Moon Tiger

delivered as promised

Una prosa fantástica, una historia que son muchas historias a la ver: la maternidad, el amor, la libertad, la amistad, las relaciones familiares, la carrera profesional y el sexo. No es para todo el mundo; para mí, un gran hallazgo.

Moon Tiger is the story of Claudia Hampton, an intelligent academic whose life is chronicled from various points-of-view in a style that shifts freely between past and present. The book opens with Claudia, elderly and irascible, making plans to write a history of the world from her room in a nursing home. Having had a long career as a writer of popular histories, Claudia is well equipped for the task, and Moon Tiger itself can be seen as a reflection of Claudia’s own ambitions, her dysfunctional parents, her failed love affairs, her detached daughter. Penelope Lively presents a view of life that many middle-agers will relate to, looking back on what might have been. Deservedly a Booker Prize winner.

Diversamente dagli altri romanzi di P:L. ho trovato Moon Tiger pretenzioso e faticoso nella lettura. Ottimo antidoto a chi fatica ad addormentarsi

I was inspired to read this while reading Penelope Lively's non-memoir/memoir of recent publication (Dancing Fish etc.), I found myself involved in a good story, yes, but, with Lively, always, it is much more. I think I've read 10 of her books, but this one was the most time consuming, and it was only 200 pages. Part of the cause of the consumption of time, which really just enhanced the book, is due to the style. It is multiple narratives told like a kaleidoscope in random fragments with maybe 3 different narrators seeing the putatively same event with, of course, different points of view and emphasis. But then, that's history. Also, contributing to the need for rapt concentration was the melding of the main character's (Claudia) history with history in general. It works because it is Lively in control.The characters are well defined, noting that most of the defining is Claudia's defining. She is not easily lovable. She is exceedingly human. And she is smug beyond difficult. Why then, at the end of it all, I admired her is, well, as you savor this work, Lively is transforming her into a petulant victim, who demonstrates a kind of insolent courage.Why I read Lively is well demonstrated by Moon Tiger. It is always leisure learning. In this case it's history, both events and philosophy. It is words, not just vocabulary, challenging enough, but usage too. (somewhere in this book she describes minor facts as "vital inessentials" for true history.) It is story, always told with captivating style. It is characters, a blend of the odd and common in each, which makes them real. And finally, memory, as she exemplifies how integral it is to the history in which we ourselves live.In conclusion, I suspect, Moon Tiger could be taught as an interesting part of a modern literature course. It offers heft for sure.