This week is, of course, Christina Stead Reading Week, hosted by Lisa at the ANZ LitLovers blog. Stead is an author I’ve intended to read for ages, and as I mentioned earlier in the week, I do own several of her works. However, time has been against me recently, as well as a hideous cold, so I ended up reading a short work from her collection “The Puzzleheaded Girl” – in the form of the title story.
The puzzleheaded girl herself is called Honor Lawrence – or so she says when she drifts into the firm run by Augustus Debrett with his partners Good, Zero and Scott, looking for a job. She claims to be nearly 18 and her very strangeness seems to attract the sympathies of the partners, particularly Debrett. Honor is given a job as a filing clerk, a job she carries out tolerably, but she certainly doesn’t fit into the firm. It soon becomes clear that she has no idea of the social norms and niceties – her clothes are second-hand and mismatched, she reacts violently if anyone attempts to come near or touch her, and she professes to despise the financial world in which she’s working, instead lauding artistic endeavours.
As the story progresses, Honor’s background is gradually revealed and it seems that a controlled and restricted upbringing by a dysfunctional father plus the lack of a mother’s guidance have made her into a complete misfit and someone who finds it hard to function on a normal, everyday level. Her brother has apparently escaped into the world of art – it is claimed several times that he’s quite well-known although evidence is limited – and her father takes all of her money and locks her out of the house when he’s not there.
Honor is drawn to the partners’ wives in an attempt to get some kind of assistance, but they struggle to understand her, and in the end she cannot be helped. Her neediness comes across as being demanding, yet she is painfully naive, a quality which protects her for much of the book. As time progresses she leaves the firm and disappears for periods, becoming almost symbolic figure, reappearing mystically in the partners’ lives at intervals. Despite her attempts at survival, her fate is sealed as she drifts through the world and gradually ages, leaving behind her failed marriages and even a child.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of “The Puzzleheaded Girl” at first, and I possibly still don’t, but it’s certainly made me think! I found myself actually doubting a lot of what appears in the narrative, particularly when it relates to Honor herself, as the stories and impressions of her from the various characters often contradict each other. The writing starts off relatively straightforwardly, and you think it’s just going to be a story of a misfit at large in the world, but as the narrative develops it takes on a strange, dreamlike quality; and in the end the characters (and the reader!) are not quite sure if Honor existed and who she actually was.
The name, too, is probably significant – a recurring thread is the girl’s purity and innocence, and it transpires that Honor is not her real name but one she adopted. A symbol of rejecting her past? Maybe – but also reflecting the fact that her lack of a mother has given her no knowledge of relations between women and men, and she seems incapable of dealing with life on a normal, everyday level.
In the end, I found my first experience of reading Stead fascinating and a little unsettling. I’m still thinking over the point of the story – wondering whether Honor represents the drifting unfocused modern girl of the 1960s (the decade in which the novella was published), or simply a free spirit, or how women would be if they weren’t hidebound by conformity and society’s expectations. Whatever I eventually conclude, I’ve certainly enjoyed reading Christina Stead and thanks to Lisa and her reading week for prompting me to do so!
Nov 16, 2016 @ 07:17:28
I haven’t read this one yet, but I have read Fiona Wright’s foreword in the Text Classics edition of the four linked stories that make up The Puzzle-headed Girl collection. Amongst other things, she makes the point that all four characters are women, not girls, and the distinction is important because the men want to marry ‘girls’ that they can mould, and all four of the women refuse to submit to their expectations. They don’t know what they want, but they definitely not what they don’t want. Wright says: “In each of these stories, Stead is making a forceful and sometimes brutal point, about the claims and the kinds of knowledge, patronising and paternalist, that these men assume they have over women – and girls.”
I hope to get to this one before long myself, to see what I can make of it!
Thanks for participating in Christina Stead Week, especially when this has been a difficult week for you, I hope the cold clears up soon.
Nov 16, 2016 @ 14:31:15
That’s interesting – thank you. And yes, I can see that Honor is most certainly her own woman, refusing to conform to any kind of norm. Unfortunately, society seems unready for that kind of female, which is why her fate is what it is, I guess. I’ve enjoyed my first read of Stead, and thank you for hosting!
Nov 16, 2016 @ 13:48:46
It’s a great title for a story. I would like to read some Stead but I’ll probably start with ‘The Man Who Loved Children’ when I do.
Nov 16, 2016 @ 14:24:55
It was hard to choose which Stead to read, but in the end dictated by reading time available….
Nov 16, 2016 @ 14:36:18
A great review on a book unkown to me and with such a great title!!! thank you, johanna
Nov 16, 2016 @ 14:49:36
Thanks Johanna!
Nov 17, 2016 @ 12:59:46
Great review. This certainly sounds interesting Honor seems to be an unusual character. I’ve always had the impression that Stead would be hard work.
Nov 17, 2016 @ 13:20:30
Thanks Ali. I don’t know about hard work – after Dorothy Richardson very little is hard work!! :))) I’m certainly intrigued after this story and I think I will definitely try more Stead.
Nov 17, 2016 @ 19:58:23
I know so few Australian writers (Patrick White, Peter Carey…and that’s all !) that I am glad to be able to add another name to my ridiculous list ! The titles of her books are certainly appealing.
Nov 17, 2016 @ 20:37:38
They are, and it looks like her books may well be as varied and interesting as her life was!
Nov 21, 2016 @ 06:39:17
Nov 24, 2016 @ 23:35:21
I have read a few of her books but not come across this one. I read The Man Who Loved Children years ago but have never quite found anything by Stead in that class. There’s something about her characters that is VERY trying. But it’s a Virago!
Nov 25, 2016 @ 09:32:48
It is indeed, and very intriguing. I do want to read more Stead, it’s just finding the time like everything else!
Nov 01, 2017 @ 07:22:57