“As long as it’s not boring. That’s our motto now.”
Set in London in 2017, The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley is my least favorite Booker read to date. I’ve never read Riley before, but I have seen some comparisons drawn between her and Rachel Cusk. That tracks. I don’t like either. It’s a writing style that I loathe. (I’ve been told to buckle up – it appears the longlist favors that style this year.)
The novel takes its name from the Palm House in Kew Gardens, an iconic structure of London. It’s a very large greenhouse with numerous tropical and subtropical plants, and it’s a bit of an industrial/engineering marvel. Laura (our narrator) and her friend, Edward Putnam are supposed to visit the Palm House to see the cycad, a prehistoric plant, with his father. His father dies, and they don’t go. I could about the title and the glass panes and Laura’s life, but I didn’t like the book enough.
The novel is framed with architectural structures, primarily structures tied to Laura, but it does open with Edward pointing out where he had lived in the 1980s. I don’t really like any of the sections with Edward. But I tend to get really annoyed really quickly by the “literary intellectual crowd” in literature. I wanted to DNF the book with that opening. Especially when Laura puts toast on a table by the tub when she bathes because she’s “not washing [her] hair,” I pondered why I was subjecting myself to something I don’t enjoy in the slightest.
Things improve considerably when Laura talks about herself. The holiday to Croatia with her mom and grandma where they bought workers’ shoes because they liked them, making a uniform their costume. The palmist who didn’t exactly read Laura’s future. The obsession with and assault by the older comedian when she’s a teen. He records the encounter without her consent, positioning her for the camera. “I imagine then, on his recording, I looked something like a frightened horse. The way their eyes go.” The relationship with the older actor. We get a lot of non-Edward content. Thankfully.
I’m 4 for 4 with Christmas celebrations in the Booker read.
A Girl Named Tommi 