User:Nsmartinez1432/The Little Book (Hughes novel)

"The Little Book by English writer David Hughes, the last novel by that writer. It was originally published by Hutchinson in 1996. Written in the first person, it deals with the management of the space between the diagnosis of a serious medical condition and the time left to the sufferer." The Little Book (Hughes novel)

The Little Book is a self-referential novel that details the narrator's reflections about life and death, and what it means to truly be alive. This novel is autobiographical, as in 1991 while in his mid sixties, author David Hughes underwent a nephrectomy, and spent the summer recovering in a relative's home in the Isle of Wight. During this time, Hughes narrates on his ponderings about his own life, who he was, and the meaning of living, all the while imagining the perfect book into existence.

Plot
After being told he has a few years left to live, the narrator tells the story of his reading and writing of "The Little Book". His narration shifts between speaking about his months being spent at village of Seaview in the Isle of Wight with his family after being told his prognosis, and the story and many characters of "The Little Book" that changed his outlook on the life he did live, and the life he could have lived.

Chapter 1
The novel begins with the narrator detailing the events of one Saturday afternoon in the summer when he discovered blood in his urine, and spent the evening in pain until he was taken to the hospital the next morning. The narrator then shares with the reader that he had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his kidney, and was told by the surgeon that he only had a few years left to live. After being told his prognosis, the narrator and his family spend the summer in the Isle of Wight, where the narrator begins to speak about wanting to write “The Little Book”. It is discovered that he is narrating the novel to his partner, and wishes to write her “the unwritable bible”, a testament to their love and to all of life’s secrets. Yet, the narrator says that he cannot write it for her because it is simply unwritable, until one day he is baffled to find that someone else, an anonymous author, has already written “The Little Book”. During his convalescence at the Isle of Wight, the narrator reads this “Little Book”, and discovers that the author of the book was anonymous because the author said that as the reader, the narrator now has to write his own book.

Chapter 2
Continuing to spend time in the Isle of Wight, the narrator continues to reminisce about his life, come to terms with his impending death, and think about “The Little Book” and the power it holds, as he says it tells of the “trajectory of life” and is an “ever-present absence”. He imagines “The Little Book’s” author, as well as who he himself has been during his life, and who he could have been. One day after service at a church, he finds himself reading family names off headstones, and recalling his own family names; Hughes, being his own surname, and also recalling names such as Parry, Cochrane, Dickinson, Darley, Latimer, and Fielden. As the author of “The Little Book” tells the narrator he must write his own story now, the narrator decides to use all these family names as characters in his own “Little Book”, “to personify those other people I might so easily have been”. The narrator begins the story of “The Little Book”, saying that one summer in London, a woman, Davina Darley, gave “The Little Book” by an anonymous author to a Sunday newspaper editor named Hugh Dickinson, for it to be published. After a sexual encounter between the two, Davina convinces Dickinson to read it, and when he does, he is profoundly moved by it, just as the narrator was. Reading “The Little Book” changed Dickinson’s perception of his life, and life as a whole.

Chapter 3
The narrator continues to talk about the effect of “The Little Book” on himself and Dickinson. He says how the book made him realize how much time in his life was lost by being ingenuine and doing things for reasons other than simply being exactly who he wanted to be. The narrator tells how after reading the book, Dickinson reflected in a similar way, feeling as if he was now full of many different versions of who he could be, and felt as if he had changed overnight. Dickinson felt as if the book deterred him from all of his guilty pleasures of living, such as eating, drinking, smoking, and sex. He felt as if he had lived by doing too much of these things, or perhaps felt guilt and emptiness because before reading the book, he had done them all without meaning. Reading “The Little Book” made Dickinson question his love for his wife and children, and love as a whole, along with beauty, time, and people; but overall, reading the book made him feel wholly alive.

The story continues that Hugh Dickinson indeed played a part in the “The Little Book’s” release, as a publishing party was being held to finally launch the novel to the public. The narrator says the publishing party was populated by people from his past, apart from Hugh Dickinson, there was: D.J. House, an Oxford history professor, someone the narrator felt could be a version of himself had he become a professor, Sir Davis Fielden who was not too keen on attending, and his wife Lady Fielden. There was also Latimer Johns MP, a junior minister staying on the sidelines of the event, someone the narrator also felt could be a version of himself had he joined parliament, Owen Parry, a man who worked in the publisher’s warehouse, and Dave Higgs, who wasn’t invited, but hated seeing others happy, and therefore appeared at the party drunk to swipe a copy of the book.

Chapter 4
The day after the publishing party, “The Little Book” was published, and it was poorly received. Reviews made it out to be dull, and very few were tempted enough to actually buy and read it, apart from those who attended the publishing party who each got a free copy. The narrator remembers Latimer Johns MP from the publishing party as his old friend from university. After acquiring a copy of the book from the party, Johns was just as moved by “The Little Book” as Dickinson was. After reading it, Dickinson was invited to Johns’s home to interview him. The two shared reflections about the book, and Johns shared how the book is about misery, particularly the misery and grief that “you died years ago without snatching the chance to live.”

The narrator reflects on how even though he sees himself the most in Dickinson and Johns, the editor and politician, respectively, as the two people he could have been had he chosen a different path in life, he also sees himself in his other characters, Professor House, stuck in history, Sir Davis Fielden, living the same day anxiously in his estate, Davina Darley, the sensual, feminine, uninhibited side of himself, and Mr. Parry, working in the publishing house but longing for the nature of his hometown. He recognized his characters as projections of himself, but also as their own selves, saying, “they were as temporarily human as I was.”

The narrator tells how he identified with Mr. Parry’s “lack of luck”. He had lived a life full of failure, and now lived alone, working in the warehouse to make a living. One evening when he sat to read “The Little Book”, he was enthralled by the romance of this story that seemed familiar, with loss and failure, and read on to find the part of the story where the negatives got mended, and the out-of-luck people found themselves, yet this never happened.

Narrating about himself, the narrator started feeling better and better each day that passed. As he recuperated there in the island with his family, he felt stronger, and less like he was dying. He was in denial, as doubted he was dying in the first place, and questioned how it could even be possible.

Chapter 5
The narrator begins talking about one of his neighbors in the Isle of Wight who he had never spoken to, yet silently envied, for he had a perfect garden, and loved to watch the boats on the sea from his telescope. Yet, the narrator heard news that this neighbor had an inoperable cancerous kidney due to late diagnosis, and was going to be taken away soon to the hospital in the city to spend his final days. This truth made the narrator feel guilty for having a similar condition, yet with a prognosis that gave him some more time. He again reflected on his life, on the ways he lacked living and didn’t take full advantage of being alive, and felt even more drawn to creating new versions of himself, new personalities that did not repeat his past, but created brighter futures.

The narrator remembers Professor House, and how after reading “The Little Book” one night, took it to his university class the next day and read parts of it aloud to his students, yet his tone about the book was arrogant, and disapproving. He personally was not ready for “The Little Book’s” message that roared with life, disrupting social order and personal calm, therefore he disliked it. Yet hearing these excerpts of “The Little Book '' awakened his students; as they listened to him, they rejected his criticisms, all of them buying the book and rebelling against him for patronizing and failing “The Little Book’s” vital message. As the narrator spoke about the murder of Professor House by his students, he breathed out in relief. He recognized that he had created Professor House “out of the wrong areas in me” that urged him to be “someone other than myself”. By killing Professor House, the narrator was able to rid himself of one factor keeping him from being his truest self.

Back at the Isle of Wight, the narrator spoke to two friends who were ill themselves, and felt comforted by sharing conversation with two people who knew just as well as he did how short life was, as the three of them had death looming over them. He felt energized to recover, to live his life fully like he had not done until then in order to write “The Little Book” as a guide to living. As much as he wanted to write the unwritable, the narrator felt weak, yet still had his desire to verbalize his message. He accepted that he didn't have to write a book to be published, but as long as he wrote his truth for himself, and his partner he is narrating to, that would be enough.

Chapter 6
The narrator remembers Sir Davis Fielden, who he saw as stylish and wealthy. When Sir Davis Fielden began reading “The Little Book” that he had acquired at the publishing party, he did so absentmindedly, and put it down. His wife, Lady Fielden, was known as a “psychic” and was drawn to the book as soon as Sir Davis Fielden put it aside, feeling as if “it contained a message”. Even after reading those few pages of the book, Sir Davis Fielden felt they had sparked in him a sexual awakening that he hadn’t experienced in many years, and was then suddenly full of desire. Reading the book propelled him into such a sexual frenzy, that it caused him to have a sexual encounter with the maid right then and there, finally giving into his desires. Having taken the book up to the room, as Lady Fielden read it, she felt it as a spiritual experience, with voices speaking to her, and the narrator said, “I sensed myself becoming her”. The narrator then explained his connection to and affection for Lady Fielden, and confessed he had modeled her, and Sir Davis Fielden, after people he had seen around Seaview. In the narrator’s telepathic connection to Lady Fielden, he sees that “The Little Book” has awakened her, and made her see the privileges of her life, and how she spent so many years meaninglessly, playing a role as someone’s wife without ever truly being herself.

As he narrates, the narrator recognizes how much his illness has changed him, saying “I felt a very long way from whatever man it was that I had been before my illness”, always finding his talk of “The Little Book’s” story to help him.

The narrator then recalls Dave Higgs, the bitter drunk who showed up uninvited to “The Little Book’s” publishing party only to swipe himself a copy. Higgs’s life was empty, as he spent most days drunk, angry at himself and the world, and stealing things for satisfaction. Yet, once he had picked up a copy of “The Little Book”, even though he hadn’t even read it, he felt a connection to it. Yet almost immediately, Higgs lost his copy of the book, claiming it had been stolen. The few days after having lost “The Little Book”, all Dave Higgs did was talk about it to others, complain about it, and drink endlessly. Until one evening, when he was so obsessed with finding his book that he even had intentions of buying himself a copy, “The Little Book” was returned to him at a bar. Overcome with happiness, Dave Higgs intended to read the book the next morning, and even the bartender who returned it to him admitted that he read it, and felt that even though “The Little Book” sounds like it’s made for people of the upper class, it’s made for every single “ordinary” person alike.

Chapter 7
The narrator admires the life of the village of Seaview in the Isle of Wight, watching people as he reminisced, saying “everyone else was taking living for granted, which spurred my intention of staying alive”.

In “The Little Book’s” story, the narrator shockingly told how the state of the country was changing. Prices were rising, stocks were falling, people were eating less, there was less demand for vegetables and fish, and business everywhere was failing. Hugh Dickinson wondered if it had been a coincidence that all of these changes happened just as “The Little Book” was released, yet the narrator assured that it was all due to the book, saying “only the book could be the culprit”. Chaos was happening all around, when Latimer Johns MP tried to talk to his followers about the book at a political rally, the crowd fell into disorder. Churches, restaurants, pubs, all places throughout Britain became empty, and newspapers reported of the strange changes happening in the country, as Dickinson wondered if this was the country’s collective reaction to “The Little Book”, just as the book had moved him when he first read it. Yet, at the same time, Dickinson also saw copies of “The Little Book” left for trash all around the city, ditched, tossed, dropped along streets. Yet he realized the truth of this irony, since “The Little Book” moved anyone who read it with the truth of life in order to become one’s true self, the book must be discarded as soon as it’s truth was learned, “one’s old life must be risked, or nothing different could happen.”

Reflecting on the meaning of “The Little Book”, the narrator stated what it had come to mean to him, “I am so at one with the privilege of liking being alive at my fullest extent that now at last I am free to love.”

Chapter 8
The narrator thinks of Owen Parry, the packer from the publishing house, as a gloomy version of his working class self. After Mr. Parry read “The Little Book”, he took its message more simply, “that everything was wrong, except people.” He began speaking out in support of the book, and speaking out against the poor living conditions he and fellow community members lived in, and saw how society was taking advantage of its people, and keeping them in the shadows of the real, valuable truths of life. He preached about the book, and against the lies of society, to anyone who would listen. Eventually, he started gathering crowds, and even though he did not come up with solutions for the problems he preached, the people who listened to him did, as his followers started forming protests at churches, parliament, and police stations, whisked into fighting for change by Mr. Parry.

An event Mr. Parry recalls, was Latimer Johns MP’s political rally. After Latimer Johns MP read the book, he was thoroughly convinced about how meaningless all he was doing was. At this rally, instead of campaigning for himself, he encouraged the crowd to not vote at all, to quit their jobs and live as fully as they could, and read “The Little Book”.

Chapter 9
The narrator receives news that an inmate from a prison near their village of Seaview has escaped. For the days and nights that follow, as the narrator, his family and neighbors await news that the inmate has been recaptured, the narrator panics and worries about his family’s safety. The newspapers report that this man is definitely dangerous, imprisoned for rape and violent murder, and the narrator loses sleep, worrying he might break into their home due to its lose proximity to the prison, and hurt his family. He worries about how he cannot defend his family, ill, with nothing but his cane to fight with. Thoughts and worries about this murderer fill up the narrator’s mind, as he feels even his characters, who he sees as friends, from “The Little Book”, are fleeing in fear as well. He views “The Little Book” as the one thing giving him life during those days, and is upset that even that one place of personal refuge was invaded by news of this killer on the run.

The narrator gave up on “The Little Book”, seeing it to be full of flaws and not having enough weight since it was so easily disrupted by news of the murderer. For one night, he felt freedom in giving it up, having no more responsibility for redoing his life. Yet the following morning, he felt himself more and more like the murderer, like he, too, had killed someone, he had killed himself and his chances when he was young by choosing to be someone he truly wasn’t. Even once the murderer was captured, the narrator felt rage. He had given up on “The Little Book”, and on life, he knew he wasn’t getting better, and wished he could’ve gone out and caught the murderer himself.

Yet, after an outing to the train station, the narrator recognized that he had to get on with his life, as if getting on a train to a new destination. He recognized that he had almost lost "The Little Book", but he had now allowed himself to return to it. His characters, friends, now all came back to populate his story, and he no longer saw himself as a killer, but trusted his characters, and knew they trusted him.

Chapter 10
The narrator speaks of Hugh Dickinson, how on his way home, was thinking about how he had to write one final review of “The Little Book” for his column. Upon arriving home, Dickinson found his wife, painting. She had read the book, and it had stirred her into a new person as it had done to others. She confidently stated to him that she was moving out to a cottage by the sea, and was going to finally live on her own, without his help, without being defined by him as “Dickinson’s wife”, and as her own person, saying “I would rather have failure on my own terms that success on anyone else’s. That defines breathing.” Dickinson knew at that moment that in his review for "The Little Book", he'd write something even better than "The Little Book" itself.

The narrator reads Hugh Dickinson's column on "The Little Book" the following morning. Hugh Dickinson himself feels disgrace when he reads his print in the paper. He is ashamed and feels that what he wrote did a disservice to "The Little Book", as he wasn't able to properly verbalize the grandiosity of its message. He erotically thought about Davina, the sensual woman who brought him “The Little Book” in the first place, and cursed her, wishing he could see her again so she could tell him more about it, so he could do better, as he felt like he had cheated “The Little Book”.

Chapter 11
The narrator tells of Dave Higgs, who after finally reuniting with his copy of “The Little Book” one night, read it the next morning. Dave Higgs hated the book, how it seemed to patronize him for having the nerve to exist. It called him out on his sad, empty life as a bitter drunk, and Higgs rebelled against it. He paraded around town with "The Little Book", cursing about it, reading parts aloud, criticizing it in every sense. In the end, Higgs ended up tearing the book apart in the middle of the street, and the narrator thought it was time to kick Higgs out of his story.

Hugh Dickinson was starting to be consumed by his wife’s departure, his empty house, and his poor attempt to write about "The Little Book", until his loneliness and self reproach led him to pile up all of his home’s furniture into a bonfire. As he lit matches to burn all of the furniture, one caught on himself, and Hugh Dickinson burned to death. The narrator stated that the book did not believe in accidents, and although he was fond of Hugh, by Hugh dying, he was also saying goodbye to the bad aspects of himself, the aspects that caused him to suppress his emotions, work an empty career, and avoid commitment. The narrator let go of Hugh in peace.

Lady Fielden, too, was feeling a metamorphosis, as she felt she connected to Hugh Dickinson's identity crisis, with her own. Being known as a psychic, she recognized she had powers, but only wished she could reclaim them and her identity for herself, not for her husband having a sexual encounter with the maid, or for anyone else but being her true self to help others.

Mr. Parry, after his preaching about "The Little Book", found that no one else listened to him anymore, or wanted anything to do with "The Little Book". Yet, he still found peace. Mr. Parry felt accomplished with the work he did for "The Little Book", and now felt he had to set the example of setting himself free like he told so many others to do. After one last day of work, and forgetting "The Little Book", Mr. Parry set off to his homeland of Wales, where he hadn't been since he was a boy, and found a peaceful death.

The narrator spoke of a storm in Seaview, an how he felt Lady Fielden's absence in the book after her own identity crisis, yet felt her in Seaview. He had a connection with Lady Fielden that he did not have with anyone else, and felt that maybe as a person she had died, but not in the ways that others were consumed by "The Little Book", but that "The Little Book" had made her part of him. He felt Lady Fielden within him, as he now felt that he no longer suppressed his emotions, and was capable of falling in love with himself so he may love others more, coming in tune with this side of himself.

The same night where the narrator felt Lady Fielden's presence the storm, he says he felt Sir Davis Fielden die of a heart attack in his home.

The narrator says he wishes he could end the book in a big climax, present it to his family, and pub

lish it, but that day they were leaving their summer home in the Isle of Wight. After retuning home to London, he recognized he did feel better. His good health lasted a few days until he felt pains in different areas, and knew his cancer had metastasized.

The narrator reflects that "The Little Book" he read in exactly an hour that day in the beginning of the summer in the Isle of Wight told him about his shortcomings. He recognized that the book illuminated to him how he spent his entire life, sixty years doubting himself, until it took those sixty minutes to make him realize what really matters in life. He knew he was dying, and creating this book helped him live a new life as if he hadn't wasted the one he was living. He asks himself, how is it possible that he only realized how alive he was, and how much life meant, when he was already dying. He says he still writes "The Little Book" every day, by simply living.

Hugh Dickinson
An editor for a Sunday London newspaper. He is first given "The Little Book" by Davina Darley for it to be published. Reading "The Little Book" changes his life. The narrator sees himself in Dickinson as a version of himself he could have been had he made different decisions in his life. Yet, the narrator sees negative aspects of himself in Dickinson, such as how they both suppress their emotions, have a lack of commitment, and cannot fully love themselves, or those they care for.

Davina Darley
A mystery woman who first gives editor Hugh Dickinson a copy of "The Little Book". It is unknown how she first acquired it herself, but the narrator feels a connection to her. She is the sensual, feminine version of himself that inspires him. Compared to the other characters and the narrator himself, Davina Darley is wholly free.

Professor D.J. House
An Oxford history professor who acquires a copy of "The Little Book" by attending its publishing party. After reading "The Little Book", Professor House is not positively moved by it as other characters were, but is instead critical of it. He shares it with his university class, giving comments of contempt, yet his students are moved by the book. Being inspired, his students rebel against the professor for not doing the book justice, and murder him. The narrator sees the negative aspects of himself in Professor House, and is relieved by his death, as he feels it is an avenue for him to let go of the negativity within himself.

Sir Davis Fielden
A wealthy man who acquires a copy of "The Little Book" by attending its publishing party with his wife, Lady Fielden. The narrator pities Sir Davis Fielden, though he has lived a life full of status and wealth, it has ultimately been empty, full of inhibitions. Reading "The Little Book" stirs him into a sexual frenzy where he culminates all the desires he has ever had, and dies.

Lady Fielden
Sir Davis Fielden's wife, who is known to be "psychic". Reading her husband's copy of "The Little Book" causes her to become in tune with her abilities, as she seems to connect to and feel other characters' crises after they read the book. She realizes how she has spent her life not being fully herself, but being a side character in her husband's life. The narrator feels deep connection with Lady Fielden intellectually, just as he feels connected to Davina Darley spiritually. Lady Fielden decides to life wholly for herself, and in a bout of uncertainty about her fate, the narrator assures that she has not died, but has become part of him.

Latimer Johns MP
A member of parliament who acquires a copy of "The Little Book" by attending its publishing party. The narrator sees himself in Latimer Johns MP as another version of himself he could have been had he made different decisions in his life. Reading "The Little Book" changes Johns's view on society, politics, and life as a whole, as it did to Hugh Dickinson. In a political rally, he renounces politics and asks his followers not to vote for him, or anyone. He encourages everyone to quit their jobs, and truly live before it is too late.

Owen Parry
A man who works as a packer at the publishing house that released "The Little Book", and acquires a copy at its publishing party. After reading "The Little Book", Mr. Parry becomes a spokesperson for its truths, telling anyone who listens to rebel against society's institutions that exploit its people. He manages to rile up quite a rebellion in his town, with people taking action based on his words about "The Little Book". After some time, Mr. Parry decides to lead by example, and finally makes the decision to return to his homeland of Wales, and finds a peaceful end.

Dave Higgs
A bitter drunk who swipes a copy of "The Little Book" by going to its publishing party uninvited. Before reading his copy of "The Little Book", he loses it, which stirs him into a frenzy. When he finally recuperates his copy and reads it, he is deeply angered, as the book bluntly revealed all of his faults, shortcomings, and the empty life he has lived thus far. Succumbing to rage, Dave Higgs destroys "The Little Book" in the middle of the street, and the narrator decides to remove him from the story.

Analysis
As the narrator faces death, he feels alienated from the life he lived, for now as it is ending, he realized he never truly lived at all, and never valued what matters most. He feels regret that he let himself waste his life over things he thought were important, yet are actually trivial. Therefore, through the creation of "The Little Book" and its many characters, the narrator can try to rewrite his life into characters that find out this truth before it's too late and remake their lives, such as seen in Latimer Johns MP and Mr. Parry, and also finds relief in the abolishing of characters that represented the traits in himself he did not like that kept him from living fully, as seen in Hugh Dickinson, Dave Higgs, Professor D.J. House, and Sir Davis Fielden.

The only three female characters, Davina Darley, Lady Fielden, and Hugh Dickinson's unnamed wife, are especially connected to the narrator in ways the male characters are not. The narrator sees himself in Davina Darley and Lady Fielden, as he finds they represent the femininity and grace within him. Both Hugh Dickinson’s wife and Lady Fielden break away from their husbands who defined their lives for them, and show they have the power and strength to remake their lives, while their husband counterparts cannot live without them, and die.

Reception
Kirkus Reviews refers to "The Little Book" as an "anti-story" and states, "Every fresh and achy detail seems as if felt on the last day of Hughes's life."

Publisher's Weekly referred to "The Little Book" as a "charming, oddly unsettling novel". This review claims that while "The Little Book" is "Lacking the tight plotting and chiseled architecture of a Borges story, Hughes's novel nonetheless recalls Borges, both in its emphasis on the narrator's self-delight (or self-absorption; all the characters are, the narrator explains, refractions of himself) and in its efforts to describe the artwork as a microcosm...Slightly longer than its fictional namesake, this slim volume--cool, cerebral and somber--is a bright meditation on the redemptive power, whether real or desired, of art."