The 1960s brought us many things (well, not me exactly as I was nowhere near born then, but I digress just to make you all feel a little older) including liberation, equality and music. But one thing it brought about was the idea that sex meant so little that it can be bandied about in rather tasteless ways in order to shock the 'establishment'. This, effectively, is how Angela Carter's novel begins.

The opening chapter or two see a girl of 15, Melanie, feeling her body — with a distinct amount of arrogance, if truth be told — while worrying about marriage and sex — perhaps not an unnatural situation for a 15-year-old coming of age. However, she soon wanders into her parents' room and imagines them having sex then. She is unable to sustain the image of them removing their clothes and then tries on her mother's wedding dress and wanders into her garden. Suddenly realising she's not as grown up as she originally thought she was — based solely on the fact that she imagined her parents' lovemaking — she gets scared and runs back into the house, but can't find the door so has to climb up a tree naked. Are you getting an impression of what drives this book yet? Just in case you aren't, you might want to know that soon Melanie finds herself fancying her uncle's brother-in-law, who seems awfully close to his sister, who seems awfully close to the other brother and just to add a bit more controversy into things, the aforementioned sister, married to the uncle, is dumb and thus cannot speak out against her husband when he wants sex with her.

So, sex, sex, sex and sex. Oh, what an enthralling read. Turning every page just made me more and more angry at people who think that talking about sex, as long as it isn't vulgar, is somehow beautiful and a real expression of true human emotion. To be honest, there are other elements of this book that could have taken centre stage had Carter put more effort into them. As Melanie moves into her uncle's house — her parents die but it isn't sex-related so it gets skimmed over in half a page — there are obvious allusions to the decaying English class system, how much more caring the working classes are and how much more interesting their lives are. However, this is all presided over by the evil uncle, while given a dash of sexual deviancy as a 21-year-old preys on this 15-year-old in a stressful situation, as well as incestuous possibilities between the uncle's wife and brother. This, for me, meant Carter failed in her attempt to champion working-class life and indict the upper classes as, to be honest, Melanie didn't seem to be having many problems in her previous life. Once she moved to this 'gloriously' awful area everything went pear-shaped.

The book's narrative is not even interesting enough to sustain it as a novel without layers, but the failed attempt to be shocking by caking the story with sexual references just makes it unbearable and endlessly boring. Personally, I would have been happier if the book had ended halfway through with an explosion that killed them all. This book made me want the working classes to be put back in their place, and as I come from a working-class background, I'd say that this is proof enough of a book worth avoiding like the plague.

Tony2Times

10.11.05 Front Page

Back Issue Page