Chapter Eight - Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Thanks for joining me again on my never-ending armchair journey. In the last chapter, we were back in Oxford with Lyra Silvertongue for The Book of Dust Part Two: The Secret Commonwealth. This time, we've not travelled far - we're just outside Oxford. I’ve been reading Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. I’ve read all her books and this is - by some way - her best so far. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s a bit of a masterpiece. It’s a definite 5 out of 5 for me. This book will stay with me for a long time. It’s written with such magical beauty. All the way through I was wondering how on earth the author was going to find a way to reach a satisfactory conclusion for such a perfectly written novel. I needn’t have worried. Its ending works wonderfully. This is another of those books you feel sad to finish. It’s a wrench to separate yourself from the characters and the world they inhabit. Because you have somehow begun to inhabit their world, too. As this is a reasonably new book, there'll be no spoilers for that ending within this review! But here's what the blurb on the back of the book says so you have a basic idea of the plot:

In an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child. Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? And who does the little girl belong to?

From the very first page of this beautiful book, I was whisked away to another time and place. With some books, that feeling can take a while to grab me. With Once Upon a River, it was almost immediate. The description of the Swan Inn is so vivid and enticing that it makes you feel like one of the regulars settling down of an evening to join in the storytelling. The magical language used by Setterfield really helps to make the sense of time and place feel vividly real. And with it comes a sense of myth and legend - a sense of unreality. The juxtaposition of the two is totally beguiling.

I love Gothic fiction and there are many of the tropes and themes of Gothic literature to be found here. Not least, the uncanny child. Just who is this little girl plucked from the swirling river? Why is she so silent? Where does she come from? These questions permeate the novel. So, too, does a sense of the supernatural - another strong Gothic motif. Many of the storytellers at the Swan talk of Quietly the Ferryman who seems to straddle this world and the next. Does is really exist or is he a figment of the imagination? Quietly moves between worlds using the river and, so, the banks of the Thames become a sort border between realms.

The power of stories is another important element of the novel. Stories play a crucial role in the lives of the characters within the novel. In the Swan, they spend a good deal of time making sure the story is told correctly - they all take turns and they debate the appropriateness of specific words. Their stories become the way they deal with the events happening around them, how they process them. And how they remember them. I suppose this is true in life. We all have those family stories which get told over and over again in exactly the same way. For my family, it's the story of the orange under the cooker (don't ask - it's very dull). As a book lover, I know that it is often through the books I read that I make sense of the world and the things going on in the world. I'm thinking of books about the World Wars (e.g. Birdsong, The Regeneration Trilogy, Alone in Berlin, HHhH) which have helped me to better understand these important events and also books which have just taught me something about life in general (e.g. A Little Life, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Goldfinch, Cloud Atlas).

Another big theme of this novel is loss. many of the characters are dealing with a loss. I like what the book has to say about the ways we come to terms with loss. The different ways people learn to handle - or not - their grief:

He had the feeling the world might easily stop turning without the girl in it. Every hour was arduous, and when it was over, you had to start again with a new one, no better. He wondered how long he would be able to keep going.

That perfectly encapsulates, for me, the way time drags when you are feeling the pain of a loss.

This really is a truly magnificent book and I really must urge you to read it if you have not done so! It is the perfect book to pass a rainy afternoon in front of the fire with. I can hardly wait to find out what she comes up with next. 

Quite a few books I've been reading lately - including this one - have authors with a supreme skill of creating worlds. Back in chapter seven, Philip Pullman drew us back into Lyra’s Oxford (and beyond). In chapter six, I was reading about Tolkien and how he set about constructing the wonderful realm of Middle Earth. Check out my previous posts if you missed any of these earlier chapters. All this world-building got me to thinking about the different ways authors achieve this. Many of these books include intricately illustrated maps of the world described within their pages. In the next chapter of the never-ending book story, I'll be reading The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands. This beautiful book takes an in-depth look at the maps in some of the world's most popular books and also at the real-life maps that inspired the creative process. Hope you'll join me for the next chapter soon. In the meantime, let me know which books with maps are your favourites - leave your suggestions in the comments below.