Titus G wrote:
> On 11/09/24 08:07, William Hyde wrote:
> much snippage
>>>
>>> I'm a long term fan of Snow's "Strangers and Brother" sequence, but it
>>> holds to a very different view than either Davies or Durrell. There is
>>> some humour, especially of character, but the books are largely
>>> underlain by ethical issues (appeasement, the atomic bomb, class) as
>>> well as the narrator's flaws - invisible to him, of course.
>>>
>>> Some find the series to be too earnest, ........ in any event
>>> the richness of character more than compensates.
>>>
>>> I started with the fifth book, "The Masters", which is about a
>>> long-delayed election for the mastership of a Cambridge college in the
>>> appeasement era. The book is packed with characters whose nature is
>>> revealed in their reaction to the election. Human and political
>>> motivations intermingle in complex ways. It echoes and personalizes
>>> the larger struggle taking place in the world at that time.
>>>
>>> If you don't like that book, best avoid the rest of the series. But
>>> if you prefer to start at the beginning, either "George Passant", the
>>> first written, or "Time of Hope", the first chronologically, will do.
>
> Having decided to read them in publication order, I began with "George
> Passant" about which I have already briefly written.
>
> "The Light and the Dark" was about Roy Calvert, brilliant but subject to
> melancholy and unable to control his self destructive impulse to mock
> conventions and appearances at inappropriate times. The "Light" refers
> to the Manichee religion's concept of man's spirit, the "Dark" to man's
> flesh and their eternal battle so a similar main issue to George Passant
> from a higher social standing with different circumstances and events.
> The Manichee religion is "the most subtle and complex representation of
> sexual guilt". It was a bit of a struggle as I didn't really understand
> the main character, Roy, and the book often dragged. Perhaps that was
> deliberate for the reader to empathise with Roy's frequent depression.
>
> "A Time of Hope" about the narrator himself, was fascinating as a tale
> of difficulty in upward social mobility, principally financial. Work
> customs and relationships were also fascinating but I didn't understand
> his relationship with the neurotic woman who became his neurotic wife.
>
> "The Masters" as described by William above, was brilliant. The
> characters created their natural conflict and I could now understand Roy
> Calvert from "The Light and the Dark" a lot better and I was pleased I
> had persevered with that.
>
> In general, as you say, the characters are so well defined in their
> attitudes and temperament that the ethics society demands of the middle
> class in the early 20th Century are examined.
> As each in the series is stand-alone, stories are compartmentalised,
> with the events of "A Time of Hope" and "George Passant" concurrent but
> hardly mentioning each other and the 300 plus pages of "The Masters" is
> covered in a page and a half in "The Light and the Dark". However the
> secondary characters common to several books also have a depth of
> richness. The narrator and most others have almost implausibly high
> levels of integrity but a "A Time of Hope" was more cynical.
> I can't help feeling that I am missing something as I have not
> identified any difference between the narrator's behavioural reasons and
> events so I have not yet identified his flaws apart from vanity.
> Between books I have been reading the Australian crime author, Garry
> Disher - a different universe! Thank you for the recommendation.
>
Glad you liked them, and you have many more to come.
There is also his early novel, "The Search" with which he was
dissatisfied, but it shows him feeling his way. After finishing the
river novel he wrote three more, of which I prefer "In Their Wisdom",
whose framing story is a lawsuit. It reminds me a bit of his earlier
"The Conscience of the Rich" in its portrayal of the upper class, but a
different upper class.
"A Coat of Varnish" may be a better novel, but it starts very slowly.
"The Malcontents" is a short novel which I remember best for a brief
scene in which someone is doing science, described without bewildering
detail, nor distorted to the point of caricature. I can't recall
anything else of that book.
Gary Disher you say?
I've enjoyed a few Australian crime novels. For a Canadian there's the
additional frisson of seeing what Canada might be like if it didn't snow
half the year.
William Hyde