My past, as far as reading goes, is another country. I read things differently now, because I want to know how a novel works, and if I like it, why I like it. Sometimes I realise I like it despite what I can see are failings, in which case there’s some over-arching strength that makes up for everything else. David Mitchell’s Black Swann Green was a case in point when I read it last month. It had an irritatingly episodic quality, and a couple of passages I suspected began as separate stories. But I was so convinced by the central character and his family that I had no choice but to read on, and can honestly say that (unlike fellow members of my reading group!)I thoroughly enjoyed it .
Books I don’t enjoy can be equally instructive, and despite previous dissing of The Savage Garden, I’ve been thinking how the author successfully used short passages in the voice of the old lady to create tension at the start of the boook. My WIP has suddenly galloped to the end of a first draft and I’m thinking this might work for me. I’m working in an additional view point, one that’s crucial to the plot, but not one that will take over. Maybe I could try interludes à la Mark Mills.
Ali Bacon, Author 