Year I in Review: April '08 ~ THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield

One of our members had read good reviews and intriguing excerpts from The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield. It was described as a gothic novel (like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights) with plenty of literary allusions, so it sounded like something we bookish types might enjoy, as well as something a bit lighter after several months of non-fiction selections. After reading it, however, our members had very mixed reviews - some really enjoyed it and others found it rather disturbing. It did generate good discussion, and from that discussion, we settled on the theme that we are pursuing during our second year.

The Thirteenth Tale tells the story of Vida Winter, a famous, but elusive novelist who is nearing the end of her life and decides to reveal her true story to Margaret Lea, an extremely introverted woman whose life revolves around reading and working in her father's antiquarian bookshop. Miss Winter has fabricated countless accounts of her life story to various reporters over the years, so Margaret is rather uncertain about finding the truth in Miss Winter's story. She takes meticulous notes and visits the sites of Miss Winter's early life, uncovering more complexities along the way. Margaret herself is haunted by a loss in her own life, and as she seeks to unravel Miss Winter's mysterious past, she must face her own memories and fears.

We began our discussion using questions found at the book's website, which unfortunately seems to be out of commission for the time being. While some of those questions were interesting, we didn't find a lot of depth to our discussion there.

We did, however, have some very good conversation about the nature of truth as presented in the novel. Margaret Lea seems to represent a more objective sense of truth as she searches for the facts necessary to make sense of Miss Winter's story. Vida Winter, on the other hand, seems the epitome of post-modernism, since truth has been whatever her imagination could create. As the story unfolds, we understand why Miss Winter fled from the truth, and in the end there is a neat resolution of the intricacies of the story and closure in the lives of almost all the principal characters.

Some of the disturbing details of the dysfunctional home of Vida Winter's childhood overshadowed our discussion of the story itself. The allusion to incest was shocking when encountered in the story, but in retrospect it does fit with the surprise twist near the end and, in that sense, is a key element to unravelling the mystery. One member mentioned several classic novels that have similar instances of incest, and from that idea we began to discuss classics about "fallen" women that we might want to read: Moll Flanders, Vanity Fair, Madame Bovary, and The House of Mirth, to name a few. Thus began our discussion of a theme for our second year, a theme which slowly evolved from a focus on fallen women in the classics to a more general category of the roles and influences of women in both classic and modern literature. Obviously, there is a vast number of books that fall under that broad heading, but we hope we have selected a good variety for this year so far (see schedule in the side bar).

Our members jotted down these brief comments on The Thirteenth Tale at the close of our meeting in April:

"Intriguing and allusive...with good discussion."

"Very unique story, captivating - in the sense of figuring out the truth."

"Good discussion; well-written story; not a favorite, but interesting."

"Yeah, not a favorite, but sparked good discussion - probably more than the writer thought we would find there."

"Well-written but disturbing in parts; good discussion book."