The first "Before" section feels like "throat-clearing". She thinks that "we've made so many copies of life, all meant to be useful ... I can't tell any more what's true and what's not.". The narrator's rational and irrational selves debate - almost Gollum/Sméagolesque. She's going through a mid-life crisis maybe. She's disillusioned with England.
She decides to put her belongings in storage (belongings/property equates to Self), leave London and go across Europe in a campervan with her lover, Rupert, a freelance guide to historical sites. She hopes he'll be her guide, as in Quests. He says "You can't put someone called Rupert into a book". She decides "for the sake of truth I have to use his real name, but that the result will be someone invented". We know little about the narrator - age? name? profession? We know nothing about her appearance, or what others might think of her. She's written books (or thinks she has).
She has long discussions with historical characters. She continues to compare her behaviour with what's expected in a Quest or a game. She's hoping for magic amulets. How loopy is she? When they're on the move and she turns to talk to an imaginary character in the back, what does Rupert think? Why did he agree to come along?
They visit museums - where all that's left of people are their possessions. She often accesses the web to give us infodumps about history - usually in the form of biographies of people who travelled. She explores the multi-cultural past of the UK. Perhaps, she thinks, the Wifi passwords are the magic keys she's seeking.
She ponders. E.g "I see how we make our representations of reality, in text or in image, and then, seduced by their design, or their insistence, we start to invest in the truth that the copy tells," she thinks, and "Religions are uncannily socially practical at their roots and we are uncannily good both at narrowing their ancient dictats and then disseminating them as dogma."
She seems to admire Joan of Arc because of her resolute approach to life, her ability to deal with challenges. Also Joan was an early nationalist. She hopes Ariosto will help her.
She's interested in regional identity, and regions that have shifted from country to country. She encounters illegal immigrants. She gives us 2 pages about Lord Acton's 1862 views on the rising nationalism of the times. He couldn't study at Oxbridge because he was a catholic - "He identifies [nationalism] as a problem when countries kick out history, as a way of self-identifying, and decide to use geographical limitation instead".
In places where she holidayed when young, she sees her early selves.
At Lake Garda she talks to a fish ("In the stories it is always the animals that have the answers") and gathers together many of the historical characters she's met. She's in a battle for a day/page. On p.158 Rupert at last seems to be able to hear one of the narrator's characters.
Meeting Joyce and Svevo in Trieste, she thinks "I am a nation". Well, I saw that coming. She sees little museums as exemplifying "Our fight for durability, for locality, for relevance". Towards the end she thinks "Belief, if you have it, is everything - meaning, where it exists, is both personal and sacred. If have learned anything on this trip, it is that". They become volunteers in a refugee camp, I think. Greece/Turkey. NGOs bicker. They return to England via Crete where she admits that she's "come back to nationhood".
There are illustrations but they don't pull their weight. I struggled through many of the pages - too much history for me, too few constraints. The stories about nationality don't seem to tie in with her current state of self-therapy - I can't see her changing as she travels. We know little more about the characters at the end than we did at the start.
Other reviews
- Christobel Kent
- Susan Osborne
- Sophie McKeand (There are lines in this book I feel a deep resonance with ... But other elements of the book jar awkwardly.)
- goodreads
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