Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Published 1927 · 332 pages · 108,073 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Fiction, Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age
How hard is Dusty Answer to read?
Dusty Answer scores 72 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it very challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
- The text employs a rich, literary vocabulary with frequent use of evocative adjectives and nuanced verbs, such as 'portentous,' 'munificent,' 'labyrinthine seclusion,' and 'effervescence.' While not dense with specialized jargon like 'Moby-Dick,' it consistently elevates its diction beyond common contemporary fiction, placing it above '2666' but below 'Gravity's Rainbow' in its demands on the reader's lexicon.
- Sentence structure: 72 out of 100
- Lehmann frequently constructs long, flowing sentences with multiple clauses, extensive subordination, and parenthetical asides that require sustained attention. Passages like 'The happiness was a swelling pressure in the head and chest, too exciting to bear. Going home under the willows in the little connecting pathway between the two gardens Judith suddenly made up some poetry' demonstrate this intricate style, reminiscent of Proustian subordination, making it more demanding than '2666' but less extreme than Faulkner's 'Absalom, Absalom!'.
- Abstraction: 70 out of 100
- While grounded in Judith's concrete experiences and observations, the narrative frequently delves into her internal philosophical musings, existential anxieties, and highly abstract interpretations of people and events. Julian's monologues on the futility of life and the nature of existence, and Judith's own introspective passages about beauty, love, and reality, elevate the text significantly beyond simple social observation, positioning it closer to 'Brothers Karamazov' than 'The Great Gatsby'.
- Information density: 65 out of 100
- The text is dense with sensory details, emotional nuances, and psychological insights, often layering multiple interpretations and symbolic meanings within seemingly simple descriptions. Readers must process not only the unfolding plot but also Judith's complex internal world, the unspoken dynamics between characters, and the symbolic weight of natural imagery, requiring a high degree of attention to fully grasp the richness, comparable to 'Lolita' in its texture and demands.
- Narrative indirection: 70 out of 100
- The narrative is deeply embedded in Judith's subjective consciousness, requiring readers to infer meaning from her intense emotional responses, idealizations, and frequent internal monologues. Her perceptions often clash with external reality, such as her fervent worship of Charlie despite his indifference, leaving much for the reader to interpret about the true nature of relationships and events. This constant filtering through a highly imaginative mind places it closer to 'Lolita' (72) in requiring reading against a narrator's bias, though Judith is more naive.
- Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
- The text is rich with recurring motifs and objects imbued with profound personal and thematic significance for Judith, such as the garden, the river, the cherry-tree, and even specific weather conditions. Characters like Roddy and Charlie often function as symbolic figures within her internal world, and the title itself, 'Dusty Answer,' explicitly signals a core of elusive meaning. This pervasive symbolic interpretation of the world is more pronounced than in 'The Great Gatsby' (75) and closer to 'To the Lighthouse' (82) in how elements carry meaning beyond their literal presence.
- Ironic distance: 75 out of 100
- A significant ironic distance exists between Judith's romanticized internal world and the often mundane or indifferent reality presented. The narrator subtly highlights Judith's naivete and projections, particularly when her fervent hopes are directly undercut by the characters' actual behavior, as seen in Charlie's indifference or Roddy's evasiveness. Roddy's silent, amused laughter at Judith's earnestness explicitly creates this gap, inviting the reader to share in an understanding that Judith itself often lacks, similar to the subtle critique in 'The Great Gatsby' (70) but more focused on emotional delusion.
- Resolution withholding: 85 out of 100
- The narrative consistently resists definitive emotional and relational closure, mirroring Judith's central quest for 'certainties' that are repeatedly denied. Key relationships, particularly with Roddy, remain ambiguous, with his true feelings and intentions left unstated or evasively answered. The excerpt concludes with Judith's father's death and her desperate, unfulfilled wish at the cherry-tree, explicitly stating it 'veiled itself and withheld the sign,' reinforcing a profound lack of resolution. This persistent ambiguity is higher than 'Lolita' (65) and approaches 'Crying of Lot 49' (75) in its resistance to clear answers.
- Structural complexity: 60 out of 100
- While the overall plot progresses linearly through Judith's life stages, the narrative is made complex by its extensive use of internal monologues, vivid dreams, and frequent, fluid shifts between present events and deeply reflective childhood memories. Judith constantly re-evaluates past experiences, blurring the lines between memory, fantasy, and reality. Although it lacks radical formal experiments like multiple narrators or non-linear chapters, this internal layering and the non-chronological presentation of Judith's psychological landscape create a moderate structural complexity, more intricate than a purely chronological narrative like 'War and Peace' (40).
How Dusty Answer is regarded
Dusty Answer holds a literary regard score of 41 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.