The Book Tower

Sometimes it’s hard to overcome your disappointment in a book.

Louis de Bernières published Birds Without Wings in 2004, a novel I regard highly and a work I really believe to be his masterpiece. It’s a big read; difficult and demanding at times, but so well written and executed that I’d place it alongside Dickens. Four years later comes A Partisan’s Daughter, a much slimmer and slighter work, and one that after taking me only a day to read has left me crying out for something more substantial.

A Partisan’s Daughter is an enjoyable enough novel. Mostly. Set in London in the early 1970s, it follows Chris, middle aged and dull at only forty, who approaches a girl who he believes to be a prostitute in an uncharacteristic moment of despair tinged with madness. Recovering from this awkward mistaken identity, the two, English and Yugoslavian, forge an unusual friendship, Chris visiting the run down house where the girl resides to share stories. The exchange appears one sided to Chris; he cannot compete with the exotic, exciting and sometimes disturbing visions from the girl’s past.

As the novel unfolds the reader is invited to question the validity of stories, and de Bernières poses a difficult question for the reader – do we sometimes do things simply in order to create an experience so that we can relate that experience to others? Do we embellish the truth? Do we tell stories to satisfy ourselves and to torment others? The themes are not new but they are well considered. Ultimately though I am disappointed; I miss the large canvas that de Bernières usually works with, he’s a big writer and I’m still waiting for something that will take much longer to digest. And I just hope I don’t have to wait another four years for it.