Janet Burroway

Raw Silk by Janet Burroway is a 2014 Open Road Integrated Media publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Virginia is an American married to Oliver living in England with their daughter, Jill. They both work in the textile industry, Oliver being the number two man. When Jill begins to have difficulty in school, Oliver insist she attend a boarding school. Virginia is not really into that idea, but Oliver is a man that show more usually gets his way, so now Virginia is at loose ends. She still has her job to occupy her, but she's lonely. Enter in a new employee that is young and insecure that needs a little maternal influence and Virgina feels drawn to her. Oliver is strenuously opposed to the friendship mainly because he feels embarrassed that his wife is spending time with such a lower class person when she should be trying to politic with the crowd Oliver must impress, especially since his boss also frowns on the friendship. Ginny will not be deterred however and as her friendship with Frances becomes more involved and Frances becomes more erratic, Oliver becomes angrier and begins forcing Ginny into rough sex.
As Frances lies in the hospital, Ginny's marriage to Oliver becomes even more strained. He is preoccupied with the merger of his company with a company in Japan. The community and the workers are all quite nervous and Oliver is almost impossible to be around. The only pleasure Ginny finds is when she can spend time with Jill.
When a design submitted wins the coveted Carnaby Award, it is presumed it was Ginny's. However, she had submitted it on behalf of Frances. But, with Frances in the mental state she is, Oliver has no qualms about seeing that Ginny takes the credit for the design.
This is how Ginny winds up in Japan. Her journey there will be an awakening for her and a wake up call for Oliver. But, is it too late for Oliver? Has Ginny realized that all she ever needed was right there within her own self and with her own talent?
This is an absorbing story as Ginny starts off with a traditional marriage and family life, then has her husband slowly begin to change. He becomes status conscious and a control freak, while Ginny struggles to keep a piece of herself that belongs to her. Oliver even interferes with the one relationship that has brought joy into Ginny's life, and that is Jill. But then she latches on to Frances and becomes a mother like figure to her, Oliver hates that too. Then when Ginny has finally had all she can take of him, she branches out on her own leaving Oliver in shear panic. I didn't feel sorry for him at all. I loved watching Ginny immerge out the prison that was her marriage and take charge of her life. Once she felt the exhilaration of independence and freedom, she knew she could never go back to her previous life. I suppose you could say this is a journey of self discovery and even triumph. I have no idea what genre this book falls in, but I have to say it most likely fits into the contemporary fiction or literary fiction category and maybe a little bit of women's fiction. This is a very unique drama that leaves the reader feeling at peace on Ginny's behalf.
The authors prose is just beautiful will have the reader eating from her hand from the first chapter to the last.
Overall this is an A+ show less

Suffice it to say, I devoured Raw Silk in four days. I probably would have finished it sooner if I didn't have to take time out for essential things like eating, sleeping, and a little thing called going to work. I simply couldn't put it down. Virginia Marbalestier is an American mother to a five year old, married to a Brit, and living in a big house outside of London. She has risen above her childhood of Californian poverty to become a successful textiles designer for a company where her show more domineering husband is second in command. She appears to have it all, but if anyone were to peep in their windows one would see an abusive relationship spiraling out of control. "Ginny" and husband, Oliver, fight constantly and the confusing thing is, not only does Ginny predict the abuse, she does nothing to avoid it. She welcomes it by deliberately differing and defying her husband on a regular basis. They fight over the welfare of their daughter and when Ginny gives in that is the first betrayal. The second is Frances. Oliver is all about appearances and when Ginny befriends Frances, a mentally unstable, nearly catatonic coworker, he seethes with anger. The angrier Oliver gets, the more "accidents" Ginny has. This downward spiral forces Ginny to examine her own life, her own betrayals, her own sacrifices. show less

Clearly this book is written for the beginning English major in undergrad; the author herself even says so. Anyone outside of this demographic probably won't care or will grown bored. I fell into the latter group. While there were many kernals of good advice, it was all information I had heard before. Good reminders, perhaps; beyond that, it offered little more for me.

Overall, this is a good textbook for the undergrad English major. I would suggest being cautious with the author's opinions, show more however. There are few things I despise more in English craft books than "This is the way to do this and it is the only way" which Burroway alludes to from time to time. Which is ironic considering that the first chapter is entitled "Whatever It Takes" and is the same chapter in which the author tells the reader to "keep a journal," freewrite, and so forth. While these may be good practices to try out, they're not for every writer. show less

Rarely have I encountered a writing text so dense in wisdom, so practical, and so philosophically astute. I love how Burroway segues from specific suggestions to illustrative examples from literature to a unified, comprehensive and comprehendible theory of how fiction works.

"Although these are tricks that can be taught and learned, they partake of the essential nature of creativity, in which several elements are joined to produce not merely a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, show more but a whole that is something altogether other. At the conception of an embryo or a short story, there occurs a conjunction of two unlike things, whether cells or ideas, that have never been joined before. Around this conjunction other cells, other ideas accumulate in a deliberate pattern. That pattern is the unique personality of the creature, and if the pattern does not cohere, it miscarries or is stillborn." 312

Because I almost exclusively teach creative nonfiction, and because I write both fiction and creative nonfiction, I found myself looking through Burroway's observations about fiction to the fundamentals of good story-telling, and through craft to observations about our fundamental nature as created beings and as creators. Just an excellent text! show less