08.06.07
Ceridwen Dovey: Blood Kin
We all know the importance of cover design in making a browser become a buyer. But what of the other elements that crowd our senses in the first ten seconds? None of these individually made me buy Blood Kin, but they all helped it stay in my hand for longer until I made the decision. A quote from Coetzee can’t be dismissed easily. A bold, colourful jacket piques the curiosity. And the unusual name makes you flick to the About the Author photo inside the back cover. Ceridwen Dovey: sounds like an anagram, looks like a – … well, like a lovely young woman.
Blood Kin is Dovey’s debut novel, and it lacks nothing in assurance. The quotes on the cover refer to fable, myth, allegory, and this is what Dovey gives us.
We are in an unnamed country at an unnamed time, and a coup has just been carried out. The President has been kidnapped, along with his barber, his chef and his portraitist. They are held captive by the leader of the revolution, known only as The Commander. What this leads us to is a tale of aspects of power, told in cycling chapters by the three assistants. His Barber, the chapter is headed, but does it mean the President or the Commander? If power inspires loyalty in those subject to it, what does it lead to in those exercising it? And what of the power play in sexual relations between men and women?
Dovey’s choice of occupations for the narrators – dealing in food, art and the human body, and all interested in their own beauty or that of others - gives her plenty of scope for sensual detail:
I guide his head beneath the tap so that the water just catches his hairline and barely wets his skin. The hair strands darken and clot with the water; he will feel the slight weight of them pulling away from his head, uncreasing his forehead, and the warmth with spread like a tide across his skull to the back of his brain.
Yet I found the narrators (there’s something I should add here but I think it might constitute a minor spoiler) spoke in the same poetic, aphoristic tone, with little stylistic variation, so that it was difficult to tell them apart other than as types. I also felt that Dovey at times was reaching toward things that I could not grasp – though that could be a case for a more careful re-reading on my part. But there’s no denying the care that has clearly been taken over every word here.
There are a couple of significant revelations toward the conclusion of the story, and a satisfying inevitability to the closing pages. Not just a pretty face then.
gavsstudio said,
Monday, 6 August 2007 at 5:26 pm
ooo – I like the sound of this one! The cover is really creepy in a pretty way.
Thanks
kimbofo said,
Monday, 6 August 2007 at 8:27 pm
The cover is definitely eye-catching. And the story sounds intriguing…
John Self said,
Monday, 6 August 2007 at 8:45 pm
Intriguing and creepy it is, Gav and Kimbofo. I haven’t really done the book justice here, and as I said I felt not entirely at one with it, but I admire Dovey’s clear-eyed ambition to do something a little out of the ordinary. Definitely worth a look.
Gav’s Blog » Blog Archive said,
Monday, 6 August 2007 at 11:03 pm
[...] Though saying that I’m in the middle of Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow, which has a strong thread of blood and bonds and it’s also a theme in Winterbirth and seemingly in Blood Kin that’s just been reviewed on John Self’s blog. [...]
John Self said,
Monday, 6 August 2007 at 11:17 pm
You can see and hear Ceridwen Dovey reading from Blood Kin here. Not great quality, but I see she chose to read a passage from the same section that I extracted above. A wise choice!
Gav’s Blog » Blog Archive » September Reading Pile said,
Tuesday, 4 September 2007 at 1:10 am
[...] Kin by Ceridwen Dovey came to my attention after reading a review by John Self. I’m a bit apprehensive about reading it. I’m not sure what I’m expecting even [...]
Stewart said,
Friday, 6 June 2008 at 9:41 am
It’s an age since I first heard of this book, via you, and I was quite surprised recently to see how recent it actually was. Anyway, along with J.M. Coetzee’s Diary Of A Bad Year and three others, it’s up for a prize, having featured in the shortlist of the South African Sunday Times Literary Award 2008.
John Self said,
Friday, 6 June 2008 at 9:00 pm
Thanks for the info Stewart. I’d be interested to read the other three, as I didn’t really consider either Coetzee or Dovey prize-winning material (though the Dovey has stuck in my head quite well). I saw the properback this week in the shops, which has a rather more mundane cover than the one shown above, all black and shadowy.
Stewart said,
Monday, 4 August 2008 at 9:46 am
The prize has just been announced and Blood Kin won in the end.
John Self said,
Tuesday, 5 August 2008 at 5:37 pm
Thanks Stewart, and well done to Dovey!