I had been looking at this book for a while, finally bought it in paperback. Fascinating, it seemed unlike anything I have read, but when I read the "discussion points" in the back, I realized it does have a lot of similarities with classic gothic novels, though I haven't analyzed those since high school. Jane Eyre and other classic books are mentioned and play a part in the story. Didn't I just read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict? How do Austen (1775-1817) and Bronte (1816-1855) fit together? May need to look that up.
There is a story within the story. Margaret Lea works with her father in an antique book store and is asked to write a biography of Vida Winter, who is a famous author on her deathbed, but has never revealed her own life story. The bulk of the book is Winter's strange story of growing up in a crumbling mansion, raised by the employees as the family was non-existent or mentally unstable. There are ghosts, and twin sisters, faint glimpses of romance. Interestingly, Winter became such a prolific author, because she was escaping her own memories and living in the world of her imagination and her characters. The life story of Winter is interspersed by Margaret's story. She too has a past that is unresolved, but we see her get involved in Winter's story. She goes beyond listening to Winter herself, and checks facts where she can, and goes back to the mansion that burned many years ago to unearth more of it's secrets.
The disturbing family life was exacerbated by my parallel reading. As I was reading this at home, I was listening to Virgin Suicides in the car, which parallels the dysfunctional family keeping children imprisoned in an very unhealthy home environment. Both made me very uncomfortable. There was an interesting statement in The Thirteenth Tale, which I was going to mark, but didn't, about having to wait until you get one book out of your system before starting the next. You feel attached to characters, live with them, and it takes a while to let go of them. By reading two or more books at the same time, I really confuse things, and sometimes mix them up, or as in this case, it intensified my feeling of despair.
I loved that this was again about the book world - Margaret helping her father sell old books gave me a glimpse into the rare book market. I wasn't thrilled that she limited her reading to classics, as there is so much interesting literature coming out today. Margaret had to read Winter's contemporary books before she interviewed the author, so she knew something about her subject. At one point Margaret is given Sherlock Holmes' books to read to lighten her up, though much has been published since Sherlock. Of course Winter is an author, and a lot of the stories happen in the libraries of either the mansion of the past or Winter's current residence.
Final answer? Though depressing at times, still one of the best books I've read this year.
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