Journal Entry 1 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, March 25, 2010

I picked this one up as Elizabeth Bowen was the author-of-the-month over at the "Monthly Author Reads" LibraryThing group, and I managed to find a second hand copy of this particular title. It's not one I would have chosen if I'd been given a choice, but it was on the "1001" list, and seemed slim so even if I didn't like it, it wouldn't take long.

Being slim wasn't the best aspect of this book, but it was a positive aspect.

In a rundown Irish country house in the 1950s, one very atmospherically hot summer day, a young girl finds a bundle of love letters from Guy, who had died during the Great War. Her mother, Lilia, had been engaged to Guy, and the country house belongs to Guy's cousin, Antonia, who lets Lilia and her husband (another cousin of Guy's) and their children live there, while she is off with her career as a photographer. Given the complexities of the surface relationships, you'd be right in thinking that there's going to be a lot of sublimated emotions going on. And there are, and that's not the sort of book I particular enjoy. Especially when the dialogue (which usually gives you insight) is as short and brief as, well, this:

'We were thinking of having supper.'
'Do as you please,' said she.
'What about you?'
'Today, you surpassed yourself.'
'Oh? - sorry.'

Etc. See? I'm not getting insights.

But it wasn't all awful. There were some wonderful thoughts on how the dead are still with us, the living, affecting our lives still through their untimely absence.

...though a generation was mown down his death seemed to her an invented story. Not that it was unlike him to be killed - lightly he had on the whole taken that for granted; they all sooner or later were; why should he not be? - but that it was unlike him to be dead. ... It would be long before Guy was done with life... It was simply that these years she went on living belonged to him, his lease upon them not having run out yet. The living were living his lifetime; and of this his contemporaries never were unaware. They were incomplete.

And, while the fact that the 1001 book describes this as her "funniest" book does fill me with dread when faced with the other Elizabeth Bowen novels on the 1001 list, it does have some amusing black humour with the incredible macabre nature of Maud, Lilia's youngest daughter. And the ending is a rather uplifting affair, suggesting that the next generation may be able to throw off the despair and ennui of the previous generations and find love of their own, and create new happy lives. 

Journal Entry 2 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Going on a bookray. Participants so far are:

symphonicca, EU
CaterinaAnna, UK
lakelady2282, AU
fushmush, AU - hasn't replied to PMs, but is busy with new baby (congratulations!)
cat207, AU - hasn't replied to PMs and package was returned to CaterinaAnna. 

Journal Entry 3 by tqd at Broadway, New South Wales Australia on Monday, May 17, 2010

Released 1 yr ago (5/17/2010 UTC) at Broadway, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

In the post to symphonicca today.

Happy reading! 

Journal Entry 4 by symphonicca at Bruxelles / Brussel, Bruxelles / Brussel Belgium on Thursday, May 27, 2010

Arrived safe and sound in Brussels! Will read soon and send on to the next person on the list. Thanks for sharing!

________________________

Started reading June 14

 

Journal Entry 5 by symphonicca at Bruxelles / Brussel, Bruxelles / Brussel Belgium on Thursday, June 24, 2010

Hmmmm.....

Well i kept expecting it to get better, but for me it never really did. Who puts together these 1001-must-read lists anyway? I just finished another one on the list--- The Picture of Dorian Gray---- and while I wasn't totally in love with that book either, I found it much easier to read and appreciate the messages and insights.

In the end, I just couldn't get into this one, neither on a subjective level (I surprisingly, for the first time in my life, found it difficult to read about a main character with the same name as a past partner--- perhaps because of the subject matter?) or objectively (nothing literary for me to grab on to and enjoy, as a touchstone and pull me through the story itself).

And I agree with you, tqd, and your comment about the dialogue. At times, I simply didn't get it.... sometimes the conversation people were having were just words strung together. Perhaps George Lucas took some notes from this book when writing the dialogue for Star Wars? :)

Anyway, all this to say thanks for giving me the opportunity to check this book out. Will be interested to hear what others think!

Pming next in line now. 

Journal Entry 6 by symphonicca at Bruxelles / Brussel, Bruxelles / Brussel Belgium on Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Released 1 yr ago (7/7/2010 UTC) at Bruxelles / Brussel, Bruxelles / Brussel Belgium

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent off to the next reader--- happy reading! 

Journal Entry 7 by Caterinaanna at Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Sunday, July 11, 2010

Arrived safely.
(I'm not at work on a Sunday, it arrived on Friday but I've been offline in the meantime.) 

Journal Entry 8 by Caterinaanna at Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sorry, didn't like very much at all. This wasn't because of the interior monologues or gnomic utterances that passed for dialogue - the former works well in many books, and the latter is, after all, how people do talk to those they know well. No, it was because I found all of the characters, even Antonia, rather drippy and hard to empathise with - even more so when, near the end, it becomes clear what Lilia and she knew about Guy. It's bad news when one's favourite people in a book are the chauffeur and the invisible Gay David, surely? Unlike tqd, I thought the final paragraph predictable and rather trite so that didn't redeem it for me. Not sure I shall make much of an effort to find the others from the list by this author, but thank you all who have participated in the journey thus far for giving me the chance to read it. 

Journal Entry 9 by Caterinaanna at Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Monday, October 25, 2010

Released 1 yr ago (10/26/2010 UTC) at Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Heading south as soon as I find a customs declaration form.
The long delay isn't due to a several-month-long search for one, but to problems with PMs; no response from fushmush or tqd, so am sending on to cat207 anyway. 

Journal Entry 10 by Caterinaanna at Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Friday, December 16, 2011

And it came back. So I tried everyone ahead of me again with no replies so, with the permission of tqd, this is going to be made AVL ... at least until I find another 1001 reader to whom I can pass it; there is one in the wings.