- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (7 Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330485784
- ISBN-13: 978-0330485784
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 679,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Making a crematorium too hot. That's what I call insensitive." the narrator of Zoe Strachan's debut Negative Space is full of such sardonic asides, even as she reels with the shock of her younger brother Simon's death, and struggles to cope with his absence. She's a strong woman, whose bluff, tough-talking exterior leads her friends to underestimate the pain she is feeling inside. Unable, and unwilling to find comfort with her family, she returns to a life of anonymity in Glasgow, where depression and a string of empty, alcohol-fuelled encounters convince her finally that her life must change. But this proves impossible in a city whose every windswept corner hides a memory. Then, on a trip to the remote Orkney Islands--part pilgrimage, part escape--the healing process begins, in a way no-one could have predicted. The seemingly pointless death of a talented young man is ultimately rendered meaningful, as his sister discovers a way to continue living.
Negative Space is a powerful, sometimes painful tale, and Strachan's attention to the minutiae of the grieving process is exhaustive. Its chief achievement--and this is no mean feat--is to create a central relationship possessing all the luminous intensity of the best love stories. But this is no romance, nor is there anything predictable about its outcome. Strachan's mission--to write about a love blurred by blood-ties and interrupted by sudden death--demonstrates a courage and an honesty rare in first novels.--Matthew Baylis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Strachan has a perfect eye for the small detail of suffering... The intimate, first-person voice drifts between past and present tense with astonishing effectiveness... This is a complex, mature novel with thought-provoking, well-crafted themes' Independent on Sunday
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I just came across this book in the library, having heard nothing about the writer. The back sounded interesting enough so i took it home. But what a gem! Really well written and with great insight. This sort of grief must have happened to the writer, or she has done a lot of research. And it's not just sad: it's funny as well!
Don't "listen" to the previous reviewer: just give it a go. if you don't like it, nothing lost, but I reckon a lot of people will.
Don't "listen" to the previous reviewer: just give it a go. if you don't like it, nothing lost, but I reckon a lot of people will.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...The female narrator (unnamed until the final chapter) has recently lost her twenty-four year old brother Simon to a brain tumour. A life studies model at the Glasgow School of Art, she returns to the city after the funeral and throws herself into a self-destructive regime of heavy drinking and ill-advised, sometimes violent sex with both friends and strangers. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that this self-destruction is less an attempt to avoid coping with her grief, than it is an inability to confront the basis of her relationship with Simon. It is hinted once or twice that the narrator had a suppressed incestuous feeling for her brother while he was alive.
Throughout the novel Strachan uses the concept of negative space to focus on the character's immense sense of physicality. The fact that she is a life studies model is a clever device underlining this further: the narrator is almost entirely anonymous and passive, and it is no accident that she remains unnamed until the final chapter. As a model, she exists only as a body for others to examine: "I might as well be a bowl of fruit or a wine bottle or whatever." As a grief-stricken young woman, she exists only as a body to be put through the paces of menstruation, sex, hunger and drunkenness. It is only after leaving the city for a trip to Orkney, where she joins her photographer friend Alex at an artists' retreat, that the narrator is able to find the means of both emotional and sexual redemption.
Strachan's style is engagingly informal, and she demonstrates good judgement of tone. There is a danger that first-person narratives of self-harm and bereavement can become self-pitying instead. She avoids this by giving equal space to the feelings of anger grief can cause, and to a wry black humour that seems the hallmark of much contemporary Scottish writing. Strachan has a good eye for arresting details and metaphors also. The scenes where Alex and the narrator visit the submerged graveyards of the German fleet that scuttled itself in the Scapa Flow after the First World War are particularly good. This attention to both exterior as well as interior detail, to the rugged beauty of Orkney and the hazy, pseudo-Bohemian atmosphere of Glasgow's pubs and bars, gives the book sufficient balance not to seem too overwhelmingly bleak and self-absorbed. Overall, Negative Space is an excellent introduction to a writer who is sure to become a major talent.
Throughout the novel Strachan uses the concept of negative space to focus on the character's immense sense of physicality. The fact that she is a life studies model is a clever device underlining this further: the narrator is almost entirely anonymous and passive, and it is no accident that she remains unnamed until the final chapter. As a model, she exists only as a body for others to examine: "I might as well be a bowl of fruit or a wine bottle or whatever." As a grief-stricken young woman, she exists only as a body to be put through the paces of menstruation, sex, hunger and drunkenness. It is only after leaving the city for a trip to Orkney, where she joins her photographer friend Alex at an artists' retreat, that the narrator is able to find the means of both emotional and sexual redemption.
Strachan's style is engagingly informal, and she demonstrates good judgement of tone. There is a danger that first-person narratives of self-harm and bereavement can become self-pitying instead. She avoids this by giving equal space to the feelings of anger grief can cause, and to a wry black humour that seems the hallmark of much contemporary Scottish writing. Strachan has a good eye for arresting details and metaphors also. The scenes where Alex and the narrator visit the submerged graveyards of the German fleet that scuttled itself in the Scapa Flow after the First World War are particularly good. This attention to both exterior as well as interior detail, to the rugged beauty of Orkney and the hazy, pseudo-Bohemian atmosphere of Glasgow's pubs and bars, gives the book sufficient balance not to seem too overwhelmingly bleak and self-absorbed. Overall, Negative Space is an excellent introduction to a writer who is sure to become a major talent.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book started well, with the young narrators' grief stricken life in Glasgow, coupled with multiple flashbacks, giving us a rich and rewarding read, but then the narrator leaves for an artists' retreat and the story simply degenerates into something akin to the proverbial damp squib (quite apt considering the weather depicted in the area of Scotland the lack-of-action takes place!). I'm not berating the writer's quality of prose, as that is fine and well structured, but very little seems to happen and the last third of the book simply drags. I was hoping for more from the very promising beginnings, but was left somewhat unaffected by the end of the novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A too still life
This first novel is an intimate, introspective account of a young girl - a life model - coming to terms with the sudden death of her artist brother. Read more
Published on 26 July 2005 by Is
Engrossing
This novel engrossed me from the second I picked it up. I defy anyone to read it in more than two sittings at the most. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2002 by "uimj3000"
Not what I usually read...
The basic premise of Strachans novel is not the type of fiction I would normally read, but the ease with which one associates with the main character is amazing, after reading the... Read more
Published on 20 July 2002 by "jane_davidson"
a well-written first book
I just wanted to add my voice to the collection of reviews and say what a terrific book! Strachan writes with an evocative sense of place and her main character is pretty strong. Read more
Published on 8 April 2002
A very enjoyable and stimulating read.
Zoe Strachan's debut novel is a compelling exploration of a young woman's journey through grief. I felt gripped. Once started I could not put it down.
Published on 26 Mar 2002
Dull and very self-indulgent
I'm inspired to post a review because of the comment that this is 'brave' and 'honest' for a first novel. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2002
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