The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield has some interesting plot twists, well written moments, interesting characters, and, IMHO, a really crappy ending. The daughter of an antique book dealer, who happens to be a twin, is commissioned to write the biography of a currently popular author who, among other things, also happens to be a twin. So summed up, it sounds a lot less interesting than it actually is—mainly because a summation can't include information about the tons of captivating secondary characters who really make the plot. And since saying anymore would reveal several surprise twists—I can appreciate a well-plotted twist even if I don't particularly like it—I'll concentrate on a few well written spots where the author got a wow-that's-cool reaction from me.
1) The subject of the biography, Miss Winter, is talking about her birth and remarks "In fact, when I was born I was no more than a subplot." (page 58) Wow! That's true for everyone, isn't it? Taking the analogy farther, most of our lives turn out to be subplots—maybe not to us individually but certainly in some cosmic sense.
2) Moving back a generation, Miss Winter talks about her mother's birth which resulted in the death of her mother and a thankfully short-lived emotional breakdown of her father. The author remarks that his reaction was extreme, especially since the couple had been married over ten years, "usually (long enough) to cure marital affection." (page 60) Anyone want to argue that? I doubt it, particularly in our society where psychologists define a successful marriage as one that lasts six years.
3) "When I left Yorkshire, November was going strong; by the time I returned it was in its dying days, about to tilt into December." (page 147) Pretty cool. A lot of writers try to get a verbal handle on November, but it seems to be an illusive month. Still, I applaud them for trying, all the time knowing that they'll have to work hard to beat Melville's "whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul." (Moby Dick)
4) Description's not my favorite part of writing/reading, but sometimes a sentence or two will grab me. Regarding the house where Miss Winter grew up: "For thirty years the pace of life indoors had been measured by the slow movement of the motes of dust caught in an occasional ray of weary sunlight. Now Hester's (the new governess) little feet paced out the minutes and the seconds, and with a vigorous swish of a duster, the motes were gone." (page 154) If I really liked description, I'd be reading Setterfield for how she does it. But Pat Conroy is the only writer whose description grabs me totally.
5) Setterfield herself may have put in words what led to my disappointment with The Thirteenth Tale. She warns the narrator: "Miss Lea, it doesn't do to get attached to these secondary characters. It's not their story. They come, they go and when they go they're gone for good. That's all there is to it." (pages 91-192) My bad. I got attached to her secondary characters.
6) "Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes—characters even—caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you." (pages 289-290) Which is why I'm having trouble getting into Fiasco and why I had trouble getting into The Thirteenth Tale, and why—now that someone has put the idea into words—why I write these reviews.
7) The narrator struggles out of a lethargy. "I made cocoa and put extra sugar in it; then the sweetness nauseated me. A book? Would that do it? In the library the shelves were lined with dead words. Nothing there could help me." (page 290) My response: (with true respect for eubonics or black English or whatever you care to call one African-American dialect) Sometimes, Miss Lea, it just be's that way.
Bottom line: Will I read Diane Setterfield's next book? Yes. Do I recommend The Thirteenth Tale to others? Dunno. I do know part of my good-bye to it will be having a cup of hot chocolate as I plough my way into Fiasco.
Last edited by humphreysmar; 11/17/07 05:31 PM.
