Book Review: "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye

I bought a used book from Vinted. Yes, I've done it again. I have shopped around for the cheapest version of the book I could find and eventually, I only had to spend about £2.50 on this book. As I was reading the book I was in two minds about it though. Initially, I was in love with the style of storytelling, it was experimental and the prose ran on and on with this introspective dialogue communicated seemingly from narrator to reader. However, as the book went on, this became awfully repetitive. Not in a way where we may learn about the speech pattern or voice of the narrator but in a way that made reading in their voice became almost irritating. Was it atmospheric? Ultimately, no. But was the story interesting? Also, no. But did I enjoy reading it? Well, yes. The experimental prose style was definitely an experience - just probably not one I'll be doing again in the near future.

The book starts with the reader learning about the narrator's life on the surface. Her name is Lucie and she lives in an unhappy marriage in a fairly crappy little French village with a husband she doesn't like and a set of twin daughters who don't seem to have any actual personality. However, Lucie is determined to not let her 'knowledge' go to waste and so, she decides to pass on her magic to her daughters even though their father (a brute and a controlling man I also have some pity for because he too, has little personality beyond this) strictly forbids Lucie from using her own magic.

Lucie's magic though, we learn, is weak and not as great as the women's who came before her. Her mother and grandmother seem so much stronger though in memory and not actual characters in the book. Not only is the characterisation of the different members of her family in question, but so is her memory and reliability as a narrator. I feel like this might be done on purpose by the author to create some discord between narrator and reader and I did enjoy the flowing prose which felt like a stream-of-consciousness on crack at times. However, I didn't appreciate not knowing whether what was being reported was actually happening or not at all. It seems like that side of the story was completely missed out.

Maud and Lise (the twins) start to cry tears of blood which symbolise the magical awakening. I think that this is a cliché way of depicting an awakening or realisation but then again, I was recently rewatching The Killing of a Sacred Deer - so that's probably partially my fault. But as the girls approach teen-hood I do also think that there is some extended metaphor for growing up we can grapple with as much as how The Exorcist may be actually about girls approaching adolescence. However, this book is not nearly as successful as The Exorcist, instead in The Witch, there's a difficulty with getting to the beating heart of it. Why? Well, whenever there is depth to be had with an image, the narrator has already moved on to the next thought. It could have been very good though. It left the story feel a little unfinished and thus, I couldn't feel like I was lost in it at all. I couldn't bury myself deep within the book and thus, full immersion was impossible.

Apart from all of this we have a clearly underdone or underbaked experimental style. I think that the author was desperately trying to go for the introspective stream-of-consciousness style so much that the actual essence of the story suffered. I have already talked about the lack of depth in possible extended metaphors and the lack of any real atmosphere, but there was also a flattening to the book which, though I was glad to attempt, felt like the entire book was stuck. It was like we were left waiting for something to happen that never did. There was, though, no tension to be had. It was just as though we were waiting for the story to become interesting, intriguing or exciting in any way. Alas, it never actually did.