Is God on the Rocks too English?

God on the Rocks

Can a book be too English?  That was the question another reviewer had about Jane Gardam’s acclaimed 1978 novel, God on the Rocks.  The question struck a respondent chord with me because although I have been transported by the later novels of Ms. Gardam, this one failed to move me.

Gardam’s skill and imagination are evident as are her quirky plot twists.  For me, God on the Rocks is too English.  What I mean is the characters lapse into local idioms frequently, and they stay in a claustrophobically small geographical space. Another problem for me was the characters.  I’m just not interested in the experiences of an eight year old—even one as precocious  and bright as Margaret—or the trials of her  religious fundamentalist father. 

Sometimes the quirky structure of the novel bothered me, as well.  Dialog can be mysterious.  At one point a character talks about someone  using another character’s name.  She’s confused, and it took me a while to figure that out.  It’s like a mystery novel.  You have to put together clues as to what’s happening and to whom.

Can a book be too English, or too northern Californian, or too mid-western?  I think so.  God on the Rocks explores a tiny universe with imagination, but for me it’s too tiny.