November 2009: The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

Title: The Thirteenth Tale
Author: Diane Setterfield
Genre: Mystery / Fiction
Year Published: 2006

Synopsis: Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself.  Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long.  Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good.  Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness - featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.  Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

Chosen by: Lindy

Reason this book was chosen: My first experience with Diane Setterfield was listening to a book on CD while driving to Medford, OR for Christmas a few years ago.  I was completely mesmerized by the language and couldn't wait to get my hands on a paper copy so that I could see and read the words with my own eyes.  My husband then bought me The Thirteenth Tale for Christmas and I loved it.  I chose the book for the book club for two reasons.  Selfishly, I wanted to read it again, and I wanted to expose the Boyer Wives to Setterfield.

Stephanie's Review

Dark, foreboding, eerily compelling, this tale is like a contemporary Jane Ere, Northanger Abby, or Wurthering Heights.  It has the same bookish naïve heroine with pain from her past who stumbles upon the dark, enigmatic figure surrounding herself/himself in mystery and hiding a secret.  A ghost who isn’t a spectre, a murderess, a fire, and plenty of twisted characters at which to wonder, make-up this strangely familiar plot. Although the author jumps around in time, we learn information as the main character uncovers it.

I enjoyed being disturbed by this book.  The famous author with the hidden past finally revealing herself through a murky story of dysfunctional siblings, parents, and grandparents.  Eccentricity and insanity, twinness, neglect and abuse, the relationship between siblings, the child lost and the child ignored or left behind, the enabling caregivers, themes that dance around one another from one generation to the next in our author’s mind. 

While we all wish to be shocked by the horror of such families as described by The Thirteenth Tale, we need look no farther than our own geneology to find terrifying similarities.  Life, it seems, is not so different from a gothic novel, contemporary or ancient.  Will our lives perpetuate the sins of our parents and grandparents, or will we break the cycle?

Kristin's Review:

I was doubtful after reading the first few pages of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  Her style of writing was peculiar, although I did notice the amazing range of vocabulary.  Another thing I noticed right away was the chapters are not numbered (52 chapters, many of them only a few pages).  But after I got into it, the mystery of Vida Winter’s story took me captive, and I found myself neglecting house duties!  

I appreciate this book because of the rich text and the way Setterfield describes her characters, settings, and props.  It was as if inanimate objects were given a life of their own!  Almost all the characters in this book were unique and had their own quirks.  Actually, strange might be a better descriptor for the people.  The ghost theme was odd and gave the storyline added creepiness.  There was one time I felt eyes on the back of my head while I was reading alone….

There are two things I have against this book.  The first is the disturbing brother/sister sexual relationship around page 70.  The other is the plot and characters got surprisingly twisted at the end, and I got a little confused.  It takes a while for everything to get explained, but I got a hold of it now.  I think.  

Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading this book.  It might be comparable to Harry Potter-type stories (although I’ve never read them, I’ve seen the movies).


Lindy's Review:

The words, the sounds, the imagery - these are the reasons I love this book.  Perhaps it is because I "read" this book on CD that the story seems so alive and captivating.  Setterfield uses an extensive vocabulary, but not words that are hard to understand.  She reintroduces the reader to normal, everyday words that are seldom used, but that create vibrant images.  Imagine if we all spoke using a wide range of words.  Imagine if our words painted a picture instead of just hung out there like blank, shapeless objects.  Would we tell better stories?  Would we draw each other into deeper conversations?  Would we understand one another better?

 Jaimie's Review:

The Thirteenth Tale was a great book and was very entertaining. It’s a page turner that compels you to keep reading once you’ve started.  In fact, when I picked the book up again after getting about halfway through, I sat down to read and didn’t get up until I was finished!

I didn’t see the twist coming at the end, so the book gets good marks for having an interesting plot.  It is also well written, although it does have some briefly sketchy scenes (so that’s a fair warning to anyone thinking about reading it).

Although it was entertaining, the book won’t make it to my favorites list for a couple of reasons.  First, the book divides its time between two main characters.  I think this made it difficult for me to really become attached to either, since the experiences in the story aren’t anchored to one person’s point of view. 

Also, the story didn’t leave me contemplative about life, or choices, or irony, or anything.  When the story was finished, it was finished; there was no more to say about it. But, I do think this was a good read for enjoyment’s sake, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good, suspenseful story.  

Two weird things that stood out to me:

1.  The way the author describes both of her main characters’ passion for reading was a little strange.  The characters speak of reading as being utterly absorptive and books as the quintessence of life – sometimes even more essential than human lives.  As much as I love to read, I did not sympathize with these feelings. I’ve never felt that strongly about books.

2.  Diane Setterfield describes one main character’s (also an author) books as “brutal and sharp and heartbreaking…everyone achieved their heart’s desire, but only when it was too late did they realize the price they must pay for escaping their destiny.  Every Happy Ever After was tainted...”  She also goes on to glorify how the books by her fictional author do not have neat endings, all tidied up into marriage and death and happiness. Because Diane described books like these in her own book with such esteem, I expected The Thirteenth Tale to be this way.  You can imagine my surprise when at the end, everyone is generally happy!  And, she tidies everything up!  In fact, the last chapter is devoted to explaining what happens to each of her characters in the end, leaving absolutely no ambiguity.  Strange. 

Lindsay's Review:

Oh, where do I start with this review? This is one of the most disturbingly interesting books I have read in awhile and I found myself in a love/hate relationship with this story.

What I Enjoyed:
This book pulled me in from the very beginning. I enjoyed getting to know Margaret Lea and her unusual upbringing. Her hunger for the written word surpassed her desire for food or the company of another person, and this is described so well that I could vividly picture her pouring over her books or hunting through stacks of manuscripts for the ones that spoke to her. I loved Vida Winter’s eclectic sense of style and her amazing storytelling ability. There were many lovable and fascinating characters, and all were portrayed brilliantly. I raced through this book and when I would set it down it tugged at me to pick it up again.

What I Disliked:
One of the first signs that I might not enjoy the book as much as I had hoped was the depiction of the relationship between Isabel and Charlie. I have always found brother/sister sexual relationships to be extremely disturbing, especially if abusive and violent. Also, Charlie inscribing Isabel’s name into his leg bone was not something I wanted to contemplate, nor his filthy lifestyle and suicide. Aside from the twisted behavior exhibited by Charlie, the twins, and others throughout the story, I had a problem with some of the plot devices. I felt the big revelation at the end about there being three identical Angelfield girls was less than believable. Vida was only half sister to the other two, and it’s not likely she would look like their twin by sharing a father. Another thought, I didn’t think Ambrose would take advantage of Emmeline in that way after being rejected by Vida. It didn’t seem to fit his character. These are just a few of the little details that didn’t seem to add up.

In conclusion, reading this book was like taking a cruise to a barren desert island; except for a few stormy patches, the trip is great fun, but your destination isn’t what you hoped it would be. It leaves you with a flat, disappointing ending to what was a promising beginning.