A Review
Secret scribbled notebooks by Joanne Horniman
I have to start by saying that Horniman is my favourite writer. I can't offer that title to anyone else. She manages to write about things I am interested in, about people I would like to know, about people I feel that I am. Also, she writes in a style that I sometimes manage to write in but wish I could do more often. Her books are full of relationships between people that you don't expect. I mean, she will write, for example, a story about a boy who lives with his parents in a sharehouse. The kind of sharehouse that I would have loved to have lived in. The kind of story ensues which discusses the various relationships this boy develops with those around him - who age from six up.
But I was talking about Secret scribbled notebooks. To be honest, this one didn't grab me at first, as her other ones did. It took me a little while to get into the format and I didn't warm to the main character, Kate, as quickly as I did her other ones, despite her reminding me of myself the most. (Maybe that was the problem. She was like me, except didn't spend her weeks prior to exams frantically cramming. Not that I'm recommending that.)
Anyway, Notebooks consists of four different books which Kate writes in. They weave in and out of each other, it being unnecessary for there to be a set pattern or order of them. In essence, it is a novel about writing and reading just as much as it is about love. And I think I love the fact that even where Kate's writing is a bit dubious, a bit contrived - her imagined stories are about her, romanticised to a large extent, much like when I wrote a letter from myself ten years in the future. All that I wanted to have happened, happened - the story is such a sharp instruction to you that you should write. One of the ways I get over my own writer's block is to read a novel by Horniman.
I did like Notebooks. I liked the various bok titles mentioned in there. I enjoyed the way Horniman gave books their own personalities. She describes their smell, their look, their activities. I want to be able to spend days reading books. All this talk about novels and reading makes it very difficult to put the novel down.
And in Notebooks, as with many of her other novels, love is always about discussion. It is always thought about. We go through a character's head and live her quiet desires. We escape into a world where people ruminate on the meaning of life. So it is hardly escape at all.
I am going to leave it there, because my thoughts are no longer well-ordered (if they ever were). I reccommend any book by Joanne Horniman. I think they're awesome.
word out
hannah
I have to start by saying that Horniman is my favourite writer. I can't offer that title to anyone else. She manages to write about things I am interested in, about people I would like to know, about people I feel that I am. Also, she writes in a style that I sometimes manage to write in but wish I could do more often. Her books are full of relationships between people that you don't expect. I mean, she will write, for example, a story about a boy who lives with his parents in a sharehouse. The kind of sharehouse that I would have loved to have lived in. The kind of story ensues which discusses the various relationships this boy develops with those around him - who age from six up.
But I was talking about Secret scribbled notebooks. To be honest, this one didn't grab me at first, as her other ones did. It took me a little while to get into the format and I didn't warm to the main character, Kate, as quickly as I did her other ones, despite her reminding me of myself the most. (Maybe that was the problem. She was like me, except didn't spend her weeks prior to exams frantically cramming. Not that I'm recommending that.)
Anyway, Notebooks consists of four different books which Kate writes in. They weave in and out of each other, it being unnecessary for there to be a set pattern or order of them. In essence, it is a novel about writing and reading just as much as it is about love. And I think I love the fact that even where Kate's writing is a bit dubious, a bit contrived - her imagined stories are about her, romanticised to a large extent, much like when I wrote a letter from myself ten years in the future. All that I wanted to have happened, happened - the story is such a sharp instruction to you that you should write. One of the ways I get over my own writer's block is to read a novel by Horniman.
I did like Notebooks. I liked the various bok titles mentioned in there. I enjoyed the way Horniman gave books their own personalities. She describes their smell, their look, their activities. I want to be able to spend days reading books. All this talk about novels and reading makes it very difficult to put the novel down.
And in Notebooks, as with many of her other novels, love is always about discussion. It is always thought about. We go through a character's head and live her quiet desires. We escape into a world where people ruminate on the meaning of life. So it is hardly escape at all.
I am going to leave it there, because my thoughts are no longer well-ordered (if they ever were). I reccommend any book by Joanne Horniman. I think they're awesome.
word out
hannah