Jane Gardam

God on the Rocks was an earlier Jane Gardam novel and quite good as usual. It was nominated for the Booker back in 1978. A young girl, Margaret, growing up in the 1930's in a very fervent Pentecostal family reminiscent of the family in Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson, only much nicer. Reading an article in the Guardian on Gardam (http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jan/10/jane-gardam-life-writing) I realized that my favorite book of her's, Crusoe's Daughter, is also her favorite.  It's out of print in the states of course.

She is such a clever writer: she always writes little bits from one character's perspective which she later illuminates from someone else's point of view. Her writing is always so smooth and effortless---there are layers upon layers of story which you finally get through to find something resembling truth at the end. Like Margaret's mother's clothes ---layer on layer of flowing fabric which she starts to shed slowly throughout the book until she's running around with nothing on at the beach at the end of the book.  Jane Gardam looks pretty good with nothing on.