Ronit Matalon's
The Sound of Our Steps has won the 2009 Bernstein Prize for Best Original Novel and the 2013 Prix Alberto-Benveniste but failed to win the hearts or minds of our book clubbers.
Most of our readers had found its structure difficult to read. A sign of their struggles was that most had resorted to reading the book's concluding chapter during their read to see whether it was worth continuing the battle. Most also found that this did not necessarily help so they plodded on in the hope of further enlightenment. Some mentioned that the shortness of some of the chapters was considered a bonus but found the lack of linear plot line very confusing. They observed that the jumping around might have been more tolerable if there was some indicator of where the vignette belonged in relation to the other chapters.
As so many folk had experienced difficulty with the book, we resorted to looking at reviews (one by David Cooper for Amazon and one by Dinah Assouline Stillman for World Literature Today) to see if any more light could be shed on the novel.
From these reviews we found it was considered a largely autobiographical novel with a novelistic twist and some of our readers felt it might have been more successful if it was presented as an unadulterated autobiography.
According to David Cooper, this novel conveyed Ronit Matalon's family story 'via a non-linear plot' with often quite short chapters utilising a variety of forms including 'direct conventional realist narration, anaphora, poetic prose, dense multipage paragraphs comprising a single compound sentence, magical realism,....and....found texts ... presented verbatim in italics' thus combining 'western and middle eastern narrative styles'. This led to discussion about the influence of culture (both the writer's and the reader's) on the experience of a novel and how one's pre-conceived expectations could colour the enjoyment of a book, especially when these expectations and experience are found to be out of step with each other.
Dinah Assouline Stillman's interview with Ronit Matalon revealed that the author had intended most of all 'for this book ....to be a witness'. She wanted to 'show this diversity of viewpoints about our stories'. This intent guided the book's structure. 'Far from being a traditional novel with a central, imaginary plot...it is composed of a multitude of anecdotes and vignettes, fragmented like the memories you are drawing from.'
Some of our readers commented that these reviews helped them appreciate and understand the book more while others were not quite so convinced. Our readers found the diversity of forms used confusing. They were never quite sure whether what they were reading was intended as a memory of an event or a dream and to follow on from this they were often lost as to why something was included and what was the purpose of its inclusion.
Our readers are quite an inventive group and there were many different approaches made by individuals to endeavour to make sense of this book. One desperate, creative reader decided to take the title of the novel literally and so tried to read the book as they walked to the rhythm of the prose. What they found was the pace picked up to the extent that they could not keep up. This approach generated much discussion and hilarity.
The characters, especially Lucette and Maurice,produced much discussion. Most considered the family as dysfunctional but others argued there was sufficient evidence to refute this. Many found Lucette's erratic behaviour made it difficult to sympathise with her plight despite her difficult life. Some argued that she was better off than many in her predicament. There was a little confusion as to the family's background, but group discussion helped sort out the details to everyone's satisfaction.
Some of our readers had felt that their inability to come to grips with this novel was a personal failing and therefore, despite their travails were determined to finish this book, especially as our last book club selection had proved unreadable for all but one of our group. Therefore it came as a great relief that everyone had struggled with this novel also. Book club certainly provides a place where people can share their individual reactions to a book in a social environment and thus the individual experience contributes to a collective one which seems to enhance everyone's understanding.
After the experience of our last two book club selections our readers were facing the reveal of our next book club selection with a little trepidation.
The Travels of Daniel Ascher by Deborah Levy-Bertherat is a much smaller book and is peppered with delightful drawings. Hopefully folk will enjoy this lighter read more. After the challenge of our last two reads it may prove too light for our enhanced 'reading muscles'. As always, our next book club will certainly prove interesting!
I'll investigate some reviews of this novel and post them to our next blog.
Happy reading.........
