Thursday, March 14, 2019

Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson

Drain men are here again, but it is not hoping well. They're not saying much to me, but from the swearing I gather the hole they've just knocked into the wall has not given access to the stack of drains as hoped, and is now just another expensive mess to clear up. I am feeling far from happy about it.

Apart from anything else, and this is running well into the third week of not being able to use my kitchen properly, all of it takes up so much time. Phone calls, emails, waiting for people to turn up, and all the rest of it. I've spent all of today answering calls and the doorbell to one man, if I even think about picking up a book something buzzes or rings, or starts being hammered. To be fair I don't think the drain guy is having a good day either, but he gets to go home to satisfactory plumbing.

Meanwhile it's been quite a long time since I finished 'Lighthousekeeping', and after much thought I'm still not sure what I want to say about it. I enjoyed it, a lot. I think I more or less understood what Winterson was trying to do (though that's possibly optimism on my part) but if ever a book begged to be discussed with a group, or at least one other enthusiastic reader who had some ideas about it, it's this one.

There's a fairy tale element of the fantastic, and a lot of interest in telling stories and the independent life they take on over time. There is Pew the blind lighthouse keeper who has always been at the lighthouse, but has he always been there, or has a Pew always been there. Stories and memories are something we inherit and recycle between generations and friends. Telling them makes them ours and creates memories and legends along the way.

Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson both inhabit this particular story, along with continuous metaphors about light and dark, or the flashes of light in the dark that can guide us. Mostly though, I just find myself enjoying Winterson's writing.

And now there are two holes in my kitchen wall, but the plumbing/drain issues are no nearer to being fixed. The current conclusion is that the floorboards need to come up. Nobody appears to have plans for the building that show where the pipes go - although they surely must exist somewhere, and I still can't use my washing machine. I've had better days.

6 comments:

  1. I am so sorry that your problem has still not been fixed. Best wishes for a speedy outcome.

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    1. It'll get resolved eventually, we've just been unlucky this time. Got to say that after the events in NZ the inconvenience has been put in a different perspective.

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  2. You make me want to read the Winterson! You give such a sense of the experience of reading it - even through the terrible irritations of plumbing trouble. Fingers crossed that things improve swiftly.

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    1. I remember looking at this book when it came out and thinking it wasn't for me. Totally wrong. I generally like things that explore the nature of story telling, and love her prose, so I'm pleased I overcame whatever idea I had that stopped me reading her books before.

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  3. I hadn't realised how bad your drains were. Fingers crossed that it improves soon and your kitchen gets back to normal. I haven't read this Winterson, but really like the sound of it.

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    1. It's not great, and the flat above has the same problem, which somehow seems to be becoming 'my' problem too as the man up there keeps asking me when it'll be fixed. Thank you for the snake advice, I'm getting one of those asap as good drain hygiene is now top of my list of priorities.

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