Rites of Passage - William Golding
I have previously only read one book by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, and that was all the way back in high school, in the year (cough). So, I have vague recollections of the 'feel' of that book. This book 'feels' similar, which I guess makes sense.
This book, like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is told in an epistolary fashion; in this book, we are reading the journal of Edmund Talbot, also intended as a letter to his godfather, as Talbot travels by ship from England to Australia. This is in the colonist days, and other passengers include the loud artist Mr Brocklebank with his 'daughter' and 'wife', the humanist philosopher Mr Prettiman, and the hapless parson, Mr Colley. Talbot is a fairly arrogant, opinionated, cynical figure with an inbuilt belief in his own class superiority, as well as a distain for established religion, yet the captain of the ship, Captain Anderson, is far more opposed to religion, and particularly priests, than Talbot. Thus Colley is the butt of all jokes and prejudices, with Talbot only defending him at times in order to annoy the captain, whom Talbot also dislikes.
The title Rites of Passage has a number of ways it could be applied to the story: the superstitions of the crew, the rules and hierarchy and class-prejudice that must be adhered to on the ship, the attempts by Talbot to seduce Miss Brocklebank, the attempts by Colley to be accepted by the rest of his shipmates, and also a few very dark and significant plot points I won't mention here. Sufficient to say, Rites of Passage also continues the Booker books tradition of having some elements that are quite unsavoury.
Also, as a Christian, I always find it a little weird to have the Christian character be so tragic, pathetic and be portrayed so cynically, but as we are mostly seeing this world through the lens of Talbot I at least understand that some of these elements are meant to reflect Talbot himself. When we do get to see things from Colley's perspective later on in the narrative, however, it is still apparent that Golding himself doesn't value the faith side of his character all that highly. Colley is a tragic character, but his faith is something that makes him tragic, rather than something that gives him any real benefit.
This is a pity, because in general terms, Rites of Passage was an interesting read, particularly in terms of how the ship ran and the different personality types. At the beginning, the unsavoury elements are minimal, as is the mistreatment of Colley. However, towards the end of the book both of these elements are brought to the foreground, and this does tip the book into the familiar Booker category of 'a book that was okay as a one-off read, but is not one I would want to revisit.'
Completed 18 April 2024.
(Bookerworm)
Previous Book ~ Next Book
Comments
Post a Comment