Thursday, March 5, 2015

#DWJMarch: The Time of the Ghost


My first read for DWJ March is one I have only read once before, The Time of the Ghost. I remembered being uncomfortable while reading the book the first time but not much more about it. Well, it turns out that I was uncomfortable reading it again. It's a strange, disorienting story that has strengths but also a couple of weaknesses (like the fact that I still can't place the sisters in age order). It is probably my least favorite DWJ but, considering that I love, love, love so many of the others, "least favorite" isn't that bad.

Charlotte (Cart), Selina (Sally), Fenella, and Imogen are sisters that live with their mother and father at a boys' school. They're woefully neglected, even to the point of the parents not noticing that one of their daughters isn't there anymore. When a ghost shows up at the house/school, it's not sure who it is or why it's there -- except she thinks that she is one of the sisters, that there has been an accident, and that an evil and ancient entity is responsible for it.

I'm not a huge fan of horror and, though this story is a mix of fantasy and horror, there are parts of this story that are violent and/or bloody enough to make me squeamish. And yet, the real horror comes from the terrible parents, especially their father, Himself. He calls his daughters bitches, hits them repeatedly, and can't even tell the four of them apart (even when there are only three of them present). Diana revealed that the book was based on her own childhood with her two sisters and her negligent parents. Neglect and abuse are two different things though and I hope that she didn't suffer quite as much as these girls did.

What really stood out to me, though, were the relationships between the sisters. They bickered, they complained, they shouted and threw things, but, in the end, they all were there for each other. They represented a range of body types, a range of personalities and faults, and a range of talents, but their differences all became trivial when they needed to focus on something bigger together. Some very unbelievable things happened in the story and yet they believed each other and immediately stepped up to support each other. I'm sure this was the message that Diana intended to deliver, one that she learned in her youth.

Side note: I meant to re-read this earlier because Neil Gaiman cited it as an influence on The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I definitely saw that. BUT, I also thought there were some connections with The Graveyard Book (specifically, The Sleer) that I'll have to ask him about someday!

Invoking nothing and nobody,
K

10 comments:

  1. You're right, this story is very painful to read, but the relationships between the sisters redeem it for me. I remember Diana Wynne Jones saying somewhere that the reality was MORE extreme than what she portrayed in fiction. It's amazing they all survived to be more or less normal!

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    1. I can't even believe coming out okay from treatment like that. But it sure makes for some crazy stories!

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  2. I will have to read some of her other ones before getting to this one, then.

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    1. Yeah, this is definitely one of the peripheral books to her core goodness.

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  3. My blog feed for some reason had stopped including your posts, so I was wondering why you hadn't been posting for so long. Thank goodness Amy mentioned DWJ March and sent me over here to discover I've missed a month of posts! But I haven't missed DWJ March, so all is well.

    I thought this was a very interesting book—not enjoyable, exactly, but the way the ghost didn't know which sister she was was fascinating (and very hard to pull off). Not one I'd jump to reread, but worth reading just to see what DWJ can do.

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    1. How dare your feed drop me?! ;) This book has moments but I agree that, overall, it's not exactly enjoyable because the stress level and sense of disorientation is so high.

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  4. This sucks, but I am pretty sure I read a thing where Diana Wynne Jones said that if anything, she played down what her own childhood was like, because if she told it exactly like it was, it would be unbelievable.

    I love Time of the Ghost, even though (or maybe because!) it took me so long not to hate it. It's one of my most resounding successes along the lines of Diana Wynne Jones being better on a reread.

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    1. That does suck. Why have kids if you really don't care to parent them? :P
      I've never hated this book but I certainly am not to love yet ... but I won't give up! I WILL REREAD!

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  5. I must, must read this again, and soon. I too found it both disturbing and confusing but knew that it would repay rereading -- just like her other 'difficult' books ('F&H', I'm looking at you) -- because there was an essential truthfulness that held a mirror up to life. Thanks for the reminder of its intrinsic worth.

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    1. Isn't it strange that it's DWJs more realistic books that are actually the toughest ones to read? I guess when things are just slightly off from our "reality", it seems harder to absorb. A fully fantastical world is easier to believe in sometimes, especially when there's abuse and heartache in the realistic world.

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