The Mill on the Floss

Maggie Reading in the Fields

This morning I finished reading George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss. The story is gripping and tragic, and in the last couple of pages I found myself blinking back tears. For me it was a story about strength in the midst of human frailty and alienation. Eliot's heroine Maggie is one of those Victorian women who I felt a rapport with. Though she is a tragic figure and her flaws are not hidden from the reader, Maggie is empowering: instead of fleeing her home, she willingly endures the cruel criticism of bystanders who peer into the complications of her life, and overcoming opposition she eventually proves herself loyal, courageous and selfless. Have you read anything by Eliot? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this novel, or any of your recommended reading. Here's a quote from the end of The Mill on the Floss which I found myself re-reading a few times:

It was not till Tom had pushed off and they were on the wide water - he face to face with Maggie - that the full meaning of what had happened rushed upon his mind. It came with so overpowering a force - it was such a new revelation to his spirit, of the depths in life that had lain beyond his vision, which he had fancied so keen and clear - that he was unable to ask a question. They sat mutely gazing at each other: Maggie with eyes of intense life looking out from a weary, beaten face - Tom pale with a certain awe and humiliation. Thought was busy though the lips were silent: and though he could ask no question, he guessed a story of almost miraculous divinely-protected effort.

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

p.s. an interesting article on this novel

South of the Border, West of the Sun

This is the book I was reading the other week. Haruki Murakami's South of the Boarder, West of the Sun. I have to admit, it was the first time I'd ever read any Murakami, even though I'd heard so much about his writing. It's a very quick read, only 187 pages long, but I was gripped after the first chapter which is very rare for me. The story is told by Hajime, a married man and father whose life is turned upside down when his childhood companion, the enigmatic Shimamoto, reappears. The writing was honest and engaging, simplistic but in the most beautiful sort of way. The characters are intriguing too, and show the real complexity of human nature and the grip that the past holds over many aspects of life. I found the contrast between routine, predicatability and stability in Hajime's life, and the way he mentally and physically reacts when Shimamoto reappears particularly striking. At many points while reading, I felt trapped inside his over-thinking/unthinking mind. I think you could say that it's the ambiguities between the simplistic prose of this text that are the most powerful aspects of the narrative. The repetition of the word 'probably', the uncertainties of time and the entrapment of circumstance. I'm looking forward to reading more Murakami, and if you haven't read South of the Border, West of the Sun I'd definitely recommend it. If you have read it I'd love to hear what you thought.

"I don't know. Something. Day after day you watch the sun rise in the east, pass across the sky, then sink in the west, and something brakes inside you and dies. You throw your plough aside and, your head completely empty of thought, you begin walking toward the west. Heading toward a land that lies west of the sun. Like someone possessed, you walk on, day after day, not eating or drinking, until you collapse on the ground and die. That's hysteria siberiana."

(pp.155-156)