I just finished The Whistling Woman.
I am consistently amazed by the hugeness of this woman’s imagination, the musical poetry she can create out of putting words together on a page, and her knowledge and originality of thought in so many fields.
For my money, it’s hard to imagine her doing better than The Children’s Book. Tom’s story is gutwrenching. I also love the children’s stories within it.
I love her to death, but I really didn’t like The Children’s Book. I thought it was just too cluttered with characters and storylines that didn’t go anywhere. If it had been edited down substantially, it would have been fantastic.
Possession is one of my five all-time favorite novels – her talent (as a novelist and as someone mimicking two very different Romantic poests) is mind-blowing. Not just in that book, but in general, she is one of the best writers when it comes to crafting characters who are emotionally reserved on the outside but roiling with life within – the way she gets at that tension is incredibly insightful.
I once copied one of my favorite passages from The Game that illustrates this –
It’s frightening how much I identified with that. Too bad the book ends so sadly for that character.
I stopped reading Byatt after The Biographer’s Tale - it just seemed too big and too un-put-together. She hits her peak, I think, with short stories and novellas - works like “The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye” and “Christ In The House Of Martha And Mary” are on my short list of The Greatest Things I Have Ever Read.
That said, Possession is my “stranded on a desert island and you only have one book” book. I am just blown away by her ability to write - authentically - in 11 different voices. It’s a stimulating detective story and a completely believeable love story, and an intellectual puzzle as well.
Byatt also creates authentic male characters, and I think that’s a rare talent in any female author. (Equally rare for a male author to craft women that ring true.) A Lamia In The Cevannes is a very masculine story; Byatt portrays a man in a way that is honest and neither caricature nor condescension.
I also love her use of color in writing. I could go on about all the ways she is a great writer, but this level of gushing is only appropriate for the Master.
Possession makes my all time favorites list. It took a lot to get into, but wow.
Unfortunately, I read it, and discovered her, in my ninth month of pregnancy. And although I own her other books, I’ve never managed to dedicate the time to get into her other books. The baby is now eleven - maybe I’ll give it another shot. But the past eleven years have been filled with less demanding literature.
See, I think you could say that about a lot of her books, but that would be a mistake, because the depth of explanation and background is what makes Byatt Byatt. I dunno, I don’t think it would have been the same without the sprawling mass of characters. Slowly discovering which children have which parents, and realising that Olive doesn’t really love some of them, is fascinating. Like I said earlier, Tom’s story is gutwrenching, and the discovery of the Fludd father’s secret collection of vases (not sure who by?) is horrifying.
I could maybe take or leave some of the bits in Germany.
I did love Possession, although the male poet’s long poems weren’t my favourite part. I really like the way she uses letters in her writing. In The Whistling Woman, for example, you’ve got Brenda Pincher’s letters, Gander’s (whilst he’s slowly going nuts) and Quarrell’s.
I also agree with Slow Moving Vehicle about her ability to write from the perspective of male characters.
And I always like her descriptions of food. 
Yeah, I saw that. Possession is one of my favorite books. I read several of her others, but they did not quite grab me as much.