Hayley Westwood
My review here is just in relation to the short story Cathedral. I'm pretty sure I've read the whole Cathedral collection before, but it was years ago and I don't remember it.
In relation to this specific story, I didn't like it. Not just because the narrator is unlikeable, though of course that is true.
I get the concept that throughout the story the husband/narrator himself is metaphorically blind, while his wife's friend, Robert, is physically blind, and I understand that there is meant to be some sort of ‘transformative' element to the interaction he has with Robert, but it felt a bit cheap to me.
I appreciated some of the parallels throughout - such as the quote from the narrator: ‘I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this woman must have led. Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one.'
Clearly the narrator's own wife lives such a life, but he is ‘blind' to this fact as he makes no effort to understand life from anyone else's perspective.
I didn't like the racist or ableist perspective of the main character, and his ‘transformative experience' at the end of the story just wasn't believable to me.
The story itself was also very ‘tell-y' (that's not a word but hopefully you know what I mean) and as a reader, I'm not keen on that style.
Overall, there is no doubt that as characters, Robert understands the wife more than her husband, because he has to listen to understand and make sense of the world.
I think I'd have much preferred a story from that perspective.
