2016 Booker Prize shortlisted His Bloody Project was our April choice- just a quick
summery of our discussion.
Reception of the book was mostly positive, though it was
commented that it was a tough book to read for several reasons- the grimness of
the plot, various bloody murders and its unhappy ending for one, but also the
dense, jargon-filled legal proceedings, the somewhat dry court case, the technical
reports from psychologists and doctors. Whilst it was varied and cleverly done,
many of us struggled to plough through at least part of it. One person also commented that though they thought it interesting,
they weren’t sure if they would recommend it, definitely not sure who to. We
agreed that the format was definitely unique, that a unique novel in such a
popular, established genre such as crime fiction was an achievement in and of
itself. We agreed that the “found documents” style of the book definitely added
to the reader’s experience as it placed them in the detective’s chair and
allowed them to draw their own conclusions after reviewing the collected
evidence.
As you might expect, we talked at length about Roddy Macrae
and the type of person that he is. In his own account he is a somewhat naïve
dreamer of a boy- a disappointment to his father, a conflicted and unhappy
person that seems to get everything wrong and suffers from enormous stretches
of bad luck. There are inconsistencies with how he perceives himself and how
others perceive him. He is described variously as a gifted student, the village
idiot, a dangerous miscreant, a harmless if odd teenager. Some accounts tally
with what Roddy himself claims. Some most definitely do not. We talked about
how hard it was to wade through the conflicting accounts, how quick we were (or
how long it took) to realise that Roddy’s story was merely a version and not
the truth, how subjective first-hand accounts can be and how flexible things
like truth and innocence can be. His
Bloody Project was compared at this point to Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, as that too has a main
character on trial for murder, scrutinised by professionals that make
declarations about her sanity, motivations and personality, while the narrator
too tries to work out who she is and what she has done. Read it if you haven’t,
because it’s excellent.
We talked about how damning the coroner’s report was as a
piece of evidence. Until the report is read in court, it’s easy to write off
other villagers’ opinions of Roddy as prejudice or malice. When the Coroner
describes the mutilated, ruined corpse of Flora, Roddy’s crush and supposedly unintentional
victim, he claims no knowledge or memory of performing such actions. In his
version he simply kills her in a daze and wanders off. We discussed how, in a
narrative so dependent on impressions, recollections and perceptions, a coroner’s
report describing Flora’s injuries just feels too conclusive to ignore. It
proves Roddy as a liar and forces the reader to re-think everything else- the
raising of fledgling birds, the startling of the deer to save its life…we
decided it cast it all in a new, sceptical light.
We talked about how good and evocative the setting was, how
dark, gloomy places seem to evoke a desire to murder. We talked about how the
rigid class structure and firm social views regarding aspirations and knowing
your place might have contributed to Roddy’s motives. The other crofters seemed
fairly unanimous that though Lachlan Broad was an unpleasant bully, the Macraes’
issues with him were minor. WE talked about Calvinism and predeterminism and
the idea of fate and prophecy. Roddy’s sister had predicted Lachlan’s death, so
Roddy felt compelled to bring it to pass. Very Macbeth.
We talked briefly about the minor characters and how utterly
miserable their lives were- how Jetta was driven to suicide by her father’s
rage and the fact she was pregnant. Jetta and Flora seemed particularly endangered-
there was a nasty whiff of incest about their relationships with their
respective fathers- both girls seemed trapped and deeply unhappy. If Lachlan was
able to abuse his neighbour’s daughter in the way that he did, we didn’t doubt
he’d do it to his own. We talked too about how Roddy’s half siblings might have
been Lachlan’s.
I’ve probably missed out quite a lot, but it was an
interesting discussion about a unique novel that made a big impression- full of
contradictions and mysteries and unfathomable people that see more than they
let on and know more than what they say.
Our book for May is Sarah Perry’s bestseller The Essex
Serpent, which is luckily on the 2 for £7 in Tesco (and probably other stores).
Future choices were discussed; we thought we’ve read a lot of new releases
recently, so something a bit more vintage would be welcome. Thanks to everyone
that suggested these J
June- Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh
July -The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
August- The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
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