PURE, FLAWLESS HAPPINESS
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Top Reviews
A review by Olga Kohler
This is one of the most moving books I have read in recent years.
It took me a little while to really get into the book as I was a little confused by the narratives of characters who seemed to be totally unconnected.... and then the connection was made and I lived and breathed the book for the next few days of my life.
What to say? I was startled by how much I identified with Edith. My own family were involved with the second world war and their descendants (my children) are left with the legacy of Austrian relatives having served in the German army and English relatives serving in the Brish army.
Edith is one of the most poignant creations which I have encountered in literature. I loved her petty snoberies and her struggle with them. I loved her loyalty to her friends even when she betrayed them. I love her passion and I cried with her in her sadness. The ending took me into the desolation of her many years of living with loss. Her pain touched me and I, in response, felt pain for her.
My rating for this book is 9.95 out of 10. Near perfection.
A review by Sascha Rickard
I have fallen in love with this novel. At first I struggled a little with the first few chapters trying to keep up with the many characters that were being introduced. But then I suddenly felt connected with the book and was unable to put it down. I felt as if I was exploring the plot with Edith, stumbling over her discoveries with her of what the approaching and inevitable war meant to her, inaddition to all the other tribulations that we face with being human. The ending left me wanting more however realising that the more had already been covered in the build up to this point. I have just finished the book thief and now both books seem intertwined in my mind, in which the narrator describes that "I am haunted by humans", I was haunted by Edith's tale.
A review by Judy P (edited)
I enjoyed this novel immensely, it is beautifully and sensitively written. This is really Edith's story and, being written in the first person, this brings the character to life. We soon feel that we know Edith intimately, the author has the uncanny ability to "get inside her head".
I felt a sense of shock at the end, and had to sit quietly for a few moments to collect my thoughts.
Truly a triumph!
[RECEIVED BY LETTER]
A review by Kelly Sullivan
I loved this book!!!
A wonderfully written, wordy and descriptive novel that keeps the reader wanting more. It provides a deep insight into the culture and society of the late 1930's through the projections of the protagonists life and emotions.
The passionate and deep storyline enables the reader to really relate to the protagonist and characters lives and emotions, a quality that, as an author, is difficult to achieve.
I would recommend this book!!!!
Kelly Sullivan
A review by Grace
Wow! If this is your first novel, then you're on for a sure fire fantastic career. I really enjoyed this and couldn't put it down. I was amazed, and perhaps this is a sexist comment, how well, as a man, you wrote from the woman's perspective - it was beautifully and sensitively written. As an illustration of how much I was captivated by this book, my response as I turned the last page (bearing in mind that I realised that this could be the only possible ending!) was to cry! And I've spent a good few hours ever since piecing the story back together and putting things in order in my head. Very powerful.
I have 2 niggles - and one of them, I think, is probably not a niggle, but the fact that, for someone born in 1974, I have absolutely no comprehension of what life must have been like in the 2nd World War. So, for what they are worth:
Niggle no 1 - in part 2 we are introduced to the characters before the 2nd world war and I felt that there was too much anger and 'nothing is right' from Edith and Joe. As I say above, though, perhaps I can never truly understand the fear that these people lived with - and Edith and Joe were more sensitive characters than most.
Niggle no 2 - at the beginning when I was starting to learn who was who, I often found it difficult to work out who was talking as the narrative bounced from character to character. Perhaps each change of section needs to be 'signposted' a bit clearer - with a more obvious clue for a dunce like me!
Thanks to Briony for passing this book on to me. I'm now passing it on to my friend, Charlotte.
Well done, Michael and thank you.
A review by Shirley (edited)
Your super book... I was surprised and delighted when [I was] handed ... one of your books to read. I started reading it straight away and couldn't put it down. It is so good. I could really see and hear all the characters and felt as if I knew them personally, as if I was there. I was sorry when it ended and look forward to reading your next one.
Best of luck with this and future novels.
[RECEIVED BY EMAIL]
A review by Julia Hooper
I loved this book, the writing is beautiful. The book brings to life the every day times during this period in history. I was keen to finish and see what happened to the main characters, but also did not want the book to end. I look forward to reading more books by the author.
A review by John Wilde
In her eighties Edith Schwarz casts a cold eye over her life. Her parts of the narrative are in the first person, the others, tracking friends, relatives, contemporary events, are all in the third person. The basic structure of this long, ambitious and surprising novel is a sequence of club sandwiches, each one consisting of recurrent short pieces progressing the various strands of the narrative. Because each piece is self-consciously topped and tailed, momentum is sometimes impeded. It's like going on a fell walk with a companion who keeps stopping to admire the view. As a technique for marshalling all this material it does work, but calls for patience and commitment from the reader. The title keeps you going, as I think it must have kept Edith going.
There are fleeting references to the H word at long intervals in the course of the novel but there seems to be little prospect of ever encountering any real happiness let alone PFH as Edith is critical and questioning of everything, especially of herself and her own experience. Nevertheless I can reveal that Edith does in the end describe what was, for her, at the time, a genuine PFH moment so, in its own terms, which are Edith's terms, this novel does deliver. It all looks rather different in hindsight but then that's life, especially long life.
A novel is a Time Lord and Time must humour its every whim. In the case of PFH the period before and after the beginning of WWII moves at the pace of a funeral march and becomes the classic slow-motion train crash. Churchill is mentioned only as an afterthought. Here Chamberlain is in charge, desperate - like Gordon Brown today - to protect people from the consequences of his actions while drowning in a tide of events sweeping him and his world to oblivion. PFH is good at peeling away some of the myths about this bleak period and at highlighting comic aspects of day-to-day life such as the unintended consequences of the black-out.
Yet WWII, for all its sound and fury, is merely incidental to PFH. The star without any doubt is Edith Schwarz confronting the absurdity, the banality, the tragedy, the transience of human life. Cold it may be, but Edith's eye is also defiant.
A review by Harriet
I have really enjoyed this book, and am so pleased to see many others have too. At first I was dipping into it when I had a moment, but soon realised it would need my full attention in order to get properly involved with the characters and plots, and from then I was completely hooked, and needless to say did little more than read for a few days. There seems to be so much to say about this book- my husband, his mum and I have all been reading it at the same time and keep discussing it; I think it will be hard to convey all that I have been thinking about. I love the sense of the period that you have created, and the historical details included, both major and minor, creating a sense of what daily life could be like during the war and how it goes on in spite of the war; the 'war' itself impacting at first only through the radio or the newspapers on a political level, but then eaking its way closer and closer to home, gradually becoming a part of daily life, yet at many times seeming to be an abstract or distant thing, until something brutally reminds one of how close its presence really is. I like the way that the back drop to the story is in many ways the driving force of the narrative so to speak: there is real tension, atmosphere and anticipation created. The characters lives are being shaped by forces out of their control, which they rally against, or go with, often finding that the bigger changes, although ghastly to think about in the big picture, set free the individuals to act in ways perhaps previously impossible and discover themselves in a new light. It sheds real insight on class and gender issues, and has very astute characterisation. The use of description is very evocative; it is a very visual book, and the characters become more and more interesting as the tale unfolds. I love Edith as a character, and often found myself relating to her thoughts and feelings, despite how different her world is to mine. Its a very poignant book, and it left me wanting to read more; to stay with Joe and Edith and see their lives unfold in minute detail and witness their responses to other events merely hinted about in the book. I am sure there are many more stories that could be told about their lives and the characters around them. It has also left me totally fascintated by World War Two- a period I am shamefacedly quite ignorant about, but now would love to read up on, especially about the lives of ordinary people living through it. Thank you Michael- I wish you everry success with this book and the others to come- I certainly am looking forward to more of your stories, and our copies are being passed on- what a wonderful and inspiring idea.
A review by Caroline N
On being told the story behind this book - that it was self published by the author - I wanted to love it, and as such decided the only way to give it a fair trial was by being overly critical. And as such, it took me a while to get into the book. However, once the characters had been fully laid out I really started to feel for them, and wanted to know more about their story.
I found the set-up of the book really interesting; that it was predominantly set before the start of the war. I don't think I've ever read a book that describes so vividly the fear of the average Britain as a World War commences. I also really enjoyed the shift of the book - from the war, to the relationship between the two leads, and then suddenly in the last paragraph back to the war.
I was caught off-guard by the ending of the book. This may be due to Edith's remembrances not being quite a sharp and painful as I would have expected from that particular outcome, or perhaps I didn't pick up on her full emotion as I was reading the book. Either way it made me catch my breath, and ensured that I will be thinking about this story for a while to come.
I have no hesitation about passing this book on, and see no reason why it has yet to be picked up by publishers: Clearly they are fools. I really hope it succeeds despite this.
A review by Ritchie Robertson
In the late 1990s an old lady is recalling her life in the late 1930s. Hers is interwoven with two other lives, a man’s and a woman’s, which are recounted in the third person. The reader gets involved in a circle of sympathetic and attractive people whose fates matter. Don’t be put off by the leisurely start, the melancholy tone of the old lady’s reflections, or the cross-cutting from one character’s experience to another’s. Once the three main characters have been established, the story settles down and we proceed through chapters, each identified with a month, from the Munich Agreement of autumn 1938 to the late summer of 1940.
The atmosphere of the time is recreated in considerable social and historical detail. We learn, for example, about driving a car in the blackout. We are reminded that in 1940 a German invasion seemed a real and imminent danger, and that not everyone was impressed by Churchill’s rhetoric. Above all, the bombing of London is presented freshly through characters for whom it is not history but a new and awful experience.
The interplay between history and individual biography is central to the novel. Individual lives are fluid. They can develop in many different ways. Chance can play a large part, helping to open up professional and sexual opportunities. Several of the characters are on the uneasy borderline between the working and middle classes, and for them the sense of new opportunities is particularly strong – especially for women. But while individual lives keep turning in new, unpredictable directions, history, as indicated by the chapter headings, grinds on remorselessly, shutting down possibilities as well as creating others.
A great merit of this novel is that so much is conveyed through its structure. There is absolutely no sermonizing from the author or his narrators. The meandering movement of the characters’ lives is set against the linear march of history. But there is a third element: the author is firmly though unobtrusively in control of his narrative, and he knows how to time climactic events and revelations so that they have the force of a killer punch. Only afterwards does the reader realize that these moments have been subtly prepared for. Climaxes and discoveries accumulate towards the end of the book, so one must persevere. Although I had a little difficulty getting into the book, I became engrossed, and after the narrative shocks that are delivered in the last eighty or so pages, I put the book down with a feeling close to awe.
A review by Sonia Esteves (edited)
I had the privilege of having 'Pure, Flawless Happiness' recommended to me by [...] This book gives the reader a window view of how people thought, spoke and interacted while history was being made. This is a remarkable first novel which combined humanity and perceptiveness. Can not wait for Michael Swaine's next novel!
A review by Erin
Both the illustration on the cover of this book and the title are intriguing. 'Pure Flawless Happiness' - will reading this novel help me to achieve this type of happiness? I ask myself. Or will I find out what makes other people feel this kind of happiness? This is what captivated me before I began to read.
I read novels every day of my life and if it doesn't engage me or 'speak to me' in a short period of time I will put it down and leave it for someone else to pick up. With this novel there was never any real decision to be made. Once I had started reading, it never occurred to me to stop reading. I was hooked.
The characters were real to me and the story enticed me in to a world I wasn't familiar with. I was there in the late 1930's in England and war was coming. Now for an Australian woman that is a journey I didn't necessarily know I wanted to make.
Although the story, the setting and the characters are uniquely English the themes are universal.
The novel gave me insight into a time in history but not from an academics point of view. I learnt about the London Blitz from a young woman named Edith . A woman who survived it and so many more experinces in her long life. Experiences that would challenge the sanity of many of us, no matter what the year, no matter what the place.
I relished the time I spent reading this novel. I found it engaging endearing and enriching and well worth the time I spent experiencing it. I would read more novels written by Michael Swaine and I hope to meet up with these characters again sometime.
A review by Ken (edited)
Just finished the book!... involved in regard to time & characters... I was impressed. In fact I found the book a quite extraordinary one, full of incident - dramatic, amusing, moving & so on. Perhaps I enjoyed most the "interludes", the occasional breaks to the main story which I found quite fascinating. A job well done!
[RECEIVED BY LETTER]
A review by Mary
In constrast to a lot of people who have read and reveiwed this book, i really enjoyed the first half and although it did jump around a lot i found myself needing and wanting to keep reading to find out how the story developed and how all the characters were connected. I personally felt that it flowed and kept me interested with well timed cutbacks to different times. My critism would be that although i loved the way the book was written and was gripped most of the way through by a build up to 'something', this 'something' never quite happened for me and i felt a bit lost or disappointed because of it. But maybe this is unfair because i do not really know what i was looking for that i was not given!
In any case i enjoyed the book immensely, will pass it on and would read another by the author.
A review by Dr Elisabeth Parfitt
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It drew me into the world of these young people living through the drama of the Second World War and I found it hard to put the book down. I have read a number of non-fiction works based on the Mass-Observation archives from the war. Not surprisingly, as the author also drew on the Mass-Observation archives, many of the themes running through this novel mirror those found in the non-fiction accounts. However, by putting flesh on the bones of his characters the author manages to make the war seem so much more real. When I came to the final, tragic ending I was deeply moved and felt more connected to the reality of that world than I can I remember feeling in any of my other reading on the war.
A review by David Blake
I read this book when I went on holiday to Bali. It is perhaps not the kind of book I would usually read, so I was unsure how'd I receive it. I have to say though, I.... really liked it!! The first part is a bit confusing with it jumping all over the place between different characters and different times. But once you've got through all that and discover the main characters you really get into it. I love the non-linear approach that the book takes, it manages to introduce important plot features subtely before you realise they are important. Then it slowly unfolds how it got there as you realise how important it really was. I love the characters and the interaction between them. Particularly Edith and Joe. But this leads me on to my one criticism of the book - its not finished!! Where was the last chapter? The whole book built up to the final discourse between Edith and Joe, and then I'm left to just imagine what happened? Without this last chapter its kind of like telling a joke and stopping right before the punchline.
It kind of renders everything that happened in the book meaningless because we never actually get to find out what happens! Please write the last chapter! And then email it to me :)
Overall though, I thought this book was really good and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I live in Australia so when I find the right person I will pass it on.
A review by Antoinette Nandris
Michael Swaine' s novel underlines serious documentary research. It unveils an ambitious project to use Twentieth Century modernist narrative techniques in order to achieve the maximum of the text's visual component and withdraw the author from the interplay between the characters and their powerful encounter with History. The immediate effect of such techniques in this case is to allow the narrative to be imagined as a film. Maybe the writer even sought a fragmented stream of consciousness textuality to allude that twentieth century lives sound are more resonnant in images rather than in memoirs. Then another well-known but still difficult to manipulate technique strikes the reader: the first person narrative. And a woman at that.
The main character is Edith, born an Austrian, with a Jewish father, but who has lived in England. Her narrating voice tells us that she is in her eighties, she has a gay son and a grand daughter Lilly to whom most of the story seems dedicated and addressed. Her memory jumps from the present to the early years of the Second World War when she lived most intensely. We assume that since those decisive and dramatic years of horror, freindships, love, art, and unforgettable sexual and erotic moments, her life had faded away in a post-war anti-climax.
Edith's story is indeed very engaging, and at times I as a reader felt a desire for identification with her longings and with what was going on with her relationships. This, as well as the master strokes of unexpected eroticism, could reach a wide audience at a very deep personal level. And such readers can be both men and women, for the novel carries its own masculinity despite the center stage being dedicated to a woman and to her women friends.
My main criticism would focuse on the almsot total lack of help on behalf of the writer to support the narrative's consistency. We are left to our own devices and power of concentration in oredr to keep track of the characers' names and of who is who in the text. I needed more guidance, more story telling, more care from the writer, especially in the first 50 or 60 pages. Images and words affect our mind differently, and if we read a novel, we wish we can dive in it and loose ourselves happily,then find our own way to the end. But, it seems, Michael Swaine left us helpless at the beginning of his textual maze, and told us to deal with it as we can. I carried reading, being at the same time fully aware of the writer's indifference to me as a reader. Maybe the novel would become more publishable if he showed us more compassion through more intervention to build on the text's logic and coherence.
The novel has a lot of substance. The characters are very credible and alive. The discourse as a whole is quite fascinating and crosses the centuries in a very Twentieth Century way - abrupt and loaded with emotional confusion. But the novel is equally addressed to the majority of readers, and its official publication would be a major success. The novel has all the features of a wide-audience, best-selling book, but, in my opinion, the writer needs to sit and explain more to his readers. Then we will all rejoice.
A review by JAMES B
I'm not a great fiction reader, however, after I'd managed to overcome the frequently changing times and location I got into the story well. I eventually got to the point where I wanted to pick up the book again and continue reading. I was drawn to the end - a very stunning end!
I'm sure most readers will relate to many of the feelings expressed by the characters in the story. I experienced quite a few myself which brought "real life" to the book.
The storyline was complicated (for a non fiction reader!) but was a good reminder that life is just that - complicated.
A very clever storyline which will touch most readers I'm sure, however, the title is not one which would have me reaching for it from the bookshop shelf.
Good work Michael!
A review by Lyn Banner
I found it difficult to immerse myself in the book initially and to visualise the characters. Normally I would abandon a book at this stage however, in this case I perservered and was pleased that I had. The emotion and fear of a people at war was beautifully expressed. It just got better and better and I couldn't put the book down. I was disappointed when I finished the book, there is definately more of the story waiting to be told.
A review by Juliet
When I began this novel it took me a while to understand what was going on. The reader must patiently insist if they want to discover the treasure of your writing.
However, as your telling of the interweaving tales of love, life and war in the forties developed I found my staler preconceptions of history, my parents’ generation and the ‘way things were’ interestingly challenged by your fresh, vigorous characterisation and poetic prose. Suddenly I wanted to read more. You have a gift for evoking the present, albeit in the narrative past, which makes each moment seem shiningly, sparklingly vivid. I associate such vividness with the innocence of my youth and bygone ages. It is not a coy innocence though, it is virile and sensual.
Equally important in the unrolling of the gently-gripping story is your mastery of dialogue. Speech effortlessly drops into and produces the story.
I liked the relationship between the grandmother and Lily, her granddaughter. It represents a mythical ideal of compassion and humorous complicity in the reciprocal understanding of youth and age.
The ride though is not all smooth. The sudden shifts of time and place often jar. In principal, these could have worked well, but I found at times it took me a second too long for me to recognise which one of the book’s worlds I was in, and this found me momentarily suspending belief in the artifice of the story, and consequently rather miffed. Is it intentional that the reader is left in suspense in this way?
Whilst its depth and the research behind it make it far more than what the term ‘holiday read’ can denote, this is what it was for me, and I very much enjoyed retreating to my deck chair to savour its strengths in snatched moments.
Good luck.
Juliet
A review by lila
I had the privilege of reading this book first in its manuscript form and I remember that I enjoyed it immensely - mostly because I am a visual person and as I read this novel it unfolded for me like a film. Its scenes from one time period to another were very evocative of good cinema and I thought at the time that it would adapt to a film script very well. This first impression has been confirmed by my second reading of the book.
I came to this country as a young teenager in 1956 and very soon was immersed into the life of this country through attending a very English boarding school, and through experiencing living with different English families during the school holidays, which my guardian at the time arranged for me. I remember that the memory and experience of the war was still very much alive for most of the older generation that I met. From them I heard many accounts of their experiences of living through the war. Also, through living the rest of my life in this country and with my own interest in politics and history, I have got to know fairly well the war period and the war conditions in Britain. This book brought to live for me what I had got to know about the war - the relentless bombing of London, the black outs; the fear of people anticipating and then experiencing it; the rationing and its everyday implication for the ordinary people; people making their way through the rubbles to reach their homes to see if any thing was left standing! In this book through the characters (Edith, Joe, Ellen and the others - such as Edith's mother and her worries about rationing), one palpably experiences these events.
The character of Edith is wonderfully unfolded through her inner thoughts and feeling and her sexuality which for me as a woman was very sensitively and sympathetically portrayed. There have been male writers in the past that have portrayed female characters well and this is amongst one of the best. As someone who has dabbled in art and also is fascinated by women's body's in paintings (Degas, being one of the best examples), I found Edith's fascination and sense of protection, while at the same time modesty about her nude body painted by Winifred was very understandable and the understated importance given to this painting was very relevant to understanding of her sexuality and other aspects of her character. This particular theme for me was one of the best examples of art living through literature art.
The relationship of Edith with her granddaughter, Lily, and the mutual support that they gave to each other was I thought very sensitively portrayed, and Edith's fear and concern that she should not be too demanding, is very real to me, as a grandmother seeing old age on the horizon!
There were many graphic and beautiful descriptions of land and sea scapes as well as flora and fauna, which no doubt must be the result of the authors natural affinity with nature and the English country side.
The detailed and meticulous research that has gone into this novel is impressive and hence it gives such authenticity to themes, characters, and events in the story. The sexuality and the sex scenes in the book are sensitive and absolutely believable - there is no reason to think that there was any difference at that time in sexual feelings and experiences, or any less of it than in the present time - and indeed they may even be enhanced by the urgency and danger in a war situation.
The author is very knowledgeable about the war period and the period leading up to it. I thought the inclusion of the theme of the Spanish Civil War was very relevant to the development of the story, as indeed it was very poignant for many people in that period. I liked the character of Nat and its present in the story as a contrast to Norman, both of whom had fought in Spain - as minor characters both play and important part in portraying the types that went to fight in Spain.
The beginning of the book certainly provides a challenge to the reader as scenes move in and out of different time periods and many of both major and minor characters are introduced in quick progression - you need a little perseverance to get through it, but once you do, and as the narrative and characters gain momentum and continuity, then it becomes quite an engrossing novel. I have a small reservation regarding the use of certain swear words as I felt they have acquired coinage in the modern time, where as they were not in use in the war period or immediately after the war. However, I may be wrong as the author has been quite meticulous in his research about the period. The author writes here that he intends this as part of a trilogy. I - think the novel certainly lends itself to being part of a trilogy, as life of many of the characters, especially that of Edith's after the war would be fascinating to follow.
I enjoyed the book very much and hope that it will be successful in getting a publisher in order to gain wider circulation. There are so many books in the market that one often asks if some of them indeed merit publication - this one certainly does.
A review by Ali
On starting this book, I found it a little difficult to get into. However, I was soon hooked on the character of Edith and wanted to get under her skin and know about her life.
I enjoyed the many history lessons embedded in the book. In a way it reminded me of 'Vile Bodies'; the notion of ongoing happiness and the lifestyle afforded to certain classes in the face of ongoing adversity.
About half way through I got totally hooked, the plot twists are awe inspiring. Congratulations Michael on a wonderful achievement, I hope 'Pure Flawless Happiness' gets the recognition it deserves.
A review by Andrea Walford
Initally I found getting started on this book quite difficult. It is not period of history that normally interests me. Having said that, once I had started I had the same feeling I had with Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, I knew that I HAD to read on. By Part Four I began to undertand the characters, and how they were connected. The descriptive writing was beautiful and bought to life the moments that these people were living through, their surroundings, and their emotions. A story of lost loves that should have been, which has left me wondering how things could have been so different for the characters. There is so much more that I want to know about them now, all of them, the things that happened to them after the war, particullary to Edith following the events at the end of the book. This is a great platform for more books about these same characters, and their interwoven lifes. This novel would make an excellent drama series and I will certainly recomend it to friends and family - Thank you for the opportunity to read it.
A review by Joanna Hill (edited)
Well, what a novel idea - please excuse the pun! My friend got this book through freecycle and passed it on to me! I am really inspired by this author's inventiveness and ways of trying to get round the frustrating barriers set up by the publishing world these days.
I really enjoyed this book! Yes, some bits were challenging e.g. the early part when characters are introduced and the time sequence flips back and forth. But that shouldn't put anybody off. It's one of those books where you've just got to trust that it will all fall into place soon - and it does!
There are lots of things I enjoyed about this book: the simplicity of the language, the sensitive and sensitively drawn main characters (Edith and Joe), the subtle use of the writer's obvious in-depth research such that it both helps set the atmosphere of the period and at the same time succeeds in not overwhelming the reader with 'historical facts', the complexity of the structure which is a challenge at times but no less a satisfying one.
The only thing I wanted more of what about Edith's life post-war.....What was is like living through mental breakdown/depression and being treated by psychiatrists of that era? I dread to think, but I nevertheless am compelled to imagine and would love to know.
This book is, terms of authenticity of style, emotional truthfulness and storyline is as good as many others I have read - and these include novels which have gained great accolade in the press and won many awards. I really hope that this gets published and the readership and recognition it deserves. Good luck! (PS, it’s a very visual novel and I think it would make a good film or TV drama!)
[EDITED - MINOR PLOT 'SPOILER' REMOVED]
A review by Stephanie
Pure Flawless Happiness is not only a good read, but also brings home what life must have been like for ordinary people in the period leading up to and during the Second World War.
I grew up in the 1950s in Plymouth, where there were bomb-sites everywhere and the only shops were in Nissen huts. At much the same age as Edith, my mother had experienced a bomb flattening her house while she and the rest of her family were under the stairs. I have therefore always regarded the Blitz in a matter-of-fact way, but this book brings home just how horrendous it must have been.
The book moves backwards and forwards over a sixty-year period (1938–1940, and 1997–2001), and contrasts very poignantly the hopes and expectations of youth with the disappointment, constraints, and trials of old age. Michael Swaine is extraordinary in that not only can he get under the skin of a woman, but of a woman at the two extremes of her adult life.
I found the narrative a little confusing at first (why was it moving to Norfolk?), but eventually it all came together, and it was a hard book to put down, which is an achievement when you already know there will be no unexpected denouement because the story started at the end.
This novel deserves a wide circulation.
A review by Carol
Thank you for sending me your book. I have already passed it on as I know it will appeal to many of my friends. I really enjoyed reading it and found it difficult to put down.
I loved the rich language , and the way you portrayed the atmosphere of the time and place. I was particularly impressed by your ability to write as "Edith". You dealt with her inner aspirations, emotions, her sexuality and her ageing with great sensitivity. You captured well that aspect of life where you become almost different people as you age and have life-experiences that shape you. The unexpected reactions the characters had to eg news of impending war ,was refreshing, and felt authentic.
A couple of little niggles for me--I found it a bit tricky at the beginning as the narrative jumped between the groups of characters and between eras, but as soon as I got used to this style , and as the characters started to connect with one another, it became clearer. Also, the ending was a little precipitous, if not altogether unexpected!
A review by Norma
The clarity of the lovely, respectful relationship between Edith and Lily conveyed consise emotions and images. I could see them and felt their unspoken understanding of each other. I could hear Edith telling her story. Her tone was that of a gentle old lady rather like Arthur Goldens' Sayuri. I wanted to hear more about how Edith viewed the past, emotionally and sexually.
The narrative flowed beautifully in both time zones but the movement between past and present caused some confusion. It was evident that Micheal Swaine had researched the 1930's transporting me to another time and place. The flashbacks would work wonderfully well in a screen play.
Micheal Swaines' first novel shows promise as an author. The skill in the present day narrative was delightful. I look forward to his next novel.
A review by jane smith
Hi, a friend of mine passed this book on to me. I didn't know quite what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I really liked the present day and then the flash back memories to the past. Though it took me a little while to get used to the shift in the time sequences. I thought the writing was very evocative of the 1930s/early 40s, and really felt I was seeing and breathing the events of the times, as reflected by the key characters. I was a little taken by surprise by the sexuality and sexual preoccupations of the key characters, and this made me reflect upon my own presumptions/prejudices that somehow people were more chaste in those days (probably based on black and white films which give a rather simplistic and overly 'decent' view of the times!). I really felt for Edith, her identity/sexual crises; her need for something more from life, without really knowing what it is....until she finds it and loses it.
I was moved to tears by the ending. I almost galloped through the last third of the book, so gripped by the people and events. It was a heart-rending ending. It struck me how true a comment it was on our emotional lives: how living truly in the present is to be alive; to love deeply is exhilaration, and the deeper the love the greater the pain or loss that may accompany it.
I really wish the writer all the best. I have a friend who is in the writing game so I know how hard it is to get published these days. So please don't give up, you have a really good book here and it deserves to be read more widely! I will be sure to pass this worthy novel on to another reader. Best of luck! Jane
A review by Roger (edited)
...I'm very glad to have read this book. It's very well written, with a sure feel for narrative values and a strong and unobtrusive style. It moves its characters confidently across the landscapes of England in the late 1930s and early years of World War II...
Since the novel is principally about the period 1938-40, it's a story about the way the different characters cope with first the threat, and then the reality, of war. (In that sense, although it's anchored very precisely to that time and that place, and to cultural attitudes which we might hope are long gone, the book speaks to any generation, including our own, though for us the threats are posed by terrorism, climate change, and economic collapse.)...
The novel is extremely adroit in the way it constantly postpones its expected climax (the bombing of London) almost to the very end, in much the same way that characters are seeking displacement of their anxieties through other social activities...
...a special point to the work's insistence - clearly revealed in the title, which it acknowledges it has taken from one of its principal sources - that happiness remains a viable option for the characters, most often not as a result of anything they have done, and most often in the teeth of the most terrible adverse situations. Consequently, the horrors of war, when finally it comes, are inseparable from a strange and terrifying beauty....
As strong as the narrative's realisation of its (anti)climaxes is its sure sense of time and place (the writer has done his researches with exemplary thoroughness). I especially like its evocation of the huge skies and rolling landscapes of East Anglia, and the coast of Cornwall. London is well handled, too, particularly the details of the blackout and the preparations in the public spaces for the Blitz...
There is, it has to be admitted, a challenge in getting across the mind-numbing anxiety of the time without numbing the reader's mind, too, by constant repetition...
...it's worth noting that dialogue is not always the book's long suit. There are inconsistent attempts to realise working-class idiom by means of ungrammatical expressions....
Another question relates to figures which are referred to but not developed in the narrative. Possibly some of these are intended for a sequel or sequels.
The past is certainly a presence in the narrative. Witness...the regular device of interrupting the present-tense narrative with details of a previous scene, usually represented in the pluperfect tense ...This insertion of the past into the present occurs sufficiently regularly to almost become a narrative tic. It doesn't, though, dramatise the interaction of past and present that we get, say, in the novels of Patrick White.
Comparison with Patrick White, though, suggests only that the author is not a candidate for the Nobel prize, any more than the numerous novels that have made it into print and crowd the bookshelves as I write. It is, though, a work of considerable promise and accomplishment, and it really deserves to reach a wider audience...
I wish it very well.
A review by Nick
It seems to me that a novel has probably succeeded, if it becomes possible both to visualise the characters, and to care about what happens to them. The novel hugely succeeds in both respects. Will the further lives of any of the characters appear in future novels from this author? - it would be good to feel that they might.
Another way of judging a book, is if it presents any challenges and questions to the reader, that cause him to question his perceptions or take a different perspective on them; does the trauma of warfare change the way a 'polite society' works, superficially or profoundly? And how does it change the way that individuals allow themselves to connect and relate?
The 1939-45 war impacted on everyone in this nation, even if sometimes in insubstantial and cosmetic ways; it's sometimes possible to forget this in a world where war is kept so distant, so sanitised, and for someone whose only experience is the loss of a one-time school friend in the distant South Atlantic in 1982 - what goes on in the hearts of people whose dear ones are in clear and constant danger?
Some of the narrative of 1939 - 1940 reflects memories from my grandmother, living not so very far away from the setting of this novel in East Anglia; the distribution of gas-masks, and how this made ordinary people feel that a war and its impacts might not be so very far distant even from their quiet lives; the trials of a village petrol station, trying to remain useful to its locality and to a somewhat virtual 'war-effort' even in the absence of any petrol: features such as this, the product of the author's careful research over many years, really connected.
But what holds the novel together is a network of love stories, expressed (or not expressed) over the course of sixty years; chance meetings that impact on lives for decades, and connections played out under the pressures of danger and fear that are foreign to modern Britain.
A criticism of the structure, may be that the chapters jump from one time and space context to another, and until I got used to this format (which I did), I occasionally got lost as to just where and when I was! So it is a novel that requires close attention, which it repays in spades.
Having said that, I tend to be a slow reader, of novels or of anything else; I was amazed at how rapidly I made my way through this book, and if that happened, it was because of the pace and strength of the narrative.
All in all, a very strong debut for this writer, and I'm hoping for more...
A review by Katharine
This book provoked a lively discussion at my book group the other day!
Like a number of other readers, I found the early chapters of this book difficult to follow, the changes of time, tense and the fairly rapid introduction of a range of characters were all distracting. However, once I had settled into the story, and got to know the characters I did enjoy "Pure Flawless Happiness." It is well written, with a loving attention to period detail, and the structure of the story, with individuals' life stories unfolding against the backdrop of world war, is strong.
The ending, in particular, is worth waiting for.
Well done, Michael. I am looking forward to you next novel.
A review by Martin Cattermole
Did I enjoy reading this book?
Very much
Have I passed it on to others?
Yes and yes (both copies)
Have I posted a review?
Pure flawless happiness is a serious attempt to describe the different ways in which people react to war. It shows how fear and uncertainty can breed prejudice. The book has a fresh angle as it focuses on the long drawn out build up to war in 1938 and 1939. The book is strengthened by being based on accounts written by people at the time. Very relevant for our times.
A review by Cathy Cameron
Initially, as I read each chapter, I was not quite sure which character I was reading about and which period of time I was in. However I persevered and thoroughly enjoyed this story of innocence, unrequited love and wartime drama.
A review by Andy O'Hanlon
By February 1939 (page 124) I was really enjoying Edith's recollections and discovering more about her journey through the twentieth century. All the characters felt real and I could imagine each having a book of their own.
The structure of the novel is strong. I found the narrative weakened by the use of the third person but it is all beautifully written.
I will happily pass the book on and recommend it as a good read. Many thanks
A review by Kirsty
I enjoyed this book although, as with some other reviewers, I felt the jumps from one character / timeframe to another within the "wartime" sections could be confusing and perhaps need to be tightened. Also, there were some threads which didn't seem to lead anywhere and it was hard to understand why they had been included, such as suspicion for a murder falling on Joe.
Having said that, there is some lovely language and a good sense of period, particularly around workers' education and the class differences of the 1930s. I'm not very skilled at expressing my feelings and opinions about books, so perhaps it will do to say that I thought this was a better read than "The Night Watch", anotherWWII set novel which also uses a shifted timeline.
A review by Gillian (edited)
I really enjoyed the book. I finished it a few weeks ago now, and still find that the main characters and certain scenes have stayed with me. There are some memorable scenes and it seems to me that it captures the atmosphere of the times well, particularly in the later stages, once the war has actually begun. It's obviously very well researched, but it's also beautifully written, with a real warmth and humanity to it. I really cared about the characters, and felt that Edith in particular was well rounded and believable. The language is deceptively simple and smooth - it rarely hits a wrong note. It certainly bears slow and thoughtful reading.
I felt that the book particularly got into its stride in parts three and four, when the reader gets to know more about and build up sympathy for the characters and there's more sustained narrative. I found the constant dotting around between time periods in the first two parts a little irritating. By the third and fourth parts, the flashbacks are much more smoothly integrated into the text by theme and plot, and feel much more natural, and the narrative flows much more easily.
I felt Part One threw up too many issues too quickly - Lady Di's funeral, a gay dad, a Jewish dad, a dead dad, a dance with a lover, another loving going off to a different war, the Blitz, the king's abdication. It felt like a breathless rush to name check every important event of the 1930s-40s, and perhaps too great an attempt to hit on something that would catch the reader's attention?
For me, Part Two lacked character development, with too much focus on people following the news on Munich and their fear of bombs. I wanted more of the trivial stuff of their everyday lives, to show me who these people were and illuminate their characters and backgrounds. Much later in the novel, it is revealed that Edith is a member of the Left Book Club - so her interest in politics and standpoint makes more sense - but at the time of reading this part, the heavy altruistic worry over the fate of the Czechs didn't really ring true.
There are some beautiful descriptions of nature, for example a sudden reference to the flowers growing by the side of a road. Still, I'd have liked more description of the surroundings - especially to give more of a sense of place; much of the early action is set in a rural village and on the coast, but I didn't get a strong feel of where events were taking place. Oxford and Hampstead are more clearly described, and I could really picture Edith's house and why she loved it so much.
I really didn't like the scene with the gypsy fortune teller - I thought it was horribly contrived and clumsy, especially coming so soon after the excellent tennis party section.
I liked the character of Lily and the way her relationship with her gran develops. But what is the point of Becky? Surely she's superfluous. Likewise, I'm not sure why Edith has a brother if he is not referred to in the text
Anyway, best of luck with the novel. It really does deserve a wider audience.
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A review by Virginia
There is much to applaud in Michael Swaine's first novel, from the arresting opening to its' poignant ending. The atmosphere of the Second World War is well recreated: the early problems caused by blackouts, the central character's mother hoping tea won't be rationed, the people who defy air raids, and the terrifying randomness of bombings. There is also some beautiful writing, in the opening passage, the descriptions of Cornwall, and Norfolk and London during the Blitz. The central dilemma of the relationship between Edith and Joe is well evoked, and I liked the sense that happiness can be found in the most unlikely situations.
This is a first novel, and some things didn't quite work for me. The characters of Ellen and Joan could have been more fleshed out, sometimes the author's knowledge of the period intruded on the action, occasionally the dialogue sounded a little too modern. The final segments of the book also felt a bit rushed - this could have been eased if some of the earlier sections were a little shorter. I would have liked to see more and understand a bit more about Edith's periods of "madness".
However, these are minor points. This novel shows a lot of promise and I look forward to seeing future work from Michael Swaine.
A review by Ken (edited)
...I have started reading your book and found it immensely readable... my very best wishes for the book's success. What a title! Truly compelling.
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A review by Anne
I enjoyed the book enough to keep reading to find out what happens to the characters. However it took me a while to relate properly to the characters, possibly because there was so much swopping between eras in the first part of the book. I found it quite slow to start with, then it seemed to gain momentum, and became more readable. The end was dramatic and came as a shock, and I felt that some of the content of the last few pages could have started earlier, and been dealt with in more detail. I think the book would have been better paced had this been the case.
The historical detail seemed a bit overdone and self conscious, but perhaps that was because I got the book thro' MO, and knew that the author had done a lot of research with the help of MO.
I became increasingly interesting in the characters as the book progressed, but thought much of the dialogue was rather stilted - over use of the name of the person being addressed, and endearments like "dear". I really liked the descriptions of countryside and weather - I could feel and smell them, and consequently seem to share the experiences of the characters.
Finally I did not much like the title, and really disliked the cover. I almost certainly wouldn't have picked this book up in a book shop, unless I had prior knowledge of it.
For all this criticism I will look out for your next book!
A review by sanchia pearse
Thank you. I enjoyed this book and found it very readable. I liked the juxtaposition of times from the 1940s to 1990s. I also liked the idea of using ordinary people's diaries for your research background. I still have my father's but have not got round to doing anything with them. So, congratulations on actually producing a book! As you say, it must have been fascinating actually doing the background reading.
My criticisms are that I didn't quite believe in Edith. Joe came across much better to me. I found some of the dialogue rather stilted for example p.142 when Stella says,'My God, what a self-possessed primadonna I am!' and other times when I felt dialogue was used to lecture a little bit.
Sometimes, your use of similes seemed overstretched. E.g. p.52 A small hum of embarrassment begins to lift from its stillness, like a beat of a dragonflies wings as it is disturbed from its stillness.' It seemed unnecessary repetition. Others jarred on me as when you described clearing away the debris from the table 'like so many amputated limbs' p.47. This seemed bordering on bad taste.
I am looking forward to discussing the book at book club tomorrow at the Open University and seeing how others felt.
Thank you again for an interesting book and good luck with your others.
Best wishes,
Sanchia
I loved some of the descriptions, for example, when Edith finds the rabbit with the broken back on p.214.
A review by Claire Shelton-Jones
It was a hard book to get into and the time jumps were confusing - particularly when you thought you were in one time sequence but then there was yet another flashback. It made a lot of demands on the reader. I persevered though because the characters were so strong - particularly when a link between the two sets was established! I did enjoy the book a lot and there was a strong narrative but I was annoyed by the abrupt heartbreaking ending and all the loose ends. Characters were killed off so abruptly. I know there was a war on but they deserved a bit more space to have their ends described!Most of all how did the story end in the present day? I think my main criticism would be that too many significant events were squeezed in in diary form. It didn't quite work as a novel but it could, with a bit of tweaking. I think it would make a good film or TV play with the narrative a bit more straightforward.
A review by Fionna Miskelly
I was drawn to this book, although i am not usually drawn to novels, because of my involvement in the Mass Observation project. I could clearly see that you had completed a great deal of research via the project and therefore the voice of Edith echoed down the years and onto your pages. I struggled as other reviewers did to get to grips with the first quarter of the book due to criss-crossing over time and between characters which meant that i struggled to follow the story line and it lacked a coherent flow. However, the way in which Edith came alive towards the end of the book worked well. You used a series of characters to reflect the pathos and uncertainty of the pre-war period well and coveyed the impact of rapid change on their personalities as well as on society. In particular, Joe had an edge which i presume was drawn from research and worked well.
I'm not sure if it was neccessary to introduce so many issues and yet to leave them undeveloped; a gay father, loyalties to friends which were not developed as characters and a tense relationship between mother and son.This left too many questions which became a frustration.
The ending of the novel was a shock but i think made sense in that it epitomised exactly the times that Edith lived in and therefore contributed to the success of the character.
As a first novel my view was that it was a mixed blessing but got better as the characters were developed. I also understood where the title came from but this didn't attract me to the book nor give me an indication of the content. That said, having read many accounts of the second world war, women did have a sense of liberation which is often overlooked.
Please let me have a copy of your second book in this series and don't give up! I moved through a range of emotions when reading your book; elation, depression and thoughtfulness amongst others which is , i hope, an encouragement!
A review by Daphne (edited)
Original. Memorable. Frustrating.
This book irritated me a lot, but it also held my interest and is staying in my memory.
I liked its avoidance of cliche and stereotypes. This was a very fresh look at pre-war and wartime England.
I appreciated the obviously huge amount of research, but sometimes it seemed that the characters were just mouthpieces for recorded thoughts and sentiments.
This could be because of what I thought was the book's biggest weakness - stilted and unreal dialogue, with people using each other's names in virtually every sentence.
Too many characters and incidents seemed to be included just for the sake of it. So storylines were not fully developed, and some people - like Stella and Winifred - were really superfluous.
I felt there was too much hopping around in time and place, and the switching between first and third person narrative felt clumsy. It would have been justified if Joe, Jean, Ellen and co had revealed themselves as very different from Edith's perception of them, but this didn't happen.
The ending didn't come off either...
In spite of all these negative comments, I had to finish this book - just because I wanted to know what happened next! (And that’s the mark of a good story!) Some of the characters, particularly Nat and Joe, were very interesting, and I was left wanting to know more about them
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A review by Sue Collett
I have just finished reading your book which has taken me twice as long as usual to read because I did struggle with first half, picking it up and putting it down frequently. I'm glad that I persevered, however, as the last quarter was the best and when I got to the end I couldnt put it down as I needed to know how the story would unfold. It finished too soon, though and I wanted more to happen between the two main characters. The war setting was good and all the characters were easy to believe and although it had me thinking along the Titanic storyline, this didnt spoil it for me. I will definately pass the book on to my friends with the advice to give it the benefit of a full read.
A review by Susan Croxson
This book's account of life before and during WW11 was obviously extensively researched and I found the details of life during the war, particularly the sustained bombing of London, very moving and well described
However I found the structure of the novel unsatisfactory. The frequent changes in characters, time and place made the book very difficult to get in to and I think this complicated tale would make a greater impact as a TV serial.
I feel that the author attempted to deal with too many difficult issues in one book.
Susan Croxson
A review by Peter
I had to force myself to get beyond the first 50 or 60 pages. Overall, it was not totally gripping, but held my interest enough for me to carry on.
I didn’t like the way it was chopped into small sections., and was also unhappy with the jumping between periods of history, and with the switching between first and third person narrative.
On the positive side, the wartime background was done very well, though I got confused between some of the characters – particularly Edith and Ellen.
I didn’t find Edith particularly sympathetic, but she was interesting. However, there was no sense of how her character developed between the war years and the end.
I would have liked more about Frank, and about Edith’s relationship with David. The relationship with Stella was skated over a bit, and the coup de theatre at the end was not really followed up. Still, I loved Lily – very well drawn and rather fun.
The conversation felt less unreal once the story moved into modern times. All the archive material was excellent, but sometimes seemed too obvious – not integrated enough. Actually, the book seemed about one-third too long, and I thought it needed a good editor.
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A review by Anne
I found this book quite a struggle to get into with so much jumping around in time: maybe this was meant to indicate the working of Edith’s memory - we don’t think our recollections through in a linear way. In fact I just gave up trying to work out what was happening when and I still have no idea when, for example, Winifred and Stella arrive on the scene. I wish I’d given up sooner as most of the story seemed to happen in the last hundred pages or so anyway, and they did behave in a reasonably linear way.
The book is obviously well researched and the prose itself is effortless to read but I never really felt that I understood most of the characters: why their various relationships occurred (or didn’t), why, for example, Ellen who seems at first the liveliest and perhaps least conventional of the girls, in the end gives Joe only a sense of comfort and safety. I do however feel, as has been said by many other reviewers, that the book would make a great screenplay: with actors inhabiting the roles I imagine they might well become more sympathetic (to me, anyway – it seems most other reviewers have no problem with them) and the timelines would most likely become more obvious. A screenplay would also get rid of that annoying flipping between first and third person narrative which tended to distract me from the story.
On the whole the book gave me what certainly felt like a genuine feel for the period and I would certainly be prepared to try another novel by the author, but I won’t be carrying these characters with me.
A review by Margaret F.
This was very hard work, I'm afraid. Here is a story set round the adult life of Edith, a young woman when the second World War begins, and featuring a number of people who come into contact with Edith. Throughout the novel, but especially early on, the scene skips constantly from one episode to another; by page 6 we are on the fifth scene, by just past page 10, there have been 9 switches. The episodes do become a little longer later in the book, but the effect is anything but helpful. Fresh characters arrive; I found myself flicking back a few pages, time and again, to remind myself who somebody was. The fact that most characters sounded like each other when they spoke (Nat being a notable exception) added to the confusion.
Another problem for me: I find present-tense narrative really annoying; enough to put me off buying a book. It's rather fashionable at the moment, and I suspect in some quarters the dead hand of creative writing courses may be to blame ("fresher, more immediate") but it doesn't always work, and I don't think it did here. It seemed to get in the way, adding an artificiality and a stilted air to a narrative already struggling to be heard through the fractured structure.
The writer obviously worked hard to research the period and the novel is well larded with appropriate references, although I have been assured by an 80-plus year old that the comment (p.65) "I don't even know if I'm pregnant or not" is an anachronism; certainly even when I was young (I'm 61) people outside the medical profession didn't talk about being "pregnant"; all kinds of euphemism were used: "expecting", "in the family way", etc.
Some things worked well; the character of grand-daughter Lily was likable and her scenes with Edith were touching and believable.
It began to be evident that Something Dreadful was going to happen at the end, and it did. It may be fashion again, but a sickening crunch at the end of a novel is not new (think Brighton Rock) and becomes a bit predictable.
Overall view? Carefully researched, a bit over-written, clumsily structured, most characters a bit one-dimensional (I know there was a War On but didn't anybody ever tell jokes or just have a laugh?) and the big no-no, present tense narrative. Because I wasn't held by the story, I don't think I would want to read the subsequent novels.
A review by Alison
I, like some of your other readers found the book quite difficult to get into and I also found myself flicking back and forth to remind myself who was who. I think this was possibly more to do with the fact that I didn't find the story enthralling enough to fully concentrate and take it in as it was to do with the way it was written.
On a positive note, I certainly enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first. I also found myself thinking about and learning about what it must have really been like day to day living through the war which was very interesting. However, overall I found the story line rather weak and slow moving and wouldn't, I'm afraid rush to read something else by the same author.
A review by Carla
Hi Michael,
I've just finished reading your novel after about two months. I normally finish a book that enthralls me in about a week so this in itself is rather telling I'm afraid.
I found the timescale structure extremely difficult to follow despite the chapter headings. I was constantly having to flick back a few pages in order to check if this was 'then' or 'now'. After reading the first few chapters over again several times to try and set the details in my head, in the end I put the book down and read something else for a while as I was so frustrated!
I went back to the book (nothing if not determined) but each time found the characters had not 'stayed with me' so had to refresh my memory. Eventually, and after several more breaks, I got through to the end.
I never did sort out Ellen and Edith; I was always thinking 'is this the one with the sister or the one who lives with her mother?' Whenever the narrative was in the first person for either of them I had to check who 'I' was by again going back a page or two.
I'm not saying for a moment that a novel should be so easy to read as to involve no brain work. Far from it, a great novel (and a memorable one) should provoke a good deal of thought and stir up strong emotion one way or the other.
I've read several novels that were difficult to get involved in at first, and quite a few with different time scales, but the strength and depth of the characters in those books made me want to carry on reading.
This book had two big problems for me. One was definitely the difficult to follow chronology but the biggest was my lack of involvement with the characters. For me none of them developed to a depth necessary to make me care about what was happening to them. This made the time-zone issue even harder as the struggle was only worthwhile if the characters had really captured one's empathy. I'm afraid for me they were only names on a page.
The fact that the story takes place in two different eras is important, and a common device in many novels, but I think you have to find a way to make the flow from wartime to the nineties much clearer. The chapter headings should help but somehow the following pages in each one are still confusing!
I think you have an enormous talent Michael. Some of your writing is truly poetic and I re-read several of the passages for the sheer joy of hearing the music of the words. But for me there is not enough depth to the characters to make this difficult-to-read book worth the effort.
I will pass it on to a friend and ask them to review it too. Meanwhile thank you for the opportunity and I wish you well with your obvious writing talent.
A review by Marigold (edited)
Oh dear, I do wish I could be more positive about this saga, but I'm afraid I found it very hard going.
The thing is, it describes a whole vista of life in meticulously and exhaustively researched detail but I found it unevocative.
As a work of art it seemed to me devoid of creative magic. Moreover, I didn't relate to any of the characters except perhaps briefly, to Stella. The women emerge as female but not feminine and Edith, doubtless because the plot depends upon this, turns into an egocentric old woman obsessed with the past, thereby forfeiting one's sympathy. Sympathy was lacking in me all through the admirably constructed tale; my heart was not touched until the very last sentence. Those few last paragraphs really did grip me.
I felt that the conversations often didn't quite catch the authentic vernacular flavour the author aimed for, but this wouldn't matter these days when no one except the old can have the ear for such niceties. I made a few pedantic notes about speech anachronisms, and obcervations that didn’t quite ring true.
The book is hugely ambitious and a tour de force which one can’t help being impressed by, but for me it never quite got off the ground.
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