Review: 'Jessica Lost her Wobble' by J. Schlenker
Both the cover (which shows a bicycle on a bridge), and the
author’s plot summary set me on course for the tale of a ‘damaged’ woman who
had moved to an island to begin a new life and who, metaphorically speaking,
might lose her ‘wobble’. It was a
fairly under-whelming premise.
The style of writing is explicit - there were no real
surprises. I must admit that although
the story of Jessie’s life on the island and her memories of when she moved to
New York from England as a young girl are well-written and engaging, the candid
nostalgia of a woman writing about life in the mid-nineteen hundreds was not
ringing my bell. Strange then, how
comfortable it felt to pick up my kindle and retrieve Jessie where I had left
her. Strange, the vague affinity I had
with this woman who seemed to be working through a tragic history and searching
for a new interest: yoga, cooking Indian food, opening a tea shop…
The people she meets are interesting and well-developed
characters, the stories of her past are from another era, and demonstrate a
shocking naivety and a touching vulnerability.
Jessie is nice, with a capital ‘N’.
But ‘nice’ just doesn’t cut it in the real world. Not for me, at least. Lots of people will enjoy the life and times
of a woman like Jessie, who has lived a varied and interesting life. A woman who it’s easy to like and for whom
we wish at least some happiness in her new life on the island. But I couldn’t quite understand why this
book was a finalist in the 2014 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative
Writing Competition.
Then comes the twist.
Exquisite!
I wanted to know more about the author. The only thing I could find was a single
photograph on Amazon India. In it,
she’s wearing a huge grin. How
appropriate!
No comments:
Post a Comment