Signals Of Distress: A Novel (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Have you ever heard of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, or the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest? He was an English novelist who was immensely popular during the Victorian period, but is now best remembered for his dramatic, florid language. He coined the famous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night"in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford, and the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest invites its entrants to compose deliberately bad opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels. Be sure to see the winners here - they're all pretty great.Signals of Distress, Jim Crace's 1995 novel, opens on a literal dark and stormy night - thankfully you won't find any bad and florid writing here, and similarities to such end at weather conditions. It begins in November of 1836, when an early winter storm crashes an American vessel, The Belle of Wilmington, near the shore of Wherrytown - a small and decrepit village on the English coast, with only one inn, which will now have to house an influx of rowdy American sailors, their captain, and an African slave, Otto. The same storm also marks the arrival of a steam ship from London, which carries Aymer Smith - a representative of Smith & Sons Manufacturers of Fine Soap, and who is just about to deprive most Wherrytowners out of their livelihood with news that his company will no longer be needing their help.Out of all of Jim Crace's novels that I have read, this is by far the funniest - and one where he's channeling his inner Dickens with his picturesque characters with equally picturesque names. Young Smith is a well-intentioned, virginal man, who is very well educated and involved in worthy causes - such as campaigning for a shorter work week and abolishing child labor - but has absolutely no sense of people. His conversations with others quickly become one sided as he either lectures or patronizes his audience, and his actions often achieve the exact opposite result of his intent. When he sees the enslaved Otto he is immediately overtaken with abolitionism and frees him - without a moment of consideration on how an escaped African is going to survive winter in a coastal village, and with no one approving of his choice: all villagers fear that they will be murdered in their beds, and their every misfortune or bad luck is now blamed as a result of Otto's invisible savagery. It gives the title different meanings - from the literal distress signals sent by the Belle, to Aymer hiding his distress and shyness when interacting with the locals behind his pompous lectures, to villagers showing their distress at the thought of an escaped African by putting the blame for everything on him.Although Aymer is insufferable to everyone and his daydreams of his good deeds being universally recognized paint him as a closet narcissist, it's impossible to not feel sympathy towards him as he tries to do what he thinks is good in a small village impervious to change. Aymer's only real friend is the ship dog, Whip, for whom he develops real affection and attachment. His relationship with other characters is both comical and tragic - he spies on young Kate Norris, wife of Robert, both of whom intend to emigrate to Canada on the next available ship; but since they share a room its next to impossible for him to not see and hear her, and he's overcome by loneliness. In his dreams, he imagines the Norrises as his dear friends with whom he'll connect years later in the Canadian wilderness; He intends to "save" a young country girl from her miserable rural existence by taking her as his wife, even without love between them, but she has her eyes set on a young American sailor. Despite his considerable intelligence and knowledge he's utterly gullible and often guided by pure lust, but the experience in Wherrytown will influence and change him beyond recognition. But will it be for the better?Signals of Distress is more lightweight than most of other Crace's novels, but is certainly worth reading for anyone in well-written historical fiction from the period.
I've never not loved a book by Jim Crace, but this is my favorite. It's very difficult to synopsize or even categorize, but it is essentially a very dark comedy that, through wonderfully vivid characterization, shows the timelessness of human despair, hope and passion - and the dangers associated with all of these things. It's a thin book, but the content is heavy and thoughtprovoking -- however, it is written so well that you will be finished before you know it, and sorry when it's over. One of my favorite books.
What do You think about Signals Of Distress: A Novel (2005)?
