A Curious Earth: A Novel
by Gerard Woodward
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gerard WoodwardEdition: Paperback
Published: 2008-03-17
ISBN: 0393330974
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Book Reviews of A Curious Earth: A Novel
Book Review: "Some old potatoes in his cupboard were more actively interested in life than he was."
Summary: 5 Stars
(4.5 stars) Aldous Rex Llewellyn Jones, an elderly widower living alone, has nothing to look forward to. A former art teacher now living an isolated life inside a house for which he takes as little care as he does for his own hygiene, Aldous avoids contact with the outside world, even with his own children. It is not until he opens a cupboard and discovers that a forgotten bag of potatoes has sprouted and taken over the entire inside of one drawer that he recognizes how little interest he has in his own life. His garden is in the same state of wild neglect.
Sardonic and filled with darkly humorous imagery, A Curious Earth, by Man Booker finalist Gerard Woodward, is an old-fashioned novel, more an extended character study and meditation on aging than a traditional plot-based novel. Very much in the style of British authors Elizabeth Taylor (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont) and Molly Keane (Time After Time (Virago Modern Classics)), whose sly humor and pointed observations about people and society make their novels such wry delights to read, Woodward also creates in Aldous a character who is so universal in his concerns and needs that the reader cannot help but empathize with him, even when he is being impossibly self-absorbed.
When Aldous goes to see The Winter's Tale, he befriends some of the young people there, and soon he begins visiting the National Gallery, where he is fascinated by Rembrandt's painting of Hendrickje Stoffels, his young mistress. The possibilities of an old man enjoying life with young people, and especially a young woman, offer Aldous new hope, and when his son Julian, living in Ostend, Belgium, invites him to come for a visit, Aldous, looking forward to new scenery and new opportunities, goes with his eyes open. In Ostend Aldous meets "the most beautiful woman he has ever seen," and upon his return to England, rejuvenated, he is soon drawn to another younger woman at his night class.
Throughout the novel, Aldous misreads signals and invests far more emotion in his relationships than do his new friends, and Aldous learns the hard way that life takes work, just as the potato tuber must work to keep on growing in the darkness of a closed drawer. Aldous continues to see "human contact as the only thing keeping him from death," but he is surprised at how incomprehensible the lives of other people are, especially when he views them through the bottom of a bottle.
With his unique imagery and eye for the ironic or bizarre detail, Woodward makes Aldous come vividly to life in this quiet, unpretentious novel. Though there are moments of profound sadness, there are also moments of hope for Aldous's belated self-awareness and enlightenment. Woodward never descends into pathos or sentimentality, reminding the reader that life is often absurd and that ironies can be found and appreciated even in the tedium of every day life. Readers who enjoy character studies of ordinary people and those who appreciate black humor will delight in the irreverence with which Woodward approaches the subject of old age. n Mary Whipple
August: A Novel
I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Novel
Summary of A Curious Earth: A Novel
In this successor to his Man Booker Prize finalist, Gerard Woodward slyly pits defiant Aldous Jones against the hazards of aging.Left with an empty house after the death of his wife, Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the whole day sitting in his chair in the kitchen. But with admirable determination he resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering London, he is surprised to find a painting that holds him completely in its spell. Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper-turned-mistress, Hendrijcke Stoffels, awakens Jones's desire for a new life, a new woman, sex, and companionship. It leads him to Belgium to stay with his bohemian son, to evening language classes, and through a series of slightly misguided relationships until eventually he meets his Hendrijcke. As The Guardian writes, this work is "brave, funny, and beautifully written, as perceptive about Rembrandt and Shakespeare as it is about evening classes, potato tubers sprouting in neglected cupboards and the accumulated detritus of family life."
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