Quiet Achiever

I have had Barbara Trapido's novel Brother of the More Famous Jack (1982) on my wish list for years. I first heard about it on the ABC TV program The Book Club in 2015, when Jennifer Byrne, Marieke Hardy and Elizabeth Gilbert raved about this novel. I had never heard of it, or author Barbara Trapido, but was intrigued by a novel that seemed to be a secret book that women put in the hands of others. I have tried to find a copy ever since, in second hand shops and through online vendors. When it recently came back in stock online, I quickly added it to my basket.

Brother of the More Famous Jack is narrated by Katherine Browne, an eighteen year old university student who befriends her philosophy professor Jacob Goldman and his family. Browne grew up in a conservative, traditional household full of manners and cleanliness. The wildly eccentric Goldmans - Jake and Jane and their six children - are the complete opposite. Katherine visits their Sussex home and discovers a family that speak openly of sex, talk back and challenge one another. I loved the depiction of this rambling home, filed with dirt and broken chairs and the basket of wellingtons of various sizes all labelled with the name of the eldest child who got to wear them first. 

Katherine is drawn to Roger Goldman, the handsome, reserved eldest son. They begin a relationship which does not end well. Heartbroken, Katherine takes off to Italy to teach English. Here she is drawn to an unworthy lover and is dumped when she needs him most. After a devastating loss and a decade abroad, Katherine returns home to England and becomes reacquainted with the Goldmans. The intervening years have changed everyone, but her love of this family remains. 

Brother of the More Famous Jack is a coming-of-age novel which explores love, heartbreak, grief, longing and motherhood. The characters are vividly drawn - especially that of Katherine, Jacob and Jane, and the two eldest brothers.  I enjoyed seeing Katherine grow into herself. Trapido has a real gift for language and the novel is filled with some of the most fantastic lines like: "Isn't it wonderful what Oxford does for people? They get to know more and more about less and less.' (p165) 

I wish I had first read this novel in my twenties. I suspect I would have read it quite differently then and been in awe of the Goldmans, wishing that I too could have been adopted into their family. Reading it now I was more aware of the way in which women were portrayed and the narrow choices they had. Housewife Jane's powerful rant, pleading with her daughters-in-law to ensure they do not carry the full burden of domestic duties, was brilliant and changed my perception of Jane completely.

Some have referred to this novel as a 'bohemian Brideshead Revisited'. I can understand that comparison. Indeed, reading this novel reminded me of the writing of Murial Spark, Rachel Cusk, Penelope Lively, Sylvia Plath and Sally Rooney. I also reckon Emerald Fennell drew on this novel for her film Saltburn. Regardless, this novel is uniquely Trapido's voice - a voice which deserves to be more widely known.

Brother of the More Famous Jack won the Whitbread Special Prize for Fiction in 1982.