The best thing about celebrating on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day is that you gain a whole evening in which to enjoy your Christmas gifts. And for me, that meant curling up with the much-anticipated Jacob’s Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill and reading late into the night (other benefit of celebrating on the 24th: no need to wake early on the 25th).
This is Hill’s second volume of bookish musings following the wonderful Howards End is on the Landing and one I’d been looking forward to for a long, long, long time (learn more about the confusing evolution of this book in Simon’s excellent review). Did it live up to my expectations? Unfortunately, not quite but I am still very happy to have read it.
I adore Hill’s enthusiasm for all things book-related. She is a passionate reader and has opinions about everything going on in the literary community. This can make her a divisive figure as her views are strong, bluntly stated, and seemingly unassailable. She is in fact deeply obnoxious when these moods strike her. But in between she writes intoxicatingly about the books she loves and, rather randomly but beautifully, about the natural world around her. And these are the sections that I love and make everything worthwhile:
Reading is magic. Books are magic. It starts when we are shown picture books and realise there is another world beyond the everyday one we know. Once we can read ourselves, we live inside the magic. The only problem is that we have to emerge at the end of a book, and we don’t want to leave and return to that dull domestic world we know. The only solution to that problem, of course, is that there is always the next book, and the next…
The greatest joy of Howards End is on the Landing for me was the excellent book recommendations it contained. My TBR list grew immeasurably. This book felt much lighter in terms of the number of books it referenced and I didn’t find any of them (excluding the ones I’ve already read) particularly intriguing.
What Hill does seem to focus on more this time are her own life stories (in case you didn’t think there were enough of those in the first book). This, if you are a reader who finds her intolerable, is not a good sign. I was vaguely neutral towards her before I started reading but the more time she spent talking about herself, the more insufferable I found her. She spends far too much time being defensive about literary prizes (except when complaining that there are too many now), and has a strange egotistical rant about how few novels about WWI had been written when she (a woman! And not yet thirty!) wrote Strange Meeting in 1971 and apparently set the entire trend ablaze. She does graciously acknowledge that a little book called All Quiet on the Western Front was also being read at the time. Now, I’d never heard of Strange Meeting before but apparently it won her the Somerset Maugham Award: £500 to be spent on travel. Her description of how she used it was perhaps my favourite passage in the entire book:
Instead of going to Ulan Bator or across the Atlas mountains by yak, I took the night train to Venice and spent six weeks there on the money, staying in a tiny but pleasant and clean hotel and living on their breakfasts and then cheap fruit from the market and tiny pizzas. The orchestras in St. Mark’s Square were outrivaling each other with the theme from Love Story and, as I could never afford a coffee at Florian’s, I just walked about hearing them down every side alley. It was an extraordinary time and I wrote about Venice a great deal afterwards. And thanked Maugham from the heart, every day.
Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
Hill has certainly lived an interesting life and has lots of strong and fascinating (if frequently infuriating) opinions. I felt like her best anecdotes and favourite books may have been used up in the first book but this is still an interesting and enjoyable read – if you can stomach her pretension and narcissism.
While I didn’t feel quite as strongly about Susan Hill’s personal views as you did, I agree that I would have preferred more book chat and less on birdwatching! I suppose if I could actually discuss things with her it would be different, but yes, I did feel as if she was laying down the law a bit too much. Have you read Samantha Ellis? Her “How to be a Heroine” is fascinating on her lifelong obsession with books.
Part of what I enjoy about Hill is her very strong opinions but here I just felt like she turned the focus a little too much onto herself. Still enjoyable but less pleasant than when she is being strident about less personal topics.
I read Ellis’ book a few years ago and quite enjoyed it, especially since I discovered we had completely opposite reactions to most of the books she discussed.
Haha, this made me laugh. I read a similar review ages ago about this book. I loved Howards End ….and though this doesn’t sound quite as appealing I know I would like to read it. I might enjoy parts of it. I’m the kind of person who will eat anything without much complaint. I think perhaps a future Library Loot so I don’t lose any money if I find I need to spit it out.
I think it’s very much worth reading but I was a little disappointed to find it less book-centric than Howards End… But yes, library may be the way to go here.
I can’t believe it. My library does not have it. They have Howard’s End but not Jacob. Plus some of her novels are on the shelf. Maybe they will get it later? Oh well, lots. of other books. I might come across is second hand.
It just came out in late 2017 so maybe give the library a little nudge to buy a copy? My library hasn’t got it yet either (I was given my copy for Christmas).
I might read this if I come across it at the library, but I don’t think I’ll go looking for it. I enjoyed Howards End, it was a big factor in my starting a blog, and it did add books to my reading list. I didn’t always agree with her though, particularly her pronouncement that real readers don’t catalogue their libraries (or apparently shelve them in any order). That one obviously stuck with me!
I remember being quite entertained by her pronouncements in Howards Ends (while rarely agreeing with them) but just found them less amusing this time, largely because they seemed more egotistical and less benignly book-related. Still, it’s worth reading if you enjoyed the first book but the library is probably a smart idea.
Great review! I went back and read mine too, and I think I’ve grown slightly less enthusiastic about this book since I read it, for many of the reasons you state. I still loved reading it, enough to put t in my best books of the year – and I definitely love it more if I try to separate it from HEIOTL in my mind.
Yes, HEIOTL set a high standard and unfortunately this doesn’t quite live up to it. I’m still very happy to have read it and to have it as part of my library, though.
I’m afraid I do find Susan Hill insufferable – I fell out with her a couple of times on her now defunct blog and have not read any of her recent books. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of good stuff but I got fed up with being so irritated.
You can always find good stuff elsewhere – it’s not worth that level of daily irritation! I loved the first book but cannot stomach following Hill on social media; it’s the perfect medium for all the things I hate about her and excludes the thoughtful bookish discussions that are the only saving grace in these books.
I won’t be picking this one up, not only because of the challenges you had with it, but also because I really didn’t like HEIOTL. I wrote a scathing review of it at the time. Despite having a great cover (like the earlier one did as well) I haven’t been tempted to buy it.
She’s definitely a divisive writer!
I love books about books, but it sounds like be better to try this author by picking up Howards End first! I’d not heard of either, so I’ll be adding her to my list of authros to check out 🙂
Yes, do start with Howards End…! It is much more bookish than this one. She’s definitely not for everyone so I’ll be interested to hear how you make out.
I did like Strange Meeting- but then it’s the only book by Susan Hill I’ve ever read. I think I will try Howard’s End is on the Landing before attempt this one. I’ve never run into Hill’s opinions on things, just her fiction, so not sure how I will take it.
Yes, do start with Howards End if you’re intrigued. On the other hand, it may colour your feelings towards her if you were intending to read more of her fiction.