I’m going to be doing a full review of Offshore (1979) by Penelope Fitzgerald later, for a feature at Shiny New Books, but it’s nice and short so seemed a no-brainer for 25 Books in 25 Days. I’ve read quite a few Fitzgerald novels over time, but this is the one that snared her the Booker – what would I make of it?
It’s set in London, among a community of people who live on houseboats. It has Fitzgerald’s archetypal disjointed conversations and disjointed relationships – nobody ever quite answering the question that is asked them, or doing anything in quite the way you might expect them to. This is shown at its best in a wonderfully brittle, peculiar conversation between two strangers. Here’s a little bit of it…
“Well you might turn out to be a nuisance to Edward.”
She mustn’t irritate him.
“In what way?”
“Well, I didn’t care for the way you were standing there ringing the bell. Anyway, he’s out.”
“How can you tell? You’re only just coming in yourself. Do you live here?”
“Well, in a way.”
He examined her more closely. “Your hair is quite pretty.”
It had begun to rain slightly. There seemed no reason why they should not stand here for ever.
“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I do remember you. My name is Hodge. Gordon Hodge.”
Nenna shook her head. “I can’t help that.”
“I have met you several times with Edward.”
“And was I a nuisance then?”
The writing is bizarre and wonderful much of the time, but I did find that I was a little too disorientated by what was going on at any time. Finding the right amount of disorientation in Fitzgerald is a fine balance – and perhaps one influenced by the mood one is in when reading. So, it’s not my favourite, and it felt a little overly-confused, but it’s still Fitzgerald and thus it’s still characterful and very good nonetheless.
“Finding the right amount of disorientation” : thanks for expressing so succinctly what I realize now I like in my favorite Fitzgeralds, such as The Bookshop, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, & this one. I’m ever uncertain what will happen next, and I suspect I would not trust a lesser writer, but I know I can count on Ms Fitzgerald (as I can on, e.g., Beryl Bainbridge) to complete her thoughts and make things whole in the end, to the point that it’s most satisfying to re-read her to see how she does it.
I really enjoyed this one and The Bookshop and felt they were a pair you could re-read and find more and more detail in. Reading your 25 books posts has made me realise how horribly behind I am with my blog reading, however!