“Judith Castle” by David Mitchell
from The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith

Each copy of this book sold benefits 826NYC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Click on the link above to learn more and how you can become involved.

This story opens with a dialogue in which the author presents an obviously self-absorbed and manipulative woman. I immediately wonder if I can feel any compassion for her and discover I can’t.

However the story is like a train wreck about to happen right before your eyes. You want to turn away, but you can’t – the curiosity is too great. Plus you are an observer, it’s not as if you have any vested interest in what is about to happen and no concerns over the outcome except to see this woman get her come-uppance.

As you can tell, she is not a very likeable character. But she is one that intrigues you enough to keep reading to try and learn why she is the way she is, and how in the world can someone like this exist. They do you know, I’ve met a few such as her. I’m sure you have too.

A lot is written about creating characters that readers can connect to, empathize with or have sympathy for, yet here is one that is completely distasteful. There is no redeeming quality in her, and it appears by the end of the story, she has not learned her lesson enough to have that change any time soon.

Perhaps I was drawn to her because she portrays all those things I hope I never am: those qualities that alienate you from friends, family, society; those that make you feel better about many of your own flaws because you know they are, and never will be, as bad as hers; that I would never put myself in a position of never being liked, loved, or wanted.

This is her fear, yet she does nothing to earn them. She thinks they are due her and it is exactly for that reason she may never attain them. At this point, you would think this is enough to feel sorry for her, and perhaps you would. As I said, I never did, even when offered a glimpse into why her personality developed this way.

In the end, she learns how she is truly perceived, and it falls on deaf ears as she only knows how to listen to herself; her voice the only voice of reason, of understanding. Even if it is merely held together by fantasy and desperate hopes.

Although I enjoyed this, I found it to be a good story, not an outstanding one. Thus I am giving it 4 stars. I am also adding it to one of the reasons this anthology would keep its overall positive rating.

, was long listed for the 2006 award.

Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. (Wikipedia, as of March 2009)