has rarely been handled better in other contemporary novels. Sexuality, gender, education, labor, violence, nature-culture, land, and basically any other site of conflict you could identify in life is harmoniously included here. There are some structural things that I didn’t like here, but those complaints are minor. If Mozley writes another novel, I will read it.
Originally I was uncomplicatedly excited to see male characters that I could respect. That said, as much smarter people have pointed out to me, there is actually a potential danger when women write male characters who have intelligence, sensitivity, and integrity. On the one hand, these characters demonstrate a path towards a full realization of masculinity of which toxicity is only the shadow. On the other, the empathy and kindness with which women are able to portray men can make men seem, generally, more self-controlled and less dangerous than they are. The capacity for men to not be evil exists but the realization of it is uncommon. For anyone who wants to reflect on how women write men, and maybe some of the psychosocial impacts of this, I recommend using this novel as one significant data point.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Elmet focuses on the arboreal lifestyle of siblings Daniel and Cathy, self-sufficient but also cared for by their larger than life father, known to them only as ‘Daddy’. Mozely explores issues of land ownership and the exploitation of the working class by employers and landlords, all while Daddy works for both an improvement in the livelihood of his community and also right to claim the land he has built his house and family on. Aside from the perspective character Daniel, whose innocent perspective obscures the full details many events in the plot, each character is likeable though morally tainted, to the point that you aren’t sure which side of the legal and physical feud portrayed by Mozely to root for. The book as a whole is quote slow paced, there is a lot of build up to a climax that is largely obscured, whereas short interjections throughout the story from a future Daniel in search of his family and the nature of the ending make the ambiguity of the novel acceptable, whereas in other books I am sometimes more against that. It is also worth noting the importance of sexual assault within the novel before embarking on it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault