Categories: books
Date: 06 March 2009 22:27:12
What is it about the classics that inspires American authors to write disturbing stories about young people?
If you have ever read The Secret History by Donna Tartt you may well see some parallels with The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman.
Both are set in the deep snowy landscape of New England, both feature young people immersed in classical studies (Tartt's are studying Greek at college, Goodman's younger students are studying Latin at school), both feature apparently unnaturally close relationships between a brother and a sister, the teachers in each case are very close to their students, the students behave as if they are members of an elite group, and both stories have death and murders and dark plots in every chapter - punctured by quotations from classical literature.
Although you might think she would want to try to forget the gruesome events of her schooldays where her two closest friends died, Jane Hudson returns to the school (in the inexorable manner of a Greek tragedy) to teach Latin. As the term wears on, she discovers that three of her pupils, who co-incidentally share the same dorm as she shared with her two friends, become involved in equally sinister events as she did all those years ago.
The plot revolves around the heart-shaped lake which freezes over in winter - and to which the girls are drawn with its myth of the deaths of three daughters of the school's founder.
The narrative jumps back and forth between the present and the past and some of the characters have classical names (used in class but also generally) as well as their given names.
It seems that the secrets of the past should be buried at the bottom of the lake but the past returns forcibly to haunt Jane and to wreak its vengeance on the present.
There is a little linguistic thread running through the book. At first, I wasn't sure if it was deliberate but as the story progressed I decided it couldn't be coincidence and so pretty much managed to guess the denouement.
An enjoyable read - apart from the astonishing lack of inquests into the various deaths - and the unsatisfactory last paragraph which I felt could have been left out or perhaps worked in elsewhere.
In other news: I am still being plagued by these boxy things on the right of the text "Tags" and "Categories". They haven't disappeared of their own free will and I am beginning to feel I should charge them rent. Any ideas for evicting them?