Dying, In Other Words
{{short description|1981 novel by Maggie Gee}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{infobox Book |
| name = Dying, In Other Words
| image = File:DyingInOtherWords.jpg
| border = yes
| image_caption = First edition
| author = Maggie Gee
| illustrator =
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| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = Harvester Press
| release_date = 1981
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print
| pages = 215
| isbn = 0-71-080030-4
| dewey =
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| oclc =
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Dying, in Other Words is the debut novel of English author Maggie Gee, variously described as surrealist and modern gothic.[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00393279708588207?journalCode=snec20 pp. 213-221, Studia Neophilologica, Volume 69, Issue 2, 1997] It garnered "rave reviews" in The Observer and The Times.[http://www.inkapturemagazine.co.uk/2012/06/go-on-get-on-with-it-an-interview-with-maggie-gee/ "Go on, get on with it: an interview with Maggie Gee"]. Retrieved 2013-07-28. According to the OUP's Good Fiction Guide, a "vividly written experimental novel" it made a "strong impression" when it was published in 1981.Jane Rogers (ed.), Good Fiction Guide, 2nd edition, OUP, 2005, p. 260. {{ISBN|019-280647-5}} Containing "postmodernist gimmicks"[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maggie-gee-2/dying-in-other-words/ DYING, IN OTHER WORDS by Maggie Gee | Kirkus] Retrieved 2013-07-28 and self-refexive structurespage 51, Murder by the Book?: Feminism and the Crime Novel By Sally Rowena Munt. it concerns a supposedly dead woman rewriting the story of her own death.[http://literature.britishcouncil.org/maggie-gee Maggie Gee | British Council Literature] Retrieved 2013-07-28
The novel led to Gee appearing in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list for 1983.[https://writershub.co.uk/features-piece.php?pg=2&pc=350 writers' hub - Paint Brushes and Pitch Forks - Maggie Gee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109115951/https://writershub.co.uk/features-piece.php?pg=2&pc=350 |date=2014-11-09 }} Retrieved 2013-08-05. Although in a 2012 interview Maggie Gee says that 'I see it as partly luck – the novel came out in July when nothing much was published then, the first review was a rave in The Observer, then The Times ran an extract and everyone fell into line, because critics are easily influenced.[http://www.inkapturemagazine.co.uk/2012/06/go-on-get-on-with-it-an-interview-with-maggie-gee/ Go on, get on with it: an interview with Maggie Gee]. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
In a 1997 interview Gee admits: "I was 25 when I wrote that book, and I suppose I had more of an exhibitionist streak at that age. I had such fun with the playfulness. As I got older I realised that being categorized as experimental, although it gets you lots of review space, is death; also that you can frighten a lot of readers off."
Plot introduction
The novel concerns the death of Moira Penny, a postgraduate literature student in Oxford,George Stade, Karen Karbiener, Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Volume 2, p. 200. whose naked body is found outside her apartment. But Moira Penny is also writing a novel about the death of an author. The narrative is circular in nature and "snakes through the minds of assorted people as they react to Moira's demise".[http://grumbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/dying-in-other-words-maggie-gee.html grumbooks: Dying, In Other Words - Maggie Gee]. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews concludes that "Some of this material is - even if read as partial parody - stale and stagey. It certainly doesn't add up satisfyingly, with or without reference to the metafictional framework. But, page by page, Gee demonstrates promise as an ironic observer and darkly lyrical maker of vignettes - talents which would show up far better in a more straightforward, less cutely 'literary' novel'."