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A review by broomgrass
New Grub Street by George Gissing, John Goode
5.0
I started this book with both reservations and expectations; I was excited because I am quite familiar with the (old) Grub Street of the 18th century, but I haven't had many 19th century novels really strike my fancy yet.
New Grub Street, though, was captivating, due in large part to its subject matter (writing/lack thereof) and stark tension between aesthetics and practicality. The practice of writing, dealing with writer's block, impostor syndrome - all the familiar frustrations are here. I liked the way that the female characters were written, with believable emotion but without the sentimentality that I often find frustrating in Victorian pieces. I also particularly enjoyed the ways that the narrator sometimes manipulated the reader into feeling first one way, then another. In fact, the narrator throughout felt unreliable, but in a good and engaging way, encouraging the reader to strive instead of just being stifling and obtuse. The addresses to the reader, though few, were particularly interesting, establishing the reader as a member familiar with contemporary print culture and growing increasingly intimate as the plot continues.
Read (of course) for Victorian Metafiction; I'm probably going to write my paper on this text!
New Grub Street, though, was captivating, due in large part to its subject matter (writing/lack thereof) and stark tension between aesthetics and practicality. The practice of writing, dealing with writer's block, impostor syndrome - all the familiar frustrations are here. I liked the way that the female characters were written, with believable emotion but without the sentimentality that I often find frustrating in Victorian pieces. I also particularly enjoyed the ways that the narrator sometimes manipulated the reader into feeling first one way, then another. In fact, the narrator throughout felt unreliable, but in a good and engaging way, encouraging the reader to strive instead of just being stifling and obtuse. The addresses to the reader, though few, were particularly interesting, establishing the reader as a member familiar with contemporary print culture and growing increasingly intimate as the plot continues.
Read (of course) for Victorian Metafiction; I'm probably going to write my paper on this text!