***Group Read: Rose Tremain's Trespass (SPOILERS)

For those ready to discuss plot details ... have at it. I'll join you in a day or two.

(the spoiler-free thread is here)

Just posting a message here so I can find this thread later! Not done with Trespass yet but look forward to the discussions once I am done!

My feeling about this one is that she thought to herself, "O.K. I'll throw in a bit of dysfunction, incest, and murder, like the other girls do and see what comes out." I guess a woman of Tremain's stature doesn't waste a year of her life playing an elaborate joke on the reading public, but that's about how it feels to me. Pitying a character - and in one way or another, I was sorry for all of these people - is not the same thing as developing a sympathy for him. I say again that I wish she had let somebody else write this one and had pushed her creativity in another direction.

Well I'm probably going to be in the minority here but (in a very low voice) I actually liked it. Yes it was dark (very) with very unsavoury characters but I thought it was a compelling read. I didn't like it as much as Darryl but I liked it a half star more than Peggy. Anyway my review is here.

I found the Audrun/Aramon story line quite compelling. And of course, incest was the driving force behind it, the whole reason for Audrun's plotting revenge. I developed sympathy for Audrun, alone of all the characters in the book, and actually hoped for an outcome that would grant her some satisfaction. It always makes me uneasy with myself when I react that way to a literary situation. I don't want to root for a murderer, and especially in this case where the death she caused was an innocent victim, although I didn't like him a bit. I found the subtler incestuous relationships and the dysfunction in the Verey family to be merely distasteful, and I agree with Peggy on this point---it all seemed so unnecessary. The contrast between the two brother/sister pairs was interesting, and in fact I'm going to have to let that whole subject brew a bit before I put together my review. Here's another point that disturbs me, and about which I haven't quite formulated an opinion yet---what are we to make of the cold, unloving mother (Lal) who produced a lesbian daughter and a gay son? It wasn't a random decision on Tremain's part, I'm sure. Did she mean to imply some cause and effect?

Well, I liked it well enough, but not as much as Bonnie or Darryl. I'm giving it 3.5 stars. I have only read two other Rose Tremain novels, so I don't have a sense of what her best work can be. But I'll tell you what annoys me: when there's a mystery and I can figure out "whodunit" instantly. There was a scene, very soon after Anthony disappeared, where Audrun told Aramon that Anthony had been to the mas a second time, and I just knew what had happened (p. 152 in the ER edition). And I understood how the opening chapter fit. I didn't have all the details, but I had the basics. Grrrr ... a more skillful mystery writer would have thrown in a red herring or a twist somewhere.

But perhaps the mystery wasn't the point. If I step back and consider the title, and the various ways in which "trespass" occurs, the mystery becomes secondary. I felt for Audrun. The mothers (both Bernadette and Lal) abandoned their children -- one through death, the other emotionally, but both with disastrous consequences. The brother/sister pairs intrigued me and I'm pondering the similarities and differences, and how "trespass" figures into their relationships.

Linda, I'm not sure about the lesbian daughter & gay son thing. Did it have meaning or was it, like the incest, unnecessary -- thrown in to sensationalize or to say, "hey, look how modern I am, I write about gay people too"?

Lots of good fodder for discussion here!

I think you're on to something about the mystery Laura. She's not a mystery writer, or at least if this is an attempt at that, not a very good one. And I figured it out pretty early on too but I wanted to find out how it went off. Of course Audrun did it and we knew the reason why but the how was the mystery I guess. It was from this point on that my feelings for her changed. I could no longer sympathize with her.

But for me it was the theme of trespass that was of most importance. And I think the incest was just another way of showing how these lives were scorched. So I'm not sure I buy into the idea that it was unnecessary. Tremain could, I suppose, have chosen another type of abuse to develop this theme but if she had a plan that she wanted to show the different ways in which people trespass on each other's lives, well this certainly illustrates it.

I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning with a pad of paper, mulling over the various forms of trespass ... and since the incest made it onto my list, I think I agree with you Bonnie and I like your phrasing, "just another way of showing how these lives were scorched."

Jill? Is that really what you wanted to post here? (Or maybe I should say, Is this really where you wanted to post that?)

I am testing, actually. And then got interrupted. LOL. Now people will wonder what I posted originally. Let's keep it a secret, shall we? Bwuahhh!

No fair! No fair! I'm less than an hour behind you guys, and now I feel cheated.... I have to agree with Laura; I think there's a lot of "hey, look how modern I am..." going on here, and I wonder why. Tremain's so well-established that she doesn't need to prove herself in any way. I wonder whether it's not some kind of in-joke. But surely, she wouldn't waste her time on a joke!?!!!

ETA Oh. I said that earlier. NOTICE HOW I DIDN'T DELETE IT SO THAT OTHER PEOPLE WOULD'T BE LEFT WONDERING WHAT I HAD SAID?????????

#11 I'll never tell!! (#12 It wasn't anything really exciting. Honest.)

I've scoured the internet looking for interviews with Tremain that might give a hint as to what she was thinking when she created the twin gay people (Anthony and Veronica), but nothing. But one interview she did pointed out that she was looking to write something that addressed how people in their 60's fear that last bit of their life. They know they don't have a long time to live and the choices they make sometimes address that, even though it may not be done consciously.

"I wanted to write about how people try to make sense of the last third of their lives," Tremain says . "Life after 60, which is where I am. You don't know how much longer you've got. You start to look back and see the shape of your whole life. It sounds depressing, but it's important."

Boy, I have to agree with her there, especially since I am in my sixties. She says a lot more in this interview right here.

And in another interview she admits that her next book is a sequel to Restoration which I have but I haven't read yet.

I'm only half way done with the book, but I feel like I am reading some other author. It doesn't feel like a Tremain book. Maybe more like Sarah Waters?

Well, I've been having a lot of those thoughts myself lately (although I'm a couple years away from life after 60)...but I didn't identify with any of her characters on that issue, at all, at all.

I never really viewed the "mystery" as a mystery. The only question was whether Audrun was going to get away with it.

I was glad Audrun got away with it, and I thought it was funny in an ironic way that her brother was never so happy as when he landed in jail. He loved the order and having someone do everything for him. It was the best thing she could have done for him.

>17 raidergirl3:: yeah, that was interesting, wasn't it?

Okay, I finished and wrote my review!

I liked the book, gave it four stars and thought it was much darker than Tremain's usual fare. But still good. I thought Audrun was brilliant. I guess I like when female characters get the upperhand, even in a dastardly way.

Wouldn't this be a fun movie?

Thumbed your review Jill; thought it was excellent.

Me too!

Thank you both! I had good reviews to draw from. =)

I finished reading this today, and was a bit disappointed. It was well written and had its moments, but it wasn't just that I didn't like any of the characters, there's nothing new about writing very messed up gay/lesbian characters.

Trespass was reviewed in today's New York Times Book Review, here. You may have to register on the site to read it. The reviewer made much more of the real estate transaction aspects and, imo, failed to capture the emotion.