~ Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield ~
As the title suggests, this novel is all about storytelling. Having not as yet had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Setterfield’s best seller, The Thirteenth Wife, I had no idea what to expect of Once Upon A River. It turned out to be one of those books which draws the reader in from the very first words, immediately unfolding a fascinating narrative which beckons the reader on. The tale runs like a river indeed, smoothly along its banks, with its little eddies and meanders, and dips and detours, but maintains its course smoothly, with a strong propelling undercurrent. Setterfield’s writing is skillful and seamless, richly complex without being complicated.
The story begins in the Swan Inn, with proprietors Margot and Joe, the professional storyteller. Like so many other characters in this novel, Margot and Joe are heart warming each in their own right, and doubly charming for their tender relationships with one another and others in their orbit. Into an ordinary night at the Swan, stumbles an acutely injured man carrying a seemingly lifeless 4 year old girl. And thus begins this rapidly flowing narrative which takes the reader into realms where the magical brushes against the mundane, where the surreal peeps into the real.
Setterfield’s writing is luxuriant, rich in images and metaphors. For example, depicting the growing but untenable romance between Daunt the photographer and Rita the nurse:
But when each one knew the other was looking elsewhere, when they were sure of not being seen, they cast quick glances of love and sorrow, bailing out the excess feeling that threatened otherwise to capsize them.
p312
The character Henry Daunt draws from a celebrated, real life Oxford photographer, Henry Taunt, and in this story, much is made of how images are seen, represented, captured; the play and shifts of lights and dark and shadows. My favourite comment on image and representation however comes not from the photographer himself, but from one of my favourite characters in the novel, Robert Armstrong:
It is a curious thing, to see oneself in a photograph. It is a meeting with the outer man.
p319
Armstrong is the son of an Earl and a black housemaid, untypically quite well cared for by both parents from their different stations in life, and who himself is a exceptionally endearing personality in his own right, strong and gentle, principled and of good judgement, deeply loving of all living creatures.
There are many wonderful, lovable characters in this novel – Armstrong’s disabled wife, Bess, with her one normal eye, and one eye which has to have a patch over it, because it ‘Sees’ too much; Helena and her husband Vaughan, who could so easily be typecasted as staid uppercrusts, but who are adventurous and unconventional in spirit, Rita the intelligent, compassionate medical practitioner central to the community, the humble Lily who tries so hard to find a safe berth in life, even the amazing Maud, a pig, with as much personality and wisdom as any other character, and many more besides. There are villains too, wonderful villains, just the kind perfectly designed to invoke the abhorrence of the reader.
There are even fabulous unreal characters, such as the riverman Quietly, who poles his craft and picks up those whose time it is not yet to save them from drowning, and to guide those whose time has come, gently to the other side. Not everything is explained in the novel, just as not everything in life is neatly concluded and within rational explanation. Many ofSetterfield’s characters spin stories, some of which work, some which do not. They create their own lives, even as they create narratives of their lives. Setterfield’s stories within stories show that those willing to embrace and ingest stories weave richer tapestries into their daily lives, in the state of grace which is disbelief suspended.
In all, a most satisfying read, perfectly of its period and place, evoking a distinct place personality in fact, and creating an atmosphere which seems to change with the moods and seasons of the river. A piece of writing that progresses at a beautiful pace, in a beautiful manner. Increasingly, with so many writers sacrificing form for content, or just neglectful of the how over the what, it is a pleasure to hold a volume by a craftsman who arranges her words and sculpts her sentences lovingly, with deliberation. It is inspiring to see the care Setterfield invests in her handling of narrative, at all levels:
They sat on the bank. It was better to tell such stories close to the river than in a drawing room. Words accumulate indoors, trapped by walls and ceilings. The weight of what has been said can lie heavily on what might yet be said and suffocate it. By the river, the air carries the story on a journey, one sentence drifts away and makes room for the next.
p328
Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield. Atria, 2018.
Recent Comments