The Ivory Swing

Carolyn Ryder was Humanities Librarian at Calgary Public Library.

The Ivory Swing is indeed a deserving winner of this year’s Seal First Novel Award. This carefully crafted novel, in which most of the elements of good fiction writing have been meticulously developed, reflects Hospital’s background in English literature and her extensive travel.

The central character, Juliet, is a woman who has “evolved wings her mother never had, but not the free flight patterns of her younger sister Annie” (p. 18). She is caught not only between generations, but also emotionally between the lure of big-city excitement and her love for her children and husband, David. Juliet feels stifled when David starts teaching in a small, narrow-minded university town, and she debates whether or not to leave her family. Eventually, they all go to Kerala, a province in southern India, on a sabbatical leave. Juliet and David find they must cope with personal as well as cultural reappraisals when they befriend Yashoda, a beautiful Indian widow who yearns to escape the extremely rigid Indian customs. The ending is both dramatic and effective, and the resolutions for all the characters are well presented.

The ivory swing is a recurring symbol that is used effectively for most of the conflicts in the novel. For instance, it refers to Juliet’s emotional balancing acts and to the New World confronting Old World traditions and ideals. On a more literal level, it is part of the statue of the gods Krishna and Radha that Juliet and David are obsessed with.

Hospital’s characters are well developed; they not only have depth, but they are also interesting to the reader. Her description of Prem, the fiery revolutionary who enters Juliet’s life at opportune moments, is an excellent example of her ability to understand and depict the Indian characters in a credible manner. However, Juliet tends to become a bit tedious about Jeremy, her former enigmatic and unlikeable lover.

Hospital excels at perceptive descriptions of life in India today, and she is both sympathetic and rational in her reactions to it. She has obviously done extensive research in many aspects of Indian life, from the treatment of widows to temple rituals. Fortunately, she avoids the temptation either to condemn totally or to idealize one culture or the other. Juliet, along with the reader, is forced to examine glib democratic principles in light of some of the events. While the plot is sensational at times, the quality of the writing and Hospital’s wonderful use of imagery raise the novel to high heights.