Saville - David Storey
Saville, by David Storey, is an interesting book. I’m
not quite sure what to make of it to be honest.
The style
of writing is engaging and keeps me reading, yet the story itself meanders,
failing to really pick a direction to head in. An early example of this is when
the mother of the main character goes to hospital and appears to be dying, yet
returns after some time instead, continuing to be a part of the narrative. The
story appears to be building up to the idea that the main character will be
driven by the loss of his mother, and that this will greatly influence the
plot. But this is not the case. Another example of a fledgling storyline that
is dropped soon after is the father’s determination to build an underground
shelter in case of bombs. This takes up a good chunk of an early chapter, yet
when the shelter is finally to be used it is revealed to have flooded, and all
references to the shelter are pushed aside soon afterwards.
With these
early examples, I wondered if the book was just going to be about the life of
the title family living in their small village, rather than having any major plot lines. And without going
too deep into the story, that is really
the case! Certain characters and plot lines take up larger portions of the
narrative as time goes on, but over all the main storyline of the book could be
interpreted as “a young boy grows up in a small village, and eventually
leaves.”
Yet, I
don’t want to appear to be disparaging the book; for the majority of the
narrative I was engaged, enjoying the way the author was writing and his ability
to get inside a character’s head without needing to blatantly state their
motivations. And although certain aspects of the book frustrated me (such as
the author’s choice to use “he said” even in situations where it may not be
clear who the “he” in question is) and though I felt the book went on too long
and became a little too sordid near the end, over all I enjoyed Saville quite a lot.
If the
author had tightened up their narrative a little, dropped one or two
unnecessary plots, and maybe picked a “main” storyline to hang the others off,
I may have enjoyed Saville even more,
but it does appear to be an accurate glimpse into small village life, and the
sometimes disappointing or meandering elements of the story do also reflect the
reality of life’s many twists and turns, especially as adolescents seek to find
their direction in life.
Completed 19 September 2017.
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