Moon Tiger Paperback – September 18, 1997

I was inspired to read this while reading Penelope Lively's non-memoir/memoir of recent publication (Dancing Fish etc.), I found myself involved in a good story, yes, but, with Lively, always, it is much more. I think I've read 10 of her books, but this one was the most time consuming, and it was only 200 pages. Part of the cause of the consumption of time, which really just enhanced the book, is due to the style. It is multiple narratives told like a kaleidoscope in random fragments with maybe 3 different narrators seeing the putatively same event with, of course, different points of view and emphasis. But then, that's history. Also, contributing to the need for rapt concentration was the melding of the main character's (Claudia) history with history in general. It works because it is Lively in control.The characters are well defined, noting that most of the defining is Claudia's defining. She is not easily lovable. She is exceedingly human. And she is smug beyond difficult. Why then, at the end of it all, I admired her is, well, as you savor this work, Lively is transforming her into a petulant victim, who demonstrates a kind of insolent courage.Why I read Lively is well demonstrated by Moon Tiger. It is always leisure learning. In this case it's history, both events and philosophy. It is words, not just vocabulary, challenging enough, but usage too. (somewhere in this book she describes minor facts as "vital inessentials" for true history.) It is story, always told with captivating style. It is characters, a blend of the odd and common in each, which makes them real. And finally, memory, as she exemplifies how integral it is to the history in which we ourselves live.In conclusion, I suspect, Moon Tiger could be taught as an interesting part of a modern literature course. It offers heft for sure.

Moon Tiger is the story of Claudia Hampton, journalist, history writer, and fairly terrible mom, who is currently dying in a London hospital. She decides she will write the history of the world, but what she gives us is the history of her world. The book explores Claudia through her relationships, with her brother, daughter, sister-in-law, lover, and a tank commander she loved in Egypt during WWII who didn’t make it home. This last is the frozen center of her universe. What emerges is a picture of an unsympathetic woman, who is nevertheless strong, unapologetic, and hugely admirable. Lively gives Claudia a clear and powerful voice that defines one of the most fully realized characters in modern fiction, and makes Moon Tiger an incredibly engrossing read.With all that said, I must admit that one of the reasons I read this book is because it was selected to represent the 80s in the Golden Booker, which just so happens to be the same decade that gave us Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. You know, the book that won both of the previous super special all-time Booker awards. It’s been my suspicion that Midnight’s Children was purposely left off the shortlist so that it would not win yet another special Booker, but it would be unfair of me say that without first reading Moon Tiger. So is Moon Tiger really a better novel than Midnight’s Children? The simple answer is no. But then very few novels are. Was Moon Tiger chosen specifically to keep MC off the shortlist? The jury’s still out on that. One would think that if the purpose was to deny MC a spot, then Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K or Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day would both be worthier choices, and cause less of a stink. I suppose the only question reading Moon Tiger has answered for me is that the 80s was a hell of a decade for Booker winners.

This book is brilliantly conceived and brilliantly executed. As a revelation of the ruminations of a woman looking back upon her life and the events that shaped it, it is nothing short of a tour de force. The transitions between perspectives proceed so smoothly that one follows her thought processes as if they were one’s own. Her personality, perceptions, judgments, and character are so layered within her own context that she rises from her memories as a distinct individual, a person one recognizes and understands. She is unflinchingly truthful about her life, and succeeds, remarkably, in her goal — and that of the author — to write a history of the world, her world, as she strives to come to terms with her life while approaching its close.As I said, this book is a tour de force. I plan to return to previously read works by Penelope Lively and I greatly look forward to entering the worlds of the ones I have not yet read. But I cannot imagine that I will find a finer product of her genius than this one.

First came across this as an A' Level text. Decided to revisit and was really pleased. Great story and character and a plot that moves between modern day and wartime Egypt, told mostly from the view of the dying protagonist. Well worth a shot.

delivered as promised

A recent second reading of this book for my book group reconfirmed what a terrific writer Penelope Lively is.The extended metaphor of the ‘Moon Tiger’ (a mosquito coil) glowing at one end, curling into the center leaving fragile ashes in its wake, is a symbol of her life and its’ elusive memories.Wonderful!

parfait

Una prosa fantástica, una historia que son muchas historias a la ver: la maternidad, el amor, la libertad, la amistad, las relaciones familiares, la carrera profesional y el sexo. No es para todo el mundo; para mí, un gran hallazgo.