The shadow of the sun

this is another favorite author, A. S. Byatt, the latest of her works that I've read, but the first she wrote.


it's definitely less mature, less developed than her later work (Possession, etc.), but it is a lovely vaguely bildungsroman narrative about the daughter of a famous author stuck in ennui, done with secondary school but unsure about what happens next. she is bright but has no motivation, goes to cambridge but has little to say, less to do... but mostly the book is about her learning, about failure and success and expectations. the story is perhaps not as intriguing as byatt's later work, but her beautiful use of character is already there. there are no loveable characters in the book, but neither can you hate any of them. the novelist father is an incredible character, brilliant and hollow.... terrifying. scenic descriptions, hauntingly surreal and beautiful as well.

this newest version has an introduction by byatt that talks about her writing process at the early stages of her life, who she was reading who she was imitating... it's really fascinating. i should start reading some of her lit crit - i think i would really like it.

if you haven't read any byatt before, i'd start with something else, but this is a lovely, upsetting story itself, a little predictable, and with fewer of the redeeming features of later novels.