Once Upon A River

    I spoke yesterday about not wanting to break the spell cast by Diane Setterfield's Once Upon A River. We talk often about 'good books' and 'good reads', but there should perhaps be another category, one for those immersive reading experiences so pleasurable, so 'warm-inside-while-the-rain-pours-down', as to be enchanting. I have no snappy name for them, but I'm sure you'll know what I mean, and this book is one of them.

    As we happen to be in the midst of National Storytelling Week, what could be more fitting than a book about stories? Set on the River Thames between its source and Oxford, its centre is an inn, the Swan at Radcot, which offers in addition to the usual ale and cider a rich storytelling tradition perpetuated by both customers and staff. On the night of the winter solstice the Swan becomes the site of a strange story unique in the annals of the river on whose bank it sits: an injured stranger bursts in, holding in his arms the corpse of a drowned child, but hours later the dead girl returns to life. Who is she? Where has she come from? Is her revivification magic or miracle? "A body always tells a story," thinks Rita the wise local nurse, "but this child's corpse was a blank page."

    The book's story then flows on like the main stream of the river at its heart but its pull comes also in its tributaries, backwaters, eddies and undercurrents, for no matter its course there's not a word wasted here, not a scene that doesn't serve. The author is nimble on the page, supple and graceful in the paying out of the lines of her tale; her voice is even, her narrative smooth. Her telling encompasses characters to care about, a subtle sense of place and period, a clever melding of myth and folklore, science and fact, and her delivery is such that to hear this book read aloud  - in the manner of the worthies of the Swan themselves - would be an even richer pleasure, I think.

    Towards the end of the story the photographer Henry Daunt muses on the published collection of photographs of the Thames he has created: "inevitably the book fell short of its ambition." I don't know what ambition Diane Setterfield had for her novel but I can say there's no falling short here - she has written a book whose intricacies are to be savoured, one to revisit from time to time and live in for more of that 'warm-inside-while-the-rain-pours-down' enchantment. Don't miss it!

 

(And see also.)

Comments

[Cathy Johnson]

I agree with everything you say about the book. I thought it was wonderful.

I was lucky enough to hear Diane talk about the book at Henley Literary Festival last October (while sailing up the Thames in fact). My write-up of her talk is here if you're interested and the theme of storytelling you mention came up frequently:
https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/event-review-diane-setterfield-at-henley-literary-festival-2018/

[Sue]

And I see the audio s read by Juliet Stevenson. That’s my next audible credit taken care of.

[Cornflower]

Thank you very much, Cathy - fascinating to learn more about the background to the book.

[Cornflower]

Perfect!

[Helen]

Sounds fabulous. Thanks for the recommendation. Over the years I have enjoyed many of your recommendations (and have given them as presents as well to people who have loved them). I really appreciate your blog. Helen

PS Often I am reading posts a few days late. I never know whether to comment on them or to comment off topic on a more recent post, so usually I do neither....

[Cornflower]

Thank you so much, Helen, and do please comment - or not - in whatever way you'd like!