The Thirteenth Tale

I recently finished "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. This was the debut novel from this British author. The book was a huge bestseller a couple years ago and every time I've gone into Barnes and Noble or on Amazon.com in the past few years, I've seen it. I remember reading a description of the book awhile back and it the plot intrigued me. Plus, it had almost a perfect 5-star rating on Amazon. I decided to see what the hype was all about.

The basic premise of the book is this: a woman named Margaret Lea is a sort of boring, lonely woman who lives with her parents. Her father owns a used bookstore and buys and trades used books. Margaret has always had this void in her life, ever since she found out that she had a twin sister who died at birth. One day, Margaret gets a letter from a popular author named Vida Winter, who, despite her popularity, has lead an elusive life and has never been forthcoming about her past. In the letter, she tells Margaret that she is dying and would like Margaret to write her biography. Margaret is puzzled as to why Vida would chose her to write the biography, but she goes to live at Vida's estate and listens to her life story. As the book goes on, Vida slowly reveals more and more about her past, weaving a story that is even more unbelievable than any of Vida's popular novels.

Sounds pretty interesting, right? Like a story in a story. Cool. As I began to get wrapped up in the story and in the characters, I had really high hopes for what would be revealed by the end of the story. I was expecting some big plot twists, some major revelations, maybe some serious character development. I guess all of those things did happen, but the author's execution of these things was really weak.

As Vida's story of her childhood goes on, it becomes more and more unbelievable and implausible. In college, I learned about the concept of "willing suspension of disbelief." It's the idea that, if an author is skillful enough, he or she can convince you to believe something that, in everyday life, couldn't possibly happen. J.K. Rowling successfully convinced me that it was possible for a powerful wizard like Voldemort to split his soul into 7 pieces by creating horcruxes. Stephanie Meyer did a great job tricking me into thinking that a human and a vampire could conceive a baby that ages much quicker than a normal human. Believe me, I have no problem with the whole "willing suspension of disbelief" thing. But Diane Setterfield could not convince me that the things that happened in her book, and in Vida's life, were possible. It wasn't that they were too far-fetched; some of the books I've read have been way more out there. It's the fact that she couldn't convince me. When I finished the book, all I could ask myself was... Really?


Which brings me to the question... why is this book so popular? As an English teacher, I'm always kind of intrigued by bestsellers. I like to try to understand what all the hype is about. With this book, I'm really not sure. I don't get it. Readers like plot twists, I know that... just look at the success of plot-twist masters like Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult. But what I don't understand is what other readers saw in this book that I didn't. Did I miss something?

- Emily