A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding – Jackie Copleton

A man named Hideo Wantanabe appears on the doorstep of Amaterasu Takahashi in Pennsylvania claiming to be her grandson. But he can’t be as Amaterasu’s daughter and grandson perished in the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki on the 9^th August, 1945.

No, I am not haunted by how she died but why. If I am to be the only remaining teller of this tale, what and how much can I admit to myself and to others? Should I begin with this acknowledgement: my daughter might still be here today if it had not been for me.

Amaterasu goes on to tell a tale of forbidden love between her teenager daughter and Sato, a doctor friend of her husband. Many secrets about the past, including Amaterasu’s childhood and life before she married her husband, Kenzo, are revealed.

A couple of weeks ago, I said there’s usually one book on the Bailey’s Prize list I really dislike. This year I’m afraid there’s two. I found the scenario implausible and the writing oddly stilted. I had an issue with the whole novel stemming from the mother’s guilt and shame; why do women always have to feel guilty?

The structure was also a problem: every chapter began with an extract from An English Dictionary of Japanese Culture which was purely for a Western audience with no knowledge of Japanese culture and meant that the reader was jerked out of the story at the beginning of every chapter. As the chapters are only short, this exacerbated the problem. The story was told from Amaterasu’s point-of-view but as there were many things she couldn’t know diary entries from her daughter, Yuko, and letters from her daughter’s lover/Kenzo’s friend, Sato, were built into the narrative. However, the diary and the letters never stood alone, they were sandwiched between narrative from Amaterasu in which she continued to describe events she could only have known about second-hand. Again this had the effect of taking me out of the story – I never forgot that I was being told a tale someone had made up. Disappointing.

 

Thanks to Hutchinson Books for the review copy.

In the Media, April 2016, Part One

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.

There’s been a strong narrative about the abuse of women over the last fortnight. Jessica Knoll wrote a personal and powerful essay about the gang rape which informed the writing of her novel Luckiest Girl Alive. ‘What I Know‘ was published on Lena Dunham’s site Lenny. Daisy Buchanan interviewed Knoll for The Pool. Jia Tolentino looked at the reporting of abuse in ‘Is this the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man‘ on Jezebel. Helen Walmsley-Johnson wrote ‘The shame of abuse has held me hostage for years‘ on The Pool; Kathryn Joyce wrote ‘Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream‘ on The Huffington Post; Jade Blair wrote, ‘Women Do What They Need To Do To Survive‘ on Hazlitt, and Louise O’Neill wrote ‘Nothing could prepare me for what happened when I published my book‘ on The Pool and ‘What a privilege it is to think that I might have touched other peoples lives in some small way‘ in The Irish Examiner. (The later is O’Neill’s weekly column which I’ve now added to the regulars section at the bottom of the post.)

The 2015 VIDA count for the number of bylines and reviews for female writers in literary magazines was announced. There’s some good news in some areas but, overall, there’s still a long way to go. Rachel McCarthy James followed this with, ‘Women in Publishing 100 Years Ago: A Historical VIDA Count: Representation and Gender (Im)Balance in 1916‘ on Literary Hub

The longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize was announced with seven books by female writers in the running.

The best of the rest:

On or about books/writers/language:

• Sara Barrett, ‘I have autism and the lack of authentic autistic voices in books angers me‘ in The Guardian
• Narwali Serpell, ‘Africa Has Always Been Sci-Fi‘ on Literary Hub
• Boris Kachka, ‘Claudia Rankine Challenges White Teachers, Pities White Racists in AWP Keynote‘ on Vulture
• Jane Mendlesohn, ‘Why I Wrote a Novel About Sex Trafficking‘ on Literary Hub
• Kate Tempest, ‘It’s difficult to look at words as pegs to hang a plot from’ in The Guardian
• Joanna Walsh, ‘On Self-Writing‘ in the Irish Times
• Harriet Reuter-Hapgood, ‘“I wake up panicked at 2am every night”: an author reveals what it’s (really) like to write a debut novel‘ in Stylist
• Mallory Ortberg, ‘Every Meal In Wuthering Heights Ranked In Order Of Sadness‘ in The Toast
• Ros Barber, ‘For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Abbott, ‘14 hour days, marketing and dealing with snobbery: my life as a self-published bestseller‘ on The Guardian
• Brigid Delaney, ‘What we write about when we write about running‘ in The Guardian
• Kelly Kerney, ‘The Impossible Task of Writing Historical Fiction‘ on Publishers Weekly
• Sofia Samatar, ‘On the 13 Words that Made Me a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Gaby Wood, ‘Harper Lee’s letters: priceless literary artifacts or tasteless celebrity memorabilia?‘ in The Telegraph
• Viv Groskop, ‘Celebrating Eat, Pray, Love 10 years on‘ on The Pool
• Mairi Kidd, ‘Access to books and reading should be a right‘ on The Bookseller
• Rachel Kondo, ‘Write How You Like Write: Representing Hawai’i Creole English as a Literary Participant‘ on Electric Literature
• Katie Roiphe, ‘Remembering Susan Sontag’s Final Days‘ on Literary Hub
• Rowan Whiteside, ‘Why I ❤️ Georgette Heyer‘ in Standard Issue
• Leigh Stein, ‘Millennial Days‘ in The New York Times
• David Featherstone, ‘Doreen Massey obituary‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Hughes, ‘Why those subversive Brontë sisters still hypnotise us‘ in The Guardian
• Hanya Yanagihara, ‘Writing can be lonely‘ in The Telegraph
• Kate Elliott, ‘Writing Women Characters into Epic Fantasy Without Quotas‘ on Tor.Com
• Sara Nović, ‘on how she wrote Girl at War‘ in The Guardian
• Sarah Bakewell, ‘At the Existentialist Café‘ on Literary Hub
• Mira Ptacin, ‘Hard Truth and Deep Trauma Behind Bars‘ on Literary Hub
• Shirley Barrett, ‘How to Be a Whaler’s Wife in 1908: Boil Everything, Wash the Clothes in Gin‘ on Literary Hub
• Lucy Mangan, ‘The forgotten genius: why Anne wins the battle of the Brontës‘ in The Guardian
• Danielle Dutton, ‘On Dressing Margaret Cavendish‘ in The Believer
• Vespa Goldsworthy, ‘I started from Gatsby as a Greek dramatist starts from Antigone‘ in The Guardian
• Rachel Cooke, ‘Anita Brookner’s wry, elegant world of disappointed women‘ in The Guardian

Personal essays/memoir:

• Madison Griffiths, ‘An Open Letter to My Vagina: Sex, Pain, and Vaginismus‘ on Vice
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘Running Still‘ in Guernica
• Lynn Steger Strong, ‘To Be a Mother, To Be a Writer‘ on Literary Hub
• Sara Black-McCulloch, ‘Catching the Light‘ on Maisonneuve
• Liz Jackson, ‘Four Years Ago Today, I Fell Out of Bed.‘ on Medium
• Susan Ito, ‘Names‘ on Catapult
• Molly Prentiss, ‘From a California Commune to New York City or, How to Be an Adult Woman in NYC‘ on Literary Hub
• Nandini Balial, ‘Agemus‘ on Midnight Breakfast
• Vivian Huyun, ‘I thought assimilation was the key to happiness, but I ended up trapped in a cultural prison‘ in The Guardian
• Abby Higgs, ‘A Conversation with Brandon‘ on Catapult
• Clare Vaye Watkins, ‘How to Escape Your Hometown‘ on Literary Hub
• Patricia Smith, ‘Bazooka Smackdown‘ in Guernica
• Marissa Korbel, ‘No, Lolita‘ on The Rumpus

Feminism:

• Katie Daubs, ‘The woman who was trans before her time‘ in The Toronto Star
• Glosswitch, ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s approach to fatherhood is a victory for male supremacy‘ in the New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman, ‘There is an epidemic of missing women and girls of colour in the UK‘ on Media Diversified
• Elisa Albert, ‘Confessions of a Radical Doula‘ in The Cut
• Tabitha Blankenbiller, ‘The Slow Fall of the Hot Heroine‘ on The Rumpus
• Jendella Benson, ‘Is It Worth it?: Black Women’s Voices and the Permission to Speak‘ on the Huffington Post
• Laura Bates, ‘Why is travelling alone still considered a risky, frivolous pursuit for women?‘ in The Guardian
• Rosie Fletcher, ‘It’s great that Emma Watson is standing up for feminism – but #HeforShe is the wrong approach‘ in The New Statesman

Society and Politics:

• Bettina Judd, ‘On or about July 10, 2015‘ on The Offing
• Jo Scott-Coe, ‘Listening to Kathy‘ on Catapult
• Ellen Cantarow and Alison Rose Levy, ‘A Fukushima on the Hudson?‘ in Guernica
• Christina Cauterucci, ‘We Expect Women to Have Impostor Syndrome. That’s Why We Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton.‘ on Slate
• Erica Schweigershausen, ‘How Biased Policies Push Black Girls Out of School‘ on The Cut
• Angie Maxwell, ‘Donald Trump and the Lost Cause‘ in VQR
• Miranda Trimmier, ‘Dark Pools‘ on The New Inquiry
• Patricia Lockwood, ‘Lost in Trumplandia‘ in the New Republic
• Zoe Williams, ‘These Tory messages show us why faith has no place in politics‘ in The Guardian
• Elaine Brown, ‘‘A Taste of Power’: The Woman who Led the Black Panther Party‘ on Longreads
• Rebecca Solnit, ‘Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco‘ in The Guardian
• Amanda Chicago Lewis, ‘How Black People Are Being Shut Out of America’s Weed Boom‘ on Buzzfeed
• Emma Green, ‘Black Activism, Unchurched‘ in The Atlantic
• Eleanor Margolis, ‘“Faithful amanuensis”: how the guise of friendship is used to erase lesbian relationships‘ in The New Statesman

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

• Taffy Brodesser-Akner, ‘Water’s Edge‘ on ESPN
• Bronwen Dickey, ‘Dogs of Character: Pride, Prejudice, and the American Pit Bull Terrier‘ in VQR
• Hanna Yusuf, ‘Why the fashion elite needs to stop undermining Muslim women’s choice of clothing‘ in The Pool
• Helen Garner, ‘‘A certain sort of maleness’: on a week spent watching Russell Crowe films‘ in The Guardian
• Ali Smith, ‘The enigma of Giorgione‘ on The Royal Academy of Arts blog
• Anne Helen Peterson, ‘The Unbearable Sadness Of Ben Affleck‘ on Buzzfeed
• Anne Helen Petersen, ‘How Jennifer Garner Went Full “Minivan Majority”‘ on Buzzfeed
• Megha Majumdar, ‘Privileged Nostalgia: On Hollywood, Perception, and the Quest for Authenticity‘ on Electric Literature
• Jean Hannah Edelstein, ‘Unpicking the fascination with the Queen of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow‘ on The Pool
• Zadie Smith, ‘Windows on the Will‘ in The New York Review of Books
• Ella Risbridger, ‘You walk differently in boots – and that’s their power‘ on The Pool

The interviews:

• Maggie Nelson in The Observer
• Ursula Le Guin on Literary Hub
• Mona Awad on Electric Literature and Tin House
• Jennifer Barber on The Rumpus
• Anne-Marie Slaughter in The Cut
• Attica Locke on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Phoebe Fox on Women Writers, Women’s Books
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on Electric Literature
• Danielle Dutton on Literary Hub
• Marilynne Robinson in The Washington Post
• Donna Leon on the Waterstones blog
• Idra Novey in 3:AM Magazine
• Jackie Copleton on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction blog
• Shelley Harris on Rebecca Mascull’s blog
• Dawn Tripp on Salon
• Lynn Steger Strong on Electric Literature
• Clio Gray on the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Blog
• Edna O’Brien in The New York Times
• Helen Oyeyemi on Vice
• Camille Rankine in Interview Magazine
• Tracy Chevalier in The Independent
• Angela Flournoy and Kaitlyn Greenidge on Literary Hub
• Antonia Honeywell on Jo Hogan Writes
• Susan Orlean on Broadly
• Sinéad Gleeson on Minnie Melange

The regular columnists:

• Laurie Penny in The New Statesman
• Lucy Mangan in Stylist
• Roxane Gay in The Guardian US
• Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent
• Caitlin Moran in The Times
• Lauren Laverne in The Pool
• Ella Risbridger in The Pool
• Sali Hughes in The Pool
• Bim Adewunmi in The Guardian
• Sophie Heawood in The Guardian
• Eva Wiseman in The Observer
• Tracey Thorn in The New Statesman
• Chimene Suleyman and Maya Goodfellow on Media Diversified
• Josie Pickens on Ebony
• Bridget Christie in The Guardian
• Lizzy Kremer on Publishing for Humans
• Juno Dawson in Glamour
• Kashana Cauley on Catapult
• Louise O’Neill in the Irish Examiner

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2016

8th March 2016: The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its 2016 longlist, comprised of 20 books that celebrate the best of fiction written by women

Here they are, the 20 books longlisted for this year’s Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. In alphabetical order (of author’s surname):

A God In Ruins – Kate Atkinson

Rush Oh! – Shirley Barrett

Ruby – Cynthia Bond

The Secret Chord – Geraldine Brooks

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding – Jackie Copleton

Whispers Through a Megaphone – Rachel Elliott

The Green Road – Anne Enright

The Book of Memory – Petina Gappah

Gorsky – Vesna Goldsworthy

The Anatomist’s Dream – Clio Gray

At Hawthorn Time – Melissa Harrison

Pleasantville – Attica Locke

The Glorious Heresies – Lisa McInerney

The Portable Veblen – Elizabeth McKenzie

Girl at War – Sara Nović

The House at the Edge of the World – Julia Rochester

The Improbability of Love – Hannah Rothschild

My Name Is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout

A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara

My initial reaction is that the three books I thought were certs are all on there – A God in Ruins, My Name Is Lucy Barton and A Little Life. Very pleased to see all three.

I predicted six of the titles, which is my highest success rate ever! Very pleased to see Girl at War on the list as well as The Portable Veblen. I’ve enjoyed all those I’ve already read, which includes The Green Road which I haven’t posted my review for yet.

As for the rest of the list, I’m delighted to see Pleasantville – I loved Black Water Rising and have had the latest on my TBR pile for ages. I’ve also heard good things from people I trust about The Book of Memory, At Hawthorn Time and The Glorious Heresies.

As always with The Bailey’s Prize there are some books I hadn’t heard of before I saw the list. My absolute favourite part of this is reading those titles, there’s always one in there that surprises me with its brilliance. On looking through the blurbs, I can’t believe I hadn’t come across Ruby, it’s had so many fantastic reviews, and The Anatomist’s Dream is perfect for my PhD thesis so I’m very pleased it’s come to my attention.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the reading and debating the books with the rest of the shadow panel. I’m hoping you’ll join in the discussion on our blogs and Twitter too. Can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks of the chosen titles.