I EXIST! I AM CONCEIVED TO THE CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT ON THE clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall.
The opening line of the novel is an inventive display of literary technique to offer a little twist on an event which has opened so many novels throughout history that it is has become almost impossible to tell it in any truly original way. The narrator is confronting both the philosophy of Descartes with the announcement that her mere conception rather than birth and subsequent ability to think is indicative of existing as well as Shakespeare with the reference to the Falstaffian line about “chimes at midnight.” That reference is also fraught with layers of meaning. One thing worth considering: does the opening intend to literally suggest that the sperm of the narrator’s father penetrated the egg inside her mother’s womb at precisely midnight? Hmm?
Footnote (ii) – Still Lives
THIS IS THE STORY OF MY GRANDMOTHER’S CONTINUALLY thwarted attempts to get married.
That the opening image of the novel focuses on a clock and—more importantly—symbolism related to the passage of time is not mere accident. The novel is obsessed with time and in more ways than one. For instance, the reader learns the fundamental fact about some incidents before the details are shaded in while other important information is withheld until the perfect moment of revelation. An interesting technique here are the “Footnotes” which appear as sort of mini-chapters in between actual chapters. Here the narrator breaks away from the present to fill us in on events from the past of significance. The effect is particularly successful because it is also a way of providing just the necessary highlights without forcing the reader into a dense flashback capable of stalling the momentum.
I go upstairs and make a little nest at the bottom of the airing cupboard, out of clean towels that smell of fresh air and soap powder, and like a small mammal turn round and round in my little burrow until I have made it comfortable…
The book features a plethora of references to cupboards by the time this quote occurs in Chapter Eleven. A few more come after it, but they are mostly relegated to the more metaphorical and philosophical aspects of this particular kitchen feature. And, yes, cupboards are very philosophical in the book; the narrator will tell you all about her grand Lost Property Cupboard Theory if you stick with it. Some of the mentions are more problematic, seeming to exist in some netherworld between the literal and the metaphorical. Stick with things a bit more and Chapter Eleven, like Clarissa, will explain it all. Basically, everything that comes after “comfortable” in this sentence is the emotional epicenter of the focus on cupboards.
After Walter we go to Richardson’s the bakers, and buy a large floury-white loaf but no cakes because Bunty believes shop-bought cakes are a sign of sluttish housewifery.
No, you’re not wrong: this is a very weird idea to think, much less express to others. Bunty is, it is essential to point out, Ruby’s mother. The strange, strained and emotionally trouble relationship between Ruby and her mother lies at the heart of the narrative; everything else can conceivably be described as an spoke extending from the center of this wheel. This particular observation of her mother’s rather unique if not idiosyncratic personality is not particularly illuminating or essential, but it does represent a pattern. Even without any sort of contextual guidepost informing the reader that Ruby feels distinctly disconnected from this line of reasoning, her narrative style shines the way. The story is peppered with small moments like this—as well as other much more potent and direct examples--which continually point to a chasm existing between daughter and mother which is, frankly, not entirely the fault of either.
