Guy Burgess is such a difficult subject for a biographer, but Andrew Lownie "nails it" - one sees this ambiguous and deceptive man move from one situaGuy Burgess is such a difficult subject for a biographer, but Andrew Lownie "nails it" - one sees this ambiguous and deceptive man move from one situation to another, always playing significant roles. I recommend this book to those interested in the Cambridge spies - and also to students of 20 century history, and those studying life writing. ...more
**spoiler alert** Very beautiful prose, but I found this story uneven, as if the narrative veers in one direction, and then in another. There were als**spoiler alert** Very beautiful prose, but I found this story uneven, as if the narrative veers in one direction, and then in another. There were also several points I did not understand.
The wife, Elizabeth, endures a very difficult childbirth, but she and her husband, John Briggs, seem to have an active sex life soon afterwards. Would not they have observed the 40 days rule, so common then? Or, have I got the chronology wrong, and 40 days have passed, without mention in the text. There is also no mention of Elizabeth being "churched".
Elizabeth then dies of "the purples", within a few weeks, as far as I can guess. That disease was a 17th century term for any illness which led to discolouration of the flesh. So it could have been a post-birth infection, or small pox, or some other illness.
The central character John Briggs, is idealistic and at odds with the values of the fanaticism, poverty and repression of society during the civil war. The book vividly describes the fluctuations of opinion, and the menacing crowds whipped up by violent rhetoric. However, John Briggs himself seems to have little in common with the people around him and I don't know how he ever got appointed as coroner, unless that is another symptom of the chaos of the civil war.
The final section of the novel is a dream sequence, and it is difficult to say when John Briggs dies. Is he in a delirium, or badly wounded, or just entering a different state of mind? Hard to say. After the fire in the prison, he becomes part of the apocalyptic landscape, and wanders off, knowing that he has little time to live.
**spoiler alert** I enjoyed this novel, but I did find the story patchy. It took on a variety of themes - stock stealing, police corruption, rapes and**spoiler alert** I enjoyed this novel, but I did find the story patchy. It took on a variety of themes - stock stealing, police corruption, rapes and murders of local girls, and an evildoer in high places - and they were not quite as well combined as I would like. I also wanted more of the unique circumstances of Queensland in that era, and less about the central character's brooding over his childhood.
However, I felt very clever, because I spotted the villain early. I spotted him straight off, because of a reference to Robert Browning's poem, The Last Duchess, when the mayor is first talking about his missing wife ... oh, I thought ... so he murdered her. ...more
Another historical novel which takes up the rumours about artist Walter Sickert, and his stories about the Ripper murders. Strong characters, and a coAnother historical novel which takes up the rumours about artist Walter Sickert, and his stories about the Ripper murders. Strong characters, and a convincing portrayal of the fluctuating fortunes of the Churchill family. ...more
This novel partly is a comedy of manners, but is also a melancholy retrospective on people without bonds to those around them. I found the changes of This novel partly is a comedy of manners, but is also a melancholy retrospective on people without bonds to those around them. I found the changes of tone disconcerting, although they added some power to the story.
As many reviewers here have stated, the ending of the novel, with each pair of incompatible spouses happily finding new partners on the very same day, is both unrealistic and enjoyable. However, the next chapter - the true ending and conclusion of the story - takes up the story of the other characters, and is about sundered relationships, depressing fates, and a one-time pet dog who is left neglected to live life chained up ...
Perhaps the alternation of optimism and despair is part of the South African theme. As one character tells us, early in the novel:
'It's weird, she reflects, a little sadly, that people ... who spent their whole lives working, at great risk to their personal safety, for the kind of social change that the new government now espouses - have either melted into exile, or invisibility, or they've quietly died. And ... yesterday's eager upholders of the apartheid state, are now the best of buddies with the new black elite. But of course. One should have predicted it.'
I agree with Helen Dunmore, describing the final section of the novel:
'Trapido's comedy now carries deep undertones of sadness. Ambitions are thwarted, while dreams wither. The selfish and emotionally rapacious do not redeem themselves, while the innocent retreat, buffeted, to any place of safety they can find.'
**spoiler alert** This book is lauded, by some critics, as the great Arab novel, however, it was written in German, by a Syrian expatriate. The distan**spoiler alert** This book is lauded, by some critics, as the great Arab novel, however, it was written in German, by a Syrian expatriate. The distance, I feel, makes it in some ways a European novel.
The novel gives a winding, diffuse story line, with characters appearing and disappearing. It also gives a detailed view of the art of Arabic calligraphy, as learnt through apprenticeship in a traditional workshop. These are attractive aspects of the story.
But the novel seems limited in the way that the female characters appear so simple, as if drawn only in outline. The major part of the second half of the book is a love story, but it is unconvincing, one is never sure why those two fall in love, and novel gets more interesting when they finally run off, leaving the stage to the ex-husband.
There were several points of improbability, and what seemed like errors in the plotting. There is no reason given why the main character had no children, although he had one wife who died, then married another. The novel says vaguely that he would have liked to have children. But his childless state, in Damascus in the 1950s, would have been a matter for endless comment by his family and those around him. Yet no one seems to notice.
The other aspect of the unwinding of the plot, where the calligrapher is hired to write letters to a mystery woman, who turns out to be his own wife, is explained in a very clumsy manner. It is unclear when his wife realises this, and when he realised it, and how this contributed to the dissolution of his marriage. In his later musing on how his wife left him, he never even mentions it. Eh?...more
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