Eva Trout in Reading with Style

Apr 24, 2018 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, 5-star-reads, xx-20th-c-women-read, mid-20th-century, women

My first impression was that Elizabeth Bowen must have attended some sort of author's fair where they sold punctuation. Commas must have been selling for a very good price or the salesman was especially attractive or some other attraction for them that I haven't discerned.

Once alone, Mrs. Dancey, who already had a crick in her neck, saw no further need to study the castle. Instead, here was an unprecedented opportunity to study Eva, at length and in peace, from a safe distance. Eva, one saw stra

My first impression was that Elizabeth Bowen must have attended some sort of author's fair where they sold punctuation. Commas must have been selling for a very good price or the salesman was especially attractive or some other attraction for them that I haven't discerned.

Once alone, Mrs. Dancey, who already had a crick in her neck, saw no further need to study the castle. Instead, here was an unprecedented opportunity to study Eva, at length and in peace, from a safe distance. Eva, one saw straight ahead, through the windscreen.

I had to read that last sentence three times before it made sense. I have read Bowen before, and I didn't remember that her prose was this unusual. I believe that her style in this was intended to convey how unsettled Eva was, how uncomfortable she was in any type of social situation. Although very nearly 25 when the novel opens, she had not had much contact with others of her own age and for years had contact only with foreign nationals. The prose here creates tension in the reader in a different way than that of other authors I've read. As the novel progresses, the prose becomes a bit more even and relaxed, and we see that Eva has also.

I had a conversation recently with another reader about what he likes best about reading. "A good story is essential, anything more is icing." About 2/3 of the way through this I thought perhaps this was a lot of icing with only a so-so story. I felt with all of that awkward prose that there was more to read between the lines than I had energy for. There was definitely enough story to have me keep reading - it never occurred to me to set it aside. I wanted to know Eva, I wanted to know what she would do with her life, I wanted to know what those supporting characters would do and how they would react to Eva as she matured. And, while the story grew on me, it is still a lot of icing.

This has, perhaps, one of the most dramatic endings I've read in quite awhile. In fact, I cannot think of a single novel that has such drama, such a climax, in the last two sentences. It took my breath away. It begs for a sequel. There is no sequel, even if Bowen had considered such. This is Bowen's last novel.

I may have borrowed some of Bowen's unused commas to write this, supposing she had a few extra lying around. As the book gets better as it marches to that dramatic ending, my opinion got better along with it. Is this truly 5-stars? Maybe, maybe not, but that's my rating and I'm sticking to it. ...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it

The blurb on the edition of this book I have says "Bowen is magnificent when she writes about...ambiguity" (Margaret Drabble). Ambiguity is right! The reader has no idea what is going on in the first scene. Each passing scene becomes a bit clearer until the last scene is crystal clear. But the whole book leaves you with a thousand unanswered questions. And, yet, the questions are not as demanding as you would have guessed half way through.
A young woman (Eva Trout), who grew up motherless and wa ...more

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Feb 28, 2015 Karen Michele Burns rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-completed

I enjoyed most of the story of Eva Trout while I was reading it, but kept having the feeling that I was missing something important that would have allowed me to have a better understanding of the plot and characters. I’ve read through a lot of reviews now, and it seems I was not alone in this feeling. For about the last third of the book, I did have a certain sense of foreboding and I found the last section more gripping because of that feeling. Eva was an interesting character who did unusual ...more

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