The Book of Lost Nights

Better late than never, I guess - I finished the copy of Her Fearful Symmetry that @vintagebooks so kindly sent me and I was pleased that I did. It was a strange and uneven read, but had some beautiful moments.

The novel focusses on a pair of twins, as one attempts to break free of the controlling influence of the other through relationships, college, and finally darker and more final forms. They have inherited a beautiful flat near Highgate Cemetery, a location that casts a long shadow over the book. A malign influence in the form of Elspeth the ghost seems to offer the more fragile Valentina the way to escape her overbearing twin, but of course everything goes horribly wrong...

The relationship between the twins was deftly handled and the evocation of Highgate Cemetery itself is superb. There is a distinctly 19th century timbre to the novel which appears early on and then disappears, only to come back in the last hundred pages. Niffenegger excels in the small exchanges between characters and also the sense of doom surrounding the final crisis.

That said, I felt that Elspeth the ghost was quickly a too familiar and almost comical feature in their lives, and since everyone could talk to her, through seance appurtenances such as automatic writing and ouija boards, you are almost left forgetting that there is anything wrong with her. But the final hundred pages and their hideous bargain and denouement were wholly rivetting, and I am very grateful for the copy.
Tonight I also saw Jennifer's Body down at the West India Quay Cineworld (yay for Cineworld membership!). Without being too spoilery, there is a thematic connection between Jennifer's Body and Her Fearful Symmetry, so it was quite cool to think about. Jennifer's Body is a fun romp of a movie, much as I generally dislike the characterisation of young women as forces of social chaos (which must of course be controlled). There is a fantastically moving moment involving a necklace in the climax that actually managed to haunt me, and during one death scene the dialogue between two characters brought two girls sitting in front of me to near-tears. A flawed movie (the final coda over the credits seemed a bit tacked on when it should have been resolved in the movie proper or not at all), but definitely not a waste of time.

As for Sleepwalker, I made a real breakthrough on Wednesday, and intend to exploit this over the weekend - except on Sunday, when I have a workshop for Gaie's novel, which I am sure will do well. I am also back on the Latin lessons and next blog post I'll probably be looking at the Crusades, of all things, from a research point of view. The fun never stops, I guess, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Currently Reading: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson and The Crusades (an extract) by Thomas Asbridge