I first saw this book over at the other Jill’s blog. And she wouldn’t shut up about it. And then the author kept guest posting! And then she told me I could order it through Book Depository (which has free shipping, btw, so don’t be afraid). Geez, I had to read the damn thing just to shut her up!
Okay, that last sentence is a lie…my mom will tell you I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. Well, except go to work, but I have to earn money for books somehow.
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Publisher’s Description:
Blind since birth, widowed in her twenties, now lonely in her forties, Marianne Fraser lives in Edinburgh in elegant, angry anonymity with her sister, Louisa, a successful novelist. Marianne’s passionate nature finds solace and expression in music, a love she finds she shares with Keir, a man she encounters on her doorstep one winter’s night. While Marianne has had her share of men attracted to her because they want to rescue her, Keir makes no concession to her condition. He is abrupt to the point of rudeness, and yet oddly kind. But can Marianne trust her feelings for this reclusive stranger who wants to take a blind woman to his island home on Skye, to show her the stars?
What struck me about this book was how it was seemingly written from a blind person’s perspective. There were very few visual descriptions in the book. There were some, and I think more at the end, but the focus was on Marianne’s auditory and tactile experiences.
I love the garden in all seasons. I especially love it when it rains. I like to shelter under the trees when they’re in full leaf and listen to the patter of rain as it forms a kind of sound-sculpture for me, defining the size and shape of a tree, giving me an aural sense of scale, of distance. I have no concept of landscape and only a vague understanding of what distance must look like. I experience distance mainly as the difference between loud and soft, but sound quality isn’t always related to distance. A man’s voice might be very soft, but he could be lying beside you. Volume is not a true guide.
Marianne’s scenes with Keir were my favorites of the whole book. Keir is blunt, and pretty much tells it like it is, but he also has a poetic streak. He is able to describe his world to Marianne, using their shared loved of music. This results in some stunning writing.
If you look east, one of the brightest stars you’ll see is Arcturus. It has a yellow-orange glow. Most stars look cold. Icy. They’d sound like…flutes. No, piccolos. Shrill. Arcturus looks warmer. A cello maybe…it looks like the stove feels when it gives off just a bit of heat. Arcturus glows, but it doesn’t burn or blaze like the sun. It’s like the feeling you might have for an old friend…or an ex-lover, one who still means something to you. Steady. Passionless. On second thoughts, make that a viola…how am I doing?
The musical comparisons continue throughout the book. On her website, Linda Gillard mentions the connection between music and blindness and shares a quote from Jacques Lusseyran. I really hope she doesn’t mind me co-opting it:
The first concert hall I ever entered, when I was eight years old, meant more to me in the space of a minute than all the fabled kingdoms… Going into the hall was the first step in a love story. The tuning of the instruments was my engagement… I wept with gratitude every time the orchestra began to sing. A world of sounds for a blind man, what sudden grace!… For a blind person music is nourishment… He needs to receive it, to have it administered at intervals like food… Music was made for blind people.
I include this quote because in Star Gazing Gillard really does show how music was made for blind people.
Also, I think I’ve discovered why Jill loved this book so much. There is much mention of chocolate:
He hit his Highland consonants with the same satisfying ‘click’ that good chocolate makes when you snap it in pieces. (The blind are as fetishistic about voices as the sighted are about appearances, so allow me, if you will to describe this man’s voice as chocolate. Serious chocolate. Green & Black’s, not Cadbury’s.)
Jill, you’re busted.
This sounds like a really interesting book – it must be very different to read something in which all the descriptions are based on sounds instead if images. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)´s last blog ..Labyrinth – Kate Mosse
It’s beautifully done. And recommended by 2 Jills.
Great quotes you chose! Especially the last one! But wait, do you mean to tell me you missed the passage about “the satisfying crunch of celery, the liquidy pop of a cucumber…” Okay, I made that up. That wouldn’t be fiction, it would be fantasy….
rhapsodyinbooks´s last blog ..Revisiting “A Dog About Town” by J.F. Englert and Giveaway
I haven’t touched celery or cucumbers since that first week of game on.
I’ve heard good things about this although I can’t remember where. One to bear in mind.
Claire (Paperback_Reader)´s last blog ..Even More Recent Acquisitions…
It’s popping up around the blogosphere. I think Jill started a Linda Gillard trend.
This book sounds so intriguing! I like the sound of all the music/imagery connections in the book, and I don’t think I’ve encountered a book narrated by a blind person. Thanks for putting this book on my radar.
A Bookshelf Monstrosity´s last blog ..And the Winner Is…
I think the blind narrator was a first for me, too.
Thank you so much for this review, Fizzy. I’m the author.
I was thrilled to hear you’d enjoyed reading those descriptions as much as I’d enjoyed writing them. What I had originally thought would be a challenging restriction to telling the story turned out to be a huge gift. The ordinary became extraordinary. Keir took Marianne to a new world of experiences on Skye and I was taken to a new world of experiences, describing them from a blind “point of view”.
You might be interested to know that earlier this year it was short-listed for Romantic Novel of the Year in the UK. I’ve also sold the film rights but I have no idea how they could possibly turn it into a film.
(Btw you no longer have to order via the Book Depository. STAR GAZING is now being distributed in the US.)
Thanks for stopping by Linda! And thanks for writing! I just received Emotional Geology from the Book Depository today…I don’t think I’ll be able to stop ordering from them.
This sounds great. I love that it is written from the perspective of a blind woman since it’s something that I don’t run across that often. I love reading passages full of sensory description.
Nicole´s last blog ..Perfection, by Julie Metz
Be careful though…you might just fall in love with Keir. The man’s got a way with words.
I actually won this from the other Jill, but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Now that I know it has chocolate in it, I’ll have to move it up my TBR pile.
Kathy´s last blog ..Wondrous Words Wednesday
LOL…and good chocolate, too.
Hmmm… In the light of your comments, I’m rethinking the work-in-progress… I’m thinking confectionery in a big way…
Yeah, us readers love our chocolate.
This sounds like a book, I would LOVE. Thank you so much for posting about it.
diane´s last blog ..Waiting on Wednesday; Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt
It’s a great story and a delight to read.
I have a Border’s coupon burning a hole in my pocket … now I know what to use it for!
Thanks, dear softdrink!
I hope you can find it!
Are you beginning to suspect, as I am, that perhaps Jill at Rhapsodyinbooks may actually BE Linda Gillard??? ; )
I read Linda’s book, “A Lifetime Burning” recently — thanks to Jill at Rhapsodyinbooks. Has anyone ever seen the two of them together? I may be on to something I think.
Anyway, this sounds like a lovely book and full of wonderful descriptions — very very different from “A Lifetime Burning” which was a bit more “unconventional.” Music played a big role in “A Lifetime Burning” too — I suspect she has quite a musical side to her.
Well done.
Jenners´s last blog ..Review: Silverstein & Me by Marv Gold
Thanks. And yes, I think you’re on to something.
Sounds like a great read…. love how you were “forced” to read it
Sheila (Bookjourney)´s last blog ..Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby Giveaway
Wicked! Recommended by 2 Jill’s…
and those are some beautiful quotes~!
and glad the “other Jill” won’t shut up and hoe she “forced” you to read it
Veens´s last blog ..Soul Catcher by Leigh Bridger