Continent

By Jim Crace

On its first publication over twenty years ago, this captivating novel marked the arrival of one of the most imaginative minds at work: a writer capable of transporting his readers to a strange and wonderful landscape while revealing the humanity within the mirage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 3, 2010
• ISBN: 9780385672399

Jim Crace

Jim Crace is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, including Continent (winner of the 1986 Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize), Quarantine (1998 Whitbread Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Being Dead (winner of the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award), Harvest (shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and winner of the International Dublin Literary Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) and The Melody. He lives in Worcestershire.

Reviews for Continent

[bodachliath · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this first book. Jim Crace is a versatile writer - I have read five of his books and they are all very different. In this one he imagines a hybrid, mostly third world continent, much of which resembles Africa but which also has elements that are more South American and there is possibly a bit of Asia there too. The setting is the only tangible link between the seven short stories that comprise this novella. The stories vary in tone and content, which makes it difficult to grasp the whole and the unifying themes. It is largely about the nature of progress and civilisation, and what is lost in its acquisition. He explores many elements of less developed societies and the ways in which they cope with the new, finding humour in places and darker elements in others. An interesting read but probably not his best work.

[hayduke_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Collection of seven short stories that all take place on a fictitious seventh continent. Things are a little different in this part of the world. Elements of this book still come back to me, like the character that attempts to stop his electric meter from spinning by shutting off items in his house. He doesn't realize what a difficult task this is until he attempts it. Think about it: You shut off all the lights and other obvious items, but then there's the hot water heater, the digital clock on the microwave. The Character decides that it's easier to go in the other direction , so he overloads the power grid achieving a blurred spinning of the meter indicator until it disintegrates.

[alexbolding · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First book of Crace, showered by the literary critics with many prizes/awards. I struggled with the seven stories – already the distinctive voice of Crace shines through, but I simply could not place the stories, not in time, not in geography, not in landscape, not in social fabric. At times it seemed a typical development context, a rural outpost in an African colonial setting? Post-colonial perhaps? There is cars, there is electricity, both arrive at the same time in a rural outpost? Only by the sixth story, for some reason, I started to suspect we are talking Australia – Continent. But then no. It is the seventh (virtual) continent and the seven stories are all to do with seven main characters who are ambiguous, hovering between the real and the magical. I like the sixth story about a guy who introduces electricity in the village and installs all kinds of nick-knacks and gadgets in his guesthouse. When the Minister arrives to inaugurate the arrival of electricity and modern times, things go horribly wrong – a huge fan that swings above the crowd at the room’s ceiling winds out of control, supposedly killing many, including the bored Minister who moved to the ‘eye of the storm’, a place of safety in his metier, but not when the fan snaps off… The first story (‘talking skull’) sets a gentrified youth seemingly against his superstitious father, who sells milk from freemartins as a cure for infertility and other ills. The youth acts as quite the rich boy in town where he studies, but is scolded for his stylish way of living back in the village (‘chatter, chatter’). Somehow the boy manages to connect both worlds, reviving his father’s business in a modern touristy way once the latter has passed away. The fourth story (‘on heat’) is almost as impressive as the sixth. It is about a creepy naturalist ethnographer who in the 1920s studies some forest tribe, whose wives happen to be on heat collectively, once every year, when they engage in one big orgy, resulting in a birth wave nine months later. But I feel Crace could have gone even more creepy – the daughter who tells us about the whole story could have been the result of a dalliance, or been an adopted ‘wildling’ child. What can we learn from Crace? Short answer: how to write. In a concise and crisp manner. Close to the voice and skin of a protagonist. Creating an atmosphere of seclusion. Of simple things and grand illusion. Of repetition. Of mantra. ‘My sadness is stronger than your drink. Nothing can relieve it. Nothing. A trace of tin. Nothing’ (from the seventh story on an isolated mining prospector suffering from insomnia).