[This post has been in a state of draft since December. Time to post it or trash it.]
I’m a voyeur. When it comes to books, that is. Susan Hill’s Howards End is on the Landing promised a life in books laid bare, and I wanted a peek.
Last week, with snow drifts building up outside, I curled up and dug in. Shortly thereafter I was faced with a dilemma: Should the book be returned to the library mostly unread, or should I keep going?
Before going further with this, I’d like to make one thing clear: this post is based entirely on my understanding of what I read, and is fueled as much by a visceral reaction as anything else. I am in no way saying that this book would not be a good fit for someone else.
“Only look at the rubbish available in book form. Some are quickly read, been, gone. You don’t read many thrillers twice.”
My sneaking suspicion is that Susan Hill would consider the bulk of my personal favorites rubbish. At heart, I am a genre reader. The stories found in the fantasy, mystery and romance aisles are my happy places. My go to places. My you-can-be-yourself-in-these-pages places. The subjective sense of being frowned upon for my taste lodged itself in my gut as I read Howards End is on the Landing; I couldn’t shake it no matter how many steps back I tried to take. As a result, I felt alienated from Hill and her reading world.
Regarding the latter part of the snippet above: as far as I’m concerned, thrillers and romantic suspense are kissing cousins, and there have been plenty of r/s novels that I’ve reread.* Those books are like comfort food, wonderful in their formulaic, guaranteed-endorphin-rush ways.
Willing to believe that my initial reaction might have been knee-jerk, I kept reading.
Instead of the “Warning! Danger! Danger!” wail that should have gone off straight away, hope welled up in me when Hill set her sights on mystery novels, specifically those from the “Golden Age of the Detective Story.” It was something so small – and not even personal to me – that gave me pause. Of Dorothy Sayer’s classic characters, Hill said:
…the Wimsey-Harriet Vane love story is embarrassing…
I picked up Sayer’s first novel at a bookstore one day specifically because I had been sold on the Wimsey-Vane relationship by a book blogger I respect. Nice way to rip out a book lover’s heart, that. Point out how embarrassing you find a couple that many hold so dear without much of a constructive explanation. Had Hill said this of a literary couple I love, it would have been tantamount to receiving a slap to the face or a punch in the gut.**
It was shortly after that oh-so-brief but impactful snippet that I put the book down. It seemed my sensitivities were getting in the way. Howards End is on the Landing is personal to Hill’s book life; it’s imbued with her taste, her opinions. Intellectually, I get that. It was the delivery that I found abrasive. That I felt my preferences were being stomped on made it impossible for me to set them aside to read objectively.
A week after putting it down I decided to return the book to the library unfinished. As much as I enjoyed the descriptions of Hill’s reading places, the nooks in her home carved out for books and those that became impromptu shelves, the rest was not for me. I do believe, however, that many will take to Howards End is on the Landing, finding Hill’s take on books either fascinating or informative.
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*I distinctly remember discovering Jayne Ann Krentz in high school – I devoured her novels with the same voracity I would apply to a plate of deliciously chewy chocolate chip cookies. Recalling those days buried in her books – or, better, rereading them – brings back the same light-hearted happiness I felt then. I still have every one of those novels and have no intention of parting with them.
**Melodramatic? Maybe. But I believe we all have something – a book, a character – we find ourselves so attached to that any slight, however unintentional or reasonable, hurts.
