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On reading Naomi Mitchison
Apr. 13th, 2008 10:43 amI've dutifully been trying the exercise that my sister Caro (WINOLJ) recommended to get through the backlog - you know, reading one "old" book for every new book read. At times I look at the shelves full of old books (that have been unread for at least six months) and wonder why I ever thought I might enjoy reading them. Then I came across The Bull Calves by Naomi Mitchison. And I thought "why not?" (Well, for a start it's 532 pages long, although this does include over 200 pages of footnotes which do not all have to be read, although some of them are quite interesting.)
The Bull Calves is a picture of some of her ancestors, the Haldanes, in June 1747, as Scotland tries to recover from the effects of the '45 rebellion. It starts off so slowly that I almost gave it up - the first chapter consists of introducing a crowd of people who are virtually indistinguishable, despite there being two pages of family trees at the beginning of the novel (a bad sign, I generally think). And she refers to them variously by their title, or their first name, or their nickname, which while realistic is not great for the reader. And then there are people christened John who are called Robert, and that sort of thing, or vice versa. But then one of the younger girls starts asking her Aunt Kirstie about her girlhood, and her boyfriends, and gradually it takes off. And then I was gripped, because suddenly you're introduced to Jacobites and witches and Red Indians and traitorous cousins, and it's great.
She's also made a huge effort to invent a language that resembles what the characters might actually have spoken, but is easy to read for the non-Scot. I love historical novels where the writer has really thought about the language and does not (for instance) have characters in Regency or Victorian England using Americanisms just because the author has a tin ear for language, or can't be bothered. One of the reasons why I love Georgette Heyer so much is they way she invented Regency slang in the same way, by taking elements of thieves' cant and turning it into something that the modern reader can understand.
So I was quite pleased to find a number of other Mitchisons on the unread books shelves. The next one I picked up is called Sunrise Tomorrow, and looks to be a heartwarming story set in Botswana, written more than twenty years before Alexander McCall Smith bought up the franchise. and then of course I remembered the African connection, and why thinking about Mitchison always reminds me of Doris Lessing, who has also written science fiction. And I wonder vaguely why Lessing is so much better known than Mitchison, who appears to be at least as good a writer.
The Bull Calves is a picture of some of her ancestors, the Haldanes, in June 1747, as Scotland tries to recover from the effects of the '45 rebellion. It starts off so slowly that I almost gave it up - the first chapter consists of introducing a crowd of people who are virtually indistinguishable, despite there being two pages of family trees at the beginning of the novel (a bad sign, I generally think). And she refers to them variously by their title, or their first name, or their nickname, which while realistic is not great for the reader. And then there are people christened John who are called Robert, and that sort of thing, or vice versa. But then one of the younger girls starts asking her Aunt Kirstie about her girlhood, and her boyfriends, and gradually it takes off. And then I was gripped, because suddenly you're introduced to Jacobites and witches and Red Indians and traitorous cousins, and it's great.
She's also made a huge effort to invent a language that resembles what the characters might actually have spoken, but is easy to read for the non-Scot. I love historical novels where the writer has really thought about the language and does not (for instance) have characters in Regency or Victorian England using Americanisms just because the author has a tin ear for language, or can't be bothered. One of the reasons why I love Georgette Heyer so much is they way she invented Regency slang in the same way, by taking elements of thieves' cant and turning it into something that the modern reader can understand.
So I was quite pleased to find a number of other Mitchisons on the unread books shelves. The next one I picked up is called Sunrise Tomorrow, and looks to be a heartwarming story set in Botswana, written more than twenty years before Alexander McCall Smith bought up the franchise. and then of course I remembered the African connection, and why thinking about Mitchison always reminds me of Doris Lessing, who has also written science fiction. And I wonder vaguely why Lessing is so much better known than Mitchison, who appears to be at least as good a writer.
