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A review by foggy_rosamund
Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly
3.0
We do not know the date of Mary Ann's birth: she dies in 1887, leaving behind a manuscript hidden in the wall of the house of her employer. This novel is written in Mary Ann's idiosyncratic style: it uses her spellings and dialect, and takes the form of either a very long narrative free-verse poem, or a strangely laid-out novel. Mary Ann has a hare-lip, and is considered by those around her to be "simple", though it is clear that she is anything but: astute, loyal and sensitive, she writes about those around her and the events that shape her life with clarity and insight. Mary Ann's voice and the narrative style employed by Jolly are the most successful parts of the work: often, the reader feels as though she has entered Mary Ann's mind, and Jolly captures the valleys of Stroud and Gloucestershire with much beauty and originality. The passage in which Mary Ann discovers poetry, I found particularly moving --
That the first time I see poetry writ down
It does all go from left to right
I see now it must
But not all the space is filld up
The words have their own pattern
Make a picture on the page
The space that is writ
Speak as loud as the space that is not
I cannot read them right but I like to see
The spaces and all that lie in them
Soon soon I will read them correct
I see the path ahead long and steep
Rising through many tight knit trees
Lit all the way with bright lanterns
So one may step on boldly
I must work and work
I meant to cut that quote earlier -- but I find the whole piece so moving that I was unable to find a place to cut! For me, as someone who writes poetry, it is one of the best descriptions of what poetry can achieve that I've ever read -- and I also really enjoy it as a physical / metatextual discussion of what poetry does on the page and what that means. It's also a great example of how effective Jolly's use of free-verse can be, and how it captures Mary Ann's voice and perspective.
The text falls flat for me in a few ways -- Jolly's exploration of Mary Ann is an attempt to give voice to those in history who are often overlooked -- as Mary Ann says "Should we not rather study / Those things are evr the same // There are always winders to be cleaned" -- but she also inserts tension into the narrative by having Mary Ann foreshadow terrible future events, and discuss mysteries and secrets. The foreshadowing weighs too heavily on the text, and when the events are revealed, they are unsatisfying and don't live up to the portentous discussion. Perhaps this is because Jolly fails to fully realise Mary Ann's emotions surrounding these events. Jolly also gives a great deal of attention to a certain period in Mary Ann's life -- from age 10 - 25, approx -- but then covers the rest of Mary Ann's life very rapidly. I think this does a disservice to Mary Ann, and it would have been more effective to simply not tell the reader what happens next, and allow the narrative to end when the events with which Jolly is concerned come to a close.
Overall, I found parts of this book incredibly uplifting and moving, and other parts rather a slog. I'd recommend it to readers who are interested in a feminist reading of industrial history, and to lovers of free-verse, but there are elements to the text which will frustrate some readers.
That the first time I see poetry writ down
It does all go from left to right
I see now it must
But not all the space is filld up
The words have their own pattern
Make a picture on the page
The space that is writ
Speak as loud as the space that is not
I cannot read them right but I like to see
The spaces and all that lie in them
Soon soon I will read them correct
I see the path ahead long and steep
Rising through many tight knit trees
Lit all the way with bright lanterns
So one may step on boldly
I must work and work
I meant to cut that quote earlier -- but I find the whole piece so moving that I was unable to find a place to cut! For me, as someone who writes poetry, it is one of the best descriptions of what poetry can achieve that I've ever read -- and I also really enjoy it as a physical / metatextual discussion of what poetry does on the page and what that means. It's also a great example of how effective Jolly's use of free-verse can be, and how it captures Mary Ann's voice and perspective.
The text falls flat for me in a few ways -- Jolly's exploration of Mary Ann is an attempt to give voice to those in history who are often overlooked -- as Mary Ann says "Should we not rather study / Those things are evr the same // There are always winders to be cleaned" -- but she also inserts tension into the narrative by having Mary Ann foreshadow terrible future events, and discuss mysteries and secrets. The foreshadowing weighs too heavily on the text, and when the events are revealed, they are unsatisfying and don't live up to the portentous discussion. Perhaps this is because Jolly fails to fully realise Mary Ann's emotions surrounding these events. Jolly also gives a great deal of attention to a certain period in Mary Ann's life -- from age 10 - 25, approx -- but then covers the rest of Mary Ann's life very rapidly. I think this does a disservice to Mary Ann, and it would have been more effective to simply not tell the reader what happens next, and allow the narrative to end when the events with which Jolly is concerned come to a close.
Overall, I found parts of this book incredibly uplifting and moving, and other parts rather a slog. I'd recommend it to readers who are interested in a feminist reading of industrial history, and to lovers of free-verse, but there are elements to the text which will frustrate some readers.