Category Archives: Michèle Roberts

In the Media, April 2017, Part Two

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In the media is a fortnightly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous fortnight and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as as traditional media are likely and the categories used are a guide, not definitives.

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Photograph by Pari Dukovic

The Handmaid’s Tale is having a moment due to the television serial airing this coming week and the current political situation in America (and beyond).

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As one series begins, another ended this week:

And in women win prizes, ‘Heather Rose wins the Stella Prize for a novel that wouldn’t ‘let her go’‘ as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

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The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

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Personal essays/memoir:

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Feminism:

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Photograph by Adrienne Mathiowetz

Society and Politics:

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Film, Television, Music, Art, Fashion and Sport:

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The interviews/profiles:

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The regular columnists:

In the Media: 8th March 2015

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In the media is a weekly round-up of features written by, about or containing female writers that have appeared during the previous week and I think are insightful, interesting and/or thought provoking. Linking to them is not necessarily a sign that I agree with everything that’s said but it’s definitely an indication that they’ve made me think. Also, just a note to make it clear that I’m using the term ‘media’ to include social media, so links to blog posts as well as traditional media are likely.

It’s International Women’s Day today and, as you might expect, there have been a number of articles written about and with regards to it. Verso Books published a reading list; in the New Statesman, Stella Creasy said, ‘On International Women’s Day, let’s ask men why progress towards equality is so slow‘; One Book Lane ran a series, ‘The #WonderWomen you need to read about this International Women’s Day‘; Rebecca Winson wrote, ‘We mustn’t forget the revolutionary roots of International Women’s Day‘ in the New Statesman; Somayra Ismailjee, wrote ‘Self-Love Amidst Marginalisation‘ on Media Diversified; Cathy on 746Books wrote, ‘Putting Irish Women Writers Back in the Picture‘ with links to the articles the Irish Times have been running for the past fortnight and their celebratory poster which you can download; Harriet Minter wrote, ‘No need for International Women’s Day? What world do you live in?‘ in The Guardian; Emily Thornberry declared, ‘We Need a New Equal Pay Act‘ in the New Statesman, and Lucy Mangan says, ‘Women take more than enough shit‘ in Stylist.

The Harper Lee story continues, Connor Sheets of AL.com wrote to her and got a response, ‘Harper Lee appears to be fully lucid: She just told me to ‘go away’ via snail mail‘.

And an absolute joy of a series in Vogue: for the whole of March, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie does ‘Today I’m Wearing‘.

The best of the rest articles/essays:

The interviews:

If you want some fiction/poetry to read:

Or some non-fiction:

The lists:

Ignorance – Michèle Roberts

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Prize lists always seem to throw up a couple of writers I’ve never heard of before and this year’s Women’s Fiction Prize longlist is no exception. The first of these is Michèle Roberts. When I did a bit of research about her, I was amazed I hadn’t come across her before – she’s written 13 novels, as well as plays, poems, short stories and two non-fiction books. She was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992 with Daughters of the House.

The detail that I seem to have picked up on about Ignorance is that it’s set in WWII and it involves hiding Jews. I hit a point some years ago now when I wondered how many more stories there were to tell about the war. I’m sure that sounds callous to people who lived through it and there will be many individual stories that have never been heard but as a fictional setting it’s been done and done and done again. So, I came to Ignorance wondering how dull it could be and how quickly I could get through it.

I read it in a day. Not because it’s dull because it’s brilliant.

Jeanne Nerin and Marie-Angèle Baudry grow up in the town of Ste-Madeleine. At the age of nine they become borders in the local convent school. Jeanne because her mother has been taken into hospital; Marie-Angèle because now Jeanne’s mother is unable to do the Baudry family’s washing, Marie-Angèle’s pregnant mother has found herself unable to cope.

Half rates for the Baudrys, because they were such good Catholics. I [Jeanne] went free. Marie-Angèle had spelled it out: you’re a charity child, other people have to pay your fees. I retorted: but my father was an educated man. Unlike yours!

Anti-Semitism runs through the novel, as you might expect. When Madame Baudry sees Jeanne looking at Monsieur Jacquotet, the Jewish painter who lives next to the convent, she says:

They know how to manage those Jews. We let them in, we let them have jobs. And now, the money that they’ve got squirreled away!

My nose was running. I fished in my pocket for my handkerchief. Maman had no money. Had she ever been a proper Jew?

Jeanne’s mother converted to Catholicism after the death of her husband (Jeanne’s father), sponsored by Madame Bawdry. It seems that she, along with Jeanne, wishes to hide in plain sight, as it were, rather than becoming one of the many Jews we see hidden in sheds and attics later in the book.

The book moves swiftly through Jeanne and Marie-Angèle’s childhood to their early teens. At this point, Marie-Angèle takes over the narration and we are introduced to her father’s friend Maurice. Maurice obtains black market goods and the Baudry’s sell them under the counter in their shop. Marie-Angèle becomes enamoured with him:

He began to take me with him on his business trips to collect food. Throughout that spring of 1942 we worked together. Time began to exist for me again: no longer uncountable weeks of endless war but precise moments of intense life. I marked our outings in my exercise book; precious afternoons whose dates I wanted to encircle in gold. We were heroes, hoodwinking the Germans.

During the war, both girls make naïve choices that will change the course of the rest of their lives.

Rather than being about hiding Jews during WWII, Ignorance is really about women – their relationship with each other and how their circumstances and any choices they might make from their position in life affect their relationships. It’s about class and status and how one person might ignore events while another will be forced into drastic action because of them.

Ignorance is not only a fascinating book, it’s a beautifully written one. Roberts often uses a layering effect where she builds up phrases to create images and emotions:

A chisel drove into my belly, twisted its point round. Tearing flesh. Spill of blood and guts. I wanted to howl, hold in the chisel. Gouged inside, chisel twisting to and fro like polka music.

A technique she uses repeatedly and effectively while still maintaining distinct voices for several different narrators. I’m in awe.

Goodness knows how I’ve missed Michèle Roberts until now. I’m predicting her for the Women’s Prize Shortlist and I’ll be getting my hands on everything she’s written.