I had high hopes for Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History when I first heard of it, and had actually started reading it before the 2024 Booker Prize longlist was released a few weeks ago. Partially set in Algeria during the 1940s-1950s and centering around a pied-noir (French citizens whose families originally came to Algeria to colonize the country on behalf of France) family, it meshed perfectly with my personal experience and interest. Unfortunately, my high hopes came crashing down as soon as I realized that Messud was largely going to skip right over the periods and places I was most interested in reading about.
Instead, Messud offers the seven-decade (1940-2010) story of the Cassar family as it expands and moves around the world in the aftermath of one significant family decision or event after another. The patriarch of the family is Gaston Cassar, who when the book begins has just evacuated his family from WWII-era Greece to the homes of relatives in Algeria. Gaston is a French naval attache and knows that he is unlikely to see his wife (Lucienne), son (Gaston), and daughter (Denise) again anytime soon. This section is seen primarily through the eyes of François, Gaston's young son and it gives the first hint of Messud's approach to this family saga: it will focus on the personal lives and struggles of the small family rather than on the major historical events occurring all around them. The first jump forward in time is significant. It is suddenly 1953, the war is over, and François is now in the U.S. attending college. The remainder of the family remains in Algeria, struggling to make ends meet while keeping their financial problems a secret from François.
The next jump forward in time, entirely ignoring the revolution that won Algeria's independence from France between segments, is to 1962 Canada (where François is in business school) and 1963 Argentina where his sister Denise is living with their parents. The segment is largely about the now 30-year-old Denise and her struggles to find her place in life. You get the idea. Each segment of the novel jumps forward about ten years in time, and each usually sees at least part of the family living in a new country. So we get 1974 Australia, 1989 Connecticut, 1998 France, and finally 2010 Rye Brook, New York. The book then circles back to 1927 Algeria for a short look back at Gaston and Lucienne's courting days.
All of this makes for a rather traditional family saga, the kind that covers multiple generations of a single family in order to show how they ended up who they are - and where they are - in the present day. As such, this is not at all a bad novel. But I have to look at This Strange Eventful History as a missed opportunity to write something special, a novel in which the "events" really were "strange" rather than relatively mundane and common in the long run.
I don't love these kind of multi-generational sagas, so this is not the book for me. And I'm sorry this didn't turn out to be the book you hoped it would be.
ReplyDeleteI really hope this is not a bad sign, Lark. I watched a YouTube video from a guy in the UK today who has now read all 13 of the Booker nominees. He liked TWO of them a lot, said most were mediocre, and hated three or of them. This could turn out to be a painful exercise this year.
ReplyDeleteThat does not bode well! Hopefully you'll end up liking more than you hate.
DeleteJust trying to catch up after having visitors for 5 days. Like Lark, I'm not a massive fan of multi-generational stories, though I can occasionally be persuaded - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides for instance - but generally, no. A shame it wasn't what you hoped for, a lot of books end up like that in my experience.
ReplyDeleteHi, Cath! Good to see you. Sounds as if you've had quite a week with visitors, and all. Middlesex is one I really enjoyed, too, and I've like quite a few multi-generational novels in the past. Sometimes, though, they just become too predictable to make them very interesting, especially when an author is basing a book on personal family history like this one was. I think Messoud is a good writer, though, so I'm going to give her another try at some point.
DeleteI am sorry that this book didn't work out and I know what you mean. The multi-generational novel I think works best when the generations stay in one or two countries and no more because then the writer can get into the history of the country as it changes through the decades in addition to the lives of the family members.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read any Booker nominees yet and the 3 I chose I'm sensing it's another two month wait. I'm hoping they will be worthwhile.
Haven't
That would definitely have helped me focus a little, Kathy, but this one is based on real family history, so I am assuming that all the moving around between generations from continent to continent really happened and was cast in stone when it came to writing about it all.
DeleteI have received my copy of Orbital, and started it yesterday afternoon, so I'm reading my third Booker nominee now. And when it rains it pours; just got an email from the library a few minutes ago telling me that four other Booker books are there waiting to be picked up. I'll have a pretty good feel for the overall quality of this year's list by the end of September, I think. Still wondering when/if the Australian nominee will be published in this country.
Sometimes I like multigenerational stories, sometimes not. This is the kind of book that I would try if I find an inexpensive copy at the book sale (not likely anytime soon).
ReplyDeleteOrbital is one of the Booker nominees I plan to read. I will be ordering a copy soon.
I used to enjoy those family saga novels a lot more than I do these days. I read a really terrible one from John Grisham a while back, too, and found it so boring that I almost gave up on it...and probably should have.
DeleteI'm struggling a bit with Orbital, but did just read what might be the best section for me of the book so far, "Orbit 10."
I like multigenerational sagas (although some authors are either deliberately or accidentally confusing when they move back and forth from the present) but really disliked Messud's book, The Emperor's Children, so would probably not read this. However, the NPR review made it sound interesting if not exactly appealing: https://www.npr.org/2024/05/13/1250448800/claire-messud-this-strange-eventful-history-review
ReplyDeleteThis is my only experience with Messud, but she has such a good reputation that I have to try her again sometime. Thanks for eliminating The Emperor's Children from the list, because two in a row like this one would certainly close the door forever on her work for me. I'll look at the NPR review to see what they saw in it...thanks.
DeleteI really love Messud's writing, but have seen several reviewers who feel like you do. I have the book on my kindle and will give it a try eventually, but am no longer as much of a hurry. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteProbably because I had pumped this one up so high in my mind, this has to be the most disappointing novel I've read in weeks. If it had not been a Booker nominee, I'm not sure I would have stuck with it. But it's not the actual writing that bothers me; it's the plot choices and construction of the novel that I found to be such let downs.
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