Girl Reading
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Product Description
Review
'A real wow of a first novel. The premise is alarmingly simple and yet somehow stunning: seven portraits, seven artists, seven girls and women reading . . . A wonderful, imaginative evocation of seven different worlds . . . It's very rare for a novel to have a real freshness and originality but at the same time to evoke echoes of other literary memories. This feels incredibly clever. It s a book packed full of adventures and stories and you completely lose yourself in them . . . This book's great strength: the perfect, separate, involving worlds it creates. Like Mitchell, Ward is equally adept at shifting between completely different registers and voices . . . It [has] real beating heart . . . It will be fascinating to see what she writes next' --Viv Groskop, The Times
Book Description
* A dazzlingly inventive debut, which Hilary Mantel has called wise, poised, and utterly original
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Girl Reading' is an absolute WOW of a first novel! I have to admit, as an English teacher, I felt myself reaching for the red (now green!) pen to add missing speech marks at the start but this desire was short-lived: you very quickly become absorbed in Ward's style and run with it. Initially, in Chapter 1, I wanted to have the painting as a point of reference but, as the novel continued, this was unnecessary. I adored immersing myself in each chapter's 'world' and felt myself wanting more everytime a chapter came to an end. This, for me, is a true sign of a great novelist: creating the yearn for more. References to previous 'works' in chapters were unobvious, wholly clever and enabled the reader to feel that it was a novel as opposed to 7 short stories. I came to the end of chapters feeling 'This was by far the best', only for that choice to be superseded by the following chapter. Ward's historical context, knowledge of art history and storytelling are a brilliant trinity. As a sci-fi phobe, I was concerned by the futuristic setting of the last chapter, only to be amazed and wowed by 'mesh' and the debate of 'the future of the book' and 'reading for pleasure'. The ending is utterly fantastic and comforting for a girl reader! Here's to Ward's next offering!!!!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book.
How to describe it? There's a certain amount of dogmatic debate in the Amazon reviews about whether it's a "novel" at all, the reason being it's structured as seven individual stories which echo each other, the first six of which resonate through the seventh, not in a tying-up-loose-ends sort of way, more as a thematic denouement which is satisfying and enthralling. Each story is built around a picture of a woman reading a book, beginning in 14th century Siena and ending, with the seventh tale, in a near-future world where people live both in the real world and in the "mesh", which is the writer's own take on cyberspace.
That's essentially the structure, but that doesn't tell you anything about the book. Those people arguing about whether it's a novel or not are entitled to their debate, but it seems sterile and pointless. This is a book with a purpose and an engine; you don't dip in and out of it like you would with a collection of short stories. She has that rare ability to within a line or two put personalities into your head where they stand up and start walking about under their own power. Every character in the book is alive, even those who appear in passing, and I can picture each and every one of the core female characters from each story as if they were sitting in among the photos on my living room shelves.
As for what it's about - well, I wouldn't presume. All I'll say is that the central device of the book - that of the reader watching a picture being created of a woman who is reading - is an ingenious device for examining our Ways of Seeing, to quote John Berger. As I read the book, I found myself hoping the images being used for the stories would be displayed at the end, but they're not; instead, there's an Author's Note, with only the names of pictures and artists and their dates and locations available to us to investigate further. Which, the more I think about it, is correct. If the book has a message, for me it is to go and experience these pictures in as real a way as you can manage, because that is how you dig out your own humanity.
A luminous, beautiful, fascinating book. Buy it and read it.
How to describe it? There's a certain amount of dogmatic debate in the Amazon reviews about whether it's a "novel" at all, the reason being it's structured as seven individual stories which echo each other, the first six of which resonate through the seventh, not in a tying-up-loose-ends sort of way, more as a thematic denouement which is satisfying and enthralling. Each story is built around a picture of a woman reading a book, beginning in 14th century Siena and ending, with the seventh tale, in a near-future world where people live both in the real world and in the "mesh", which is the writer's own take on cyberspace.
That's essentially the structure, but that doesn't tell you anything about the book. Those people arguing about whether it's a novel or not are entitled to their debate, but it seems sterile and pointless. This is a book with a purpose and an engine; you don't dip in and out of it like you would with a collection of short stories. She has that rare ability to within a line or two put personalities into your head where they stand up and start walking about under their own power. Every character in the book is alive, even those who appear in passing, and I can picture each and every one of the core female characters from each story as if they were sitting in among the photos on my living room shelves.
As for what it's about - well, I wouldn't presume. All I'll say is that the central device of the book - that of the reader watching a picture being created of a woman who is reading - is an ingenious device for examining our Ways of Seeing, to quote John Berger. As I read the book, I found myself hoping the images being used for the stories would be displayed at the end, but they're not; instead, there's an Author's Note, with only the names of pictures and artists and their dates and locations available to us to investigate further. Which, the more I think about it, is correct. If the book has a message, for me it is to go and experience these pictures in as real a way as you can manage, because that is how you dig out your own humanity.
A luminous, beautiful, fascinating book. Buy it and read it.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I adored this book. Whether to call it an anthology or a novel had me pondering for a while but on reaching the end I realised that this is an extremely clever novel. The 7 stories all link together with small connections and each chapter is captivating. However, the final chapter is pure brilliance. It moves into the realm of sci-fi, which is not my favourite genre, but having said that, the ending just blew me away. It was fabulous and I had to re-read it several times. At first I thought It would have been good to see the artwork for each story but am now of the impression that to do so may just have detracted from the author's picturesque writing style. In hindsight I feel that the author was quite right to not include any artwork although there is some available on her website. I can't wait to read more by Katie Ward.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Girl reading
After such a great build up from the TV Book Club I was disappointed in this book. Sometimes it tried to be too clever, and I found myself re-reading passages to see if I had... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Hayley Warren
Disappointing!
I read the reviews and was excited to receive this book. However, I just could not get over the lack of speech marks. Katie, darling! They are tried and tested... Read more
Published 13 days ago by fion
Extraordinary, beautifully written and totally captivating
I am astonished that this isn't getting 5 stars from everyone - it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Holly
Fantastic in parts but the whole thing doesn't quite work
I found it really difficult to decide on the appropriate rating for this book, swerving anywhere between three and five stars. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Georgiana89
Utterly gorgeous book
Seven portraits of women reading, seven stories imagined by the author, Katie Ward, about the history of each painting. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. K. Burton
Please use speech marks!!!
This is series of short stories, linked by the idea of women reading in works of art, that put together form a novel. Read more
Published 1 month ago by rach fitz
Great idea but bit disappointing!
I so wanted to love this as the concept of the intertwined yet seperate stories all with the theme of a girl reading sounded fantastic. Read more
Published 1 month ago by LauraC
A struggle
This is really a series of short stories disguised as a novel. The theme of art featuring women reading is repeated in each of the seven stories and more clearly defined in the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Deliabattie
A struggle to finish
The book consists of a number of short stories based in different times and situations, and I think it shows the author's skill in being able to base the girls at different... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A. K. Davis
Literary time travel
Girl reading is a collection of seven short stories loosely connected by the theme of 'girl reading'. Each story moves forward in time from the fourteenth century to 2060. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Swirlygirly30
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