ED2011 Book Reviews

A S Byatt – The Thin Girl And The Monstrous Myth

By | Published on Wednesday 31 August 2011

“When I was a child, it occurred to me that I would die.” Byatt’s revelation stems from her experiences as a wartime child reading the myth of Ragnarok; this is no comforting fairy tale, but an inexorable disaster in which the gods fail. The haunting final image Byatt paints is of a black liquid surface, broken only by floating golden chess pieces, echoing an ecological doom we moderns cannot halt. The myths have twined around Byatt’s life to the extent that she thinks about them every day. But thankfully, she is not mired in her past; she speaks joyfully about her Kindle, and is quite comfortable with modern technology, although her computer is banned from speaking to her.

RBS Main Theatre, 28 Aug, 3.00pm (4.00pm), £8.00 – £10.00, bfpp52.
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