re:mote voices

Title: Isabel And Rocco
Author: Anna Stothard
Publisher:Arrow

the cover of the book promises that isabel and rocco is darkly erotic, transgressive and shocking. in reality i didn't really find it particularly any of those things, but then maybe i fall to easily into the camp that finds little shocking? an idea if have expressed to some degree before.

isabel and rocco are inseperable. she is 16 and the narrator. he is 18. brother and sister, with a dependant relationship of sorts. blissfully caught up in their own world it is too late to notice that life isn't going to well. rocco has been expelled from school, with isabel not far behind, with rumours surrounding the relationship between the two. meanwhile, with their parents have disappeared, left them to it, a handful of money and they are gone. seemingly never to return.

isabel describes events that happened, now that the pair have fled and are living in paris. she comes across as a somewhat naive 16 year old girl, with the tones and tensions suggesting that something really bad could happen. stepping us through a series of events which bode ill. though there seems to be a certain inevitability to the things that come together. to a degree the end result comes from the environment and the situation they are left in by their absent parents. their upbringing them clearly leaving the pair unprepared to really deal with the rest of the world.

to some degree i have to say that this novel is an anti-climax. there are things which happen, which are undeniably bad, an environment is created which is without doubt unpleasant. but isabel's response to it all provides a certain distance, and the pacing of the book is such that there isn't really anything shocking. for all that the events are unfortunate, i don't really get the impressions of transgression that previous reviewers have discussed. though as i have already suggested part of that feeling might just be me, might just be a result of a desensitized society? or not.

in saying that there is an anti climax to isabel and rocco, there is still a feeling of tension which propels me through the book. the desire to find out what does happen, how is it all going to go wrong? because from the start we do know it is going to go wrong. stothard's age related to her writing is an interesting thing to consider, and something no doubt some will make a big deal about. her portrayal of a girl a couple of years younger than her must come from her own experience - in terms of feelings about the world and responses to it. there is a certain naivety to the writing, but it also has a serious insight to a period in time, that i at least find growing feinter as i grow older. so for anna the feelings of being 16 are obviously fresher than for myself.

regardless of age or any percieved naivety of tone, i find that anna stothard can indeed write. for me isabel and rocco is quite readable and some of the metaphors that stothard comes up with lead to a rather magical turn of phrase, which really brings the narrative to life. isabel becomes a vivid character caught up in circumstances, having very little control in the end.