“When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.” (Ryan Reynolds)

/ madamebibilophile

I would say my blogging this year has been a continual exercise in humility or humiliation, depending on my mood 😀 Once again, I have failed to realise my own expectations, this time that I would read The River (1946) and Breakfast with the Nikolides (1942) for Brona’s Rumer Godden Reading Week which ends today. I’ve really enjoyed the Rumer Godden novels I’ve read (The Greengage Summer, Black Narcissus, China Court, Kingfishers Catch Fire). Godden is a prolific author and I’ve barely scratched the surface so I was excited to see Brona’s event.

But sadly (predictably) yet again, I’ve ended up posting right up to the wire for a reading event. I’m just back from a weekend away in the New Forest with friends, and while I had a lovely time I got minimal reading done, so I’m not going to manage to squeeze in the second book. I have at least managed The River, which given that it’s only 111 pages cannot be taken as a sign my reading is recovering in any great way. Ah well…

In the preface to my edition, Godden describes how the novel was written following her passing-by her childhood home after many years, and the tone of the novella is elegiac, full of feeling for a time long past. It begins:

“The river was in Bengal, India, but for the purpose of this book, these thoughts, it might as easily have been a river in America, in Europe, in England, France, New Zealand … Its flavour would be different in each […]

That is what makes a family, the flavour, the family flavour, and no one outside the family, however loved and intimate, can share it.”

The family are a middle-class white family, living in India. Although told in third person, the point of view is that of Harriet, on the cusp of adolescence. Her family comprises her pregnant mother, father who runs a jute factory, older sister Bea and younger brother Bogey, toddler Victoria, and Nan.

Harriet is great character: strong-willed, stubborn, imaginative and inquisitive. She writes poems and it’s easy to assume that she is based on Godden. She’s struggling with changes in herself and her family. Bea is that bit older and drawing away from childhood, and therefore her younger siblings. Bogey is interested in local fauna and happy to be left to explore these alone. Harriet is left betwixt and between.

“ ‘You are always trying to stop things happening, Harriet, and you can’t.’

But Harriet still thought, privately, that she could.”

The short novel is full of gorgeous descriptions of India, from the bazaar:

“Harriet and the children knew the bazaar intimately; they knew the kite shop where they bought paper kites and sheets of thin exquisite bright paper; they knew the shops where a curious mixture was sold of Indian cigarettes and betel nut, pan, done up in leaf bundles, and coloured pyjama strings and soda water; they knew the grain shops and the spice shops and the sweet shops with their smell of cooking sugar and ghee, and the bangle shops, and the cloth shop where bolts of cloth showed inviting patterns of feather and scallop prints, and the children’s dresses, pressed flat like paper dresses, hung and swung from the shop fronts.”

To the plants and flowers:

“Soon the bauhinia trees would bud along the road, their flowers white and curved like shells. Now the fields were dry, but each side of the road was water left from the flood that covered the plain in the rains; it showed under the floating patches of water-hyacinth and kingfishers, with a flash of brilliant blue, whirred up and settled on the telegraph wires, showing their russet breasts.”

As a twenty-first century reader, I’m reading at a very different time to when The River was written, and I do approach Godden’s novels set in India with some trepidation. We know that imperialism and colonialism underpin this fictional family’s way of life. While Godden was definitely a product of this herself, I found the descriptions in this novella evocative rather than exoticising. I didn’t get a sense of othering in The River but maybe a more astute reader would. Harriet views India as home although she is aware she doesn’t wholly fit in.

The natural environment and Harriet’s developing identity come together when she has an almost mystical experience by the cork tree in the garden:

“She put her hand on the tree and she thought she was drawn up into its height as if she were soaring out of the earth. Her ears seemed to sing. She had the feeling of soaring, then she came back to stand at the foot of the tree, her hand on the bark, and she began to write a new poem in her head.”

Although Harriet is infatuated with Captain John – a man injured both physically and psychologically by the war – it is her love affair with words that comes through so strongly. It’s a profound portrait of a child who will grow into a writer and how deeply the vocation is felt within her.

I think even if I hadn’t read the preface, the sense of how Godden came to write this is so clear. It is someone trying to evoke a place and life close to their hearts, with an awareness it has gone forever. The River is a quick read, not plot heavy, but a distinctive and memorable portrait of the gains, pains, lessons and losses of growing up.

Jean Renoir adapted The River in 1951 but the trailer seemed to me to be taking a very different tone to the book. I don’t know if this is reflective of the film itself, but it means it’s back to 80s pop videos! Regular readers of my witterings will not be at all surprised at the song choice to finish this post:

18 thoughts on ““When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.” (Ryan Reynolds)”

  1. Those quotes are lovely, Madame B! I’ve only read a little Godden and I was impressed with her writing. I know what you mean about approaching older books with trepidation sometimes, but I guess we have to try and remember the context. And don’t beat yourself up about reading and posting – just surviving is hard enough nowadays and if you’ve managed to get a break away in the country, that’s a win in my eyes! 😀

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    • Her writing is so impressive Kaggsy! Yes, context really important, I think my trepidation is, will dated views be so bad they detract from the story, but so far with Godden it’s been ok.

      Thanks so much for your kind words. I do wish I would post more but hopefully I’ll get there! It was lovely to be walking in the New Forest this weekend 😊

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  2. I really appreciated your comment about Godden being evocative not exotic in her approach to India and that she was writing about her home, even if she was aware of her outsider status. There is no doubt she was a product of her colonial upbringing – how can you not be? But she did seem to genuinely love India and the way of life she had there, which included immersing herself in local life, not just living behind the high walls of an English estate.

    And please do not feel any pressure to read and review by a certain date. Myself (and most people) who host reading events are very relaxed about the dates. Lisa got excited and read one of her books one month early and I will happily add any late reviews. A weekend in the New Forest sounds like a lot of fun!

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    • Absolutely Brona, I think India was her home and very dear to her and that’s what comes through so strongly.

      You’re very kind – I know running reading events can be a lot of work so I do try and make the dates. But you’re absolutely right, those hosting are always very kind about my late reviews when I post them!

      The New Forest was lovely – some crisp winter walks was just what was needed 🙂

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  3. Pingback: #RumerGoddenReadingWeek2021 Wrap Up – Brona (This Reading Life)

  4. I find myself echoing Brona’s words of advice here. This is a lovely review which captures the sense of the book and will entice others to seek it out, so I’m glad you wrote it…
    but…
    I am saddened to see that you feel a sense of failure. Reading — and the reviewing that is a spin-off from it, and the participation in Reading Weeks &c — is meant to be a pleasure. If the goal-driven demon has wormed its horrid way into the joy of reading for you, then, Madame B, you must take steps to drive it out!
    Fortunately, this demonic possession that has triggered your guilt mode has occurred with good timing. It will soon be New Year and you will be able to do the exorcism promptly. All you need to do is make a NY resolution (preferably with witnesses and before there is any champagne so that you will remember it) declaring that you will not set any reading goals in 2022: zip zilch nada!! You will read and write about what you please, when you please.
    And all will be well in the world again!
    PS Your weekend in the New Forest with friends sounds wonderful.

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  6. Those quotes are wonderfully evocative, so I’m glad to hear that Godden stays on the right side of the evocative-exotic dynamic when it comes to evoking the local culture and way of life. It’s a tricky path to tread… I’ve only read Black Narcissus so far but am open to trying more of her work in the future. One to keep in mind, for sure.

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  7. All the best people arrive late for parties, didn’t you know? I would be rather devastated if I ever actually achieved a reading target on time – I feel it would ruin my hard-won reputation as a total failure! 😉 I’ve still only read one Godden, Black Narcissus, and loved it. That was back in 2016, and I promptly added In This House of Brede to my TBR, where it still sits… waiting… waiting… Oh well, there’s always next year! 😀

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  8. I keep forgetting that Greengage Summer is by Godden, I really loved it and Black Narcissus but I should read more and The River will be it especially since I like the idea of being in India at the moment! How lovely that you went away with friends for the weekend, there’s time for everything and no one’s in a hurry ( at least I hope so!)

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  9. This sounds lovely in its descriptions of the bazaars, the plants and flowers, and that Kingfisher (just the kind I saw a few days ago). Her relationship with India comes across somewhat like Kipling’s with that sense of some who knows the country really well, but something of the colonial is certainly present in their lens.

    I picked up my very first Godden for Brona’s reading week this year and very much enjoyed. Must look up this one; if I don’t manage to soon at least in time for next year’s Rumer Godden week

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    • Yes, perfectly put Mallika. She clearly loves India but she’s very much part of colonial life.

      I really enjoy Godden’s writing and like you I hope to join in with the next reading week. I have two of hers in the TBR…

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