Title: The
Strays
Author: Emily
Bitto
Publisher:
Affirm Press
Publish
date: 2014
This author has two problems here:
- They are working out their own doubts through the medium of this story. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but in this case, they’re worried about whether their writing is interesting enough and whether they’re talented enough. Which automatically makes for boring writing, even if the fears are erroneous.
- Their editors failed them.
The narrator Lily is a single child from an
average family, who’s semi-adopted into a fledgling artist colony. Apparently
she finds the whole experience terribly bohemian and enviably, talentedly
shocking. Some bad things happen along the way. The end.
The story could have been fine. There’s
nothing better or worse about choosing this particular setting. But Lily in her
constant struggle to validate her vicarious existence through the Trentham
family simply serves as a puppet mouthpiece for the author, who has decided
that anything so out-there as an artistic community with paedophilic tendencies
has got to be worth a second look. Bitto hasn’t grasped the concept that there
is more pathos and empathy to be had in the spilling of a glass of milk than in
the explosion of several galaxies, given the right storytelling.
For the story to have worked, Lily would
have had to do one of two things:
- Validated herself independently of the Trenthams
- Been more of an unreliable narrator and transparently weak, so the author and reader could talk over her head
She does neither.
In addition to this, the jumping about in
time, particularly towards the end, ensures dissipation of whatever tension
there was well in advance of the close of the novel. The relief when the
whole lamentable dirge is over is immense.
It’s a shame, because Bitto has a nice turn
of phrase and a fine hand for painting pictures. Were her editors more on the
ball, they would have encouraged a calmer approach that played to her strengths
of observation and given in less to uncontrolled histrionics. Hopefully this
debut novel will boost confidence enough (having for some reason won the Stella
Prize) for fears to be allayed and something more sensible in the future. There
is scope.
I do have one burning question, though.
How, in this world of The Strays,
does one roast duck feed a gathering of at least 11 people? In my house it will
feed three at the very most. If I knew the secret, my housekeeping money would
last till October on January’s budget. There are three explanations I can think
of:
- Evan Trentham possesses Christ-like carving and serving capabilities.
- The family lives mainly by photosynthesis and only sits at table for show. This option would validate some of the other household arrangements.
- There is a species of duck the size of a large turkey.
Or there’s a fourth possibility. The author
and the editors were sloppy. Here and elsewhere. Better luck next time, maybe.
One weak wave of a Moose-hoof up out of
five.
