mono_vox (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mono_vox) wrote,@ 2008-03-12 22:41:00 |
|
50 books in 1 year - 2008 - # 6
The Story of My Face
by Kathy Page
Starting in present day Finland, disfigured religious academic Natalie is there to uncover what prompted a man to set up Envallism, a (fictitious) strict Protestant sect, which somehow led to an accident that changed her body and led her into this line of work.
Going back to 1969, a teenage Natalie is obsessed with Neil Armstrong, and whilst avoiding her mum - who is into free love and forgetting to care for her daughter - she lets herself into a neighbour Barbara’s garden, and decides to infiltrate her seemingly conventional family, unaware of the secrets and lies which hide behind their nuclear façade.
The Story of My Face
by Kathy Page
Starting in present day Finland, disfigured religious academic Natalie is there to uncover what prompted a man to set up Envallism, a (fictitious) strict Protestant sect, which somehow led to an accident that changed her body and led her into this line of work.
Going back to 1969, a teenage Natalie is obsessed with Neil Armstrong, and whilst avoiding her mum - who is into free love and forgetting to care for her daughter - she lets herself into a neighbour Barbara’s garden, and decides to infiltrate her seemingly conventional family, unaware of the secrets and lies which hide behind their nuclear façade.
The title is too bland for what lies in these pages - a complex and thoughtful story, told effectively from many perspectives. Page’s depictions of teenage confusion and bravado ring true, as does the sinister fervour that grips the Envallists, who think images are a porthole for Satan to jump through and think its right to send a child home for wanting to watch man land on the moon.
When you become an adult it’s easy to forget just how strange being a teenager is, and page has captured this time perfectly with Natalie - Her jaded view on the world is interspersed with sweet childlike interest in biscuits and cuddles make her a sympathetic main character, even when she is being manipulative and intentionally disruptive; within Barbara’s family or at the Envallist holiday camp at a farm in Filey.
Switching back and forth in time and country without losing momentum, this story is rich in detail and plot, and builds ever so slowly.
I expected horrors to come at the end, and the story behind her face is revealed in the last few pages; the full terror of skin grafts and sedation expressed through the same subtle language that’s used throughout this wonderfully understated book, which concludes with a satisfying epilogue and last chapter which is full of hope.
