Unusual Voices

Potential publishers often comment on voice. Reviewers mention it a lot as well. For many, if not most, authors, writing is instinctive so I doubt if many of them sit down and think, "I'm going to write in a very powerful voice". It's not something I remember being analysed much in literature lectures either. But it does seem to be something that makes a book a success, or not, as the case may be.

I got thinking about voice and its importance after reading Emma Healey's Elizabeth Is Missing recently. (Took a long time to get round to it, I know.) It is narrated from the point of view of an 82-year-old woman with, apparently, dementia. The point of view is cleverly used to create a murder mystery which keeps the reader wondering right until the closing pages. As the book jacket says, "How can you solve a mystery when you can't remember the clues?" Maud's memory is failing her and she cannot remember day-to-day things like what she wants to buy at the shops, let alone the events surrounding her sister's disappearance decades ago. But gradually, through her scattered thoughts and reminiscences, we learn that something devastating happened to her and her family in the 1940s, and we struggle with her to understand what it was and solve the mystery.

What could have been a conventional 'who dunnit' is elevated to something much more because of Maud's voice. Yes, the fact that Maud is muddled and forgetful adds a lot of suspense - we are not sure for a long time that what Maud is recounting through her fragmented thoughts can be relied upon - but it also gives us a very poignant insight into the world as experienced by someone who is losing their grip on reality through memory loss. Maud still picks up on the moods and reactions of her family, although she cannot understand the frustration and heartbreak behind them. She is often frightened - not remembering why she is where she is, or finding herself in a place she doesn't recognise, with people she doesn't recognise (even though they are sometimes her nearest and dearest). People treat her unkindly and laugh at her and she is aware of their contempt. Healey creates a really convincing sense of the world as it must be to someone in Maud's situation and it stays with you for a long time.

There were lots of lovely things about this book, including the sense of wartime Britain and the damage caused (emotional as well as physical), and also the love and warmth that exists within families, especially between mothers and daughters. Maud's daughter and granddaughter are heartwarming in their compassion and it is a testament to the narrative voice that Healey is able to make this shine through as well as conveying the frustration and anger the two younger women often feel when Maud repeats things, goes missing, causes upset with neighbours and insists on digging up gardens.

 All in all, it is the voice that makes this book. You could quibble and say there are one or two wee things that Maud says (a reference to Ophelia, for example) that don't quite fit with the character as she is presented to us. There's also the fact that some of the narrative is very coherently conveyed but in truth those are the parts that are further back in time and so that's reasonable. Short-term memory is more muddled than long-term memory in such cases. The worsening of Maud's memory is very well conveyed. The convergence of the past and the present towards the end of the book symbolises this superbly. The fact that someone in Maud's position perhaps wouldn't have the means to express some of the things she does is well catered for in the passages when Maud describes not being able to find the word for something quite ordinary despite knowing what it is. In the end, this is a work of fiction, and absolute reality is not possible. A very good representation of it is, however, and Healey achieves this.

The tenderness and the heart of this book comes from the voice. It has made me think of other books that have distinctive voices and many of them are ones that have stayed with me for years. There are the examples from childhood like Watership Down and Black Beauty. But there is also The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Book Thief and The Metamorphisis. I would count To Kill a Mockingbird and Wide Sargasso Sea as having distinctive voices as well - ones that 'make' the book by being unusual in some way and being wonderfully executed.

 So, yes, voice is important. I can see why publishers often remark on it and are clearly looking for it. When a voice works it can add new insights into a situation and it will drive the narrative in ways that keep the reader on the edge of their seat.