Moon Tiger (1987)
Who wrote it?
Dame Penelope Margaret Lively (1933-; active 1970-), born Cairo, Egypt. Lively began her career as a very successful children's author, picking up the Carnegie Medal in 1973 and the Whitbread Children's Award in 1976.
She was Booker nominated for her first novel for adults, The Road to Lichfield, in 1977 and again in 1984 for According to Mark. Though she spent her childhood in Egypt, she is of British citizenship and has lived in the UK for much of her life.
What's it about
On her deathbed, popular historian and journalist Claudia Hampton decides to write “a history of the world,” which turns out to be a kaleidoscopic reflection on her own life, going back and forth in time anchored around the loss of the great love of her life, a soldier called Tom who she meets in 1942 Egypt. The titular “moon tiger” is a mosquito repellant device, “a green coil that slowly burns all night… dropping away into lengths of grey ash” - present at a pivotal (and ultimately, final) moment in her relationship with Tom, and its “glowing red eye” is a light that she’s unable to look away from, returning to it time and again throughout the novel.
Despite its brevity, Moon Tiger covers a grand sweep of Claudia’s long life, from her post-WW1 childhood and (extremely) close relationship with her brother, several ultimately unsatisfactory relationships including with Jasper, the father of her disappointingly conventional daughter, and a later-life surrogate motherhood of a gay Hungarian immigrant, Laszlo. Through the lens of her full and vibrant life we see pivotal events of the twentieth century, and her historian’s eye inevitably creates parallels with the whole history of the world. Despite this massive sweep, one moment in her life dominates, and the novel is really a deep reflection on the transitory nature of happiness, the brevity of life, what might have been, etc. If that sounds intimidating, it shouldn’t - its conclusions may be heartbreaking, but they are delivered beautifully, with a feather-light style.
What I liked
This was an absolute breath of fresh air after the stuffy bleakness of the last entry. Around 200 pages, and feels like far fewer. The prose is sparky, effervescent. It's a joy to read.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from this, but it was certainly packed with surprises. The way perspective and time is played with suggests a complex and difficult novel, which no doubt it must have been to write… but to read it's anything but.
The central character is magnificent. Fiercely intelligent and confident, yet massively charming. She’s a magnetic force, someone you yearn to spend more time with, which reinforces the tragedy of the novel (& of time, mortality, etc)
There are massive themes in here, deep emotion and intense sadness, but it's never bleak. For all its existential explorations, it never feels hopeless and is buoyed by a wonderful lightness of touch.
On a similar theme, the novel's central conceit - that of Claudia writing a “history of the world” sounds laboured and complex but really is just a superb framing device for a charmingly narcissistic historian to chronicle her own all too brief life.
I'm always a sucker for a novel that takes us on a journey through time through the life of one character - I'm not quite sure I've previously encountered one that's done it so successfully yet so efficiently.
What I didn't like
It was over too quickly?
Food & drink pairings
Bully beef and assorted desert rations.
Supplemented by the occasional gazelle.
Cocktails in Cairo
Fun facts
Reviews at the time were apparently somewhat dismissive of this book, including one that referred to it as the “housewives’ choice,” from which I can only assume the reviewer didn’t bother reading it and stopped at the point of realising that it was written by… a woman. I mean, seriously? This is, to my mind, one of the most universal winners to date. To be dismissed because it’s female-authored and deals with “romance” (the term certainly doesn’t feel sufficient) is pretty incredible.
Thankfully, the Booker panel that year (which included PD James and, erm, Trevor McDonald) had no such concerns - unlike many of its predecessors, this was apparently a unanimous choice for winner, which is pleasing.
I’m compelled to share PD James’ comments from her Guardian reflections on her Booker experience:
“The Booker may at times have tended to increase the unhelpful dichotomy between popular storytelling and books which are classified as literary novels, but most of the winners have combined high literary achievement with compelling storytelling.”
I’m not necessarily in agreement with James that “most” of the winners meet this criteria, but I think if that is the criteria for Booker success (and I can’t think of a better goal to strive for, if I’m honest) then Moon Tiger is absolutely up there with the most deserving winners to date.
Vanquished Foes
Chinua Achebe (Anthills of the Savannah)
Peter Ackroyd (Chatterton)
Nina Bawden (Circles of Deceit)
Brian Moore (The Colour of Blood)
Iris Murdoch (The Book and the Brotherhood)
A few big hitters here, if not necessarily with their most famous offerings. Anything worth checking out?
Context
In 1987:
Black Monday in October sees stocks crash on Wall Street and worldwide
Reagan challenges Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" on visit to Berlin
Kidnapping of British envoy Terry Waite in Beirut
Thatcher re-elected for third and final term in the UK
Zeebrugge ferry disaster in Belgium
Hungerford Massacre, first British mass shooting, leaves 16 dead
Great storm of 1987 in England leaves 23 dead and Michael Fish with egg on his face
Martial law in Taiwan ends after 38 years
Rudolf Hess, the last surviving prisoner at Spandau Prison, is found dead of suicide aged 93
King's Cross Fire on the London Underground kills 31
History's worst peacetime sea disaster as passenger ferry MV Dona Paz collides with an oil tanker in the Philippines, killing thousands
Privatisation of British Airways
Docklands Light Railway (DLR), the first driverless railway in the UK, opens in London
Prozac is approved for use in the US for the first time
First Final Fantasy game released in Japan
Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show
Michael Jackson, Bad
U2, The Joshua Tree
Rick Astley, "Never Gonna Give You Up"
Kylie Minogue, "I Should Be So Lucky"
Good Morning, Vietnam
Fatal Attraction
Life Lessons
All the biggies: Life is short. Regrets, I’ve had a few. Everything is intertwined. Etc.
Score
9
Genuinely magical, and for sheer pleasure absolutely up there with my favourites. Perhaps marginally less dazzling than the Rushdie, but in its own very different way, not far off…
Ranking to date:
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7 .
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
Next up
The first of two winners from Peter Carey, with 1988’s Oscar & Lucinda.
