By Larissa Page
Undersong is a historical fiction novel focusing on and narrated by James Dixon, a young jack-of-all-trades handyman who comes to work for the Wordsworths on their estate. The Wordsworths, as in famous poet William and his unique sister Dorothy (Rotha). Spoken from Dixon’s point of view, retelling his life with the Wordsworths to a tree and a garden (with whom he has always felt connected) upon his dear friend Rotha’s death, Undersong describes his day-to-day life—becoming Rotha’s friend, companion, and ultimately her watcher, as her brother William grows and moves away from her. Undersong also includes cameos from other literary legends from this time period (approximately 1816) such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mary Lamb.
I thought picking a historical fiction book from a period I am not typically drawn to would pique my interest. I enjoyed the description for Undersong and Winter’s past reputation as a Giller prize short-lister. Unfortunately, I was not able to get interested or hooked into Undersong.
I absolutely loved the concept of James Dixon’s connection to the garden. The prologue and inserts between parts are from the point of view of the large garden tree (Sycamore) that James sits below, shaded, while mourning the passing of his friend; the chapters themselves are from James’s point of view as he tells the story of his time in their household to the garden and the tree. The novel ends with a part devoted to what was contained in Rotha’s red diary (which is referenced by James throughout the novel).
The chapters are also written without quotation marks, which works for some people and not for others. I, for one, found this to be a challenge in reading this book. I would have preferred if the speaking parts had been accented with quotation marks.
I found Undersong to be a fairly quick book to move through, and Winter’s writing is certainly beautiful, with fantastic descriptions of the relationship between James and Rotha as well as between Rotha and William, and also incredible descriptions of the landscape Rotha and James often traipsed through. However, I just wasn’t hooked at any point throughout the novel and found it lacklustre on the whole. I struggled to want to pick it back up with each reading session, simply not interested in the content of the story, nor compelled to continue. That said, I feel the book description was a draw and the potential for another reader to enjoy it is high.