Scissors Paper Stone - Elizabeth Day

[leyla]

Will post review after publication for copyright reasons.

[leyla]

Sorry, forgot to post the link after publication of the piece. Here it is:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...y-2200097.html

To summarise, it's a book that bravely tackles an issue that's often written about in sensationalist ways. But I had problems with a lot of the prose and with the rushed ending. The published review is much shorter than my originally submitted review for space reasons, but the jist remains the same.

[Mary LA]

Thanks for this Leyla. I've read a number of articles, interviews etc in the Observer/Guardian by Eilzabeth Day and also got the feeling she doesn't trust the reader to figure out the obvious so she does too much spoonfeeding.

[leyla]

Thanks, Mary LA. It's interesting that you'd noticed that same tendency to over-explain in Day's journalism as I noticed in her novel. I've only read one piece by her - an article on her experience of being mugged - and that was quite well written as far as I recall, but then again there was nothing vaguely ambiguous there.

I can sympathise with authors who feel the urge to do that, because I suppose for every 100 people who read the book, there will be X number who *don't* pick up the implied meaning in a patronising gesture etc. In a way she's being overtly considerate to the reader. But most serious readers would pick up on things like that, I would assume. I suppose it also depends on the target readership: the subject of her novel might attract a very wide variety of readers, drawn to the suggestion of incest. Day actually deals with the dysfunctional relationship very sensitively, so I would have advised her not to write for those readers unable to work out what a pat on the head might signify.