What distinguishes a good author from a not so good author?
For me the criterion is whether, if I start reading at a random page, I get “drawn into the book” or not. And, if I start reading a random page of a book of Margaret Drabble, I get immediately drawn into it. So one can infer from this that she is very high on my scale of good authors.
In Margaret Drabble’s novel “The waterfall” the woman who is the main character of the book is told by her (American-raised) cousin Lucy: “You’re quite spoiled, you’re quite spoiled with solitude”. This very interesting and well-written novel is about a young woman (Jane) who, at the beginning of the first chapter, lies in bed for most of the time, alone in the house, waiting for her child to be born. The first chapter is written in the third person and describes the start of a passionate relation between Jane and the husband (James) of her cousin, who keeps her company by sitting at her bed doing nothing (apart from watching her), although, in an attempt to make her not too uncomfortable, he also pretends to be reading from time to time.
The second chapter shifts to the first person (but it is the same Jane that was pregnant in the first chapter) and starts answering questions that indeed came to my mind reading the first chapter, like: “When the baby is born, not much is said about it in the first chapter, all attention is on the developing love between Jane and James, is Jane not happy with her child?”
Or: “James is the husband of Jane’s cousin, who also comes over to take care of her. Doesn’t she feel a bit guilty?”
The second chapter in fact starts with a wonderful, almost baroque “monologue intérieur” (or perhaps more accurately: “dialogue intérieur”) on these matters, for which the first person is probably indeed the better vehicle.
In the first chapter, Jane is most of the time alone, but does not seem to feel this as too unpleasant. Her husband has left her, or, in another interpretation, she sent him away. A characteristic sentence describing this solitude is:
“She held in fact so much to her solitude that when the pains of labour started, she could hardly bring herself to summon the midwife, so reluctant was she to see and to be seen.”.
The conversation I alluded to at the start of this blog takes place less than 24 hours after the baby is born, when Lucy tells Jane that her husband James will stay with her and that she will go home herself. To which Jane protests (for a mixture of reasons):
`It’ll annoy him’, said Jane, so put out that she was unable to drop the subject, preferring the pain of undignified protest to the pain of acquiescence in a project so unwelcome. `It’ll annoy him, and then I’ll be annoyed, having him here, and I shan’t be able to read my book… I’d rather be alone. I’d rather be alone.”
After which the interesting conversation, containing the title of this blog follows:
`Who wouldn’t rather be alone?’ said Lucy, rising briskly to her feet and clearing up the tea things, `but alas, in birth, death, old age and infirmity, it’s not possible.’
`Oh, all right,’ said Jane, `I suppose I’m alone enough.’
`You’re quite spoiled,’ said Lucy, looking at her oddly,
`You’re quite spoiled with solitude.’
I tried this sentence “You’re spoiled with solitude” out on a long-time acquaintance at a birthday party for an old lady, who is always complaining about loneliness (although I personally have the impression that she sees more people than I do, for example; it also contradicts the quote from the conversation between Jane and Lucy: `Who wouldn’t rather be alone? But alas, in birth, death, old age and infirmity, it’s not possible.’).
To my surprise, my long-time acquaintance answered: “How beautifully said: `spoiled with solitude’”.
By the way, the title of Margaret Drabble’s novel “The waterfall” does not denote the ordinary waterfall, as in “Niagara falls”, but denotes a card trick James shows to Jane much later in the book. He has practiced a lot on this card trick, which has to be done exactly right, otherwise it will fail. Mastering this takes dedication, which is one of his properties which make Jane fall in love with him.
