I picked up this book on one of my jaunts to Book Hive in Aylsham. I liked its cover and the subject matter of a young girl being brought up in a hippy commune in 70's rural Norfolk appealed. The reviews on the back were the usual glowing ones, about how funny and yet desperately tragic it was. And I thought yeah, I could enjoy reading that for sure. But how many times do you read the blurb on the back of a book that says uproariously funny, couldn't contain my mirth, laugh out loud etc etc and when you read it your mouth barely breaks into a wry smile? Well, my chuckle-om-miter never got going with Devoured. I could tell this was extremely well written and that there was humour buried in there somewhere, but it never reached out to press my funny button.
Devoured is written entirely from the perspective of a young girl. And as the book progresses she nears then enters her teenage years, has her first period and the dawn of her full experience of being a woman. For most of the book you don't know what her name is. Only later do you discover its Boudicca, which gets shortened to Boude, then further abbreviated to Bo, because she finds it so totally embarrassing. So you are seeing the antics and day to day squabbles in the commune, through the eyes of a prepubescent girl. Who often can see what's really going on, or misinterprets whats going on, or has to find out what words like 'bumming' actually mean. I loved how events in the commune invariably involve cooking something special and Bo provides you with the recipe and cooking instructions.
Some of the commune members she's given nicknames to like Hairy Dolly and Pretty Justin. Quite often she is bemused by people and the way they are behaving, particularly towards her. She knows, for instance to be wary of Hairy Dolly because of the way he stares at her, but doesn't fully understand why. As the girl grows up into a teenager, it appears inevitable that that relationship is going to turn out really badly, and cause the whole commune to fall apart. In the last chapter she's sent to boarding school, though it was unclear to me why, now how they could change from living in a commune to sending her there. Her portrayal of Bo gradually finding her own feet in a new context, rang true as one of our many first steps into living and managing our own life.
The decision to write it completely from the girls perspective is a bold one, that is carried out with great thoroughness and perspicacity. But one not without its drawbacks.The confusions of a young girl who is aware of changes in themselves,and wants to find out what these new feelings are all about. But doesn't fully understand the dangers of a young girl practicing being flirtatious towards a man, and what that can sometimes presage, is brilliantly written. That the casualness of a neglectful ideologically driven commune doesn't ever help matters. I assume the novel draws to an extent upon her own upbringing in a commune, it possesses the air of autobiographical inside knowledge.
I have asked myself why I've found this novel so difficult to find an emotional connection with. I believe it maybe due to the manner in which its been written. Looking at whatever is happening from a child's perspective, shows you how they see the world, and that has often to be a limited and unformed one. Humour, and emotions more generally, require a degree of exaggerated highlighting in the writing. Because she is writing as if from a child's viewpoint means you can't introduce satire, for that is more of a grown up adult perspective and interpretation, and a young child just doesn't think like that yet. Overtime you can show it developing. With Devoured I spend a lot of time engaging with reading between the lines for what might really be going on. And whilst I can identify with what happens to her, it nonetheless felt at one remove. I don't believe this is anything to do with my gender experience being different. There is an almost Brechtian level of emotional distancing going on in this novel. Its complexity is very cool in tone.
CARROT REVIEW - 4/8
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