"The Long Surrender" Part One: Sex, violence and two suicide attempts
Found an interesting blog entry whilst trawling the net for a cover picture of one of Charlotte Lamb's best-known and perhaps most controversial classics, The Long Surrender. I have a copy here - several, in fact - but my scanner is not currently working. Some annoying software conflict that I am trying to fix. Meanwhile, I had to go online to find this not terribly satisfactory image:
The blog I found is called The Tyranny of Reading and, in a blog post from April 2007, discusses The Long Surrender in glowing terms, largely for the memorable sex scenes, the 'obsessive' violence of the hero, and the heroine's repeated suicide attempts - the only complaint, by someone leaving a comment, was that the sex was not graphic enough!
What is interesting is that modern readers of Lamb - including the inimitable Sarah from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - on the one hand frequently accuse Lamb of writing over-violent sex and abusive relationships, yet on the other hand praise her for the power of these same stories, commenting on their unputdownable quality.
The reader at The Tyranny of Reading seemed to suffer no such qualms, simply enjoying the book for what it is - a product of the sexually confused late seventies, and strikingly honest in its portrayal of a troubled marriage looking for love. Indeed, on a blog post relating to the equally violent and traumatic Night Music - which, as I recall, also features a suicide attempt of some description - the blogger complains about 'the years of PC dross that followed' these more violent predecessors.
It needs to be underlined, sadly enough, that Lamb's diaries and letters reveal her own discontent with the politically correct direction in which romances began to turn from the early eighties onwards. Popular romance writers are nearly always at the mercy of marketing and sales teams, who decide what the market wants and instruct the editors accordingly. It was a pity that Lamb's great strength - the portrayal of loving but obsessive relationships - became unacceptable just at the peak of her career.
The Long Surrender is quite difficult to get hold of, by the way. But I'll be blogging about the plot and the writing itself in more detail in "The Long Surrender" Part Two. Busy enjoying a re-read right now.
The blog I found is called The Tyranny of Reading and, in a blog post from April 2007, discusses The Long Surrender in glowing terms, largely for the memorable sex scenes, the 'obsessive' violence of the hero, and the heroine's repeated suicide attempts - the only complaint, by someone leaving a comment, was that the sex was not graphic enough!
What is interesting is that modern readers of Lamb - including the inimitable Sarah from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - on the one hand frequently accuse Lamb of writing over-violent sex and abusive relationships, yet on the other hand praise her for the power of these same stories, commenting on their unputdownable quality.
The reader at The Tyranny of Reading seemed to suffer no such qualms, simply enjoying the book for what it is - a product of the sexually confused late seventies, and strikingly honest in its portrayal of a troubled marriage looking for love. Indeed, on a blog post relating to the equally violent and traumatic Night Music - which, as I recall, also features a suicide attempt of some description - the blogger complains about 'the years of PC dross that followed' these more violent predecessors.
It needs to be underlined, sadly enough, that Lamb's diaries and letters reveal her own discontent with the politically correct direction in which romances began to turn from the early eighties onwards. Popular romance writers are nearly always at the mercy of marketing and sales teams, who decide what the market wants and instruct the editors accordingly. It was a pity that Lamb's great strength - the portrayal of loving but obsessive relationships - became unacceptable just at the peak of her career.
The Long Surrender is quite difficult to get hold of, by the way. But I'll be blogging about the plot and the writing itself in more detail in "The Long Surrender" Part Two. Busy enjoying a re-read right now.
This is very interesting and I'm looking forward to the next installment. Just the word 'suicide' grabbed my interest - not PC or acceptable in some of the major houses at all - you'd have no chance - too many 'rules'.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued - don't be too long with part 2, please!
Thanks, Rachel. You slave-driver!
ReplyDeleteJx