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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Morvern Callar

Lilly Nowhere Late

19:11 / 10.02.04

Who's read Morvern Callar? Whooo. This book is really affecting me in a strange way. I'm about half way done and due to personal experiences with a partner's suicide, not to mention nearly the same musical catalogs, I'm wrecked by it. Hope to finish it tonight. good god...

23:49 / 10.02.04

Does that mean that you can relate to Morvern's behaviour following her boyfriend's suicide? I ask because I think MC is an interesting depiction of loss/grief/seeming lack of emotion. Reminded me a bit of Camus' Outsider and, hey, is the sort of character I like/relate to... (or can at least imagine reacting/feeling like if in such a situation - though maybe not to such extremes)

However, what drew me to it was reading about the soundtrack for the film version (more or less my ideal mix-tape at that time) which updates the references a bit. Think I prefer the film overall, even though I spent a lot of my first viewing thinking "but that's not like in the book!". Similarly, prefered High Fidelity as a film for (starters) making the music better. Anyway, this isn't a film/music/adaptation thread...

But if the question's have I've ever read a book uncomfortably like my own life, then, er, no. But shared music tastes and the like with fictional characters is always nice...

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:55 / 11.02.04

Well, I didn't chop up the dead one and go off camping but the feelings are the same. Perhaps most would just call it a shock symptom or reaction. I think its something "wronger", having been there. The cold lack of emotion, the desire to keep such trajedy all to oneself, the quiet...
And it definitely does have a lot to do with the music being listed. It's my catalog of normal listening which Morvern is always on about. Not exactly, but similarly enough. I haven't seen the film. Nonetheless I can hear it all buzzing in my head while reading. My music, His music.
I feel a bit better now Morvern has gone on holiday, which is also what I did. Fell asleep too early to finish reading the damn thing so more to go later.

Lilly Nowhere Late

06:40 / 13.02.04

Ok, finished with it now. I think that MC is one of the world's greatest books. All personal relations with the book aside, its pure genius in terms of writing style and conversational method and mixing up a very backland dialect with some incredibly insightful and provocative word structure. In the end, I had to completely admit that despite how this story was personally affected me, I am deeply impressed with the book overall. And probably because of all that personal affectation too.

So go read it yous.