This is All by Aidan Chambers

I was thinking about this again as I'm reading The Pillow Book that serves partly as its inspiration. I liked the way it used a variety of writings to tell the story - not just the protagonist Cordelia's diary, but her essays, musings and 'mopes' - the latter being poetry of debatable quality. It was a lovely book. Cordelia could be annoying, and sometimes seemed too sort of well-adjusted liberal in her attitudes towards sex and her body to be real, but it's hard to tell if that was unrealistic, or just part of the way she could really be quite infuriating. For the most part, Aidan Chambers wrote a convincing young woman - at first I wondered if I was just confused and Aidan could in fact be a woman's name. Nope. Man in his seventies. Quite amazing.

I should probably read his other books, because I think he must really be an incredible writer. It's a book that questions itself - it's a novel but it's not really a novel. Not just the mix of Cordelia's writings, but in one section, two things run simulationeously - the telling of Cordelia's story, and the things she's writing at the time, essays and poetry critiques and all sorts, each printed every second page. I went through the right pages first, and then went back and read the left pages. It was intense, but it was for a purpose.

And I like that he's not afraid to be literary, or to have a character who thinks so deeply. She's not the most likable of characters, but she knows herself, she's got guts, and you can tell the author respects her even when she's at her most typically teenage. I hope I can create something so awesome when I'm seventy.