This is a great wee book. I read it between breakfast and lunch one morning – with time left over. It’s a delight. A delicious delight. When I finished it I sat stunned that it was over, and going over and over it in my head. Where it has happily stayed since. Hence this review.
It’s published by the American independent publisher, Storybook ND – a part of New Directions. New Directions itself has been around a long time. It was founded in 1936 by the brilliant James Laughlin, a Harvard student aged 22 – ! – at the time, who wanted it to be ‘a place where experimentalists could test their inventions by publication’. Which it did – publishing then unknowns which are now classics – and still does.
And its latest ‘invention’ is Storybook ND. Storybook ND was dreamed up by Gini Alhadeff – a writer, translator and curator (and, yes – ! – I had to look her up!). The whole idea of it was to reproduce the pleasure – the joy – ! – we had as children, of reading a whole book – all of it – in one go – in an afternoon, or a morning, or just whenever. And, I feel, all in the sunshine and summer of childhood… !
The books – introduced in 2022 – specially designed by Peter Mendelsund, hotshot designer and writer himself, are all hardcover, with a silver spine and a jacket illustration by a well-known artist. This particular jacket is by the American painter Wayne Thiebaud who did a lot of pictures of ordinary things. Here, it’s rather splendid cakes. A quote from Gini Alhadeff says it all: ‘Longer stories or shortened novels with a beautiful face: that’s Storybook ND.’
So. Now to the book! (About time, I hear you say. Well, yes. But since it’s such a new idea, storybooks for adults, I thought it was good to tell about it, so you’d know).
And yes, the title does sound a bit crazy, but it’s important. It’s also the first sentence. The story is about a 17-year-old, called Marguerite, whose Maman is French and whose Daddy is English, who has been brought up rigidly, to avoid bad taste – mauvais ton – and to stick, equally rigidly, to good taste – bon ton. Marguerite knows only the best of everything. She has been taught to ride at the age of five, to play bridge at the age of seven, to play and compose music by the age of ten. And much, much more. All of it the epitome of bon ton.
Money is never, ever a question. The story, which takes place during Ramadan, and her life, travels about from the Hebrides, to London, to Paris, to Marrakesh. Maman buys beautiful everything – tweeds, pianos, linen, jewellery. She lives at the most expensive hotels, owns property all over the place, buys riad after riad to suit whatever she needs at any particular juncture. And trains Marguerite in all of what is best. We don’t hear too much about Daddy, but apparently he’s some kind of engineer.
Then, suddenly, at the age of seventeen – still technically a child – Marguerite’s life changes dramatically. And the rest of the story you’re going to have to read about. How is she, this young girl of only seventeen, going to cope? What will happen to her?
And here is where I have to tell about the writing. And Helen DeWitt’s wonderful, magic way with words. The humour of it all – the happenings, the statements, the characters – expressed in such cool, clear, unemotional clarity – is subtle and restrained, but truly, exquisite. It’s worth reading simply for the writing. And the last sentence. (No! Don’t look!) And it all can be read in not much more than an hour. It has 69 pages. And a thousand thoughts. Sadly, I don’t think it’s in the library. But it and its companion Storybooks are well worth finding and reading.
