Best books I never wrote Owen Marshall
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
A superb contemporary novel by a master of the form. The work concerns a delusional stalker and the man with whom he becomes obsessed, but avoids blatant melodrama and has one of the most powerful opening chapters in modern fiction. The characters are intriguing and the rising tension is expertly managed. I once met McEwan and expressed my admiration for the psychological subtlety of this work. He smiled, thanked me, but alas revealed no secrets of technique of which I could take advantage.
The Collected Stories of William Trevor Trevor, who continued the great tradition of Irish short story writing, had a long and distinguished career. He is a subtle and elegant writer whose female characters are as finely drawn as the men, and the stories are carried by authenticity of setting as well as enduring themes. He is especially interested in the influence of memory and the past, the constraints and lessons of experience and the effects of change. The writing may appear subdued to the casual reader, but richly rewards those who are attentive.
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
The last in the Regeneration Trilogy set during World War I. Barker, who won the 1995 Man Booker Prize, is a writer whose impressive ability stretches from depicting history in gritty and convincing detail to lyrical flights of moving intensity. She wears her scrupulous research lightly, is utterly assured in dealing with a largely male world and her period dialogue rings true. The novel is a triumph and throbs with the agony of war.
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
Of all the opening sentences I have read, I recall none to equal: ‘‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’’ It encapsulates the themes of this fine novel dealing with the rigid class mores of a lost age and the betrayal of youthful trust. A complete and moving work that inspired a similarly fine film based upon it. Hartley is probably not much read today, but this is his masterpiece.
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame
Frame’s idiosyncratic personal sensitivity, command of language and symbolic view of the world constitute the closest thing to genius that we have in New Zealand writing. Some of her later novels seem to drift away from a general readership, increasingly difficult and self-absorbed, but this work has a fierce and aching purity, a full comprehension of the joy and sorrow that exist together in the world. I love it also because I catch within it the echoes of Waimaru/ Oamaru, that
Kingdom by the Sea.
Owen Marshall is a multi-award winning author and short story writer. His latest novel, Pearly Gates (RHNZ Vintage, $38) is out now.