Comments on: The Factory Voice, by Jeanette Lynes

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 16:57:55 +0000

Elaine: Thanks for bringing this post back up — I continue to remember The Factory Voice with fondness.

By: Elaine Thiemann

Elaine Thiemann — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 16:44:19 +0000

What a delightful surprise! I picked up this charming and thoroughly enthralling little book at our local Scugog library. From the quirky cover (I’m sure my mother had a pair of boots just like that) to the closing of the plant and the warm and wonderful wrap up, I was enchanted. The characters are so real, I am going to misss them! It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book that much!
Thanks Jeanette!.

I’ll watch for your next work.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:26:38 +0000

She is. And it is entirely fair to hold Coetzee to a very high standard. More often than not, both those two meet it.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:24:50 +0000

In some ways it may be unfair, but in some ways it’s fair too.

If I pick up a crime novel for instance, I don’t expect Raymond Chandler levels of quality. If I get that, wonderful, but it would be a very unfair expectation.

Equally, if I buy a new English novelist, I don’t expect Anthony Powell.

That said, I plan soon to read some Coetzee, and there I expect more in terms of style and characterisation than I did from that Broken Angels sf novel (just to pick something I read recently which wasn’t chosen for those elements).

Besides, from what you’ve said about her, Alice Munro is well able to handle raised expectations.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:03:18 +0000

They do hold, Max, and I share the hotel experience. Part of it (and I think this is where the comparison with books definitely is valid) are the going in expectations. I expect something different from the Four Seasons than I do from the Academy Hotel (besides the bill of course). Just as I would hold, however much I might try not to, a higher expectation for Alice Munro than I would for a first novelist. In some ways that may be unfair to writers but I don’t think it can be avoided.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:56:17 +0000

At risk of a very odd analogy, it reminds me of my taste in hotels.

I’ve stayed in some terribly grand places that got small details wrong, and in some style hotels with wonderful design and aesthetics but again small details wrong. The vision is there, the execution not quite matching it though.

And I’ve stayed in smaller, less ambitious places that offered less but delivered what they promised. I’ve enjoyed those stays more.

Of course, I’ve stayed too at the Bangkok Mandarin Oriental, the Tawariya and the Adlon, which are ambitious and yet deliver, the accommodation equivalents of the best literary fiction. I risk the places that try but fail in the hope of those that try and succeed.

The parallels hold surprisingly well actually. Odd that.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:51:34 +0000

In fact all of the voices were quite convincing, which helped with the implausability. And I too am one of those readers who appreciates when an author sets reasonable goals and attains them — particularly when the book is fun to read. The story of the book does explore one area that has been relatively overlooked in Canadian fiction, the role of women in the war effort (Lynes did do academic work on that subject on the Fort William plant which obviously provided material for this novel). I’d still say the characters carried the story.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:49:04 +0000

I would note that, for all it may have faults on the plausibility front, the quote there convinces me as the voice of a young adult. As Fall showed, that’s no guaranteed achievement.

Other than that, it certainly sounds like a fun read, perhaps not a literary prize read but a fun read. And I have to say, better a fun read with a convincing voice than a literary read without one. Sometimes it’s better to try less, yet achieve more.