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Catch
Catharine wakes to an empty bed. Her husband Tom, a human rights lawyer, is away on business and it's the first time she has woken alone in their cottage since they moved there from London five months ago.She is, as she confesses, a serious woman; realistic and practical. She has relinquished her hold on past ambitions, her music and her career, in preparation for family life. Now, without distraction, she wonders what she is to do.Time progresses, and in encounters both real and imagined - with the village's inhabitants, with her best friend Maria and with Tom - Catharine plucks at the fabric of her life until it is threadbare. From assured beginnings the day rushes to a realisation of her very worst fears, and to a denouement of devastating poignancy.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2010
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November 8, 2010
This book both delighted and frustrated me. It provides a microscopic look at one day in the life of Catherine, otherwise known by her husband as 'Catch', a nickname that her best-friend refuses to use. She wakes up one day in solitude, after having been left alone by her husband who is on a work engagement. What follows is Catherine's stream of consciousness as she postulates on the world around her and the nuances of her life.
There is a reference on the book jacket to 'Catch' being like Madame Bovary - a fact that attracted me to the book in the first place (I'm a huge fan of Gustave Flaubert). I can see why the comparison has been made; Catherine, like Emma Bovary, is dissatisfied with the life she leads. Although she has a husband that clearly loves her, a best-friend and a home in the countryside, she can only focus on her failures and disappointments. She is still bitterly let-down by the fact that although music is her passion she did not possess enough natural talent to become a world-class musician herself. Playing second-rate music is not acceptable to her. She also feels the weight of being unable to conceive a child - a fact that eventually seems to consume her.
In the latter-half of the book, a neighbour tells Catherine that she 'thinks too much' and this does indeed seem to sum her up perfectly. She is too-inward facing, too caught-up in her own minor problems and what people think of her. I wanted to shake her at times and talk some sense into her. She's unable to truly appreciate what she does have, because she's so caught up in the miniscule tragedies of her life.
What I did enjoy about 'Catch' was the beautiful, almost poetic prose that Simon Robson has written and the way that he really delves deeply into the character of Catherine - showing the reader every facet of her personality, whether good or bad. The fact that the story only takes place during the period of one day also serves to intensify Catherine's feelings and provide a greater focus than normal.
There is a reference on the book jacket to 'Catch' being like Madame Bovary - a fact that attracted me to the book in the first place (I'm a huge fan of Gustave Flaubert). I can see why the comparison has been made; Catherine, like Emma Bovary, is dissatisfied with the life she leads. Although she has a husband that clearly loves her, a best-friend and a home in the countryside, she can only focus on her failures and disappointments. She is still bitterly let-down by the fact that although music is her passion she did not possess enough natural talent to become a world-class musician herself. Playing second-rate music is not acceptable to her. She also feels the weight of being unable to conceive a child - a fact that eventually seems to consume her.
In the latter-half of the book, a neighbour tells Catherine that she 'thinks too much' and this does indeed seem to sum her up perfectly. She is too-inward facing, too caught-up in her own minor problems and what people think of her. I wanted to shake her at times and talk some sense into her. She's unable to truly appreciate what she does have, because she's so caught up in the miniscule tragedies of her life.
What I did enjoy about 'Catch' was the beautiful, almost poetic prose that Simon Robson has written and the way that he really delves deeply into the character of Catherine - showing the reader every facet of her personality, whether good or bad. The fact that the story only takes place during the period of one day also serves to intensify Catherine's feelings and provide a greater focus than normal.
Displaying 1 of 1 review