Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Fayne’. Thanks to Tramp Press and Helen Richardson for my place on the tour and proof copy of the book (published 17th August).
As always, opinions are my own!
From the Publisher:
In the late nineteenth century, Charlotte Bell is growing up at Fayne, a vast and lonely estate straddling the border between England and Scotland, where she has been kept from the world by her adoring father, Lord Henry Bell, owing to a mysterious ‘condition’.
Charlotte, strong and insatiably curious, revels in the moorlands, and has learned the treacherous and healing ways of the bog from the old hired man, Byrn, whose own origins are shrouded in mystery. Her idyllic existence is shadowed by the magnificent portrait on the landing in Fayne House which depicts her mother, a beautiful Irish-American heiress, holding Charlotte’s brother, Charles Bell. Charlotte has grown up with the knowledge that her mother died in giving birth to her, and that her older brother, Charles, the long-awaited heir, died at the age of two. When Charlotte’s appetite for learning threatens to exceed the bounds of the estate, her father breaks with tradition and hires a tutor to teach his daughter ‘as you would my son, had I one’.
But when Charlotte and her tutor’s explorations of the bog turn up an unexpected artefact, her father announces he has arranged for her to be cured of her condition, and her world is upended. Charlotte’s passion for knowledge and adventure will take her to the bottom of family secrets and to the heart of her own identity.
In ‘Fayne’ we meet an irresistible young queer character whose curiosity and joy collide with the frustratingly arbitrary gender dichotomies in the world. Even with all her gifts – intelligence, wit and strength of character – can Charlotte overcome the violently enforced boundaries of society to claim her own place in the world?
My Review:
The blurb for this one sounded right up my street – a Victorian setting is always a winner for me! Also, the quotation from Ann-Marie MacDonald on the press release totally convinced me that I had an intriguing book in my hands:
‘I knew from a very young age that I was wrong in the world. And the idea of looking through the eyes of somebody who’s born with an intersex trait has been quite compelling to me for a very long time. It’s not an exotic quality. That’s why I’ve decided not to treat it as a “spoiler”. That’s just who Charlotte is, that’s her body. That’s normal. It’s the world that has a problem and is going to make it a problem for her.’
ANN-MARIE MACDONALD
So, the ‘Condition’ that Charlotte was born with isn’t a surprise for the reader, although it explains why her father, Lord Henry Bell, has kept her hidden away at the family estate, Fayne, on the English/Scottish border. This is the late 19th century, not known as a period with tolerance for differences, so Charlotte is raised within a small household and is mostly accepting of her sequestered life.
All that changes when Charlotte’s thirst for knowledge leads her father to engage a tutor for her, beginning a sequence of events that will take Charlotte to Edinburgh and into the medical community there. In Edinburgh, her world opens as she encounters new people – some with the best of intentions, others more malign.
For me, the strength of the novel lay in the character of Charlotte – raised as a (lively and unconventional) girl, before being shoved into constricting female fashion to prepare her for ‘womanhood’. Her voice in the novel is beautifully rendered by the author – we get the sense of a naive narrator, not always understanding the world around her and people’s true natures, but one who approaches life with humour, wit and wonder.
This is most evident in the scenes that deal with Charlotte’s connections to Fayne and – in particular – the bog and moorlands around the house. In Charlotte’s description, the bog takes on a mystical significance with elements of magic realism; this is a place that is both deadly and also restorative, surrounded by folk beliefs and myth.
Indeed, the landscape of Fayne becomes a central character in its own right – there is a senses that Fayne is this magical ‘middle ground’, disputed territory for England and Scotland, a place where the liminal is the norm and there are few rules – a lot like the untamed character of Charlotte living with an intersex trait. This contrasts brilliantly with Edinburgh where there is a sense of order and an intolerance for those who don’t fit with society’s expectations – although the novel is packed with character who do defy these expectations!
The main focus for the story is Charlotte’s drive towards understanding her past and finding her place in the world. There’s plenty of revelations and plot twists along the way that I wouldn’t dream of spoiling here – it’s a joy to follow Charlotte as she learns. The narrative also forces the reader to evaluate and re-evaluate characters, attitudes and social norms – a thought-provoking read all round.
My one reservation was about the length of the novel – at 730 pages, it is a fair old commitment for a reader! I did enjoy it, especially the earlier sections and those written from the perspective of Charlotte where the narrative voice was warmer and more comical. However, I did engage less with some of the longer sections of Mae’s story which were often sad and tragic and much more difficult to read. Both narratives are important to the novel though – I just preferred Charlotte!
Overall, I’d recommend this to those who love beautifully-written, compelling historical narratives with strong characterisation – you get to know the main players here very well and they are credible and interesting. It’s interesting to explore the past through the lens of gender expectations and see a character who is breaking the mould – and what a brilliant character Charlotte is! There’s much to enjoy in this lively and engaging book.
About the Author:
(Photo credit: Lora MacDonald-Palmer).
ANN-MARIE MACDONALD is a novelist, playwright, actor, and broadcast host. She was born in the former West Germany. After graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, she moved to Toronto where she distinguished herself as an actorand playwright. Her first play won the Governor General’s Award, the Chalmers Award and the Canadian Authors’ Association Award.
In 1996, her first novel ‘Fall on Your Knees’ became an international bestseller, was translated into nineteen languages and sold three million copies. It won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Fiction, the People’s Choice Award and the Libris Award. In 2002, it became an Oprah’s Book Club title. In 2003, ‘The Way the Crow Flies’ appeared, and in 2014, ‘Adult Onset’, both of which also enjoyed immense international success. In 2019 Ann-Marie MacDonald was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to the arts and her LGBTQ2S+ activism. She is married to theatre director, Alisa Palmer, with whom she has two children.
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