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New Directions
June 1994
On Sale: June 17, 1994
264 pages
ISBN: 0811212394
EAN: 9780811212397
Paperback (reprint)
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Fiction Family Life
Smith's first novel is structured as the random typings of a
bored secretary, Pompey. She plays word games, retells
stories from classical and popular culture, remembers events
from her childhood, gossips about her friends and describes
her family, particularly her beloved Aunt. As with all
Smith's novels, there is an early scene where the heroine
expresses feelings and beliefs which she will later feel
significant, although ambiguous, regret for. In Novel on
Yellow Paper that belief is anti-Semitism, where she feels
elation at being the "only Goy" at a Jewish party. This
apparently throwaway scene acts as a timebomb, which
detonates at the centre of the novel when Pompey visits
Germany as the Nazis are gaining power. With horror, she
acknowledges the continuity between her feeling "Hurray for
being a Goy" at the party and the madness that is overtaking
Germany. The German scenes stand out in the novel, but
perhaps equally powerful is her dissection of failed love.
She describes two unsuccessful relationships, first with the
German Karl and then with the suburban Freddy. The final
section of the novel describes with unusual clarity the
intense pain of her break-up with Freddy. Wikipedia
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