Books, Documentaries, Reviews: A. S. Byatt’s THE GAME
Books, Documentaries, Reviews: March 25, 2014
A. S. Byatt’s The Game
I just finished A. S. Byatt’s The Game on audio download from the Maine library system and thought some of it delicious. Some of it, though, was tedious.
The delicious part is that it is the story of two estranged sisters who started off life playing an imaginary “game” with each other–and here are obvious references to the Brontës. BUT, Byatt’s sister in real life is the also-famous British writer Margaret Drabble–and they are completely estranged. So, there is some effort going on here to think about that failed relationship. Perhaps the “why” of it.
I will say that this is a “literary” novel, but if you know and love Byatt’s other works, like Possession, or the more recent The Children’s Book, or Angels and Insects, you know there is always a lively interest in science, Darwin, the natural world, and philosophies involving how one might live a meaningful life–driven by adoption/rejection of parts of her family’s Quakerism at least in part. And I can only explain what has been called “drama” by understanding that Byatt is trying to explain one sister’s actions through the notion that she has a mental disturbance that causes her to reject relationships of all sorts.
Here’s an url with a nice synopsis of The Game:
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/byattas/thegame.htm
And a history of Byatt’s work, prizes, history, etc.
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