Review by axl_oswaldo - The Spoils of Poynton

axl_oswaldo 's review for:

The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James

4.0

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

'Did you really believe that? That I would finish my 2022 reading year without picking up another novel by one of my all-time favorite writers?'
That was, more or less, what I said to a friend of mine when he noticed it had been a while since the last time I read a novel by Henry James. Perhaps it is because I usually talk a lot about his oeuvre that it seems kind of odd when I'm not reading anything by him. I don't know. The point is that I really wanted to read some of his stuff again, something short and minor, so to speak, before the end of the year. That was the moment when I made up my mind to pick up The Spoils of Poynton.

The Spoils of Poynton is, in my view, a weird yet fascinating book, actually the weirdest one I have read by Henry James so far. Perhaps 'weird' is too much to describe this story, however, I truly believe you have to love both his narrative and his stories, and be really committed to reading them from cover to cover, in order for you to enjoy this particular one. This is by no means a novel to kick off your James journey with, and let me explain why, in spite of its length, this book was harder to read than, let's say, The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl.
When it comes to Henry James' books, the thing is to remember that the older the author got—will this also have something to do with the fact that he used to dictate his stories rather than write them by himself when he was almost 60?—the more difficult and more confusing his novels became. Books such as The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl are usually more challenging because of their prose that is quite ambiguous, verbose, and at times confusing, whereas stories like Washington Square and The Aspern Papers are mostly straightforward and easy to follow (in terms of Henry James' style of writing, of course). So, eventually everything comes down to an important question: which group does The Spoils of Poynton belong to? And here you have the main problem you can find while reading this novel: it belongs either to the first group, to the second group, or to both groups.

The fact that The Spoils of Poynton is like a combination of both worlds, so to speak, shouldn't be an issue beforehand, however, the plot is not really engaging, nor is it interesting enough for you to keep reading—don't get me wrong, it was riveting for me indeed, though, objectively speaking, I don't think it would be like that for everyone—and the prose is not even easy to read to make your reading experience better. Therefore, The Spoils of Poynton becomes a story that fails to be both a challenging, yet rewarding reading experience, and an entertaining, straight-to-the-point story. That being said, I must accept my reality: I mostly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end, but maybe because I'm a big fan of James' stories, and especially a bigger fan of his final novels—I believe I'm going to enjoy every single piece of literature written by this man.
As for the plot, it is simple yet boundless, since it is open to a number of interpretations by the end of the story: a mother wants to preserve their memories by keeping some objects that, from the moment his son gets married on, will be taken away from her (since Poynton—her house—along with her treasures will be owned only by his son and his future wife). She doesn't like her future daughter-in-law either, and as a matter of fact, she wants his son to get married to Fleda Vetch, our real protagonist who is a gentle, kind woman and a good friend of the mother; therefore, she (the mother) will do everything in her power to help Fleda end up being together with her son—the question is, will she make it happen?

I haven't explain yet why The Spoils of Poynton was harder to read than, for instance, The Golden Bowl and less enjoyable than Washington Square, have I? Well, simply because its narrative is not as impressive as the narrative of The Golden Bowl, and its plot is not as straightforward as Washington Square's plot. It was not harder to read because of its difficulty, but because it is tricky to enjoy the journey, and even though the destiny—the ending—was so good and quite symbolic, the things that happened in between were not that memorable. That said, again, you know me—do you?—Henry James has become, throughout the past two years, an all-time favorite of mine and I will always be biased towards him as a writer. If I recommend you read this book? Yes, as long as you love him too (as an author, I mean).

“He clasped her, and she gave herself – she poured out her tears on his breast. Something prisoned and pent throbbed and gushed; something deep and sweet surged up – something that came from far within and far off, that had begun with the sight of him in his indifference and had never had rest since then."