John Fowles’s Variations
Posted by Review-a-Day, February 10, 2007 12:00 am 3 Comments Filed under: Review-a-Day. The Ebony Tower by John Fowles
Reviewed by Jill Owens
Powells.com
"There are probably fifteen or twenty books that I own that I've read at least ten times over the years. They vary greatly, in style and substance, but they all share two characteristics: they reorient and ground my sense of aesthetic and narrative; and, through nuance or interpretation, they produce something new with each reading that deepens my understanding of both the individual work and of fiction in general. John Fowles's The Ebony Tower is one of the best examples of the latter; the stories are hauntingly ambiguous, with archetypal and resonant images that can suddenly shift in meaning, and no conclusions come easily...." Read the entire Powells.com review.
The Ebony Tower is *the* book that I have returned to over and over and will continue to return to until death do us part. I think it is a literary marvel, capable of casting a spell each time I read it, and the best of Fowles's fiction, which I consider some of the finest. I have spare copies of this book (found in used-book stores over the years for about $1 each); I give them as gifts to people I meet who are "worthy" -- that is, capable of responding to such accomplished writing and story telling. I am astounded to read a review by someone who loves this book as I do. Thank you, Ms. Owens, for the pleasure of knowing that you, too, count this book among your treasures.
I actually used to teach The Ebony Tower to a senior high school English seminar. Then I moved to England so I could get published (long story), and for a time, so poor that we could no longer afford to live in London, we lived in Lyme Regis. John lived just up the hill from us, though I kept my distance, out of respect (having read his journals I can see it was a wise choice). Later, when my second and third novels were to be published, he gave me generous quotes for the jackets, especially generous for he'd had a serious stroke and was no longer writing novels found writing nearly impossible.
"I give them as gifts to people I meet who are "worthy" -- that is, capable of responding to such accomplished writing and story telling."
That's just what I hate aobut this kind of crap writing, it's like a test to see if you're smarter than everyone else because you "get" it. Who cares about stuff like what art means in the real world blah blah blah. Read a good mystery sometime.