A review by jodar
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I’m glad to have read this novel, though it feels uneven.
I enjoyed the gentle, loving daughter–father relationship, the friendships the MC Esme has with her aunts and her ‘bondmaid’, and the ways in which Esme gradually learns more about the world and herself as she grows from childhood to adulthood. I’d never say no to nerdish lexicography, either!
Confronting are overarching themes of absence – the absence of significant people, the denial of just recognition and rights – and profound loss – of loved ones and even mental capacity to cope. Confronting, yes, but with a feeling of truth in the lives lived at that time.
The attitudes of many of the characters, however, feel a bit anachronistic, more those of the liberal intelligentsia of the late 20th or early 21st century than those of the middle class of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The ending too feels forced, trying to draw a connection between the lexicographical efforts of 100 years or more ago in the U.K. and the efforts of the writer’s modern-day Australia to restore a healthy relationship with Aboriginal peoples.
By the end I think we are supposed to feel comforted by the progress humanity can achieve between the sexes, social classes and ethnic groups through the endeavours of individuals of honest goodwill. But what I came away from the novel with was loss, sadness and the ultimate emptiness of human striving alone.
I enjoyed the gentle, loving daughter–father relationship, the friendships the MC Esme has with her aunts and her ‘bondmaid’, and the ways in which Esme gradually learns more about the world and herself as she grows from childhood to adulthood. I’d never say no to nerdish lexicography, either!
Confronting are overarching themes of absence – the absence of significant people, the denial of just recognition and rights – and profound loss – of loved ones and even mental capacity to cope. Confronting, yes, but with a feeling of truth in the lives lived at that time.
The attitudes of many of the characters, however, feel a bit anachronistic, more those of the liberal intelligentsia of the late 20th or early 21st century than those of the middle class of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The ending too feels forced, trying to draw a connection between the lexicographical efforts of 100 years or more ago in the U.K. and the efforts of the writer’s modern-day Australia to restore a healthy relationship with Aboriginal peoples.
By the end I think we are supposed to feel comforted by the progress humanity can achieve between the sexes, social classes and ethnic groups through the endeavours of individuals of honest goodwill. But what I came away from the novel with was loss, sadness and the ultimate emptiness of human striving alone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Medical trauma, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death of parent, Classism, Death, and Misogyny