21st Century Literature discussion

Welcome to the discussion for How it All Began. I hope you enjoy the book.

One theme of the book is the large effects coincidence may have on our lives. We meet a cast of characters whose lives are all affected when Charlotte is mugged and breaks her hip. Some of those affected do not know Charlotte, or even know that she exists.

Another theme is how we change over time and are changed by what happens in our lives. "Charlotte views her younger selves with detachment. They are herselves, but other incarnations, innocents going about half-forgotten business. One is not nostalgic about them -- dear me, no. Though occasionally a trifle envious; physically spry, pretty sharp teacher, though I say it myself, all my lot got A's at A level, no question." Paperback edition, pp. 7-8.

Penelope Lively has an interesting prose style. She uses sentence fragments to convey how a character thinks. It's a little like stream of consciousness, but much easier to follow, I think.

Use this thread to post any general thoughts about the book, the characters or the author's style.

Thanks Casceil. I am reading this at the moment and will participate in the discussion. I have read several other Lively novels and she is obviously interested in causality - another of them, Making it Up, explored alternative directions her own life might have taken had certain events happened differently so this book is thematically similar. This might be a good place to put some links on chaos theory and the butterfly effect, which should be common knowledge by now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterf...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_t...

A few reviews (these may contain spoilers):
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/boo...
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

Thanks for the links, Hugh.

I'm excited to start reading this--maybe this weekend. Will be my first Penelope Lively.

I hope you enjoy it, Kathleen. The discussion has gotten off to a slow start, but I figure many people are reading Noise of Time first. It's been a while since I first read How it all Began, and I am only about half way through my reread.

Thanks for links Hugh.

The butterfly effect illustrated in this book made me think of the Nationwide insurance TV commercials (probably only relatable for US readers) where small happenings lead to big accidents, all, of course, covered by Nationwide (which "is on your side").

Just finished it. I enjoyed it. The writing style really worked for me. I don't always like sentence fragments, but she uses them effectively. The dialog is mostly believable, although I agree with a reviewer that some of the interchanges between Rose and Anton are less so. I really like the character development - everyone has strengths and weaknesses, like real human beings. What I didn't like so much is when she decides she needs to tell us explicitly what the book is about (chaos theory, etc.) - it seemed unnecessary. This is my first of her novels. Can someone recommend others?

I agree, Catherine. I found myself not really enjoying the parts with Rose and Anton. I thought their storyline was interesting and liked them as characters, but I just don't know if the dialogue was realistic. I also felt that when she explained that the book is about chaos theory, it took me out of the story. I thought it was obvious enough and the reader didn't need an explanation. (Especially since every character repeatedly thought "How did I get into this situation? Oh, yes because of Rose's mother...")

That's two votes for something unrealistic about the dialogue between Rose and Anton. I agree there something a little off about it, but I'm not sure what. It did seem like at some point Anton's ability to express himself improved by leaps and bounds. Can anyone else put their finger or what it is about the dialogue that seems off?

I think it might be that Anton doesn't come across as totally authentic. I would have liked a little less repetition of him making out words, and a little more about his own culture and language.

Still, I'm enjoying Rose and Anton and all the others. Will be done soon, and think I'll miss them!

I would have liked more background info about Anton as well. I don't think we ever find out exactly where he's from, do we? I guess overall the book isn't very descriptive, but I feel like we learn less about Anton than the others.

Nicole, I think you are right that we learn less about Anton than others. That may be partly related to the fact that the others are in recognizable situations we have preconceptions about (stodgy old retired professor, couple getting a divorce), while Anton is outside our norm.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the book. I guess I'm just a big old Lively fan. Her characters always entertain me.

I just got my copy of the book. I've never read Lively before but I'm so excited to get started!

Welcome, Gargi. I hope you enjoy the book.

Just picked this up from the library, and I will start reading as soon as I finish the Barnes. This is my first Penelope Lively, also.