Ages ago EG and I said that if we read enough books we would
go to Hay on Wye as our prize. Neither of us succeeded in that, but it didn’t
stop us going to Hay on Wye anyway. In fact we went twice.
This last visit I was commissioned to find a copy of Straight is the Gate for a friend. Being
a book by an author I had never heard of I was intrigued. My one disappointment
was that rather than this being a whole day quest I found it within the first
five minutes. As it didn’t look like a long read I decided to check out the
first couple of pages. Mistake! Four weeks later my friend has only just had
her book delivered.
It might only be a short book but there’s some deep themes.
In essence it is a story about two cousins who had developed
an attachment in their teens but as you would expect problems arise. Jerome
wants to marry Alissa, but Alissa has a sister who is also in love with Jerome.
And so the complications begin.
Alissa tells Jerome that she will not marry until her sister
is married. Her idea is that her sister will marry Jerome, but what she doesn’t
count on is that her sister is prepared to sacrifice herself for Alissa. For
the rest of the book you have to work through Alissa’s religious thinking and
Jerome’s response to each twist and turn.
Maybe it’s just me but French romance novels seem to have
someone dying as a result of love and I had the feeling all the way through this
book that one of the pair would drop down dead.
What I did like is that at different points in the novel you
get inside both Jerome’s and Alissa’s head. Jerome is the easiest to understand
– he wants to win the love of Alissa so for the most part goes along with her
religious fervour. At the beginning it is genuine but the motivation is very
different from Alissa’s.
For me Alissa was a frustrating and flawed character. But I
think that was intentional. Her perspective is skewed. Devotion to God is
admirable but it does not necessarily follow that you must have a miserable
life. It is sad that she has spent so long studying her religion and has missed
the point. The Bible she was reading did not forbid her marriage in fact it
would have taught her that marriage was a good thing.
There was a good amount to think about from this book, short
as it was. But not only that, it was beautifully written. I like to be able to
think about why I believe what I do, but that experience is enhanced by good
story telling to go along with the thought provoking narrative.
As for the ending – you will have to read it for yourself to
find out what becomes of Jerome and Alissa.