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WORK TITLE: Whispers through a Megaphone
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.rachelelliottbooks.com/
CITY: Bath, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review-whispers-through-the-megaphone-by-rachel-elliot-1.2356703
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Suffolk, England.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and psychotherapist in Bath, England; former subeditor and writer for publishing houses, including BBC, Future Publishing and Institute of Physics. Also worked as academic researcher, sociology lecturer, and volunteer Cruse counsellor.
AWARDS:Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, 2016, for Whispers through a Megaphone.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles and fiction to periodicals and media outlets, including Female First, For Book’s Sake, French Literary Review, London Guardian, and others.
SIDELIGHTS
Psychotherapist Rachel Elliott is the author of the debut novel Whispers through a Megaphone. The tale tells the interlocking stories of Miriam Delaney, Ralph Swoon, and his estranged wife Sadie. “Cowed by her domineering mother, even after her death, Miriam hasn’t left her house in three years,” reported a Foyles contributor in the introduction to an interview with the author. “When she finally steps outside, she meets Ralph, who’s holed up in the woods after discovering his wife never loved him. Together, they are to discover that a little quiet contemplation clears the mind wonderfully.” “As their collective story unfolds,” said the contributor of a review to the Womens Prize for Fiction web site, “each of them seeks to better understand the objects of their affection.” Miriam and Ralph run into each other in the woods and become friends; “the shy Miriam and confused Ralph,” stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “find a rare connection and confidant in each other.” “Humour always tempers Elliott’s handling of emotion,” declared Emily Rhodes in the London Guardian, “as she points to eccentricities manifest in us all.”
Reviewers praised Elliott’s abilities as a writer in depicting the quirks of her characters—especially Miriam. “Miriam is so real to me, even now, after the writing of her story has finished,” Elliott said in her Foyles interview. “It was a curious experience really, because she appeared vividly in my mind, every detail at once.” “What I really loved about Rachel Elliott’s writing was her eye for the detail of people’s mannerisms,” observed a Savidge Reads reviewer. “There are some truly gorgeous set pieces of mini stories within the main one that show just how ridiculous we can all be, especially when we are wrapped up in our on dramas.” “It is with great skill,” wrote Kerry King in the Bookbag, “that Rachel Elliott guides us through Miriam’s story; seeing her emerge, butterfly-like from beneath the oppressive shadow of her mother and the dismay of Ralph’s light bulb moment regarding the sad state of his marriage and the rejection he feels through to the almost palpable confusion that Sadie suffers as she looks at her life and doesn’t really recognise the person living it.” “While Ralph and Sadie’s story is entertaining, it is Miriam’s that packs the punch,” asserted Sarah Gilmartin, writing in the Irish Times. “Her journey from an almost muted existence to embracing her fears and the wider world is poignant and convincing. `Being a people person is about whether contact with others enlivens you or makes you feel tired – it has nothing to do with liking people,’ Miriam explains. This is the story of a woman back from the brink of exhaustion, trusting in connection one more time.” “As the barriers break down, Miriam, Ralph, and Sadie redraw the lines of relationships, rechart their futures, and rediscover their voices,” explained a Kirkus Reviews contributor. “A charming portrait of quirky characters who transcend heartbreak.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Guardian (London, England), August 5, 2016, Emily Rhodes, review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Irish Times, September 19, 2015, Sarah Gilmartin, review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2017, review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Publishers Weekly, May 22, 2017, review of Whispers through a Megaphone, p. 66.
ONLINE
Bookbag, http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/ (September 1, 2015), Kerry King review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Foyles, http://www.foyles.co.uk/ (April 11, 2018), author interview.
Pushkin Press Website, https://www.pushkinpress.com/ (April 11, 2018), author profile.
Rachel Elliott Website, http://www.rachelelliottbooks.com (April 11, 2018), author profile.
Savidge Reads, https://savidgereads.wordpress.com/ (March 28, 2016), review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Womens Prize for Fiction, https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/ (April 11, 2018), review of Whispers through a Megaphone.
Rachel Elliott is a writer and psychotherapist. She has worked in arts and technology journalism and her writing has featured in a variety of publications, from digital arts magazines to the French Literary Review. She has also been shortlisted for a number of short story and novel competitions in the UK and the US. Rachel was born in Suffolk, and now lives in Bath. Whispers Through a Megaphone is her first novel.
Rachel Elliott is a writer and psychotherapist.
She was born in Suffolk, and grew up in Norfolk and the Midlands. She spent most of her childhood cycling around a cul-de-sac or reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. These books planted a seed in her brain: there is never just one story, there is always another possibility.
Rachel has worked as an academic researcher, a Sociology lecturer, a volunteer Cruse counsellor and honorary psychotherapist in the outpatient department of a psychiatric hospital. For ten years, she was a subeditor and writer for publishing houses in Bath and Bristol, including the BBC, Future Publishing and the Institute of Physics. She has written articles and fiction for various publications, including the Guardian, the French Literary Review, For Book’s Sake, Female First and numerous digital arts magazines.
Since 2005, Rachel has run a psychotherapy practice in Bath, where she is fortunate enough to work with individuals whose attempts to make sense of things and overcome their difficulties is continually life-affirming. She is passionate about the destigmatisation of mental illness and the restorative power of books.
When she is not working, Rachel can often be found walking a miniature schnauzer called Henry around Bath. He is far more extroverted than her. He talks to people. They give him crisps.
Whispers Through a Megaphone is Rachel’s first novel.
Elliott, Rachel: WHISPERS THROUGH A MEGAPHONE
Kirkus Reviews. (May 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Elliott, Rachel WHISPERS THROUGH A MEGAPHONE Pushkin Press (Adult Fiction) $14.95 7, 25 ISBN: 978-0-9929182-6-2
One day, 8-year-old Miriam Delaney's mother, Frances, showed up at her school in nothing but athletic socks. Humiliated and shunned by her classmates, Miriam withdrew deep inside herself, speaking only in whispers.Under her abusive mother's thumb, Miriam lost not only her voice, but also all connection to her father, her grandmother, and anyone who might have rescued her. After Frances' death and a dark encounter in the woods, the now-adult Miriam secludes herself in her home for three years, reducing her social world to best friend Fenella and Boo, a track-suited neighbor whose secret love for Miriam has led him to volunteer as her handyman. At last, at the age of 35, Miriam is ready to leave the house, and her steps lead her into the woods, where she runs into Ralph. A reluctant psychotherapist, suppressed gardener, and father to 16-year-old twins, Ralph has just discovered his wife, Sadie, kissing another woman. Realizing that his marriage, indeed his whole post-college life, has been a sham, Ralph has simply walked away. Miriam and Ralph connect, listening to each other's stories, giving each other tacit permission to cast off the shells of fake lives. Meanwhile, Sadie, usually obsessed with blogging and tweeting a perfect life, struggles with her own long-repressed attraction to women. Debut novelist Elliott carefully, step by step, draws together the intersecting lives of these people who have let others dictate their identities and storylines. Abusive parents, traumatized children, sexual confusion--all could lead down cliched, sentimental paths, but just when the tale risks becoming maudlin, Elliott calls up another character, who's been lurking in the background, underscoring how hyperconnected our lonely world is. As the barriers break down, Miriam, Ralph, and Sadie redraw the lines of relationships, rechart their futures, and rediscover their voices. A charming portrait of quirky characters who transcend heartbreak.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Elliott, Rachel: WHISPERS THROUGH A MEGAPHONE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491934347/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=95982a5d. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491934347
Whispers Through a Megaphone
Publishers Weekly. 264.21 (May 22, 2017): p66.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Whispers Through a Megaphone
Rachel Elliott. One, $14.95 trade paper
(352p) ISBN 978-0-9929182-6-2
Elliott's excellent first novel, set in England's Beckford Gardens, is a gentle yet unflinching look inside the heads of two very different characters whose paths cross when their lives are turning upside-down. Miriam Delaney, 35, hasn't gone farther than her backyard in three years, and has yet to deal with multiple traumas inflicted by her now-dead, allegedly insane mother and her father's supposed death. Meanwhile, Ralph Swoon, 37, feels adrift in his marriage and his life. When Miriam finally gets up the guts to go out her front door, a summer storm drives her and Ralph to a chance meeting in the woods. The shy Miriam and confused Ralph find a rare connection and confidant in each other. While there are many perspective changes, the story flows seamlessly between characters and story lines. The characters' psyches are fascinating and complex, and the plot's curveballs give enough to keep the reader engaged to the very end. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Whispers Through a Megaphone." Publishers Weekly, 22 May 2017, p. 66. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494099022/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=953ba116. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494099022
It must be shocking to spot yourself as an actual character in somebody else's novel
Tracey Thorn
New Statesman. 145.5313 (May 6, 2016): p57.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 New Statesman, Ltd.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Full Text:
I was happily immersed in the world of a novel the other day, Rachel Elliott's Whispers Through a Megaphone, when suddenly I was jolted back into reality by my own appearance in the book. One of the characters hears someone singing and is told, "'It's Leonora. She sings with her window open.' 'She's good--sounds like Tracey Thorn.' 'She does, doesn't she.'"
It was as if I'd walked on stage while still being in the audience. It's happened to me before, and is always startling, a kind of breaking of the fourth wall. From being the reader, addressed equally and anonymously, you become, even momentarily, a minor character or a representative of something. In this instance it was flattering, but the thing is, you have no control over what the writer uses you to mean.
In David Nicholls's Starter for Ten, set in the mid-Eighties, the lead character, Brian--a hapless student, failing in both love and University Challenge-hopes that he is about to have sex with a girl. "We stay up for an hour or so, drinking whisky, sitting on the bed next to each other and talking and listening to Tapestry and the new Everything But the Girl album." Ah, I realised, here I represent the kind of singer people listen to when they're trying, though possibly failing, to get laid.
Fast-forward a few years, to the mid-Nineties of Bret Easton Ellis's Glamorama, a book constructed from lists of people and things, clothes and music, which apparently indicate the vacuousness of modern life. "I dash into the Paul Smith store on Bond Street, where I purchase a smart-looking navy-gray raincoat. Everything But the Girl's 'Missing' plays over everything" and later,
"In the limo heading toward Charing Cross Road Everything But the Girl's 'Wrong' plays while I'm studying the small white envelope..." Here I'm being used to represent the way bands become briefly ubiquitous: our songs are a soundtrack to the sleazy glamour of the novel.
These mentions are all fine; it's only the music that features, not me. Spotting yourself as an actual character in someone's novel must be more shocking: one of the perils of, for instance, being married to a novelist. I think of Claire Bloom and Philip Roth. First she wrote a memoir about how ghastly it was being married to him, then he wrote a novel about how ghastly it was to be married to someone very like her. Books as revenge: that's very different indeed.
Few people who had ever met Morrissey emerged from his memoir unscathed (me included), but particularly Geoff Travis of Rough Trade. He was hung, drawn and quartered in the book, yet seems to have maintained a dignified silence. But it's hard knowing how to deal with real people in memoirs. In mine, I chose not to name one character, a boy who broke my 18-year-old heart. Feverish speculation among old friends, all of whom guessed wrong, proved how much attention they'd been paying to me at the time. I also wrote about my teenage band, the Marine Girls, and then sent the chapter to the other members for approval. Which led to a fresh outbreak of hostilities and not-speaking, 25 years after we'd broken up. Don't you just love bands?
Worrying about any of this would stop anyone ever writing anything. Luckily it didn't deter John Niven, whose scabrous music-biz novel, Kill Your Friends, mixes larger-than-life monsters such as the fictional A&R man Steven Stelfox with real people: and not just celebs (Goldie, the Spice Girls), but record company executives (Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, Rob Stringer) known best to those of us in the biz, and presumably thrilled to have made it into a book. John confirmed to me recently: "In the end I got more grief from people I left out of the book than those I put in. Such is the ego of the music industry. I heard of one executive who bought about 30 copies and would sign them for bands, saying, 'This was based on me.' You create the Devil and people are lining up to say, 'Yep. I'm that guy.' "
In other words, as I suspected, there's only one thing worse than being written about.
Thorn, Tracey
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Thorn, Tracey. "It must be shocking to spot yourself as an actual character in somebody else's novel." New Statesman, 6 May 2016, p. 57. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A453916424/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=faa4081f. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453916424
Whispers Through a Megaphone review – an assured debut novel
Humour tempers Rachel Elliott’s sensitive handling of her troubled characters
Emily Rhodes
Fri 5 Aug 2016 14.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 07.54 EST
Rachel Elliott trained as a psychotherapist.
Rachel Elliott trained as a psychotherapist. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian
In her assured debut, which was longlisted for the Baileys prize, Rachel Elliott’s talent for capturing the revealing quirk in each of her troubled characters reflects her training as a psychotherapist. Miriam Delaney hasn’t left her house in three years and can only talk in whispers; she “believes she is crazy, while everyone else is sane”. As she ventures into the world again, new discoveries enable her to interpret the “nonsensical poem” of her problems. “I don’t know which is more terrifying, she thinks – believing you’re alone in the world, or discovering that you’re not.” Alongside Miriam’s story run those of unhappily married Ralph and Sadie Swoon, their teenage sons, former lovers and numerous cameos, including – my favourite – an insomniac who goes to the supermarket at 3am dressed as a panda. Humour always tempers Elliott’s handling of emotion as she points to eccentricities manifest in us all while we struggle to come to terms with past decisions and missed opportunities. As her characters gain deeper understandings of themselves, and our heroine gets a megaphone, there is hope that everybody can find their own voice.
Whispers Through A Megaphone by Rachel Elliott
Whispers Through A Megaphone by Rachel Elliott
099291826X.jpg
Buy Whispers Through A Megaphone by Rachel Elliott at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: General Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Kerry King
Reviewed by Kerry King
Summary: As a literary debut, Whispers Through A Megaphone is so good it will give you chills and even if this was not Rachel Elliott’s first book, it is indescribably good. In analysing this over-connected world that hums constantly with social media, the author asks a great question: is it actually possible to disconnect from virtual reality and find the real thing?
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352 Date: September 2015
Publisher: One
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0992918224
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Longlisted for the 2016 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction
Miriam doesn’t speak. Well, that’s not strictly true. She does speak, but nothing above a whisper which makes it hard to have a conversation with her. Particularly as she hasn’t left her house in three years. But today is the day. She’s going to open that door and walk outside. She really is. Ralph has finally twigged (and with no small amount of surprise) that his wife Sadie doesn’t actually love him. And now he’s not sure if she ever really did. Having spent so much time regurgitating his every moment onto Social Media, Ralph hasn’t really had a chance to think about it. But now he has, it is so shockingly awful that he has decided to run away. And of all the places he could run away to, he has chosen the same woods that Miriam has picked to be the first place she will visit out-of-doors. And Sadie? Well, she’s had enough of reading Tweets and living vicariously through the posts of others. Sadie is going to have an adventure of her own.
It is with great skill that Rachel Elliott guides us through Miriam’s story; seeing her emerge, butterfly-like from beneath the oppressive shadow of her mother and the dismay of Ralph’s light bulb moment regarding the sad state of his marriage and the rejection he feels through to the almost palpable confusion that Sadie suffers as she looks at her life and doesn’t really recognise the person living it.
Whispers Through A Megaphone is not just a great first novel; it’s wonderful. The back and forth between the characters as we see them progress toward great life change and the inevitable introspection reading a story like this brings. The Social Media angle was fascinating – particularly as I have latterly discovered that the author is without Twitter or FaceBook accounts. Because even if you’re not a prolific user of Social Media, even if you don’t go anywhere near FaceBook or Twitter, it’s impossible to avoid it in one way or another. Anyone with a FaceBook profile will tell you that they get sick of reading about other people’s minutiae and regularly log out and delete the App. But they always go back to it.
Whispers Through A Megaphone is a real slow-burn of a book and if you like complex characters, then this is definitely one for you. I’m not going to tell you a single thing more about the story, because you should read it yourself and perhaps you too will find yourself in a reflective frame of mind. Maybe you will delete your Social Media accounts and maybe you won’t. But I bet you look at that incessant stream differently afterwards.
Rachel Elliott’s debut may very well be up your alley and if you think it is, you might also like to take a look at Hilary and David by Laura Solomon because we very much enjoyed it here at Bookbag. Perhaps you don’t do Social Media at all or have found it all too ugly for your liking, in which case you really ought to read You Don't Know Me by Sophia Bennett, as whilst it is technically a Young Adult novel, I think every parent ought to read it, since it covers media manipulation, cyber-bullying, body image, romance, friendship, making choices and doing it all with incredible heart and a wonderful cast of characters.
Finally our huge thanks to the kind folks at One for sending us this copy for review – you certainly have a winner on your hands here!
Whispers Through a Megaphone
Rachel Elliott
Sometimes the world can seem too much for just one person Miriam hasn’t left her house in three years, and cannot raise her voice above a whisper. But today she has had enough, and is finally ready to rejoin the outside world.
Meanwhile, Ralph has made the mistake of opening a closet door, only to discover with a shock that his wife Sadie doesn’t love him, and never has. And so he decides to run away. Miriam and Ralph’s chance meeting in a wood during stormy weather marks the beginning of an amusing, restorative friendship, while Sadie takes a break from Twitter to embark on an intriguing adventure of her own. As their collective story unfolds, each of them seeks to better understand the objects of their affection, and their own hearts, timidly refusing to stand still and accept the chaos life throws at them. Filled with wit and sparkling prose, Whispers Through a Megaphone explores our attempts to meaningfully connect with ourselves and others, in an often deafening world – when sometimes all we need is a bit of silence.
Review: Whispers Through the Megaphone, by Rachel Elliot
A traumatised soul finds her voice again in an engaging and accomplished debut
Sarah Gilmartin
Sat, Sep 19, 2015, 01:00
First published:
Sat, Sep 19, 2015, 01:00
Book Title:
Whispers through the Megaphone
ISBN-13:
9780992918224
Author:
Rachel Elliott
Publisher:
Pushkin Press
Guideline Price:
£12.99
‘I whisper therefore I am not an irritation. I whisper therefore I am.” Miriam Delaney hasn’t left her house in three years. When she speaks, the words come out in whispers. The reclusive 35-year-old is at the centre of Rachel Elliott’s dynamic debut, whose simple premise is that adult voices are shaped by childhoods, good and bad.
Whispers Through the Megaphone is an accomplished novel with considered views on human behaviour and connections. Through the interlaced stories of a colourful cast, Elliott asks big questions, and often provides the answers, about our fleeting existence here on earth.
Two mysteries propel the narrative, the first concerning Miriam’s traumatic past at the hands of a harsh, mentally unstable mother. With a cruelty and erraticism that is brilliantly drawn, Frances Delaney is an unfit person, never mind an unfit mother, someone who can’t deal with the world around her and takes her frustrations out on her young daughter.
Having got rid of Miriam’s father by threatening to kill their daughter if he doesn’t leave, Frances seems to take pleasure in shutting down Miriam’s life. No friends, no light, no unnecessary noise: “Frances couldn’t bear the din of her offspring. She couldn’t bear the din of the world. Washed lettuce must be washed. Trimmed beans must be trimmed.”
When Miriam breaks up an affair between Frances and a loathsome school principal, her mother sets out to quell her voice entirely. The girl’s letters to her grandmother, her sole line to the outside world, are commandeered: “From now on, you’re going to write what I tell you to write. Your words will be my words. What goes in your mouth and what comes out of it are up to me.”
Re-entering society
Years later, with Frances now dead, Miriam sets about finding her voice and re-entering society. Helping her on the journey is no-nonsense friend Fenella, Boo the velour-tracksuit-wearing neighbour and – the second mystery – a stream of anonymous postcards offering inspiration, such as: “You could cycle through the streets with the wind in your hair.”
Along the way, Miriam crosses paths with another important character, Ralph Swoon, an unhappy gardener turned psychotherapist whose sham of a marriage to closet lesbian Sadie is beginning to crack. After a chance meeting in a forest, Ralph and Miriam reach out to each other and find strength in their new friendship.
There is a quiet humour in Elliott’s writing, with Miriam’s wry observations throwing her dark history into relief. She sits at home and makes lists about what she’s afraid of, lists on which mother figures feature prominently. In the imaginative way of dealing with trauma and the often deadpan tone of Miriam’s voice, the book is reminiscent of Nina Stibbe’s excellent debut, Man at the Helm.
Its snippet-like structure and whimsical jaunts also call to mind another recent debut, Emma Hooper’s Etta and Otto and Russell and James. It is a type of narration that seems increasingly evident in contemporary literature, perhaps reflective of the way communication has changed with travel and technology.
Perspectives
Elliott switches perspectives and forms with ease. Social media, which can be an intrusion in fiction, is put to good use, with Sadie’s incessant tweeting conveying her inner turmoil. As she shares intimate details of her marriage online, Ralph’s clients end up analysing their analyst: “‘Sadie hates that jumper,’ said Jilly. ‘But she’s probably just jealous of your mother.’”
Ralph and Sadie’s crumbling relationship is at once funny and painful. While Sadie chases a former girlfriend, Ralph has a meltdown in a B&Q: “Sometimes a gnome is not a gnome: it is a giant symbol of everything that’s wrong with your life. Seconds before he headbutted the gnome, he was pretending to admire a vase of plastic daffodils.”
This succinct way of summing up a life falling apart is Elliott’s gift, supported by a deep understanding of what makes her characters tick. From Suffolk, she has a background in psychotherapy and her knowledge of people shines in her fiction. For all its wit, it is the author’s gimlet eye on human interaction that will engage readers. As Ralph hopes to bring his old guitar out of retirement for his birthday party, Sadie sticks the knife in. “‘You’re not going to play it tonight?’ she said, wielding the strongest of marital superpowers: the ability to evoke shame.”
While Ralph and Sadie’s story is entertaining, it is Miriam’s that packs the punch. Her journey from an almost muted existence to embracing her fears and the wider world is poignant and convincing. “Being a people person is about whether contact with others enlivens you or makes you feel tired – it has nothing to do with liking people,” Miriam explains. This is the story of a woman back from the brink of exhaustion, trusting in connection one more time.
March 28, 2016 · 6:43 pm
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Whispers Through A Megaphone – Rachel Elliott
One of the things that I always enjoy about any prize longlist is that invariably it introduces me to a lot of books that I have either never heard of you have only seen and pondered on. Rachel Elliott’s debut Whispers Through A Megaphone is a book that I saw promoted quite a lot in Foyles earlier in the year and almost bought (because when a hardback is half price you want to buy it regardless) and then again had a mental dalliance with when my boss was reading it and raving about it. Then the Baileys longlist popped it straight into my reading path…
9780992918224
ONE (Pushkin Press), 2015, hardback, fiction, 352 pages, kindly sent by the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction
Whispers Through A Megaphone is initially a tale of two halves and two people. First we encounter Miriam Delaney, a thirty-five year old woman who has not left her house for three years. Well she hasn’t gone further than a few feet of it, thanks to the help of her best friend, Fenella who does her shopping, and her neighbour, Boo who takes her bins down the drive and onto the street. That really is the interaction at its maximum between Miriam and the outside world. But why?
It’s three years today since Miriam last stepped out of this house.
No, that’s not quite true. She has stepped into the back garden to feed the koi carp, stepped into the porch to collect the milk and leave a bin bag for her neighbour to place at the end of the drive. But to step out into the street? No chance. Risk collision and a potentially catastrophic exchange with a stranger? You must be joking. Not after what happened. Not after what she did. Inside the cutesy slipper-heads of two West Highland terriers, her feet have paced the rooms of 7 Beckford Gardens, a three bed semi with a white cuckoo clock, brown and orange carpets, a life size cut out of Neil Armstrong.
That ‘why’ becomes the main focus point of Miriam’s story and as we read on we learn that her mother might have been a little bit crazy, well she did get caught cleaning the school by the Headmaster in nothing but socks and shoes which then starts a long affair, yet Elliott cleverly and teasingly lets us know that there is much more going on her as we discover letters to a Grandmother and a more recent incident for which Miriam feels much shame and fear. This becomes in many ways the main propulsion of the book, or at least it did for me. But I mentioned there is initially another main character and that is Ralph Swoon, a happily married part time psychiatrist and father of two.
Blow me. He almost Googled this phrase once, to discover its origins, but decided against it when he imagined the kind of sites that might pop up. He tried not to utter these words, especially when working with female clients, but saying blow me was something he inherited from his father, along with narrow shoulders and a pert little bottom. Frank Swoon had been famous for his buttocks. Women wolf-whistled as he walked down the street. “Oh you do make me swoon, Mr Swoon, Just look at those cheeks.” It was the kind of compliment a man would have been slapped for.
Yet something is bubbling away underneath his home life too, something which we soon discover leads him to simply walking out on his family, mainly after a fight with his wife Sadie, and going and living in a hut in the woods, just off the local park. You can probably guess what is coming, Miriam and Ralph are going to meet, the question is are their timelines the same and if so might these two strangers help each other or, as I thought because I am quite dark, could their meeting be the awful event in Miriams recent past. You will of course have to read the book to find out, I know I am a rotter doing that to you aren’t I?
What I can say as the book goes on is that I interestingly found that whilst the novel is herding you into believing that Ralph is the second of the main characters I think Rachel Elliott’s focus was more firmly on his wife Sadie who really becomes the catalyst of Ralph leaving after which point I think she gets a lot more airtime, or wordage to be correct, than Ralph as we discover the secret that she has been keeping from herself and everyone else for quite some time. As her story gains momentum, Ralphs lessen though the effects upon him become stronger. I know that is terribly vague but once you have read the book you will see what I mean. This caused me a couple of slight problems with the book.
Joe squeezed Stanley’s bottom, which made his voice rise at the end of the sentence. His mother didn’t notice. She probably wouldn’t notice if the high note turned into a whole song from Annie, with Stanley singing as loudly as he could about the sun coming out tomorrow. She wouldn’t notice if Joe gave him a blow job right there in the middle of the kitchen. She was tweeting, pouring Prosecco, muttering about whether she had bought enough sausages. His mother the great multitasker, always in her own world, always oblivious.
I wouldn’t describe Sadie as oblivious, I would describe her as completely and utterly self centred. As we are treated to her Twitter feed/life where she tries to create a persona of who she aspires to be, one that is a bit more interesting, a bit more irreverent. This worked and didn’t work for me, personally I loathe tweets in books as a rule almost as much as talking horses, yet at the same time we see there is a huge insecurity with her. The only issue with this is that occasionally Sadie is either the butt of other characters jokes, boringly dislikeable at moments or she becomes rather overdramatized and farcical, by the end I was a little bit frustrated with her overzealous storyline and Ralph’s slightly ineffectual one. Not that it ever got so bad I wanted to skip their sections, it just seemed a bit too monster and victim, in fact some of the funniest moments of the novel centre around Sadie. And boy is this book funny.
What I really loved about Rachel Elliott’s writing was her eye for the detail of people’s mannerisms. There were probably a paragraph or two every ten or so pages where I would cackle loudly, and was grateful I spent a day (I wanted to devour it) when I was feeling a bit under the weather on the sofa with it as it cheered me up and saved me the embarrassment of openly giggling to myself on public transport. There are some truly gorgeous set pieces of mini stories within the main one that show just how ridiculous we can all be, especially when we are wrapped up in our on dramas. Elliott beautifully catches these moments and it brings her characters fully to life.
It was these moments that made Ralph and Sadie’s domestic strife so utterly readable. I do have to say though that Whispers Through A Megaphone is both in practice and literally a book of two halves. For me they were great writing but the part of the novel I will remember the most, and indeed the key to it all, is Miriam and indeed her story, as I mentioned that propels you to read more and more and more. It is also the part of the book that I connected with the most and actually wanted much, much more of her story and her mother Frances, especially when everything unravels and is revealed towards the end in an incredibly powerful and shattering chapter you probably won’t see coming. Whispers Through A Megaphone is an enjoyable, intriguing, witty and human debut novel and I am very much looking forward to what Rachel Elliott does next.
About The Author
Rachel ElliottRachel Elliott is a writer and psychotherapist. She has worked in arts and technology journalism and her writing has featured in a variety of publications, from digital arts magazines to the French Literary Review. She has also been shortlisted for a number of short story and novel competitions in the UK and the US. Rachel was born in Suffolk, and now lives in Bath.
Her debut novel, now available in paperback, is Whispers through a Megaphone. Cowed by her domineering mother, even after her death, Miriam hasn't left her house in three years. When she finally steps outside, she meets Ralph, who's holed up in the woods after discovering his wife never loved him. Together, they are to discover that a little quiet contemplation clears the mind wonderfully. Darkly funny and jofully witty, it's a resonant novel about finding an oasis of silence in the inescapable din of the modern world.
In our exclusive interview, Rachel talks about why life veers between comedy and tragedy, how her psychotherapy training helped in creating her characters and the strange situation of being able to write reviews of so many of our everyday experiences online.
Author photo © Jacqueline Spanton
Questions & Answers
How did you come up with the idea of building a novel around a character as quiet and withdrawn as Miriam Delaney?
Miriam is so real to me, even now, after the writing of her story has finished. It was a curious experience really, because she appeared vividly in my mind, every detail at once, from the way she walked around the house to the decor and feel of her home. She’s still so vivid that it feels like she must live in a suburb somewhere. Her quietness, and sense of being on the edge of things, are both exaggerated forms of my own, but perhaps like me, she’s not as quiet as she thinks she is.
Whispers through a Megaphone moves between poignant, profound emotion and moments of wry, even absurd humour. Did you find this a difficult balance to strike?
It’s really interesting that you say this, because it’s not something I’m consciously aware of, perhaps because this movement reflects how my mind works, and we aren’t always aware of these mechanisms. When I write something serious, humour is always there, on the outskirts, and it doesn’t take long for it to move into the foreground – and vice versa. What I would find difficult, I think, is writing one without the other. I have to deliberately contain my silliness – I could happily go wild with absurd tangents, because that feels deeply realistic to me. Life is dark, funny, profoundly emotional and bizarre.
Some feel that British literary fiction has a tendency toward being backward-looking, preferring to shed light on past era rather than the present day. Do you feel that your novel offers something new by exploring the evolution of social interactions in 21st century?
It’s fascinating to me that the notion of including modern social interactions could be seen as new. We seem to be at a curious point in time for the contemporary novel, because so much of our social interaction is digital, and yet if this is reflected in fiction, the common response is that it has been used by the writer as a theme or a subject. Online communication is ubiquitous and yet it isn’t as commonplace or ordinary as having characters chatting on the phone or in a cafe. What does this say about the novel as a form and what we expect of it? We used to see the inclusion of emails and texts as very modern, sometimes as a device, a way of commenting on social interactions, but for me, featuring tweets is no different to having a conversation between characters on the street. It’s just another social domain, and it’s revealing to see how people communicate differently, depending on where they are and what medium they’re using. Reading a character’s tweets and texts, placed alongside their face-to-face dialogue, says a lot about them. Our days are a series of interruptions, a collection of rapid changes, and yet we expect fiction to flow without those interruptions. It’s curious.
You also work as a psychotherapist. Did you find this beneficial in creating authentic characters?
Working as a psychotherapist is often about exploring our ambiguity, our patterns, our inner conflicts. This kind of thinking has always been my natural territory – I love paradoxes. As a writer, I’m less interested in ‘capturing’ a character as I am in presenting the multiplicity of a person, the contradictions and movement. We’re also back to the emotion and humour again, because in psychotherapy you can be talking about the saddest subject and laughing together seconds later. Humour evokes our shared humanity, an expression of the fact that life is ridiculously hard sometimes and we can find ourselves doing the strangest things to get by.
You’ve written on the arts, among other topics, for a wide range of publications. How do you feel about being on the other side of things, with your work now subject to scrutiny?
Well, this whole novel is about someone taking the risk of going out into the world and being seen. I’m very good at being invisible, but as Helen Macdonald wrote in the wonderful H is For Hawk, ‘it doesn’t serve you well in life’. It’s wonderful to have your work being read, and scrutiny is just one aspect of this. It’s an inevitable part of so many people’s jobs, especially now, when everything has become so public – I was in town last week, buying a sponge to wash my car, and the guy who served me explained that I could go online and review him, which made me sad.
Are there books or authors that you feel inspired you as writer?
There have been many over the years, but I can remember a few key encounters with books that changed the way I saw writing, so I’ll list a handful of these. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor. Music For Torching by AM Homes. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. The Accidental by Ali Smith. Everything Lorrie Moore has ever written. Sometimes a book’s atmosphere is what inspires me, like the mood of The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, which stayed with me for ages.
Can you tell us anything about what you’ll be writing next?
I’ve started a new novel, and because I’m in the early stages, things are mainly cinematic. It’s a bit like when you wake up in the morning and you remember the fractured images of a dream, but you can’t place them, you don’t know where they belong. Thinking harder doesn’t reveal the full story – something else needs to happen.
Available Titles By This Author
Whispers Through a Megaphone
(Paperback)
Rachel Elliott