Under the Radar Books #2: Katherine, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Faces in the Water

 

This month I’m back with my second installment of “Under the Radar” books. These are the novels in my collection that were either really popular at one time and seem to have been forgotten, or that just don’t have much attention around them at all. 

“Thou shalt get kings though thou be none.”

Katherine by, Anya Seton is not necessarily an obscure novel. Published in 1954, it is actually considered by many to be a benchmark for historical fiction. However, I rarely see many people reviewing this novel, even if they’ve heard about it. There is something about it that is very 1950s - the way that Seton writes her male and female characters, especially the protagonist does come across a bit dated, but to me that is part of it’s charm. There is something vintage about the way this novel reads. If you’re a fan of historical fiction that takes place in cold damp castles, with elaborate the gowns and romanticism, then this may pique your interest. Also, if you’re a fan of Tudor historical fiction, this can be seen as a type of “prequel.” Katherine is about the affair between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Their affair played a direct role in establishing the Tudor line. Much of this plot is fictionalized because we don’t know much about Katherine, but it’s still fun read. 

“‘For your own good’ is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.” 

When people think of authors who were famously institutionalized, people typically think Sylvia Plath of Virginia Woolf. However, many people don’t think about Janet Frame. Faces in the Water is a semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman describing her experiences in mental hospitals. Frame herself spent 8 years of her life being institutionalized for Schizophrenia, though it was eventually acknowledged that she was misdiagnosed. Faces in the Water is one of those novels that is difficult to forget after you’ve read; it’s haunting, appalling, intense, and heartbreaking. Frame’s writing is poetic and evocative. Fans of The Bell Jar would really appreciate this novel. 

“Why should life be so hard for me, why am I alone, why did I yield to the temptation to drink, why, why has it all happened like this? 

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by, Brian Moore initially caught my eye because of it’s striking cover. I’d never heard of this book before last year and when I was searching reviews, there were some, but not a lot. Judith Hearne is a single woman in Ireland in her 40s. She came from a well-to-do family, but she’s come down in the world, living alone, barely making ends meet, and still holding on to the hope that she’ll get married and have a family. This book is bleak, there’s no way around it. What makes a novel like this so, disturbing in some ways, is it’s realism. Judith’s loneliness is the type of loneliness that develops over time, after years and years of hoping and praying but never getting one’s desires. This is not a cheery novel, but for those who are interested in realism  and novels that don’t give you what you want, because that’s not life, this one may be for you. 

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