In all my reviews of Virginia Woolf novels, there is one thing I repeat. It is that she doesn’t write stories to conform to the conventional structure. There is no beginning, middle, and end; nor is there a proper plot. Instead, her “stories” are a collection of abstracts that are woven together in one whole, creating something larger than a story.
With Jacob’s Room, Virginia completely breaks away from traditional storytelling. Her two preceding novels, though experimental, retained the traditional narrative structure to some extent. But in her third novel Jacob’s Room, Virginia severs all her ties with that established mode of story structure, firmly establishing her experimental style of writing, which has fascinated millions of readers around the world. Added to her novel style is her poetic prose, and the reader finds herself inside a painting filled with impressions; she feels the joy of walking through a dreamy landscape.
Jacob’s Room touches the life span of a young man named Jacob Flanders. His story is told through different character perspectives (his mother, his lovers, and his friends) and the observations of an unnamed narrator. Virginia digs deep into philosophy. She presents us with several Jacobs through the eyes of numerous characters, raising the question of who exactly is this Jacob Flanders. The answer is that none of the accounts is true, for the idea of “self” is illusory. What we see as a person is fragments of images.
The title is Jacob’s Room. What is Jacob’s room? Does it refer to the physical rooms he occupied at Oxford and London? Is it the character’s consciousness that brings Jacob to life? Or does it refer to Jacob himself? It’s hard to say. And that is the beauty of Virginia’s works. They offer many different interpretations. They are like kaleidoscopes.
Virginia’s philosophical take in Jacob’s Room is thought-provoking. She paints such an illusory picture of Jacob that nobody knows the real Jacob. If that is the case, can anyone truly mourn him? Can you mourn for a person whom you truly didn’t know? It is debatable, of course, but that struck a chord with me. Perhaps that could explain our different reactions to people we lose.
However, Jacob’s Room failed to fully enchant me as it should. I can’t put my finger on the cause, but there was something that held me at bay. The storyline at times was confusing. In short, the novel doesn’t demonstrate Virginia’s full capacity as a storyteller. Yet, she takes the readers to a sublime world with her mystical and dreamy writing.
Rating: 3/5
