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Book Reviewed by:
Sarah Sacha Dollacker
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This article relates to Disquiet
Disquiet
is Julia Leigh's
second work of
fiction, and it
took her nine
years to write.
When asked why
it took her so
long,
Leigh replies:
"There is a nice
quote I like
from poet
Elizabeth
Bishop,
something like
scientists and
artists are
alike in that
they are
prepared to
waste effort ...
When I am
exploring
things, when I
set out, I can't
be guaranteed of
a result."
Disquiet
follows her
first novel,
The Hunter,
which won
international
critical acclaim
and secured her
a spot on the
London
Observer's list,
21 writers to
watch in the 21st
century. The
strength of
The Hunter
also won her a
Rolex Mentor and
Protégée Arts
Initiative
scholarship that
included a year
of mentoring
with Nobel
Laureate Toni
Morrison, who
was an advocate
for Leigh's
novella. When
Leigh wanted to
turn to another
project,
Morrison
encouraged her
to stick with
Disquiet.
Leigh is
currently a Ph.D
candidate at the
University of
Adelaide and is
a law and
philosophy
graduate of the
University of
Sydney. She
currently splits
her time between
Australia and
New York, where
she teaches
creative writing
at Barnard
College.
Leigh's work can
be seen as a
mixture of
Hemingway and
Woolf:
Hemingway's
clean, plain
style writing
mixed with
Woolf's emphasis
on the
interiority of
her characters
over a plot
propelled by
action. Many
critics have
already
commented on the
resonance of
Woolf's To
the Lighthouse
in Leigh's
Disquiet.
Virginia
Woolf's impact
on the
development of
English
literature
cannot be
underestimated,
and, as
indicated by
Leigh's richly
emotionally but
pared down
prose, her work
is still
affecting
writers today.
To the
Lighthouse
was a new kind
of novel, one
that
de-emphasized
plot in order to
highlight and
investigate the
psychology of
the characters.
Woolf's novel is
considered one
of the greatest
examples of
modernist
literature and
one of the main
works to herald
a seismic shift
in the scope and
role of the
novel. As a
result of
Woolf's work,
along with that
of Joyce and
Proust, during
the 1910-1920s,
the novel was
now able to
explain the
small moments of
life, the bits
that happened in
between the
major, dramatic
parts. It was
not necessary to
write about
compelling
events; life, in
all of its
mundanity, was
compelling event
enough. This
breakthrough
made way for
Leigh's tiny
novella that
intimately
explores one
woman's journey
from the brink
of death back to
life.
This article relates to Disquiet.
It first ran in the November 12, 2008
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