2023 Booker shortlist - Study for Obedience

[Arun]

Having read this twice (the second time searching out the references Bernstein provided), I am deeply ambivalent about the book. The prose is beautiful and the unnamed narrator deliciously deceptive in her self-abnegation. I loved the ending and the reversal of roles between the narrator and her brother (who I believe she hints at having sexually abused her in childhood). I struggle however with the plethora of themes (the climate crisis and the role of corporations in accelerating it; themes of misogyny in the narrator’s experience both within her family and in her work; the Holocaust and survivors guilt, as well as the antisemitism of the townsfolk) which all surfaced but then to varying degrees disappeared or emerged to dominate the narrative.
This almost read to me like a first novel, trying to say too much given its brevity.
It nevertheless is a wonderful book which I thoroughly enjoyed - especially for its ambiguity.

[Bella (Kiki)]

I can't say I really know what this book is about, but I did love it, and I enjoyed every second I spent reading it. My favorite author is Faulkner, so I loved the long, winding sentences in this book that fold back on themselves and repeat. I love the odd narrator and found her increasingly unreliable, which I also liked. It seemed to me that the narrator was a rather colorous person when she arrived at her brother's home, but drew her life from the life around her, the sow, the dog, the chickens, etc. In the end, she claims that life as her own, and things have reversed. I'm sure this is just one (probably wrong) interpretation among many.

All through the book, I wondered where the narrator was and where she was from. She is Jewish, it seems, though not a practicing Jew, and the only mention of a city I can remember is Lugano, a beautiful city in Southern Switzerland filled with mountains and palm trees and warm weather that is in the Italian Canton and is the one canton in Switzerland where Italian is spoken. I lived in Switzerland for ten years, and Lugano was my favorite city. So beautiful!

Near the end, the narrator says something about returning to the place from which her ancestors had fled and mentions someone named Hoffmann, which seems to indicate that she's someplace in Germany. Initially, I thought she'd traveled farther than that, but as with the rest of the book, I'm not sure about much of anything.

There's a paragraph near the beginning that indicates her older brother, if he is, indeed, her brother, is a sex addict, and frequents pornography sites and probably chatrooms, but this is never developed, so I wondered why the author included it.

I'm so glad this book made the shortlist, and I'd love to see it win, but I don't think it will. I think the prize will go to Prophet Song, and I think it deserves it. All of the shortlisted books deserve to win, but so far, Study for Obedience is my favorite. I think it's a beautiful book. As far as I'm concerned, its only failing is the author's attempt to develop too many themes. I wish she wouldn't have spread herself so thin.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Arun wrote: "Having read this twice (the second time searching out the references Bernstein provided), I am deeply ambivalent about the book. The prose is beautiful and the unnamed narrator deliciously deceptiv..."

Exactly! Too many themes.

I didn't catch the hint that her brother might have abused her sexually, but I did wonder about the paragraph near the beginning that indicated he was addicted to porn sites and probably sex chatrooms. Also wondered why she had to bathe and dress him. He was a grown man.

[Bella (Kiki)]

I reread this book, and I think I understand the ending now, but of course, one can never be quite sure unless the author tells him or her.

(view spoiler)[ The narrator was in a Northern country - not Germany as I had at first suspected because she could speak German, maybe Finland, whose language is related to Hungarian and not like any other Western or Central European language. I know some of you did not like the end, the part in the church, especially. I don't believe the narrator, who is obviously Jewish, is a practicing Jew. And who can blame her? I believe the people who are hostile toward her are also non-practicing Jews, who are trying to live as Christians. There's mention of a church, but no synagogue or temple, no one seems to practice Judaism in the entire village. I believe when the narrator is inside the church, she has reclaimed her Jewish faith and is talking to the townspeople who are other Jews. In the last sentence of the book, the narrator says that she has embraced her life fully. I have to believe she has also reclaimed her Jewishness in all its fullness and is exhorting the Jews among her, in the church, to do the same. Perhaps she converts others and that is why they are all in white tracksuits, they are being reborn as Jews. (I know the traditional way is by immersion in the mikvah, but she was fast-tracking them and no mikvah was available. They were, after all, already Jews.) It could be she's hallucinating the church as she, herself, reclaims her Judaism.) As for the things that die, etc., I just do not know as in I have not really formed an opinion yet, but I think things die when they are not permitted to express themselves fully. I don't think this is the whole answer - maybe none of it - because the narrator was not ill, or was she? She'd always had problems with self-expression until the end of the book when she embraced her life fully. (hide spoiler)]

I love this book, and it had a great effect on me, because, as you can see, I cannot stop thinking about it. I believe PROPHET SONG will win the Booker, but I really believe this little book deserves to win. Certainly, it deserves its place on the shortlist. I so look forward to more from that very talented, young author.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

You may find this recent interview interesting - I would read it as not supporting yout hypothesis but you may see it differently.

It’s also very interesting on the Rego link

https://www.publicbooks.org/gestures-...

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

an aside to everyone - if you don’t know the interviewer and the title of her debut novel you may find it amusing to look it up.

[Paul]

I think this part of the interview makes it pretty clear than whatever explanation anyone has of the ending, it wasn’t the one the author had in mind: I envisioned the shape of the narrative as a kind of closed spiral that moves toward a center, a reason, an explanation, but never finds it.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "You may find this recent interview interesting - I would read it as not supporting yout hypothesis but you may see it differently.

It’s also very interesting on the Rego link

https://www.public..."

After thinking about it more today, I don't think even I support my hypothesis any longer. LOL

Thank you for the link to the interview.

[Bella (Kiki)]

Paul wrote: "I think this part of the interview makes it pretty clear than whatever explanation anyone has of the ending, it wasn’t the one the author had in mind: I envisioned the shape of the narrative as a ..."

Absolutely agree with you. I think I'll stop looking for meaning in those final pages. I would like for it to have meaning, though, and I'd like to know its meaning is.

[LindaJ^]

I read this in audio, which I do not recommend doing. The reader was, I thought, too young and lacked the gravitas needed for this book. This discussion has added a lot of value for me. I need to reread in print.

[Gwendolyn]

LindaJ^ wrote: "I read this in audio, which I do not recommend doing. The reader was, I thought, too young and lacked the gravitas needed for this book. This discussion has added a lot of value for me. I need to r..."

I can’t imagine listening to this particular novel as an audiobook. I had a difficult enough time wading through it and trying to discover its meaning in print. You were brave to attempt it in audio!