Friday, July 6, 2007

penelope fitzgerald


“Offshore” is unique! This is a gem of a novel: 140 pages with enough elements to inspire compassion and thought through a handful of eccentric characters living on the Reach of Thames river in London. I was thinking of some women British writers and the links that somehow connect them: extravagant characters, incredible psychological insight and plenty of comic paragraphs, as well as sharp ears for dialogues. (Angela Carter, Nicola Barker –her most talented heir--, Muriel Spark, and Penelope Fitzgerald).
The characters of “Offshore”, are compared: “Like those of the amphibians when, in earlier stages of the world’s history, they took ground. Many of these species perished in the attempt”.
But what I really admire in Fitzgerald’s novel is the deep insight when depicting her characters:
Nenna, an abandoned wife mother of two girls living in her boat: “Nenna might have added to her list of things that men do better than women their ability to do nothing at all in an unhurried manner”.
Maurice, the male prostitute and charismatic friend of everyone: “The dangerous and the ridiculous were necessary to his life, otherwise tenderness would overwhelm him… when he imagined living without friends, he sat down with the whiskey in the dark”.

“All distances are the same to those who don’t meet” (129).

“Offshore” won the Booker Prize in 1979.

1 comment:

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