NYRB Classics discussion
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May 2015: A Game of Hide and Seek
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message 51:
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Jonathan
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May 19, 2015 12:19AM
Hmm....I must admit that I didn't view Vesey's actions as so noble. I may re-read the last couple of chapters now that the book has 'sunk in' a bit.
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He also seems sickly. I thought maybe he knows he is dying and wants to spare her from that grief as well.
IMO I think he knew she'd have to leave Betsy and then follow him around on the theatre circuit. I think he was sparing her too
It's one of those situations where the romance doesn't translate to the everyday
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I haven't been able to finish it yet (kids!! baby!! work!! blah!!), but I'm glad we've still got 11 days to go on this discussion.
Thinking ahead, though, I've put together a thread to select our next read. I nominated Jonathan to be "the chooser" for June, but, Jonathan, if you don't want to, please let me know in that thread and we'll come up with a different approach. I do like forgoing the poll, at least for now.
Here's the new "Choosing a book for June 2015" thread!
Trevor wrote: "This has been a fantastic thread! Thanks Gary for helping revive the book club and for selecting this book!I haven't been able to finish it yet (kids!! baby!! work!! blah!!), but I'm glad we've s..."
Yes, I think we're back in form.
And it appears we all enjoyed the book!
Seana wrote: "No, I think he was sparing her. At their last meeting, he also spared her, seeing that any kind of final consummation would be terrible for her, and so he made up the plausible lie about South Afri..."I agree. I kind of have the feeling he was dying or at least very ill.
I thought Caleb Crain's introduction was quite helpful to read afterwards. I liked, for example, that he quotes Taylor as saying that a great darkness came over the novel and it cracked in two. And this seemed very apt in articulating the relation between Harriet and Vesey:"What they share is a recognition, which Taylor seems to have understood as thing like the wind, invisible to a novelist except by an inventory of its effects."
I don't have the NYRB edition. I have an absolutely perfect review copy from Virago. Still wrapped in plastic and w/ 'dear reviewer' note from 1986. Sad that no one cracked the book open.
Cynthia wrote: "I agree. I kind of have the feeling he was dying or at least very ill. "It's funny but I just got the feeling that he no longer cared. he could see it wasn't going to go anywhere....I'll read it again as I seem to be in a minority here. :-)
My copy has an introduction by Elizabeth Jane Howard She says that Vesey always "undermined" the marriage."the novel has an ending which manages to be enigmatic and very moving and this is partly because Elizabeth Taylor is wonderfully good at implying love. Harriet and Vesey do not protest their feelings; the love is chiefly implicit--their constant need to be with each other permeates the book. I can think of very few love stories that have this quality in a form so pure and so credible."
Guy, that's interesting when juxtaposed with Caleb Crain's hypothesis that Vesey might actually be a stand in for Taylor's own writerly self. "Like art, Vesey is ironic, rebellious, hungry, susceptible to misunderstanding, and liable to failure."
Although Taylor herself had an affair, the man she had an affair with was apparently not much like Vesey.
No mention of the affair in my intro. My edition says copyright 1951. Divorce would have be scandalous then.
Apparently much of it was brought to light in 2009 in Nicola Beauman's biography, The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Gary mentions it at beginning of the comments here.
Yes, a painter named Raymond Russell. Apparently, she followed her own advice and burned all his letters and advised him to do the same. He did, but had copied them all into a notebook, so hers were saved. He gave up on the project and just kept the later ones.
Seana wrote: "Apparently much of it was brought to light in 2009 in Nicola Beauman's biography, The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Gary mentions it at beginning of the comments here."Cool. I have the book.
Great. Maybe you'll report back at some point.
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