Review: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne

Title: Look Back in Anger
Author: John Osborne
Genre: Plays / Literature
Publisher: Penguin
First performed: May 8, 1956
First published: 1957

Rating: 7 out of 10

Today is this thought-provoking play's 57th anniversary, and even though I read it years ago, it is one that I vividly remember as if I just finished the last page yesterday.

Look Back in Anger is a play centrally focused on Jimmy Porter, a spiteful, hateful man who seems intent on destroying everything that he loves. He lives with his wife, Alison, and his best friend, Cliff. Alison and Jimmy's relationship is one of hurt and abuse, as Jimmy does everything he can, night after night, to provoke Alison into rage. Cliff, the tired mediator, generally stands by and watches, making feeble attempts to calm everyone down whenever things get especially chaotic.
This is the routine that the three miserably go through, until a guest interrupts things. Helena, an old friend of Alison, comes to stay.
She is horrified at Jimmy's vindictive treatment of his wife, and rises to his every insult, defending her and dealing out quite a few insults of her own. Through an outsider's eyes, Alison realizes just how much of a let down her married life has become, and decides to go away for a few days.
In the first night of her absence, Jimmy and Helena, whose violent arguments have awoken a sexual desire in both of them, fall into each others arms.

This play never changed scenes, and there were a total of only five characters in the entire thing (one of which is only featured in a few pages).

However, it is not a simple story. The characters are without a doubt the strength of it, because they are complex and well drawn. Jimmy is the prominent one, which is probable because he is characterized by mad outbursts, angry speeches, and bewildering mood swings. He reminded me of Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire," which this play very closely resembles.
Alison was also quite well done - the sad, timid, and abused little wife who forces herself to believe that she still loves her husband.
Cliff seemed to be quite a dull man, but I couldn't help but wonder what he hid behind his blase personality.
Helena was also complex. She vehemently fights against Jimmy, for the sake of Alison's honor, it seems. She advises Alison against staying with Jimmy, and seems to be the strong voice of reason. However, as soon as her friend is out the door, she is in bed with Alison's husband. Did Helena just advise Alison to leave because she wanted Jimmy for herself?

The character study made the story, but beyond that, I would find it hard to think of something that actually happened, beyond ironing boards falling onto people.
Great characters.

Review: The Trespass by Barbara Ewing

Title: The Trespass
Author: Barbara Ewing
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2003
Pages: 416

Rating: 5 out of 10

A cholera epidemic is sweeping over 1849 London, and though the scientific cause remains mostly a mystery, there are many who are blaming the contaminated water supply. The wealthy owner of the water company, Sir Charles Cooper, meanwhile sends his favorite daughter, the beautiful Harriet, away to the country while her less favored sister Mary stays behind in the disease-ridden city. Harriet misses her older sister fiercely, but cannot bear the thought of returning to her father's house. There is a dark secret there that she cannot speak of to anyone. When Mary is struck by the cholera, Harriet must take matters into her own hands as her father's nightly visits become more frequent, and makes a daring plan to escape to the other end of the world.

I was interested to learn about the colonization of New Zealand, which is something that I haven't come across in fiction before.
I also loved the brooding atmosphere to this book, though it isn't quite as Gothic and chilly as the cover suggested.

I liked the plot's main points, but it all seemed quite untidy. The element of the putrid water supply for London being a carrier of sickness, while the wealthy water company owner sits back and does nothing, seemed a good little background point. It is focused on heavily in the first few pages, and then forgotten save for one character's comment about it later on.
In the beginning of the book, Harriet is sent away to her aunt and uncle's house in the country, in order to be safe from London's sickness. I suppose the book could be split into thirds - Harriet's time in the country, her time back at home, and her time in New Zealand. Her time in the country seemed pretty irrelevant, though. It introduced us to quite a lot of characters, who seemed poised to become major personalities in the book, and who Harriet becomes quite fond of. However, once she leaves, all but one disappear from the story completely. Also, I wondered a bit at Harriet's abusive father sending her away. Wouldn't it be more plausible that he would selfishly keep her in London for his own sake?

Harriet's sexually abusive father never came across to me as quite the villain that he should have. I expected a tension and a darkness to it all, but I never felt at all that he was evil, more just a half-hearted, weak attempt at "bad." And since the author made Harriet decide never to speak or think of these incidents, they have no impact on the reader except for what we can imagine to ourselves. Harriet's day-time interactions with her father are formal and stiff, but far from ominous. Her terrible night-time ones are never actually witnessed, because her father gives her laudanum so that she is never awake while he is there.
On one hand, this is YA Fiction, and explicit sex scenes of such a dark nature probably aren't necessary for the age group. But on the other hand, much could have been done with Harriet's emotions, and it doesn't seem right that we never get to see into her head about how she truly feels and is affected by this abuse.

Mary's death also seemed a bit hurried to me, though I am pretty sure that Ewing was simply trying to let the reader feel some of the shock that Harriet was. Anyhow, Harriet's reaction to her sister's passing away came across as genuine.

This book is alright. There were plenty of things that could have been tidied up, but 5 stars (out of 10) for a historical topic I've never read about before, a dark undertone, and quick pacing.

Review: Divining Women by Kaye Gibbons

Title: Diving Women
Author: Kaye Gibbons
Genre: Historical Fiction / Drama
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2005
Pages: 240

Rating: 4 out of 10

In this tale of marriage gone very wrong, a girl inspires in her tragic aunt the courage and motivation to challenge and eventually leave her abusive husband, despite the fact that she is pregnant with their first child.

I wanted to like this book, because the sensitive topic of abused women and hurtful relationships was quite realistic. I felt sympathetic for Maureen, the wife.
However, I always felt estranged from the people in this story, and their feelings, despite the tender topics introduced. The book was unfocused and at most times, dull and boring. Many of the things the author went on for chapters about seemed trivial, while bigger and more important events did not get so much attention.

The influenza epidemic, which was supposed to have a large role to play, never really came to anything. It certainly fell short of being any memorable aspect of the book.

The only portions of this book that made me feel anything except boredom were the rare little moments between Maureen and her spiteful husband, Troop. The abused wife and the abusing husband were two roles that the author knew how to write, and for that I am giving it four stars out of ten instead of three.

However, I can honestly say that I didn't enjoy it, and I will be getting rid of it. A disappointment.

Review: The Kreutzer Sonanta by Leo Tolstoy

Title: The Kreutzer Sonata
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Genre: Classics
Publisher: Modern Library
First published: 1889
Pages: 184

Rating: 5 out of 10

On a train ride, a man named Pozdnyshev overhears a conversation about love, marriage and divorce. He is reminded of his dark past, and begins telling a tale of how he came to fall in and out of love, resulting in murdering his own wife.

Pozdnyshev is a hard character to like, or to sympathize with. He seemed irrational and crazed to the utmost, not to mention perverted. He has a craving obsession for dirty things such as prostitutes and sexual gratification - made dirtier due to the fact that he seems set on describing these things in the most appalling way possible. He frequently compares these habits of his to those of an animal, which is how he comes to see himself.
He and his wife sink into disinterest in each other, and eventually to bitterness and hatred. The extent of Pozdnyshev's rage toward her could certainly be called abusive.
The climatic scene where he commits murder was a terrible one, and quite memorable. For a moment, the blindingly furious man checks himself and realizes what he has done, and it is a very dark moment in the book. However, within just a few sentences, he is back to being the abhorrent villain, as he begins telling his wife that he forgives her.
Forgives her?! It is him who needs forgiving! He has made every day of her life a torturous hell, and now he has murdered her. And yet he "forgives her."

Tolstoy wrote an impacting story for such a small number of pages, but I wish that the main character had been more relatable and the story drawn out into a bit more detail.