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THE REMAINS OF THE DAY

Stevens Stevens, the head butler at Darlington Hall, is the protagonist and narrator of The Remains of the Day. A mercilessly precise man, his relentless pursuit of "dignity" leads him to constantly deny his own feelings throughout the novel. For Stevens, "dignity" involves donning a mask of professional poise at all times. Although there is merit in the ideas of decorum and loyalty, Stevens takes these concepts to an extreme. He never tells anyone what he is truly feeling, and he gives his absolute trust to Lord Darlingtona man who himself makes some very poor choices in his life. Although throughout much of the story it seems that Stevens is quite content to have served Lord Darlingtonbelieving that Darlington was doing noble things at the timeStevens expresses deep regret at the end of the story for failing to cultivate both intimate relationships and his own personal viewpoints and experiences. Stevens is strongly influenced by his father. He constantly speaks of his father as though the older man perfectly exemplifies the quality of dignity, telling stories of his father's brilliantly self-effacing execution of his duties as butler. It is clear that Stevens wishes to be like his father, and, indeed, he succeeds only too well. Though Stevens is clearly a very competent butler who is always gracious and precise, his inheritance of his father's impossibly formal interactions with other people ends up limiting his personal growth and relationships. The interactions between Stevens and his father are, for the most part, completely devoid of any sign of familial warmth. If Stevens's relationship with even a family member is so distant, we can easily imagine how difficult it is for him to break away from codes of repressed formality. With Stevens, Ishiguro uses two levels of narrative voice in one character: Stevens is alternately a narrator who is superior to the story he tells, and a narrator who is a part of, or within, the story he tells. Stevens at once displays himself as both a paragon of virtue and a victim of historical or cultural circumstances beyond his own control. In this second role, he manages to cultivate our sympathy. His extra-narrative role crumbles at the end of the story when he realizes that the faade he has cultivated is a false one. Ishiguro subtly increases the amount of doubt that Stevens expresses about his past actions, so that by the end of the story, a fuller picture of Stevens's regret and sadness has emerged. Miss Kenton Miss Kenton is the former head housekeeper of Darlington Hall; she and Stevens's father were hired at the same time. Miss Kenton is Stevens's equal in efficiency and intelligence, but she has a warmth and personality that Stevens never displays. When Miss Kenton first starts working at Darlington Hall, for example, she brings flowers into Stevens's austere room to try to brighten it up. Stevens summarily rejects Miss Kenton's attempts to introduce flowers. Indeed, the two disagree over household affairs with great frequency. Initially, these battles of wits only seem to highlight the affection the two feel for one another, but as the years progress, Miss Kenton grows increasingly tired of Stevens's nagging and his unwillingness to admit any more personal feelings, even though this is the only way he knows how to communicate with her. She finally leaves Darlington Hall to marry someone else when it becomes clear that Stevens will never be able to let himself express his feelings for her. Miss Kenton, unlike Stevens, does not substitute Lord Darlington's values for her own; she makes decisions based on her own thoughts and beliefs. In this sense, she displays more dignity and personal integrity than Stevens ever does.

Lord Darlington Lord Darlington is the former owner of Darlington Hall. He dies three years before the present day of Stevens's narrative. Darlington is an old- fashioned English gentleman who feels regret and guilt about the harshness of England's treatment of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. This guilt is compounded by the fact that a close friend of Darlington's, Herr Bremann, commits suicide after World War I. This event, in conjunction with the dire economic situation Lord Darlington witnesses on his visits to Germany, inspires him to take action. In the early 1920s, he organizes conferences at Darlington Hall to allow prominent Europeans to meet and discuss ways to revise the Treaty of Versailles; later, he invites British and German heads of state to Darlington Hall in an attempt to peacefully prevent the Second World War. All the while, however, Darlington never understands the true agenda of the Nazis, who use him to further Nazi aims in Britain. After World War II, Darlington is labeled a Nazi sympathizer and a traitor, which ruins his reputation and leaves him a broken and disillusioned old man at his death. Stevens always speaks highly of Darlington throughout the novel; he says it is a shame that people came to have such a terribly mistaken view of such a noble man. Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Themes Dignity and Greatness The compound qualities of "dignity" and "greatness" pervade Stevens's thoughts throughout The Remains of the Day. Early in the novel, Stevens discusses the qualities that make a butler "great," claiming that "dignity" is the essential ingredient of greatness. He illustrates the concept with a number of examples, finally concluding that dignity "has to do crucially with a butler's ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits." Stevens develops this exclusively professional mindset only too well. Because he always dons the mask of an imperturbable butler, he necessarily deniesand therefore leaves unexpressedhis own personal feelings and beliefs. Stevens's pursuit of dignity in his professional life completely takes over his personal life as well. By suppressing his individuality in this manner, he never achieves true intimacy with another person. The fact that his view of dignity is so misguided is sad; we can tell that Stevens has wanted great things, but that he has gone about attaining them the wrong way. Regret

Although Stevens never overtly discusses what he thinks "regret" may mean, it becomes clear, when he breaks down and cries at the end of the novel, that he wishes he had acted differently with regard to Miss Kenton and Lord Darlington. The tone of the novel is often wistful or nostalgic for the past; as the story goes on, the tone deepens into one of regret as Stevens reevaluates his past actions and decisions, and finds them unwise. Miss Kenton also openly says at the end of the novel that she often regrets the choices she has made in her own life. The overwhelming sadness of the ending is only slightly lifted by Stevens's resolve to perfect the art of banteringit seems a meager consolation considering the irreparable losses he has experienced in life.
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Loss Literal and figurative loss abounds for almost every character in The Remains of the Day. Stevens loses his father, Miss Kenton, and eventually his hope of convincing Miss Kenton to return to Darlington Hall. Miss Kenton loses her aunt, her only relative; and loses Stevens when she leaves to marry a man she does not love. Lord Darlington loses two friends, Herr Bremann and Sir David Cardinal, and his godson, Reginald Cardinal, when they die. Furthermore, Darlington loses his reputation and some degree of his own sanity by the end of his life. Reginald Cardinal loses his father to death and his godfather, Lord Darlington, to Nazi brainwashing. There are both literal and figurative deaths: deaths of loved ones, and figurative deaths of dreams and ideals. Motifs Bantering Bantering provides an element of lightness and humor in the narrative, yet it is still one that ultimately demonstrates the degree to which Stevens has become an anachronism. Stevens repeatedly tells of various failed attempts at bantering, and muses over why Americans like his new employer, Mr. Farraday, like to speak in such a casual and seemingly meaningless manner. By the end of the novel, Stevens cedes that perhaps bantering can be a way to exhibit warmth, and he resolves to try again with renewed zeal. The fact that Stevens uses the word "bantering" instead of "joking around" or "sense of humor" in itself shows how old-fashioned and formal he is. Stevens's Rhetorical Manner A recurrent structural motif in the novel is the rhetorical method Stevens uses to make his points. His primary manner of discussing a new topic is to pose a question and then answer it himself, incorporating into his answers a number of responses to anticipated counterarguments. As rhetoric is a form of art and debate closely associated with England, this mode of discourse lends the novel greater authority as one firmly grounded in English culture and tradition. The rhetorical mode of discourse is intended to convince its audience; indeed, particularly in the early parts of the narrative, Stevens often succeeds in conveying the illusion that he fully understands all sides of the issues he discusses. As the novel progresses, however, we realize there are whole realms he has failed to consider, rendering many of his assumptions and arguments much weaker than they initially appear. Symbols The English Landscape The most notable symbols in The Remains of the Day are associated with people and events, not with objects and colors. The English landscape that Stevens admires near the beginning of his road trip is one such significant symbol, as we see that Stevens applies the same standards of greatness to the landscape as he does to himself. He feels that English landscape is beautiful due to its restraint, calm, and lack of spectaclethe same qualities Stevens successfully cultivates in his own life as a butler aspiring to "greatness." By the end of the novel, however, Stevens is no longer certain that he has been wise to adhere to these values so rigidly, to the exclusion open- mindedness, individuality, and love. Stevens and Miss Kenton
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watch Stevens's father, after his fall on the steps, practicing going up and down the steps. The elder Stevens searches the ground surrounding the steps "as though," Miss Kenton writes in her letter, "he hoped to find some precious jewel he had dropped there." The action of searching for something that is irretrievably lost is an apt symbol for Stevens's road trip, and indeed his life as a whole. Just as his father keeps his eyes trained on the ground, Stevens keeps thinking over memories in his head as though they will give him some clue as to how his values led him astray in life. The silver polish company in Mursden that is closing down is a symbol for the obsolescence of Stevens's profession. Indeed, the butler is also almost entirely obsolete by 1956. It is significant that Stevens knows all about the quality of the silver polish, the houses in which it was used, and so onthough he knows an incredible amount of detail about all things related to the maintenance of a great household, his knowledge is no longer nearly as important as it once was. There is no longer the demand that there once was in England for either silver polish or butlers; they are a part of a bygone era. Historical Background Both World Wars play a significant part in The Remains of the Day, the period between the wars being of is especial significance. As the narrative is confined to a butler's experience of the outer world from within the walls of a noble manor house, we are given only snippets of informationreferences to the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Nazism, and so on. The Treaty of Versailles is an important historical document to understand, as the document forms a large part of Lord Darlington's impetus to help Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, drawn up at the end of World War I, was signed by the Allied and Associated Powers at Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919. The original intention was that the Treaty should be only one part of a general and inclusive settlement with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, as well as with Germany. However, delays in dealing with the smaller nations, especially Hungary and Turkey, not only separated the German treaty from the others, but also caused it to be the first to be signed and the first to come into force. The Versailles Treaty was bitterly criticized by the Germans and by many people in other countries, such as Lord Darlington in the novel. One complaint was that the treaty has been "dictated"not only in the sense that it was imposed on a defeated enemy, in the sense that there had been no verbal negotiations with Germany. Germany also protested that the Treaty was not in harmony with the fourteen points that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the pre-Armistice agreement had set out as the basis of peace. Indeed, there was much truth to Germany's claim. The third, and perhaps most important complaint Germany set forth was that the Treaty demanded staggering sacrifices that could not be carried out without completely wrecking the German economy. This claim, however, was only partly true. Though the war reparations were significant, it was not the reparations themselves that landed Germany in economic dire straitsit was the staggering cost of the war itself. Prologue: July 1956 / Darlington Hall Summary Stevens, the head butler at Darlington Hall in England, discusses the journey upon which he is about to embarka journey that his employer, Mr. Farraday, has suggested Stevens take. Mr.
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Farraday is going back to the United States for five weeks, and he tells Stevens that he should take the opportunity to get out and see a bit of the country. Stevens does not initially take Mr. Farraday's suggestion seriously. However, upon receiving a letter from Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall, Stevens decides to go. Stevens feels that Miss Kenton's letter contains "distinct hints" of her desire to return to Darlington Hall as an employee. In the past few months, Stevens has been a little slipshod in his work. He attributes his errors to the fact that the house is understaffed, so he plans to ask Miss Kenton if she would like to return to work at Darlington Hall again. Currently, only four people staff the entire manor house: Stevens, Mrs. Clements, and two hired girls, Rosemary and Agnes. Mr. Farraday does not wish to keep on a larger staff, because he does not entertain guests nearly as frequently as the house's previous owner, Lord Darlington, did. Stevens begins choosing the proper attire for the journey. He consults a road atlas and several volumes of a series of travel books titled The Wonder of England. The last time Stevens looked over these volumes was twenty years ago, when he wished to obtain an idea of the region where Mrs. Kenton was moving when she left Darlington Hall to get married. Once Stevens has decided to take the trip, he broaches the idea again with Mr. Farraday when he brings his employer his afternoon tea. Stevens tells Farraday that the former housekeeper of Darlington Hall resides in the West Country, but he then pauses, realizing he has not discussed with Mr. Farraday the idea of bringing on another staff member. Mr. Farraday teases Stevens for having a "lady-friend," which makes the extremely proper butler feel very awkward. Mr. Farraday of course gives his consent for Stevens to go on the trip, and reiterates his offer to "foot the bill for the gas." Stevens then muses about the joking around that is so characteristic of Mr. Farraday's conversational style. Stevens thinks that the American form of "bantering" is somewhat vulgar, but that he must endeavor to participate in it, or his employer will see it as a form of negligence on Stevens's part. Stevens goes on to say that the matter of bantering is more difficult because he cannot discuss it with his cohorts anymorein past times, other butlers would accompany their employers to Darlington Hall, and Stevens would have the opportunity to discuss various work dilemmas with them. Now, however, there are fewer great butlers, and Stevens rarely sees those that remain, as Farraday does not frequently entertain guests from other houses. Analysis Until the last few pages of The Remains of the Day, the entire narrative is written in retrospect. In this section, Stevens goes back in time and tells us all of the events leading up to his impending departure. In almost every section of the novel, the narrative begins in the present: Stevens briefly reminisces over the events of the present day, and then returns to a more lengthy discussion of events from the past. Fluctuations within the narrative between past and present allow Stevens to present us with fragmentary information to which he returns later in the narrative to explain more fully.

The narrative is complex because it incorporates both Stevens's knowledge of and his blindness to the events he recounts; we is strictly limited to knowing only what Stevens wishes to disclose. The narrative style is extremely discursive and unhurried, and incredibly deliberate and detailed. From the narrative style we immediately see that Stevens is a very proper, meticulous person. His attention to detail is extraordinary; he even lists all the various different sorts of traveling clothes that he might need for the journey. Though Stevens repeatedly says that his trip is professional in nature, we see through his words that, on a personal level, he very much looks forward to seeing Miss Kenton again. Indeed, it is the arrival of her letter that incites his desire to take the trip. The fact that Stevens used to look at books to get a clue as to Miss Kenton's new home once she left Darlington Hall also demonstrates that she is constantly in his thoughts, even when she is no longer working with him. In the novel, Ishiguro presents two ways of being English that are largely at odds with each other. Stevens embodies older codes of decorumgracious, practical, and undemonstrative. The present culture is less concerned with what is proper, and more concerned with what is efficient. While the older England scorned American culture and politics to some degree, the more current England embraces these concepts, causing a division within the country between two very different viewpoints. Stevens's discussion of "bantering" demonstrates his entrenchment in old-fashioned values and judgments. In order to banter in the manner of Mr. Farraday, Stevens would have to stop taking himself so seriouslyand it is difficult to imagine a more serious character than Stevens. Stevens is far too afraid of offending Mr. Farraday to ever be relaxed enough to joke with him; he literally thinks that he is inferior to Mr. Farraday because he is a servant and Mr. Farraday is his master. Although the strict hierarchy that used to characterize the ordering of English manor houses has faded away in favor of more democratic views, Stevens has not adapted to a climate in which he might joke with his employer as an equal. Plot summary The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens, an English butler who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (mentioned in increasing detail in flashbacks). The novel begins with Stevens receiving a letter from a former colleague, Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which he believes hints at an unhappy marriage. The receipt of the letter coincides with Stevens having the opportunity to revisit this once-cherished relationship, if only under the guise of investigating the possibility of re-employment. Stevens's new employer, a wealthy American named Mr Farraday, encourages Stevens to borrow his car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip". As he sets out, Stevens has the opportunity to reflect on his immutable loyalty to Lord Darlington, on the meaning of the term "dignity", and even on his relationship with his own late father. Ultimately Stevens is forced to ponder the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton. As the book progresses, increasing evidence of Miss Kenton's one-time love for Stevens, and of his for her, is revealed. Working together during the years leading up to the Second World War, Stevens and Miss Kenton fail to admit their true feelings towards each other. All of their recollected conversations show a professional friendship which at times came close to crossing the line into romance, but never dared to do so.

Miss Kenton, it later emerges, has been married for over 20 years and therefore is no longer Miss Kenton but has become Mrs Benn. She admits to wondering occasionally what a life with Stevens might have been like, but she has come to love her husband and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. Stevens muses over lost opportunities, both with Miss Kenton and with his long-time employer, Lord Darlington. At the end of the novel, Stevens instead focuses on the "remains of [his] day", referring to his future service with Mr Farraday.

James Stevens (Mr Stevens) the narrator, an English butler who serves at Darlington Hall. He is a devoted butler with high standards and particularly concerned with "dignity" Miss Kenton housekeeper at Darlington Hall, afterwards married as Mrs Benn Lord Darlington the owner of Darlington Hall, whose failed efforts toward talks between English and German diplomats caused his political and social decline William Stevens (Mr Stevens senior) the 72-year-old father of butler Stevens (the narrator), serving as under-butler; Stevens senior suffers a severe stroke during a conference at Darlington Hall. His son was divided between serving and helping. Mr Farraday the new American employer of Stevens Young Mr Cardinal a journalist; he is the son of one of Lord Darlington's closest friends and is killed in Belgium during the Second World War Dupont a high-ranking French politician who attends Darlington's conference

On his motoring trip, Stevens briefly comes into contact with several other characters. They are mirrors to Stevens and show the reader different facets of his character; they are also all kind and try to help him. Two in particular, Dr. Carlisle and Harry Smith, highlight themes in the book. Themes Dignity The most important aspect of Stevens's life is his dignity as an English butler. Such aspects of refined dignity, especially when applied under stressful situations, are, to Stevens, what define a "great butler". As such, Stevens constantly maintains an inward and outward sense of dignity in order to preserve his own identity. These philosophies of dignity, however, greatly affect his lifelargely with respect to social constraints, loyalty and politics, and love and relationships. By preserving dignity at the expense of such emotions, Stevens in a way loses his sense of humanity with respect to his own personal self. Stevens's primary struggle within the novel is how his dignity relates to his own experiences, as well as the role his dignity plays in the past, present, and future.[1] Banter Banter is a central and underlying theme in the novel. Stevens introduces it in the prologue as a problem which he considers his duty to solve in order to please Mr Farraday. Stevens takes this new duty very seriously. He ponders over it, practices in his room, and studies a radio programme called "Twice a Week or More" for its witticisms. He practises banter on the people he meets, such as the locals in the Coach and Horses inn near Taunton, but is unsuccessful. He agonizes over it yet fails to realise that it is his delivery that is lacking. The
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true significance of banter becomes apparent at the end of the novel when Stevens has met the retired butler who strikes up a conversation with him and tells him to enjoy his old age. Stevens then listens to the chatter of the people around him, in a positive frame of mind, and realises that banter is "the key to human warmth". Social constraints The novel does not present the situation of Stevens as simply a personal one. It seems clear that Stevens's position as butler, and servant, has gradually made it impossible for him to live a fulfilling emotional life. His father dies, and Stevens is too occupied with worrying about whether his butlering is being carried out correctly to mourn (something that he later reflects on with great pride). Stevens too cannot bring himself to express feelings about personal matters, as expressing such emotions would compromise his dignity. The social rules at the time were certainly a major constraint. As we see in the book, servants who wish to get married and have children immediately find themselves without a job, since married life is seen as incompatible with total devotion to one's master. A truly "great butler" does not abandon his profession, and, as such, Stevens feels that such choices are foolish in regard to the life of a butler. Loyalty and politics Stevens is shown as totally loyal to Lord Darlington, whose friendly approach towards Germany, through his friendship to Mrs Charles Barnet, also results in close contacts to rightwing extremist organizations, such as the Blackshirts of Sir Oswald Mosley. Due to this, he also discharges the two Jewish staff members (which he regretted later as a mistake). He also had contact with British and German diplomats. In "day four - afternoon" a meeting is described between the Prime Minister and German Ambassador Ribbentrop in the rooms of his estate. Stevens is quite incapable of believing his master to be wrong in this, as Lord Darlington's upbringing and heritage carry a certain type of dignity that is ascended above and beyond Stevens' own. Love and relationships Stevens is arguably aware on some level of Miss Kenton's feelings, but he fails to reciprocate. Miss Kenton's actions often leave Stevens bemused and puzzled, but his recollections reveal to the reader the lost possibilities of their relationship, as past interactions are recreated. However, Stevens is never able to acknowledge the complexity of feeling he possesses for Miss Kenton, insisting only that they shared an 'excellent professional relationship'. It is not only the constraints of his social situation, but also his own emotional maturity (or immaturity) that holds him back. During their time spent at Darlington Hall, Stevens chose to maintain a sense of distance born from his personal understanding of dignity, as opposed to searching and discovering the feelings that existed between himself and Miss Kenton. It is only within their final encounter that Stevens tragically becomes aware of the lost potential of his life with Miss Kenton. Memory and perspective In common with his other novels, Ishiguro uses the structural devices of memory and perspective within this novel. Past events are presented from the view point of the main
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protagonist, the aging Stevens; elements of the past are presented as fragments, apparently subconsciously censored by Stevens in order to present (explicitly) a description of past occurrences as he would have the reader understand them and (implicitly) in order to relay the fact that the information supplied is subjective. On occasion the narrator acknowledges the potential inaccuracy of his recollections and this serves the reader by inviting him to question the pedigree of the information relayed by Stevens; the more the reader learns about Stevenss character, the more we are able to interpret the sub-textual intention of the fragments of memory presented by him. This device serves to engage the reader who is invited to look beneath the facts of the incidents in question and provides a clever literary device for looking beyond the public face presented by a character whose very essence is characterised by the presentation of a dignified faade. Allusions to real life events The theme of the decline of the British aristocracy can be linked to the 1911 Parliament Act, which reduced their power, and to inheritance tax increases imposed after World War I, which forced the break-up of many estates that had been passed down for generations. The pro-German stance of Lord Darlington has parallels in the warm relations with Germany favoured by some British aristocrats in the early 1930s, such as Lord Londonderry.

2 Saturday (novel) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Saturday is a novel by Ian McEwan set in Fitzrovia, London, on Saturday, 15 February 2003, during a large demonstration against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The protagonist, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, has planned a series of chores and pleasures culminating in a family dinner in the evening. As he goes about his day he ponders the meaning of the protest and the problems that inspired it, however, the day is disrupted by an encounter with a violent, troubled man. To understand his character's world-view, McEwan spent time with a neurosurgeon. The novel explores one's engagement with the modern world and the meaning of existence in it. The main character, though outwardly successful, still struggles to understand meaning in his life, exploring personal satisfaction in the post-modern, developed world. Though intelligent and well read, Perowne feels he has little influence over political events. The book, published in February 2005 by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom and in April in the United States, was critically and commercially successful. Critics noted McEwan's elegant prose, careful dissection of daily life, and interwoven themes. It won the 2005 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Contents

1 Composition and publication 2 Synopsis 3 Themes o 3.1 Happiness o 3.2 Political engagement o 3.3 Rationalism 4 Genre and style 5 Reception 6 Influence 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

Composition and publication

Ian McEwan Saturday is McEwan's ninth novel, coming between Atonement and On Chesil Beach, two novels of historical fiction. McEwan has said how he prefers to alternate between writing about the past and the present.[1][2]

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While researching the book, McEwan spent two years work-shadowing Neil Kitchen, a neurosurgeon at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square, London.[1][3][4] Kitchen testified that McEwan did not flinch in the theatre, a common first reaction to surgery; "He sat in the corner, with his notebook and pencil".[1] He also had several medical doctors and surgeons review the book for accuracy, though few corrections were required to the surgical description.[1][4] Saturday was also proof-read by McEwan's longstanding circle of friends who review his manuscripts, Timothy Garton Ash, Craig Raine, and Galen Strawson.[1] There are elements of autobiography in Saturday: the protagonist lives in the same square in London that he does and is physically active in middle age.[1] Christopher Hitchens, a friend of McEwan's, noted how Perowne's wife, parents and children are the same as his.[5] McEwan's son, Greg, who like Theo played the guitar reasonably well in his youth, complained of one difference between them, "I definitely don't wear tight black jeans".[1] Excerpts were published in five different literary magazines, including the whole of chapter one in the New York Times Book Review, in late 2004 and early 2005.[6] The complete novel was published by the Jonathan Cape Imprint of Random House Books in February 2005 in London, New York, and Toronto; Dutch, Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Japanese translations followed.[7][8] Synopsis The book follows Henry Perowne, a middle-aged, successful surgeon. Five chapters chart his day and thoughts on Saturday the 15 February 2003, the day of the demonstration against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the largest in British history. Perowne's day begins in the early morning, when he sees a burning aeroplane streak across the sky. This casts a shadow over the rest of his day as reports on the television change and shift: is it an accident, or terrorism? En route to his weekly squash game, a traffic diversion reminds Perowne of the anti-war protests occurring that day. After being allowed through the diversion, he collides with another car, damaging its wing mirror. At first the driver, Baxter, tries to extort money from him. When Perowne refuses, Baxter and his two companions become aggressive. Noticing symptoms in Baxter's behaviour, Perowne quickly recognises the onset of Huntington's disease. Though he receives a punch in the sternum, Perowne manages to escape unharmed by distracting Baxter with discussions of his disease. Perowne then goes on to his squash match, still thinking about the incident. He loses the long and contested game by a technicality in the final round. After lunch he buys some fish from a local fishmonger for dinner and visits his mother, suffering from vascular dementia, in a nursing home. After a visit to his son's rehearsal, Perowne returns home to cook dinner, the evening news again reminds him of the grander arc of events that surround his life. Daisy, his daughter, arrives home from Paris, and the two passionately debate the coming war in Iraq. His fatherin-law arrives next. Daisy reconciles an earlier literary disagreement that led to a froideur with her maternal grandfather; remembering that it was he who had inspired her love of literature. Theo, his son, returns next.

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Rosalind, Perowne's wife, is the last to arrive home. As she enters Baxter and an accomplice force their way in armed with knives. Baxter punches the Grandfather, intimidates the family and orders Daisy to strip naked. When she does, Perowne notices that she is pregnant. Finding out she is a poet, Baxter asks her to recite a poem. Rather than one of her own, she recites Dover Beach, which affects Baxter emotionally, effectively disarming him. Instead he becomes enthusiastic about Perowne's renewed talk about new treatment for Huntington's disease. His companion abandons him, and Baxter is overpowered by Perowne and Theo, and knocked unconscious after falling down the stairs. That night Perowne is summoned to the hospital for a successful emergency operation on Baxter. Saturday ends at around 5:15 a.m., after he has returned from the hospital and made love to his wife again. Themes Happiness McEwan's earlier work has explored the fragility of existence using a clinical perspective,[9] Hitchens even hails him a "chronicler of the physics of every-day life".[5] Saturday explores the feeling of fulfillment in Perowne: he is respected and respectable but not quite at ease, wondering about the luck that has him where he is and others homeless or in menial jobs.[5] The family is materially well-off, with a plush home and a Mercedes, but justifiably so Perowne and his wife work hard. McEwan tells of his success rate and cool under pressure, though the trade off is clear, he and his wife work long hours and need to put their diaries side by side to find time to spend together.[5] Perowne's composure and success mean the implied violence is in the background. His personal contentment, (at the top of his profession, and "an unashamed beneficiary of the fruits of late capitalism"[3]) provides a hopeful side to the book, instead of the unhappiness in contemporary fiction.[2] McEwan's previous novels highlighted the fragility of modern fulfilled life, seemingly minor incidents dramatically upsetting existence.[9] Saturday returns to a theme in Atonement, which plotted the disruption of a lie to a middle class family, and in The Child in Time, where a small child is kidnapped during a day's shopping.[10] This theme is continued in Saturday, a "tautly wound tour-de-force" set in a world where terrorism, war and politics make the news headlines, but the protagonist has to live out this life until he "collides with another fate".[2] In Saturday Perowne's medical knowledge captures the delicate state of humanity better than novelists' imaginations: his acquaintance with death and neurological perspective better capture human frailty.[9] The protest against the Iraq War, in London, February 2003, forms a backdrop to the events of Saturday Political engagement The burning aeroplane in the book's opening, and the suspicions it immediately arouses, quickly introduces the problems of terrorism and international security.[5] The day's political demonstration and the ubiquity of news coverage of it provide background noise to Perowne's day, leading to him to ponder his relationship with these events.[11] Mr Hitchens pointed out that the novel is set on the "actual day the whole of bien-pensant Britain moved into the streets to jeer at George Bush and Tony Blair" and placed the novel as "unapologetically anchored as it is in the material world and its several discontents".[5] The Economist newspaper set the context as a "world where terrorism and war make headlines, but also filter
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into the smallest corners of people's lives."[2] McEwan said himself, "The march gathered not far from my house, and it bothered me that so many people seemed so thrilled to be there".[12] The characterisation of Perowne as an intelligent, self-aware man "..a habitual observer of his own moods' [who] is given to reveries about his mental processes" allows the author to explicitly set out this theme:[1] "It's an illusion to believe himself active in the story. Does he think he's changing something, watching news programmes, or lying on his back on the sofa on Sunday afternoon, reading more opinion columns of ungrounded certainties, more long articles about what really lies behind this or that development, or what is surely going to happen next, predictions forgotten as soon as they are read, well before events disprove them?"[13] Physically, Perowne is neither above nor outside the fray but at an angle to it; emotionally his own intelligence makes him apathetic, he can see both sides of the argument, and his beliefs are characterised by a series of hard choices rather than sure certainties.[5][14] He is concerned for the fate of Iraqis; through his friendship with an exiled Iraqi professor he learned of the totalitarian side of Saddam Hussein's rule, but also takes seriously his children's concerns about the war. He often plays devil's advocate, being dovish with this American friend, and hawkish with his daughter.[12] Rationalism McEwan establishes Perowne as anchored in the real world.[5][15] Perowne expresses a distaste for some modern literature, puzzled by, even disdaining magical realism: "What were these authors of reputation doing grown men and women of the twentieth century granting supernatural powers to their characters?" Perowne earnestly tried to appreciate fiction, under instruction from his daughter he read both Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, but could not accept their artificiality, even though they dwelt on detail and ordinariness.[11] Perowne's dismissive attitude towards literature is directly contrasted with his scientific world-view in his struggle to comprehend the modern world.[11] Perowne explicitly ponders this question, "The times are strange enough. Why make things up?".[11] Perowne's world view is rebutted by his daughter, Daisy, a young poet. In the book's climax in chapter four, while he struggles to remain calm offering medical solutions to Baxter's illness, she quotes Matthew Arnold's poem Dover Beach, which calls for civilised values in the world, temporarily placating the assailant's violent mood.[3] McEwan described his intention as wanting to "play with this idea, whether we need stories".[16] Brian Bethune interpreted McEwan's approach to Perowne as "mercilessly [mocking] his own protagonist...But Perowne's blind spot [literature] is less an author's little joke than a plea for the saving grace of literature."[15] Similarly he is irreligious, his work making him aware of the fragility of life and consciousness's reliance on the functioning brain.[11] His morality is nuanced, weighing both sides of an issue. When leaving the confrontation with Baxter he questions his use of his medical knowledge, even though it was in self defense, and with genuine Hippocratic feeling. While shopping for his fish supper, he cites scientific research that shows greater consciousness in fish, and wonders whether he should stop eating them.[11] An Iraqi professor he treated has told him of the brutality Saddam Hussein's rule, but also takes seriously his children's concerns about the war.
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Genre and style Saturday is a "post 9/11" novel, dealing with the change in lifestyle faced by Westerners after the 11th of September attacks. As such, Christopher Hitchens characterised it as "unapologetically anchored as it is in the material world and its several discontents".[5] "Structurally, Saturday is a tightly wound tour de force of several strands", it is both a thriller which portrays a very attractive family, and an allegory of the world after 11 September 2001 which meditates on the fragility of life.[14] The book obeys the classical unities of place, time and action, following one man's day against the backdrop of a grander historical narrative - the anti-war protests happening in the city that same day.[9] The protagonist's errands are surrounded by the recurring leitmotif of hyper real, ever-present screens which report the progress of the plane and the march Perowne has earlier encountered.[11] Saturday is in tune with its protagonist's literary tastes, "magical realism" it is not.[5] The 24-hour narrative led critics to compare the book to similar novels, especially Ulysses by James Joyce, which features a man crossing a city,[15] and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, of which Michiko Kakutani described Saturday as an "up-to-themoment, post-9/11 variation."[10] The novel is narrated in the third person, limited point of view: the reader learns of events as Perowne does. Using the free indirect style the narrator inhabits Perowne, a neurosurgeon, who often thinks rationally, explaining phenomena using medical terminology.[1] This allows McEwan to capture some of the "white noise that we almost forget as soon as we think it, unless we stop and write it down."[16] Hitchens highlighted how the author separates himself from his character with a "Runyonesque historical present ("He rises " "He strides ") that solidifies the context and the actuality."[5]

14

Shame (novel)

Shame is Salman Rushdie's third novel, published in 1983. Like most of Rushdie's work, this book was written in the style of magic realism. Shame is a novel about Pakistan and about the people who ruled Pakistan. One of its main aims is to portray the lives of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and their relationship. The more central theme is the violence that is born out of shame. There are characters that 'stand' for 'shame' and 'shamelessness' Sufiya Zinobia and Omar Khayym respectively. Yet the city being portrayed is an imaginary one, the city of Q. The author-narrator makes it clear in the second chapter of the novel that the city of Q is an imaginary representation of any country: "My view is that I am not writing only about Pakistan" (Rushdie, 29). Shame discusses heritage, authenticity, truth, and, of course, shame and shamelessness, as well as the impact of all these themes on an individual, the protagonist Omar Khayym. Rushdie wrote Shame after his Midnight's Children, whose theme was the independence and partition of India. Salman Rushdie's Shame would seem to promote female activism toward gender equality in Pakistan if only through interpretation of Sufiya's violence against male oppressors. When one considers the methods which Rushdie pushes readers to understand women within Pakistan, Shame more clearly promotes a Western perspective of hopelessly oppressed Pakistani women. As Rushdie gives readers an expectation of an authentic voice, he leaves readers to decide what is relevant within his narration by not providing clear purpose for his fictional and magical realities. Because this necessitates readers to decide women solely relevant against the theme of shame, problems occur when the definition of women becomes little more than an object of shame. Despite the strength that Shame pulls readers to evaluate Rushdie's portrayals of women, Rushdie's ability to raise true-life issues of women's equality is undercut by his inability to produce real women, to provide reliable relations to real Pakistani women, and to demonstrate a sensible source for women's liberation. Without a reliable sense of true Pakistani women, the form by which Shame understands women perpetuates a fatalist Western generalization of women's oppression in Pakistan. Rushdie's first person narrative leaves the reader to decide what is relevant within Shame by proposing magic and fiction along side authenticity without a clear purpose. When addressing Rushdie's method of composing ideas in Shame, Rushdie makes obvious to the reader that Rushdie is the first person narrator. Readers are blatantly allotted this information as Rushdie commonly uses asides and personal anecdotes, even inserting his own 22 year-old sister (Rushdie 65). Ayelet Ben-Yishai argues Rushdie attempts at a realistic affect, noting Rushdie's "confessional narrative" (196) and "specificity and personal tone" (196). The use of the first person narrative pushes readers to expect a relative authenticity to Shame, because Rushdie suggests directly his personal involvement. As readers expect a degree of authenticity from the narrative form, stories with tales of magic (such as the transformation of Sufiya) and self-proclaimed fiction (factual Pakistan and fictional Pakistan likeness) without a clear purpose call readers to connect the authentic proposal. Magical realism forces the reader to look beyond Rushdie's reality of magic for conventional significance. Further pulling the reader away from textual reality, Rushdie provides a fictional premises like "the country in this story is not Pakistan, or not quite" (Rushdie 22). As Cynthia Carey-Abrioux argues "meaning lies somewhere in the interface or dialectical struggle between the conflicting authoritative (or authoritarian) and destabilizing forces" (71). In order to resolve Shame's
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instability, a bridge must fill Rushdie's gap between what is to be relevant and what is to be disregarded. The complications of magic and fiction against narrative authenticity seem adequately resolved by the notion that Rushdie wants readers to relate shame and women in concluding what is relevant within Shame. When writing he "would not be talking about Bilquis and the wind" (Rushdie 65) and that he had "never lived there (Pakistan) for more than six months" (Rushdie 66), Rushdie destroys validations of both a realistic interest within the novel and authoritative knowledge of Pakistani reality. Perhaps made obvious by Shame's title, Rushdie unarguable encourages readers to ground ideas from its relative place in the scheme of shame. Rushdie writes "between the shame and shamelessness lies the axis upon which we turn" (118) with the implication Shame be evaluated within the confines of the axis of shame and shamelessness. The reader longing to understand women with Shame is primarily directed to the dichotomy of shame and shamelessness. Although the process may be arduous, the reader must consider the text externally in this manner to begin relating to women because the lack of narration's intent comprises Shame's direct interpretation of women. Rushdie's representation of shame pertains relevantly to women because readers depend upon the arching theme of shame to negotiate women within Shame's. As Harrison states, "the impossibility of knowing what is the real truth about anything...can be overcome sufficiently for the novel to have 'shape and form-that is to say meaning'" (405). The theme of shame overcomes Rushdie's self-constructed barrier of relevance by unifying the relations of characters to the factual Pakistani women they can represent. If only for the ease of the reader, Rushdie provides direct access to shame through the character of Sufiya. Rushdie's Shame writes "the extremely new being in Raza's arms began...to blush" (89) and continues with "then, even then, she (Sufiya) was too easily shamed" (89). As "between the shame and shamelessness lies the axis upon which we turn," (Rushdie 118) Rushdie hands readers a character by which this "axis" smoothly turns for the women. Shame makes Sufiya the ultimate structure to relate women and shame; therefore, readers depend upon Sufiya to navigate women. As "the metanarrative engenders shame by making the character Sufiya Zinobia enact it," (Strandberg 149) shame allows entry into relevant discussion of women within Shame. As shame is crucial to interpreting relevance of women, Rushdie's nature of shame de-genders characters by portraying men and women as nothing aside from their possession of shame. Rushdie strongly persuades his Western readers to define shame by introducing the Eastern word connotes of "sharam" and by pinning "shame" against "shamelessness" For the case of "sharam," Rushdie includes within its meaning "embarrassment, discomfiture, decency, modesty, shyness, the sense of having an ordained place in the world" (33). Rushdie makes shame masculine through "sharam," as connotations of "embarrassment" and "shyness" only mark male activity against women. Additionally, Rushdie organizes a masculine relation for readers to evaluate shame with, "What's the opposite of shame? What's left when sharam is subtracted? That's obvious: shamelessness" (33) As Ayelet Ben-Yishai comments, "we must note that the positioning of shamelessness opposite shame is not an obvious one" (201). In the technical sense, shamelessness is not the opposite of shame as honor is considered. Shamelessness is rather shame's negation, which indirectly redefines the relationship between men and women within Shame. Men and women are not to be considered relevantly as opposite, simply divided as those with shame and those without. When Rushdie enters Sufiya's birth in shame, Sufiya is not entered opposite men but similar to a man with the addition of shame. Women are not understood, as men and women are mere objects of shame.
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Rushdie pushes the reader to relate women and shame only as much as they pertain to men and shamelessness; consequently, shame, the theme readers necessarily construct significance from women, de-genders the relative notion of women. Although the lack of woman's gender identity goes unresolved, Shame unarguable provides readers a glimpse of a female activism in violence to confront women's oppression. As evidenced in Omar's reckless behavior, shamelessness causes his shameful actions against women; readers can possibly conclude shame to begin because male shamelessness as producer precedes female shame. As Standberg argues, "Shameless behavior causes shame when acted upon women, but dishonor when acted upon men. Furthermore, shamelessness can only be defined when pitted against its result." (146) However, readers can only utilize women in conjunction with the ways women treat and are treated by their male counterpart. In search of a relative trend, the reader of Shame would be foolish to overlook the constant rejections between men and women. Bilquis rejects Sufiya, Iskander rejects Rani and Pinkie, Pinkie rejects Raza, Naveed rejects Haroun, Haroun rejects Arjumand, Farah rejects Omar and Eduardo, and Barbar rejects Omar. Rejection seems to be the most consistent relation; therefore, most pertinent to understand. A seemingly obvious observation upon the nature of rejection is a theme of incompatibility between men and women within the scheme of shame; however, this observation is highly misdirected because women are only products of male shamelessness. As much as men and women incompatibility appeals to argue for the overcoming of women's shame, nowhere within Shame does women's shame cause men's shamelessness. In this respect, Rushdie reduces female activism as motions of shame without gender identity. Shame does provide a more intriguing component to shame, stating "shamelessness, shame: the roots of violence" (118). The quotation becomes an ultimate thesis in Shame, concluding the relationship between men's shamelessness and women's shame in the current manner in Pakistan will result in violence. As far as Shame will allow for women, shame's end in violence becomes the location for constructing an activism toward women's rights. Although violence does not necessarily confront the problems of gender, the fact that Rushdie proposed women-like objects will be inevitably be pushed to enact furious violence upon men-like objects does allow a measure for activism toward an idea of equality. Through Shame's use of the relation between shame and violence, Rushdie constructs women's violence to be viewed by readers as activism for the cause of the shamed lifestyles of Pakistani women. Rushdie is not noted for any purpose for writing Shame's women, let alone to promote women's rights. Aijaz Ahmad is commented for claiming that Rushdie's novel is "at best politically useless" (Teverson 48) for the absence of an exacting notion to read Shame's characters. Despite the indirectness of his work, Rushdie's depiction of Sufiya's violent overcoming of shame undeniably directs conversation toward women's activism, so to comment upon how Rushdie may have written women in general to be perceived hardly becomes useless speculation. From an initial interpretation, Rushdie's women fail by directly representing damaging images for women. As Justyna Deszcz articulates, Bilquis Gyder may scold her husband, "but her rebukes are 'full of curtains and oceans and rockets.'(Rushdie 22930)" (38) and Arjumand Harappa's "blind devot[ion] to her father" (38) only supports the masculinity which supports the oppression of women. In extending Justyna Deszce's argument, Farah's sexual empowerment is only the product of the male worship of Iskander. In respect to shame, no woman-like objects within the text seem to find empowerment within the scheme of shame. The violence which Shame allows for women's activism is solely utilized by Sufiya; therefore, Sufiya becomes the heroin character, the character provided direct relation to real narratives, and the character whose action allows for the most significant discussion on women. Rushdie must understand the feminist reader to be directed to Sufiya's
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activism to structure any women's liberation. To understand the cause Sufiya champions, readers turn to Shame'swomen and their relevance to the axis of shame. Bilquis' shame pertains to child rearing; the reason she treats Sufiya with neglect is the shame of Sufiya not being a son. In contrast, Sufiya's shame pertains to an ultimate shame of her gender; her birth as Riza's failed attempt at a son. The three sisters' shame pertains to their need for over protection, necessitating their constant secluding existence. When Omar uses hypnosis to seduce Farah Zoroaster, Farah Zoroaster becomes the shame of women's dominated and manipulated existence as sexual objects. Naveed 'Good News' Hyder's shame pertains to the shame of female fertility as she commits suicide because she cannot bear the burden of her annually increasing motherhood. "Sharam" becomes important within context of women's shame, as male "embarrassment" (Rushdie 33) misconstrues that which should feel normal for these women. Deciphering Shame's women in relation to shame, the reader is pushed to conclude that Rushdie uses each woman to represent a segment of life oppressed by the shameless of men; consequently, Sufiya's activism becomes an activity of overcoming the oppressed segments of Pakistani woman's lifestyle. The purpose of Sufiya's violence, the sole provision of female activism, becomes to overcome the male shame within the lifestyles of Pakistani women. As Rushdie leads the reader to argue women's violence as liberation over shame, Shame only succeeds to work for women as well as it provides believable women, a viable relation to Pakistani women, and a realistic source for women's liberation. As Shame's liberation entails overcoming the oppressed segments of women's lifestyle, Rushdie must provide the reader believable women in order to both define and overcome gender inequality. Rushdie obviates the oppression of his women, but an understanding of women is necessary to understand that oppression as a product of their being women. Additionally, Rushdie must relate the metanarrative of Shame's women to factual representations of Pakistani women. Without a relative correlation to actual Pakistani women, Shame's fictional premises of women have no purpose toward relevant women in Pakistan. Because relationships resolve Shame's conflict of relevance, Rushdie's woman must draw upon real Pakistani women to gain substance. A final requirement necessary for Shame to function for women is a provision for women's activism to succeed in liberation. Without a means for liberation, women's oppression is made fatalist and gender equality is portrayed as hopeless in Pakistan. Because Shame deals directly with women's inequality to men, Rushdie must articulate an awareness of women before Shame can function as a feminist text. Shame fails to produce women because men articulate the entire space of the novel. Without a clear division between men and women, the female object is only validated within a place of oppression. In the case of Sufiya, she is only woman as much as she is shamed by men. Without an oppressed female voice, Rushdie does not allow readers entry into a liberated female voice. Readers can not be clear about a proper reaction to Sufiya's violence, and can only determine her action to provide a hope for a male-like agency. The issue goes unresolved throughout Shame because women are not given action beyond reaction to their oppression; therefore, inequality has no direct affect upon a woman's ability to function as women. Additionally, Rushdie's use of shame de-genders women by becoming the sole division between men (have no shame) and women (have shame). Samir Dayal agues the only reasonable means by which Rushdie could be constructing women is if Rushdie "seems to be asking the unaskable: that men, especially the subcontinental men, should reconsider their notions of masculinity and the implied trappings of power and therefore violence" (46). Samir Dayal implies that Rushdie must mean for the women to re-enactment a male shame upon the men in order to invoke a male reconsideration of their oppressive devices. Considering Sufiya the sole liberated character,
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Shame would still lack a mode which real women unable to transform into mystical creatures can enact male devices. Rushdie may have meant for male activity to destroy gender, calling for male action to stop female oppression; however, this proposition assumes a male nature not evident in Shame and does not provide a male entry into female liberation. Without a clear distinction in female agency, Shame does not write on gendered text. Shame cannot work for women because Rushdie, without a reliable sense of women, fails to define women's liberation, equality, or inequality. Because Shame's conflict of relevance is resolved upon the notion of relating fictional metanarrative with factual narrative, relevance of women relies upon the relation between Rushdie's women and real Pakistani women. Shame fails to adequately embrace the nuance of woman in actual Pakistan by generalizing upon a Western notion of veiled Eastern women. As Aijaz Ahmad points out, "Rushdie seems to know...the history of corruptions and criminalities of Pakistani rulers...this limited knowledge...only confirms...the world view..." (139). A major problem with Rushdie's exclusion of Pakistani women is that he limits the extent that Shame can represent Pakistani women. The women of Shame are consistently upper-class and oppressed; consequently, their plight and means of liberation can only speak for that minority of Pakistani women. Furthermore, Shame irresponsibly represents all Pakistani women as oppressed which allows a Western audience (who may know no better) to assume all these women live life under constant oppression as an endurable norm. When considering real Pakistani women, Rushdie's text provides the women of Pakistan a disservice to their feminist progress. As Shahla Haeri maintains in No Shame for the Sun, "Islam grants legally mature woman...the right to choose her marriage partner and maintains her consent as fundamental validity of the marriage contract" (17). She goes on to further elaborate on the feminist actions within Pakistan, such as the Woman's Action Forum (27) and the Women against Rape (28). Rushdie's Shame adds to "the apparent invisibility of the professional Muslim women in the ethnographic literature and academic discourse....[which is] puzzling" (Haeri 29). Any gender equality attained by Sufiya's violence is gravely undercut by Rushdie's Western generalization of Eastern women. As real Pakistani women can not relate to Rushdie's women, Shame's meaning for women is made impossibly insignificant. In order for Shame not to portray the plight of female oppression in Pakistan as hopeless, Rushdie must provide a viable means for women's liberation. Shame fails to provide for women's liberation because women's sole means of activism in violence does not realistically correct gender inequality. When Sufiya changes into a monster, she evokes violence upon the men who shamed her by decapitating adolescent men, killing the men she has seduced, and lastly Omar Khayyam. Apart from Sufiya's violence, Rushdie does not provide readers a reliable sense of liberation for his women characters. In order to construct feminist liberation, the reader is therefore left to better understand Sufiya's violence. As empowering as Sufiya's violence appears over men, male oppression is the fuel by which Sufiya gains power. Without male oppression, Sufiya's actions only succeed in attaining dominance similar to which Rushdie's women are resisting. Rushdie writes "they [women] marched in from the peripheries of the story to demand the inclusion of their own tragedies" (Rushdie 93). By his statement, Rushdie reveals Shame to be an entirely masculine arena, with women merely taking over the male territory by the voice of their victimization. Feminist activism in violence does not correct gender inequality within Shame, but merely switches positions of men and women within shame. As Strandberg agues "Nonetheless, it is only the space of the reverse to male power and ambition, death and revenge that is open to women." (Strandberg 147) Women's activism as a reaction to their victimization does not provide a feminine liberation, but reinstates the masculine dominance of female agency. In the case of Sufiya, a
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character built upon the notion of being acted upon, her actions of extreme violence are only a signification of a masculine re-enactment. In order for Shame to have acted as a feminist work,women need to have a separate sphere to build a liberating action. Interpal Grewal concluded that "Rushdie, therefore, wishes to change the present condition of women by showing how horrific the result would be if it remained unchanged [in order to invoke] a great sense of responsibility and of guilt on the part of men" (138). If Rushdie meant for this "horrific result" to be considered realistic by men, Rushdie's undercuts his own argument by empowering Sufiya only through magical means. Because violence does not realistically correct gender inequality, Shame fails to work for women byportraying the gender oppression of women as inescapable in Pakistan. Rushdie has never been necessarily quoted to have written Shame for the purpose of any women's agenda. He has in fact stated in an interview to have begun Shame as an "excessively masculine tale" (Ben Yishai 194) in which the "women seemed to have taken over...demanding the inclusion of their own tragedies...to see [his] 'male' plot refracted" (Ben Yishai 194). As much as the text explicitly points readers to readings of liberation, the great potential of Shame's arguments toward women's empowerment is undermined by the objectifying of Rushdie's form. Rushdie, through failing to produce a viable sense reality and women, produces no hope for women's equality.

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Trainspotting (novel)

Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It takes the form of a collection of short stories, written in either Scots, Scottish English or British English, revolving around various residents of Leith, Edinburgh who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are implicitly portrayed as addictions that serve the same function as heroin addiction. The novel is set in the late 1980s[1] and has been called "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent".
[2]

The novel has since achieved a cult status, added to by the global success of the film based on it, Trainspotting (1996), directed by Danny Boyle.[3] Welsh later wrote a sequel, Porno, in 2002. Skagboys, a novel that serves as a prequel was published in April 2012.[4] Characters

Mark Renton the main character and antihero of the novel, Renton is the voice of (relative) sanity among his group of friends, many of whom he cannot stand. He narrates his daily life from supporting his heroin addiction with dole money and petty theft to interacting with the "normal world" with a cynical, black-humoured eye. He is capable of fitting in well enough to common society, is relatively goodlooking and of above-average intelligence, but is misanthropic and depressed, and uses heroin both as a means to withdraw and to give meaning to his life. Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson A slick, sexually promiscuous amoral con artist, and Renton's oldest friend. He picks up women with ease and flaunts this quality in front of his friends, as he does with his ability to experiment with heroin without falling into addiction. He is often on the lookout for potential scams, and despite his friendly, charming facade, he generally regards the women he seduces with little more than contempt. By the end of the novel, he has become a pimp of young girls. Essentially, a combination of Byronic hero and villain, he becomes even more immoral after the death of his daughter Dawn, who asphyxiates while her mother Lesley and Sick Boy are on a heroin binge (Sick Boy himself denies parental responsibility until years after the fact, but it is heavily implied that he blames himself for Dawn's death). Sick Boy considers himself above everyone he interacts with in terms of class, restraint, and moral fibre, despite being one of the most shallow and callous characters in the novel. When thinking to himself, he often imagines he is speaking with Sean Connery. While Begbie represents unavoidable, unanswerable violence to the antihero of the novel, Sick Boy represents cold, calculated expediency, the type of life that Renton would have if he had no conscience or moral restraints. Daniel "Spud" Murphy Naive and childlike, Spud is both the whipping boy and only real source of comfort among Renton's circle of friends; they feel genuinely protective of him, even as they repeatedly mock and take advantage of him. Although very light-fingered, Spud is the only genuinely kind-hearted character in the novel, and has a soft spot for animals. He uses heroin because it feels good, and for no deeper purpose; he would not be able to achieve anything but a low position in society even if he was sober and his sense of decency contrasts sharply with the personalities of his friends, whose heroin use is sometimes the least objectionable of their acts. Spud is sent to Saughton prison for a section of the novel due to his addiction to petty theft. Francis "Franco" Begbie A violent sociopath, Begbie terrorises his "friends" into going along with whatever he says, assaulting and brutalising anyone who angers him.
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He expresses intense loyalty to his friends though he considers junkies to be the lowest form of life, despite being thoroughly addicted himself to alcohol, amphetamine, and, most notably, the adrenaline rush of violence. He is part of the YLT (Young Leith Team) football hooligan gang. Davie Mitchell The "everyman" of the novel, Davie seems to be the most "normal" of the characters. Unlike the others, he is a university graduate and holds down a decent job, and represents, to a degree, the "straight life" most of the characters try to avoid. He is not immune to the dangers of his environment, however, and his life is thrown into chaos when he contracts HIV; his experiences with the disease form the basis of the story in the chapter "Bad Blood". Tommy Laurence A childhood friend of Renton's, Tommy does not use heroin and seems completely content to drink, use speed, play football, and listen to Iggy Pop. However, he is insecure and depends on others for validation; when his girlfriend dumps him, he numbs the depression by experimenting with heroin, grudgingly provided by Renton. His resulting addiction weighs on Renton's conscience (and in part provokes him to seriously attempt sobriety). Tommy contracts HIV before the end of the novel.

Structure The novel is split up into seven sections: the first six contain multiple chapters of varying length and differing focus. The novel's origins in short fiction are still visible though no segment or chapter is wholly independent of the others. The majority of the stories are narrated by the novel's central protagonist, Mark Renton. Each character narrates differently, in a fashion comparable to stream-of-consciousness or representative of psychological realism. For example, Spud will refer to people internally as "cats" (Begbie is a jungle cat, while he himself is a house cat), and Sick Boy will occasionally entertain an inner-dialogue between himself and Sean Connery. Chapters narrated by Renton are written with Scots dialogue terms spelled phonetically, which conveys the character's accent and use of Scots, while Davie's chapters ("Bad Blood", "Traditional Sunday Breakfast") are narrated in Scottish English with dialogue appearing phonetically. Other chapters are written from a third-person omniscient stance (in Standard English) to cover the actions and thoughts of different characters simultaneously. For example, "The First Shag in Ages" covers Spud and Renton's outing to a nightclub where they meet Dianne and her pal, followed by Renton's return to Dianne's and the awkward breakfast that ensues, all the while revealing what each character thinks of the other. Unlike the film it inspired, the novel's plot is not linear. Characters are often introduced without backstory and without any initially obvious connection either to the core group of characters or to the junkie lifestyle. Plot summary Section 1: Kicking The Skag Boys, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mother Superior - Narrated by Renton. Mark and Simon (aka Sick Boy) are watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie when they decide to go buy heroin from Johnny Swan (aka Mother Superior) since they are both feeling symptoms of withdrawal. They cook up with Raymie (who kisses Sick Boy on the mouth) and
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Alison (who states about heroin "That beats any meat injection...that beats any fuckin' cock in the world..."). After being informed that he should go see Kelly, who has just had an abortion, Renton instead eagerly returns home to watch the rest of his movie. Junk Dilemmas No. 63 - Narrated by Renton. A short (less than a page) piece comparing his high to an internal sea, while noting: "more short-term sea, more long-term poison". The First Day of the Edinburgh Festival - Narrated by Renton. Mark initially makes an attempt to come off heroin by acquiring a bare room and all the things he will require when coming down. When withdrawal begins to set in however, he resolves to get another hit to ease the decline. Unable to find any heroin, he acquires opium suppositories which, after a heavy bout of diarrhea, he must recover from a public toilet (a notable scene recreated for the film--"The Worst public Toilet in Scotland") showing just how far a junkie will go for a hit (punctuated by the fact that he had to put up with Mikey Forrester to get them, a dealer he loathes). In Overdrive - Narrated by Sick Boy. Simon attempts to pick up girls while being annoyed by Mark, who wants to watch videos. Sick Boy loses Renton and launches into an internal self-glorifying, nihilistic diatribe. Growing Up in Public - Third person narration following Nina, Mark's cousin. Nina is with her family after her Uncle Andy's recent death. She initially feigns indifference but then breaks down without even realising it. It is also revealed that Mark had a catatonic younger brother who died several years before. Victory on New Year's Day - Third person narration following Stevie. At a party consisting of almost all the key characters in the novel, Stevie cannot stop thinking about his girlfriend who he has fallen out with. They optimistically reunite at the train station following a couple of phone calls. It Goes without Saying - Narrated by Renton. Lesley's baby, Dawn, has died. Though it appears to be a cot death, it could also have been from neglect. The Skag Boys are uncomfortable and unsure of how to respond to the tragedy as Lesley cries hysterically. However, Simon/Sick Boy becomes notably more emotional and distressed than the others and eventually breaks down and cries as well, stating he is kicking heroin for good and clearly implying Dawn was his daughter. Mark wants to comfort his friend, but is unable to form the words and simply cooks a shot for himself in order to deal with the situation. A sobbing Lesley asks him to also cook her up a hit, which Mark does but makes sure he injects himself before her, stating the action "goes without saying" and proving the harsh truth that no matter what, junk comes first for them all. Junk Dilemmas No. 64 - Narrated by Renton. Mark's mother is knocking on his door while crying. He ignores her pleas and cooks up a shot. He feels guilty about letting her down, but continues to use drugs anyway. Her Man - Narrated by Rab "Second Prize" McLaughlin. Second Prize and Tommy are in the pub and Tommy confronts a man who is openly punching his own girlfriend. They are shocked to find the woman supports her abusive boyfriend instead of her would-be liberators by digging her nails into Tommy's face, inciting a brawl.

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Speedy Recruitment - Varied narration (third person while together in the pub, first person for each interview.) Spud and Renton both have a job interview for the same job, but neither of them wants the job as they would prefer to be unemployed and to continue to receive social security. Renton pretends to be an upper-class heroin addict, while Spud takes Amphetamine and is incoherent. Section 2: Relapsing Scotland Takes Drugs in Psychic Defence - Narrated by Tommy. He goes to an Iggy Pop gig on the same day as his girlfriend's birthday. He spends the entire chapter using speed and alcohol. The chapter's title refers to an Iggy Pop lyric, which Tommy vehemently affirms. The Glass - Narrated by Renton. Focuses on his "friendship" with Begbie. Renton, Begbie and their girlfriends meet up for a drink before going to a party, but it ends when Begbie throws a glass off a balcony, hitting someone and splitting open their head. After this, Begbie smiles at Renton and proceeds to announce to the party he will find whoever threw that glass before attacking random innocent people in the pub and setting off a huge pub brawl. Renton concludes his thoughts on Begbie saying "He really is a cunt ay the first order. Nae doubt about that. The problem is, he's a mate n aw. What kin ye dae?" A Disappointment - Narrated by Begbie. Continues the theme of the last chapter. Begbie recalls an ordinary story of being in the pub and staring at a man whom he wanted to fight. Cock Problems - Narrated by Renton. Tommy comes round to Renton's flat (shortly after Renton injected a shot into his penis, hence the title) after being dumped by his girlfriend. Tommy asks Renton to give him some heroin, which he reluctantly does. This sets off Tommy's gradual decline into addiction. Traditional Sunday Breakfast - Narrated by Davie. Davie has woken up at the house of his girlfriend's mother in a puddle of urine, vomit and faeces, after a night of drinking. Embarrassed, he attempts to make off with the sheets and wash them himself. However, Gail's mother starts tugging at the sheets, he resists, and the contents fly all over the family, their kitchen, and their breakfast. (In the film, this unfortunate event is attributed to Spud.) Junk Dilemmas No. 65 - Narrated by Renton. Mark has cooked up with Spud and stresses how cold he is. Spud is completely unresponsive and Mark thinks he may be dead, seeming unsurprised if he is. Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine - third person narration. Renton's brother Billy and his friends Lenny, Naz Peasbo, and Jackie are waiting for their friend Granty to arrive for a game of cards, as he is holding the money pot. They later find out that Granty is dead and his girlfriend has disappeared with the money, prompting them to beat Jackie, whom they knew to have been sleeping with her. Section 3: Kicking Again Inter Shitty - Narrated by Begbie. Begbie and Renton have pulled an unknown crime and have decided to lie low in London. The chapter covers their train journey.

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Na Na and Other Nazis - Narrated by Spud, who has managed to kick heroin. He visits his grandmother, where his mixed-race uncle Dode is staying. He recounts the trouble that Dode has had with racism growing up, particularly an event when he and Spud went to a pub and were soon assaulted by white power skinheads saying slogans such as "ain't no black in the Union Jack". This abuse led to a fight, which left Dode hospitalised, where Spud visits him. "I've had worse in the past and I'll have worse in the future" Dode tells Spud, who begs him not to say such things. "He looks at us like I'll never understand and I know he's probably right." The First Shag in Ages - Third person narration. Renton has kicked heroin and is restless. He ends up picking up a girl at a nightclub, Dianne, and sleeping with her, unaware that she is only fourteen. He is later forced to repeatedly lie to her parents at breakfast the following morning. Despite his guilt and discomfort, he presumably sleeps with Dianne again when she shows up at his apartment. Strolling Through the Meadows - Narrated by Spud. Spud, Renton and Sick Boy take some Ecstasy and stroll to the Meadows where an excited Sick Boy and Renton try to kill a squirrel but stop after Spud becomes upset by their actions towards the animal. He states to the reader that you can't love yourself if you hurt animals as it's wrong and compares their innocence to that of Simon's dead baby Dawn. He also notably states that squirrels are "lovely" and "free" and that "that's maybe what Rents can't stand" indicating Mark envies those he feels are completely unbound and free. Mark, in reaction to Spud's distress and disappointment in his actions, is clearly ashamed and Spud forgives him quickly and the pair embrace, before Simon humorously breaks them up by stating they should either "go fuck each other in the trees" or help him find Begbie and Matty. Section 4: Blowing It Courting Disaster - Narrated by Renton. Renton and Spud are in court for stealing books. Renton gets a suspended sentence due to his attempts at rehabilitation, while Spud is given a short prison sentence. Renton becomes increasingly despairing at the "celebrations" and the people around him. Junk Dilemmas No. 66 - An extremely short passage, presumably narrated by Renton. Renton reflects that his heroin hit has removed his ability to move. Deid Dugs - Narrated by Sick Boy. Using an air rifle, Sick Boy shoots a Bull Terrier, which then attacks its skinhead owner, giving Sick Boy the excuse he needs to kill the dog, which he proceeds to do, using its own collar. He delights when a police officer arrives and informs Sick Boy that he will be recommended for a commendation. Searching for the Inner Man - Narrated by Renton. An important chapter in which Renton reflects on why he used heroin after seeing several psychiatrists, all of whom have different unrelenting approaches to clinical psychology taken from various 20th century psychologists. Renton's cynicism has stopped him from forming meaningful relationships with anyone, and he is unable to get any enjoyment out of anything. Mark confesses he had a hard childhood because of his catatonic younger brother. House Arrest - Narrated by Renton. Renton relapses and has to suffer heroin withdrawal at his parents' house, where his hallucinations of dead baby Dawn, the television programme he
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is watching, and the lecture provided by his father. He is later visited by Sick Boy and goes out to a pub with his parents, whose unnverving enthusiasm acts as a veneer for their authoritative treatment. Mark is confronted with the tedium and triviality of "normal" life, and it is hinted that he will begin using again. Bang to Rites - Narrated by Renton. Renton's brother Billy dies in Northern Ireland with the British Army. Renton, obviously under the influence of drugs, attends the funeral; there, he almost starts a fight with some of his father's unionist relatives, and ends up having sex with Billy's pregnant girlfriend in the toilets. Demonstrating some topicality, Renton discusses the hypocrisy of Unionism, and the British in Northern Ireland (commencing with an internal rant against his father's family, who are largely bigoted Orangemen). Junk Dilemmas No. 67 - Another extremely short passage, also presumably narrated by Renton. Renton reflects on the depravity of the world, concluding that deprivation is "relative", as well as considers the problems the pills he is about to use will cause to his veins when injected. He concludes that that there are never any dilemmas with junk, and that the ones there are only show up when the junk "runs oot". Section 5: Exile London Crawling - Narrated by Renton. Renton finds himself stranded in London with no place to sleep. He tries to fall asleep in an all-night porno theatre, but there he meets an Italian man named Gi, who makes a pass at him. Renton says he's not gay and after Gi apologetically offers him a place to sleep, Renton takes him up on the offer. However, in the middle of the night, Renton wakes to find Gi masturbating over him and his semen on his cheeks and face. Renton reacts violently, but then takes pity on the sobbing old man. He then decides to take Gi to a late night party. On the way, Gi tells him the tragedy of his life how he had a wife and children who he cared about deeply, yet he could not help falling in love with another man named Antonio and after their affair was revealed the two suffered extremely violent homophobic abuse, leading his lover Antonio to kill himself. At the party, Renton notes sadly how frightened and confused Gi looks and thinks to himself he may end up having sex with him out of pity. Bad Blood - Narrated by Davie. Davie, now HIV-positive, takes a particularly horrible revenge upon the man he suspects raped his girlfriend and gave her HIV, leading to his own contraction of the disease. Davie befriends the man, and when the man is on his deathbed Davie tells him that he just savagely raped and violently murdered the man's six-year-old son after dating the man's ex, going so far as to provide photos of the murdered child. After the man's death, Davie reveals to the reader that he never actually hurt the boy; the whole story was made up and that he had actually chloroformed the child in order to create the fake photos. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - Third person narration. After a marathon drinking and partying session, Renton, Spud, Begbie, Gav, Alison and others venture out for another drink and then something to eat. Spud and others reflect upon their sex lives. The chapter is named after a song by The Smiths, in whose lyrics Spud finds solace after his failed attempt at making a pass at a woman. Feeling Free - Narrated by Kelly. Kelly and Alison create a scene in front of a construction site by getting into an argument with some construction workers. They meet some
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backpacking women and the foursome end up returning to Kelly's where they get high and their new found friends reveal they are in fact lesbians from New Zealand. The girls have a general laugh about, then Renton arrives on a surprise visit to Kelly. The girls pick on him, making particular fun of his masculinity; he takes it in good humour and leaves, noting that Kelly is already busy. Immediately afterwards the women feel guilty for ganging up on him, though Kelly notes that men are only alright "when in the minority". The Elusive Mr Hunt - Third person narration. Sick Boy prank calls Kelly's pub where she works from across the street. He asks her to look for a "Mark Hunt" and only after she has called the name out ("This boy is wantin Mark Hunt") around the pub a few times does she realise how much the men in the pub are laughing at her and how the name sounds like "my cunt (when said in a Scottish accent)" causing her a great deal of embarrassment. Renton is present in the pub at the time and laughing along with the other men at Kelly, until he realises she has tears in her eyes. At first he thinks she is being silly and shouldn't take the laughter to heart, but then he recognises the laughter from the men in the pub isn't friendly. "It's not funny laughter. This is lynch mob laughter. How was ah tae know, he thinks. How the fuck was ah tae know?" Section 6: Home Easy Money for the Professionals - Narrated by Spud. Spud, Begbie, and a teenager have engaged in a criminal robbery. Spud recounts the crime and comments on Begbie's paranoia and how the teenager is likely to get ripped off by the pair. A Present - Narrated by Renton. Gav tells Renton the story of how Matty died of toxoplasmosis after attempting to rekindle his relationship with his ex using a kitten (a scene re-created for Tommy's funeral in the film version). Memories of Matty - Third person narration. The group attends Matty's funeral, where they reflect on his downfall. Straight Dilemmas No. 1 - Narrated by Renton. Renton finds himself at a small gathering in a London flat surrounded by casual drug users. While the others at the party indulge in joints, Renton muses on the idea that they have no clue what true drug addiction entails. Eating Out - Narrated by Kelly. Kelly is working as a waitress in an Edinburgh restaurant and gets revenge on some unpleasant customers. Trainspotting at Leith Central Station - Narrated by Renton. Renton returns to Leith for Christmas. He meets Begbie, who beats up an innocent man after having seen his alcoholic father in the disused Leith Central railway station. A Leg-Over Situation - Narrated by Renton. Renton goes to see a previous drug dealer, Johnny Swann, who has had his leg amputated due to heroin use. Winter in West Granton - Narrated by Renton. Renton goes to visit Tommy, who is dying of AIDS.

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A Scottish Soldier - Third person narration. Johnny Swann is reduced to begging, pretending to be a soldier who lost his leg in the Falklands War. Swann is quite optimistic and exclaims that he is making more money begging rather than dealing heroin. Section 7: Exit Station to Station - Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Second Prize go to London to engage in a low-key heroin deal and see a Pogues gig. The book ends with Renton stealing the cash and going to Amsterdam. As the movie and sequel, Porno, both imply, Spud is compensated. Themes The novel is basically a series of short stories. Each chapter focuses on a given event and does not necessarily contribute to Renton's eventual betrayal. For example, some chapters focus on Renton's sexual morality: in one chapter an old man masturbates onto him while he is sleeping, and in another he has sex with his dead brother's pregnant fiance in the bathroom after his brother's funeral. Welsh explores in depth the absence of a true Scottish national identity. Renton displays a great self-loathing of his country, which he views as a nation "colonised by wankers". Welsh suggests that the idealised image of "Scotland the Brave" is a false heritage, a sentimentalised vision of Scotland perpetuated by events such as the Edinburgh Festival. Welsh also attacks Unionism through Renton's description of his father's Protestant loyalist family. (this is portrayed in the movie after Renton tells Sick Boy "It's shite being Scottish!" and proceeds with his diatribe). However, drug use, and abuse, is certainly the main issue dealt with. The novel explores what causes drug use and what sustains addiction in its many forms. Many chapters focus on Renton's continual attempts to kick the habit and their accompanying relapses, and explore the cynical mentality that leads Renton to use drugs. The novel ends rather ambiguously, with Renton betraying his friends and heading for Amsterdam with money they had all acquired from a drug deal. The novel refers to bands that influenced Welsh's writing, including David Bowie, Joy Division, The Fall, the Pogues, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, The Smiths, The Stooges and especially Iggy Pop, whom all the characters idolise. Sick Boy's nickname comes from the lyrics of the song "Death Trip" by The Stooges, and also from the character's amorality and sexual perversions. The title The title may be a reference to an episode where Begbie and Renton meet "an auld drunkard" in the disused Leith Central railway station, which they are visiting to use as a toilet. He asks them if they are "trainspottin", as Renton is urinating onto the stonework (trains have not run to Leith since 1952). As they walk away from the drunk, Renton realises the drunk is Begbie's father. The chapter's relevance to the overall themes of the novel is debatable (worth noting is the fact that Begbie grew up without a father, as well as the fact that his similar irresponsible treatment of his own children will ensure that they turn out exactly like him).[5] Another possible reason for the title is that 'trainspotting' is a slang term for injecting heroin: the drug
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running along the 'tracks' or veins. It is also said that 'trainspotting' is slang for spotting the drugdealer, or being on the look out for a drugdealer. 5 Sexing the Cherry

Sexing the Cherry (1989) is a novel by Jeanette Winterson. Set in 17th century London, Sexing the Cherry is about the journeys of a mother, known as The Dog Woman, and her protg, Jordan. They journey in a space-time flux: across the seas to find exotic fruits such as bananas and pineapples; and across time, with glimpses of "the present" and references to Charles I of England and Oliver Cromwell. The mothers physical appearance is somewhat "grotesque". She is a giant, wrapped in a skirt big enough to serve as a ships sail and strong enough to fling an elephant. She is also hideous, with smallpox scars in which fleas live, a flat nose and foul teeth. Her son, however, is proud of her, as no other mother can hold a good dozen oranges in her mouth all at once. Ultimately, their journey is a journey in search of The Self.[citation needed] Sexing the Cherry features elements of magical realism and can be said to contribute to the promotion of the "Other" in the literary world.[clarification needed] Sexing the Cherry is a postmodernist work and features many examples of intertextuality. It also incorporates the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson is set in 17th century London. It's the stories of DogWoman, a massive and hideous woman who finds a baby in the Thames, adopts him and names him Jordan. On their travels, they search for the meaning of love, the ponder what is true and meet the 12 dancing princesses and hear their stories. Winterson really plays with time and fairy tales and imagination in this short, weird little book. She even rewrites some of history. Some of it is confusing, some of it is uncomfortable to read, but it's all really written in such a beautiful way, if somewhat choppy and fragmented. Awhile back I read another of Jeanette Winterson's books, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and thought it was a bit of fun. When I saw Sexing the Cherry in a charity shop last year, I picked it up thinking 'why not?' It's quite a slim book I thought, even if I hate it it's still less than 150 pages. And soon after buying this book, I read a negative review of it. Vivienne over at Serendipity (link to review below) couldn't make it through the book and that really put me off for awhile. And it's worth mentioning here. Reading this book did make me feel uncomfortable in parts, especially as I read so many instances of anti-male writing. I'm all for equal rights, but I don't believe that tearing down one sex in order to raise the other is the right way to go about things. Despite all of my misgivings with this book, the part I enjoyed the most was the relationship between the Dog-woman and Jordan. They have such a wonderful connection to each other, but they don't really understand how the other feels for them. There's a great scene towards the end where the Dog-woman struggles with her emotions after seeing Jordan after such a long time. And instead of embracing him, telling him how much she missed him and loved him, she says nothing. And they walk down the beach together. It's a really beautiful scene, I wish I'd written it down to share with you here. This book really did make me think. I was left wondering what it all meant, what was
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Winterson's purpose in writing this book? I think I touched on some of the main themes, of love and truth and imagination. I think Winterson wanted readers to see the world differently, to see the difference in gender roles and to think of history in a new way. To be imaginative. That's what I got out of reading this book anyway. Sexing the Cherry is not a book for everyone, I don't think. But it's one that I'm glad to have read.

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Flaubert's Parrot

Flaubert's Parrot is a novel by Julian Barnes that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize the following year. The novel recites amateur Flaubert expert Geoffrey Braithwaite's musings on his subject's life, and his own, as he tracks a stuffed parrot that once inspired the great author. Plot summary The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France and the Flaubert landmarks therein. While visiting various sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey encounters two incidents of museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote Un coeur simple. While trying to differentiate which is authentic Geoffrey ultimately learns that (n)either could be genuine, and Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty ("Une cinquantaine de perroquets!", p. 187) that had been held in the collection of the municipal museum. Although the main focus of the narrative is tracking down the parrot, many chapters exist independently of this plotline, consisting of Geoffrey's reflections, such as on Flaubert's love life and how it was affected by trains, and animal imagery in Flaubert's works and the animals with which he himself was identified (usually a bear, but also a dog, sheep, camel, and parrot). Themes One of the central themes of the novel is subjectivism. The novel provides three sequential chronologies of Flaubert's life: the first is optimistic (citing his successes, conquests, etc.), the second is negative (citing the deaths of his friends/lovers, his failures, illnesses etc.) and the third compiles quotations written by Flaubert in his journal at various points in his life. The attempts to find the real Flaubert mirror the attempt to find his parrot, i.e. apparent futility.

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