From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Moon Tiger

Penelope Lively

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 15, 2022

Discussion: Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Jul 22, 2018 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hoopla, booker-winners-and-listed, ebooks, read2018

The more I think about and talk about this book, the more impressed I am by it. It won the Man Booker Prize in 1987 but had bad reviews. It was selected as the book from the 1980s to go up for the Golden Man Booker Prize this year, and despite the fact that it didn't ultimately win, I feel like that process put it back on the radar for a lot of us. First I was standing in line waiting for another book to be signed when another reader-podcaster brought it up, and then last night I was having some The more I think about and talk about this book, the more impressed I am by it. It won the Man Booker Prize in 1987 but had bad reviews. It was selected as the book from the 1980s to go up for the Golden Man Booker Prize this year, and despite the fact that it didn't ultimately win, I feel like that process put it back on the radar for a lot of us. First I was standing in line waiting for another book to be signed when another reader-podcaster brought it up, and then last night I was having some reading ennui yesterday and started poking around my favorites list in Hoopla, and the book came up both times. I am not one to ignore signs from the universe on books I am supposed to be reading, so I downloaded it and read it that night.

A lot of female authors in the 21st century receive acclaim for "daring" to write unlikeable characters. But Penelope Lively already showed how this can be done. The trick is not to make the reader not like them, but to show how they might be unlikeable to the people around them, while the reader finds herself completely on their side.

"Self-centred? Probably. Aren't we all? Why is it a term of accusation? That is what it was when I was a child. I was considered difficult. Impossible, indeed, was the word sometimes used. I didn't think I was impossible at all; it was mother and nurse who were impossible, with their injunctions and their warnings, their obsessions with milk puddings and curled hair and their terror of all that was inviting about the natural world - high trees and deeper water and the texture of wet grass on bare feet, the allure of mud and snow and fire. I always ached - burned - to go higher and faster and further. They admonished, I disobeyed.

This section is very early in the narrative and I was immediately sold and in her hands forever. Who hasn't felt this way as a woman? And who as a woman hasn't had the word "difficult" used about them as if it were the worst thing you could be? Ah, it cut deep in my own experience at least.

Claudia, the main character, is not interested in what other people think. This moves through her childhood in how she behaves and in her relationship with her brother. It moves into her education and career as she declares she will be a war correspondent, and live in Egypt during WWII. It extends past her romances with men, while unmarried, into her fling that leaves her pregnant. She has a child but never feels particularly maternal. (The book starts with her in her death bed, and from time to time the narrative returns there, including a particularly honest and memorable moment between mother and daughter.) She despises her brother's wife, who is her opposite.

All of this is going on while time moves back and forth, as does the point of view. Sometimes Claudia is spoken of in the 3rd person while it usually has Claudia speaking in the 1st person. Sometimes the same scene segment will replay from a different character's perspective, providing information from that person that Claudia could not have included, either because she is not aware of the piece of information or hasn't noticed it. (Because, remember, she is selfish.)

It really worked for me, I'm so glad I read it, I want to read it again, and I will go looking for more of her books. ...more

58 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2009 David rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010, hideously-vile-protagonists, book-er-danno

"Moon Tiger", for which the author won the Booker prize, is a book that I could admire, but not like. The main protagonist, Claudia Hampton, an accomplished historian, lies dying in a London hospital bed and looks back upon her life. The resulting series of first-person flashbacks, interspersed with third-person accounts of the same episodes, coalesce into a tightly constructed kaleidoscopic view of Claudia's life which is impressive for the skill with which it is achieved, but ultimately left m ...more

51 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2014 Rosana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014

I was to drive back to the farm this morning, after a few days in The City. But a snow storm blew in with more intensity than expected and I used it as an excuse to stay put for one more day and read.

Moon Tiger is my first book of 2014, also the first book in a reading challenge for the coming 12 months – to read books set in various countries around the world.

My thoughts about it are at the moment still very inordinate, but out of laziness I will list them in point form, avoiding the effort ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2022 Mary Ellen rated it it was amazing

I was completely taken by this gem of a book, beautifully written, artfully constructed, no words wasted.

Penelope Lively managed to make me love a book peopled, on the whole, by unlovely, often downright unsympathetic characters (with a couple of notable exceptions, including Tom, the great love of Claudia's life, and Lazlo, a young Hungarian she befriends in the wake of the Soviet invasion in 1956).

Claudia, the dying central character, was a writer of popular histories. Her memories, often inte ...more

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Jan 23, 2008 Erica rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

A Booker Prize winnder, this book is one my book club is reading. While not what I'd call a quick, easy read, it's worth it once you get into it. Told from the point of view of an old woman from her deathbed, it's ultimately a touching story of how personal choices and historical events and serendipitous circumstances shape who we are. ...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, modern-lit, africa

Gains ground in the back half as Claudia fleshes out as a character, and Lively's brief-but-punchy descriptions of Egypt during World War II give you a tremendous sense of place. ...more

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