Clare Chambers (1) (1966–)

X Talks Silent

Media: Audio
Read by Karen Cass
Length: ~10 hours
I have no idea as to how this book landed on my tbr list. The only clue I had as to its contents was its cover that looks very much like a late 1950s swap-card. Swapping cardboard cards with pictures of flowers and pretty little girls in hoop skirts and braided hair is what girls used to do for fun in the late 1950s in Australia. Simple times. Flat times. I remember those days in black and white. The pastel-colored cards were the bright lights of our beige lives.

Gen X-er Clare Chambers has done her homework. She tells us so in the “Credits” in the audio version. Her 1950s facts are spot on. Her style and plot are flat and go with the period, lacking subtlety and depth. Textureless. I doubt this was on purpose. Perhaps the dreariness of those bleak times got to her.

The main characters are of the Silent Generation, and here Chambers falls down. While the environment - the buildings, cuisine, fashions - are portrayed accurately, the adult characters are surprisingly aware and supportive of Gen-X values.women’s independence, sex outside marriage, gay sex, tolerance of atheism. But their inner lives are bland like their food and the architecture of the time. All a bit scrambled up.

I read somewhere that Claire Chambers has been likened to Kate Atkinson. Poor Kate.

Back to the book. There are two storylines. A beautiful woman (Silent gen) believes that her daughter is a product of parthenogenesis, that is conceived without the participation of male sperm. Gretchen writes a letter claiming this to a regional newspaper in Kent. The letter is picked up and a woman journo (Jean) takes it on as a virgin birth story. Jean does her background research while she partakes of a lot of Silent gen things. She uses pay phones that connect to human operators, she eats meat with three veg for “tea”, smokes, and is surprised when children say cute things.

While researching for her virgin birth story Jean has it off with the salt-of-the-earth husband of the beautiful Gretchen, who happens to be a closet lesbian. This affaire between Jean and Gretchen’s husband is the second story of the novel, and runs along in parallel with the virgin birth.

I read till the end. I thought of how it was for my parents back in the late fifties and how we kids had no idea of what troubles they had in their younger lives. I felt sorry for the pre-pubescent me with my swap-cards..

I gave this book a 3, 2 for research and 1 by default.… (més)