Secure The House Of Fiction: Leonard, Susan And Elizabeth Jolley Composed By Susan Swingler Displayed In Mobi

Jolley was my favourite Australian author and I have read over the years all her books, This book talks about Elizabeth and husband Leonard and their behaviour towards Leonard's first wife and his daughter, I found it an interesting book and an enjoyable read, Such composure and grace in the face of deceit, . . Yet characters you'd love to hate come across as flawed humans seeking redemption as best they know how, A refined and meticulous work I'll go read more of Jolley now, At ageSusan Swingler was told her dad was going to Scotland to find a house for them to live in, He never came back. He went to live with Elizabeth Jolley and his other daughter who was born withinweeks of Susan, The plot goes on from there, How Elizabeth Jolley and Leonard Jolley went on to protect themselves from outside criticism is the basis of this story, Susan told it so well with lots of documentation, She focused on her father rather than Elizabeth, Such a well written gripping tale, A fascinating story, undermined by some slightlyabove average writing, Truth is stranger than fiction! Susan Swingler is a remarkably well balanced woman who grew up amidst a web of lives, I will not be able to read another Elizabeth Jolley book without thinking of her duplicitous behaviour, I enjoyed this more than EJs books, and it certainly did assist with understanding her works, in particular, The Vera Wright Trilogy, The title of the book is very telling, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sleuthing that went on, I began this memoir immediately after reading the cooked seed by Anchee Min, These could not be two different memoirs, I didn't read the House of Fiction to compare nor did I make comparisons other than to think that these memoirs dealt with different types of lives and perspectives,

The House of Fiction has been described as drawn out in a few reviews I read before beginning the book, I would say yes drawn out, but not repetitive, I think everyone was just waiting for the end, Waiting to find out if all the authors questions were answered,

The ending was not disappointing and I cannot say that in that situation I would have done better, BUT some things had to be speculated in the end because unfortunately at the time of writing the majority of the people that are the main focus of the mystery have passed on.


Susan Swingler writes with clarity and I enjoyed her style of writing, She presents the novel as a type of mystery and each chapter just leaves you with a little bit more information to lead into the next section of her life.
I liked that it followed chronological and it didn't involve lots of short little memories of random times I have to admit here I am comparing to the Cooked Seed, which had paragraphs of little life snippets.
It read like a novel but sadly was this lady's life of wondering why her father left her when she was so young and forced her mother to raise her as a single mother.
Also why his family had thought that he had never abandoned them to move to Australia with his new wife,

Its an interesting novel that shows her life as both happy, but confused why her father had acted as he did and the later part of the novel analysing his new wife who had also been her mothers friend.


Although the end showed the passion between her father and Elizabeth Jolley through their letters, and looks at how her father had grown up AND the author was mature and almost understanding about it all, it getsstars.
Because really, I wanted her to stand up and have a go at her dad when she had the chance, Ask him, why couldn't you just keep it in your pants Susan's story stayed with me long after I started reading another, Susan's very moving account describes years of deceit perpetrated by her father and step mother seemingly so her father would not have to face criticism by his family, As a result of the secrecy surrounding her father's affair and subsequent abandonment of his wife and child Susan was denied access to her extended family and all the love that could have been shared throughout her childhood.
Susan writes beautifully and generously invites us to follow her painful longing as repeated efforts to reach out and know her father are rejected, That Susan was repeatedly abandoned by her father is tragic not just for Susan, but for her father also who never got to know her as we the reader do.

Those who fear reading this lest it spoils their opinion of the author Elizabeth Jolley can rest assured there are enough questions left unanswered that her reputation as a talented author should remain intact.
If anything I think Susan Swingler's account adds to the mystery that is Elizabeth Jolley, the woman who lived a life of fiction, An extraordinarily moving family saga told sensitively and without malice or bitterness,
"I think that a child's love for a parent must take an enormous amount to destroy, and despite everything I had learned, I couldn't let go of this childish love".

Who, I wonder, is the real Elizabeth Jolley Yeah,May advised that I am to receive a First Reads copy of this book, which is one I would have bought anyway, How good is that Can't wait for this one,



So, here is my review of The House of Fiction, by Susan Swingler:

Elizabeth Jolley is one of those names in literary circles, particularly here in Western Australia.
She is right up there with Tim Winton, with Patrick White, with Helen Garner, giants of Australian literature, To not appreciate her work is to be, in the eyes of many, an absolute philistine,

Well, philistine that I am, when I read a newspaper article about a forthcoming book, Susan Swinglers House of Fiction, which promised to expose Elizabeth Jolley as living, for years and years, a lie, of stealing another womans identity, of even stealing another childs identity for her own daughter, I was intrigued.
I wanted the dirt, and I wanted it dished up in great dollops, Forgive me if that makes me sound a tad nasty, but there you have it, and at least Im being honest,

Of course, the book immediately went into my mental list of “Must buys”, and I had every intention of purchasing a copy, And then one of lifes lovely little gifts I was advised by our lovely Goodreads that I had actually won a copy of the book from the publishers, Fremantle Press.
Of all the competitions I enter to win a book and there are many, I assure you this was without doubt the one that made me most happy, Not wanting to even wait for the postal service to deliver it, I ventured down to Fremantle Presss lovely old premises and eagerly collected my prize, brought it home, put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea and settled down with what I was sure was going to be a great read.


You know, what really struck me as soon as I began reading Swinglers book was that these were real people I was meeting on these pages this was not an episode of Home and Away or Neighbours, but flesh and blood people with real emotions, real foibles, real insecurities and failings.
I found that I wasnt quite as eager for gossip as I had thought myself to be,

At its base, the book relates how newly married Susan Swingler, an English woman, discovered, quite by accident as most discoveries do occur that a giant lie had been perpetuated, and that,miles away, in Australia, her father and stepmother, Elizabeth Jolley, had carried out, for many years, a deceit of massive proportions.
In her own words, Swingler talks of how layer after layer of lies was peeled back, and of her search for answers as to why and how things became as twisted, and indeed sordid, as they did.


At the time when Susan was conceived, little did her mother, Joyce, know that her good friend, Monica Knight, was not only the lover of her husband, Leonard Jolley, but that she was, in fact, already pregnant with his child.
Monica let Joyce believe that the child she was carrying was the child of a terminally ill doctor she knew through her work as a nurse, Not only did Joyce accept this story, she even took Monica into her own home, and in due course the two little girls Susan Jolley and Sarah Knight romped together in the yard, loved by their mothers and their father.


Reading the book, and the letters which are contained within it, there can be little doubt of the love that Leonard felt for Monica and for their child, Sarah.
It was, I believe, inevitable that he would leave Joyce and start a life with Monica, That is exactly what he did, and they set up home together, playing happy families with their little girl, Ah, if only it ended there all would be fine, Lets face it, that scenario is played out all over the world on a daily basis, and it is not up to anybody to judge those involved, No, this story takes a strange, and I think incredibly cruel, detour now as Leonard and Monica decide to allow friends and family to believe that the family unit still consists of Leonard, Joyce and Susan.
Confusing Mm, indeed.

Having to leave behind her home, all her toys and the things she loves, Susan is taken by her mother to a new life in a boarding school in the south of England.
Her father has promised her that he is off to Scotland to find a new job and a new home for them, and he will come back for her as soon as he is settled.
This little girl waits, and waits, and waits, never stops waiting, Through financial deprivation, cut off from any family support, Susan never loses faith that her father loves her and will return for her one day, She even receives parcels from him, but he never comes back,

How could Leonard come back He and Monica who has changed her name from Monica Knight to Elizabeth Jolly are now living in Perth, Western Australia, raising their daughter, Sarah, and in due course other children, Richard and Ruth.
Leonard is doing very nicely as a librarian of some note, and Elizabeths literary star is in the ascendency, Leonards family, still unaware that the woman he shares his life with Down Under is not the woman they know as his wife, send parcels and letters addressed to Joyce, and of course to the girl they think of as their granddaughter and niece, Susan.
And there in Australia, Elizabeth receives these gifts and letters, and she responds to them all, thanking those family members for their kindness, and passing herself off in her correspondence as Joyce.
She goes so far as to send photographs of Sarah but with Susans name written on the back, She sends postcards to the real Susans grandfather, signing them as Susan,

This stuff is right out of an Oprah Winfrey show no, worse than that, its like something from Jerry Springer, But his isnt Oprah or Jerry this is the story of one womans discovery of some really, really bad behaviour on the part of one of the greatest names in Australian literature.
Nobody can sit in judgement on others, Nobody can decide on a writers literary worth based on their personal lives or beliefs, And you see, thats where I have a problem with this book, I wonder why it was written, and why it was published,
I can see that the writing of The House of Fiction would be very cathartic for Susan Swingler, I cannot begin to understand the pain and the feelings of abandonment that she must have felt at times once the truth started to emerge and many of her questions remain unanswered and I am truly impressed by the lack of bitterness in her writing.
Having said that, if Monica Knight had never become Elizabeth Jolley, if she had spent her working life teaching English literature in a high school, or as a CPA toiling over annual reports, would this story have ever been anything more than perhaps a selfpublished memoir, read by a small group of people I dont think so.
I think that this book is one which people will buy and read simply because it concerns a literary icon, Im never sure whether its a good idea to know too much about our heroes, be they singers, actors or writers far safer and less of a dilemma to simply judge them only by their work.


So, how is the book Did I enjoy the book Well, the book is okay, and thats about as far as I would go, The writing is not wonderful, but it is not bad either, It is, in my opinion, too long and too selfindulgent in places, Too much time is taken up with a sort of “What Susan did”, “What Susan did next”, It is at times quite repetitive, and at others there

are inconsistencies, the sort which jar as you read them, which you know dont gel with something you read earlier but you just cant put your finger on exactly what it is that doesnt quite add up.


Im really glad that I won this book Im really glad that I didnt actually have to buy it, I have read it, and Im glad I have read it because it is a book which I wanted to read, But now, this is one of those books which I will gladly pass on to somebody else, and I will happily assure them, “No, dont bother giving it back to me.
Pass it on to someone else, or give it to the op shop”,
For aroundyears I'd counted Elizabeth Jolley as one of my favourite authors, She still is, of course, and is one of those authors whose books I dip back into from time to time to learn about the power of words, and how less is more.


When I first heard of The House of Fiction a few years ago, I know I wasn't alone in being shocked by this story, Jolley had I know now a carefully constructed persona of the mild, somewhat staid English woman, a selfeffacing writer who was flattered by her success, It's taken me a few years to get around to reading House of Fiction, and once I started I could barely put it down,

Whether or not you've read Jolley's writing, House of Fiction stands as a fascinating memoir, Swingerl is a deft and thoughtful writer, There are no tantrums in this book, no accusations or threats, It is above all a measured and deeply affecting book as Swingler excavates through her past to try and unravel the secrets and lies that were woven around her, As a memoir it is fascinating, The way Swingler handles the various threads and materials, and unfolds the events both pasts and present, is brilliantly done,

This is memoir at its best, Swingler doesn't look to blame or seek to hurt but only to understand, Her writing is compassionate and even handed in that she thoroughly investigates, to the best of her ability with the material she has access to, all sides of the story.
Swingler aims for truth, or as much of it as she can achieve,

I adore and admire this book for its honesty, courage and the depth of research, A difficult topic handled with intelligence and empathy, Highly recommended. .