The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
by Diane Setterfield
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Book Reviews of The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
Book Review: 'A Winter's Tale'...
Summary: 3 Stars
Diane Setterfield's first novel is an uneven, but still worthy, tale.
I haven't read too much 'gothic' fiction, although I enjoyed the frequently-mentioned 'Jane Eyre' and 'Rebecca', and the similarities to those stories probably made feel more comfortable with this one.
The premise, setting, and atmosphere are all good, but, despite some fleeting moments of strong characterization and 'spookiness', the book falls short of the classic, 'rave review' status some here have given it.
Like most of the 3-star reviewers, I had some problems warming up to many of the characters. The deliberately vague time period, and the characters' overly formal, 'stuffy' attitudes and stilted dialogue, hark back to nineteenth-century novels, but it seems jarring to think that this book could take place in more or less 'modern' times. I see the setting as somewhere in the early 50s, but I doubt it could be much later than that.
I agree that it's a bit misleading to consider this a 'mystery' story, though it's not advertised as such anywhere on the cover or in the reviews inside the book. As a 'gothic drama', it's entertaining enough, but both Margaret and Diane could use a good editor!
The story is slow-moving in more than a few places, although, in my opinion, it comes nowhere close to the dry, overwrought, pretentious and coma-inducing prose of 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell', which more than a few unfavorable reviews have mentioned as a comparison.
The issue of 'twin-ness' is not explored as thoroughly as I thought it might be, and I agree with the reviewer who said that 'twins' are used as a sort of Hitchcock-esque 'McGuffin' for the purposes of the plot. Neither Vida's nor Margaret's 'twin' issues are resolved as well as they might have been.
Setterfield's biggest problem may have been that she crowded too much activity among too many interesting characters, many of whom probably could have carried their own stories, rather than being supporting players here. Isabelle, Charlie, and Aurelius are particularly intriguing, but I felt more could have been done with them, and less with the 'tricks and twists'.
Considering this is a first novel for Setterfield, I'll give her something of a benefit of a doubt, and give this book a better rating than I might have if it had come from an established writer. I wouldn't rule out reading another of Setterfield's books. Since she seems interested in contemporary as well as 'gothic'/historical fiction, maybe she could do more with a different setting, and a less derivative story.
Book Review: A Well-Crafted Homage to a Genre
Summary: 4 Stars
Our book club's choice for July was THE THIRTEENTH TALE, by Diane Setterfield. After having read some very quick, zippy reads for the last few months, we decided we want to try something more "literary." Many of us had heard of this book and read the good reviews, so we decided to give it a try.
The set-up is intriguing indeed. This is the story of two women. A reclusive best-selling author named Vida Winter is dying. She has deliberately set out to obscure the facts of her life, telling a different life story to anyone who asks. Margaret Lea is a young bookworm who's written a biography that Vida is impressed with, and Vida decides that she will tell her "true" life story to Margaret. But how "true" is the story Vida tells, and does Margaret have any secrets of her own?
Vida's story has all the elements of the traditional Gothic story: a creepy old estate (Angelfield), a ghost, missing babies, and a few sexual peccadilloes. And the story seems inspired by so many of the greats: Henry James (though the book is a much faster read than that), the Brontes, Daphne DuMaurier (Rebecca). And the story unravels like the old books of Victoria Holt, with plenty of period detail and deception, all through a first-person story.
It's hard not to like THE THIRTEENTH TALE, in that it is such an homage to all the greats, using some of their elements but combining them in a way that keeps the book fresh. We thought it was a bit slow to start, but then again the Gothics usually are. However, the pace does pick up...and, most importantly, it's easy to read. We found the plot turns, and the game of cat-and-mouse between Vida and Margaret, to be very addicting and fun. The tricky thing is that Vida is much more interesting than Margaret; however, Gothic heroines are traditionally understated (think Jane Eyre).
Interestingly, this is one of the few books we've read that divided along gender lines. In general, the women ate it up; the men got through it but said they felt like they were reading a "woman's book." Which led to some interesting discussion! (And let me stand up for the men here--they're an enlightened group! It was fun to discuss the differences between "men's fiction" and "women's fiction.")
All told, an enjoyable read, a notch above the usual Gothic fare--because it does take the elements of the Gothic and make them more modern. You can tell Setterfield has great love of and respect for the classics; and it was pleasant to be in her company.
Book Review: Lucky (and skilled) 13
Summary: 5 Stars
Instantly, I was transported. By story as well as by its telling. Any book lover will know within the first sentence or two, more times than not, and so I knew: treasure. In Diane Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale," the reader does not have to choose between intruiging storyline and strong writing. The book is built on both. It has the flavor of old classics, and the comparisons with the Bronte sisters and Daphne du Maurier fit well. Yet Setterfield also manages to achieve her own signature.
Margaret Lea loves books more than people, and so the world of a quaint old bookshop of old leather tomes that one picks up only with gloved hands suits her just so. She lives in the world of words on paper, and she writes her own. An obscure biography she'd written becomes, then, what brings her out of the dusky shop and into the dusky world of Vida Winter. Vida Winter is a famed author, a reclusive artistic sort that the outside world can never quite capture. She won't let it. What interviews she does are all yet more storytelling, each one elaborately contradicting any other. Yet when life nears its end, even those who enjoy living in the secrecy of elaborate, however colorful, lies, come to long for truth at last. Vida Winter calls young Margaret to her home to tell her the truth.
Why Margaret? Something in her first written biography gives her away. Even when writing factually about others, after all, every honest writer will tell you - there is, deep inside the words, their own truth. Vida Winter knows that, and she senses in the young woman's work an understanding for the complexities of sibling relationships. Even, as chance would have it, and especially that of twins.
So the story unfolds, expertly, little by little and logically, building upon itself. Here is a twisted love, here is ugliness and beauty, here is human nature gone wild, and rivalry intertwined with lifelong bond. We find tragedy and adultery, banishment and reunion. All of this is revealed in Vida Winter's voice, even as she grows ever nearer "the wolf" in the shadows, death, that with waning patience awaits her. Alongside Winter's voice is the young biographer's, and we see the parallel lines and hear the echoes. Winter has indeed chosen correctly. If anyone will recognize the truth in the lies, this one will.
Expertly done. Setterfield holds firm to the end. Draw the blinds, start the fire, settle in for the read.
Book Review: a good pastime with a disappointing ending
Summary: 3 Stars
Diane Setterfield's debut novel was often compared to Zafon's "The Shadow of the Wind". I wanted to see if this comparison is close to reality - I suspected it not to be and I was not mistaken. The similarities between the two novels end on the main character growing up among books.
The main protagonist and narrator of "The Thirteenth Tale", Margaret Lea, is an only daughter of the bookshop owner. She is in her late thirties, single, living with her parents, and devoted to her two passions: books and biographies. When she receives a letter from a bestselling, intriguing and mysterious writer, Vida Winter, inviting her to write the author's biography, she is excited and wary at the same time. After all, Vida Winter is deceitful, creative, and known to give fictional accounts of her past to journalists. Margaret, after doing lots of research, decides to visit Vida in her house, where she is convinced by the writer to accept the invitation and write the biography, because of a curious parallel between Vida's and her own life.
Margaret starts to live in Vida's big, old, overwhelming house and gets so much involved in Vida's story that she decides to follow some leads on her own - she travels to Vida's family home, searching for clues. She discovers many secrets and as she digs out Vida's past, her own memories unfold.
"The Thirteenth Tale" is a novel deliberately stylized on a Gothic tale. After all, "Jane Eyre" is quoted not for nothing... It also reminded me of "Rebecca", but Daphne du Maurier's creation is much more appealing. I read "The Thirteenth Tale" with ease and some pleasure, but the ending was disappointing. I was left with the feeling that the plot could have been led in a better, not so banal, direction and that the different threads, including the main mystery of Vida Winter, could have been more interestingly finalized. There is a big crowd of very colorful, sometimes even too weird characters who at the end play marginal roles, which is a pity. It looks like the author set out to write a bestseller (well, she succeeded, no doubt) and introduced so many possibly intriguing points, that she lacked invention to connect everything in a satisfactory way and weave a coherent story. Because the concept is already not original (although it is a good idea to revive a Gothic novel, many writers did it more skillfully), I give this book three stars.
Book Review: hard to put down...
Summary: 4 Stars
after i finished with this novel, i found myself staring at the book itself with what i think was a bemused expression.
to clarify: i immensely enjoyed this--as they called it--"story-within-a-story". true, the number of characters increased almost in regular intervals as vida winter laid down the history of the angelfields. but they were introductions that never muddled the story, and definitely it was quite easy to keep track of them and the sometimes prevalent, though, more often than not, subtle, threadbare connections each had on the other characters (certainly i had an easier time here than in Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, easier, but no less enjoyed, mind). and the revelations were, indeed, just that. i often found myself pretending to one-up the author and presume: "aha! so she was actually the one who...", before i could read the actual revelation--but then the vida winter and the angelfields would prove my musings wrong. and the twists laid bare the grounds for the revelations of other twists.
i guess that was one of the things that i really liked about this novel. i literally couldnt put it down. although setterfield did not deign to turn verbose as some "novels" are wont to do, nor steer her protagonist in lengthy bouts of self-contemplation to give it a heavy feeling of "personal emotional struggle", she nevertheless managed to keep my attention on the stories and the vividly rich characters that seem to shift in expression and behavior with each telling. it's a novel too intricate in essence to be haphazardly classified as a light read, and yet...AND YET it's easy to be lost in its narrative and find yourself with an inexplicable need to turn just one more page if only to find out what happens next.
unexpectedly, i found that it impressed upon me mixed feelings of morbid fascination, surprise, sadness, and, in some cases, disbelief (i found the "twinness" of adeline & emmeline and margaret & moira a little too weird--[of course i really have no right to comment on what i obviously can't experience]). some, though, may feel entirely different, and be left skeptical. some may find it absurd and be dissatisfied. but for me, it was an enjoyable read. not on par with literature heavyweights, but deserving still, surely, of acclaim.