Brother of the More Famous Jack

There must be something in the water around here, because for the second time in a couple of weeks I have a coming-of-age novel starring a protagonist named Katherine. I have to confess that while it seems like this one might be a beloved modern classic, I had never heard of either the author or the novel until First Tuesday Book Club (which is what I persist in calling it despite the name change*) announced it for the March show.

Anyway, ignorance aside, I LOVED this novel. The protagonist is one of those instantly relatable characters who I predict will stick with me for years to come, mostly because of her tendency to repeatedly do dumb shit despite her self-awareness of it. Example: in the very first chapter, which details her interview for a university place, she is all too aware of her habit of making grandiose over-statements in order to cover up her embarrassment at her lack of personal experience; this does not prevent her from “telling him, among other things, that I thought Wordsworth had ‘possibilities’, that I thought Jesus Christ had been a Utopian Socialist and that I didn’t like the sex in D H Lawrence.” When confronted with actual grown-ups discussing sex in front of her teenage virgin self, she doesn’t know where to look, but that doesn’t stop her from indulging in the fantasy that she is one of them (despite having had “no idea until this moment that I possessed such a thing as a cervix”). When her first boyfriend breaks up with her by confronting her with a catalogue of her flaws, she finds herself unable due to her upbringing to do as she would like, and scream his failings back at him, instead lamely apologising to him despite herself. Who could fail to love such a heroine?

The main narrative of the novel is structured around the relationship between the protagonist and the family of her metaphysics professor. It nimbly dodges the conventional by indulging in zero sexual chemistry between student and teacher. Indeed, while she dates not one but two of his sons, I think the most instant romantic attraction is properly between Katherine and the professor’s wife, a kind of fertility goddess who produces children and homegrown vegetables in generous batches, and whose openness and candour is a welcome change from Katherine’s repressed, widowed mother.

It’s an utter joy to accompany Katherine through adolescent frustration, experience, real tragedy, and the gaining of adult understanding. Her combination of bravado and timidity is particularly charming and familiar to me, and probably the key to why I liked this book as much as I did.

Personal note: can someone explain the title to me? It’s a reference to something one of the characters says as a joke, in relation to W B Yeats (who did indeed have a brother Jack, who was a painter). It’s the kind of stupid thing someone says at a party that gets polite but puzzled laughter, and I’m at a loss as to what, if anything, it has to do with the narrative as a whole.

*Also not a fan of the new title sequence or set. Note to the ABC – please consult me in advance of all future changes.