I’m feeling like I’ve fallen behind a bit on my 20BooksOfSummer while reading some marvellous but substantial non-fiction to review for Shiny New Books. I was supposed to be reading the solid Persephone “The Call” for my next read, but chose this slimmer Dean Street Press book as a quicker win (I’m now reading “The Call” and very much enjoying it). This is my one Dean Street Press book from their Furrowed Middlebrow imprint I’m reading for 20Books, the aim of which was to get older books read from my TBR, although I have read and reviewed three others in the last month or so that they’ve published more recently (use the search area and add Dean Street Press or follow this link to see them).
Elizabeth Eliot – “Henry”
(21 January 2019 – from Emma)
Another highly entertaining novel written in this author’s rather flat, artless style, and again, as with her “Alice“, seeing the eponymous hero through the eyes of one of the side characters in their lives (in this case, Henry’s sister Anne), but living the novel with that side character as the main character. It’s a nice way of doing things, allowing for a rounded view of the character and some acerbic asides as the gilt gradually wears of Henry for poor old Anne.
I love the acerbic family dialogue discussing WWII, over not too long ago:
‘Of course, it was different for the men, they were fighting.’
‘Some of them weren’t, some of them were just going round with the milk, like Henry.’
My mother said that was not a nice way to speak of my brother, and that the Royal Army Service Corps was a very important part of the army. (p. 9)
All three siblings are a disappointment to their parents, but the family’s slender resources have been poured into Henry, so it’s even worse when he turns out to be a feckless charmer, hopping from woman to woman and racecourse to racecourse:
Henry wasn’t at all the sort of son that father had wanted. I don’t think he was even the sort of son that father had deserved. (p. 39)
Like “Dangerous Ages”, which I’ll be reviewing on Thursday, we have a discussion on freedom and free love, particularly in relation to Henry and his mistress – and once again, convention wins over freedom, even published 30 years later. I was also reminded of other just-post-War books and “Old Baggage” looking at ex-suffragettes, where women who have been liberated into powerful positions temporarily are thrown back into ordinary life and find it hard to cope:
Most of them had nothing but their belief in their organising ability and their pieces of uniform. (p. 192)
and indeed Anne’s employer has everyone in uniform, however unflattering, and not really needed in an office.
Various schemes of Henry’s seem to end with whimpers, and Anne starts to see that he’s just too old to be showing promise any more. What will happen when his looks start to go? In the slightly odd epilogue, two years on from the main ending, nothing seems to have changed, and the book sort of peters out, but it’s such a fun and absorbing read in that voice I love so much in authors.
This was Book 15 in my 20 Books Of Summer project.
JacquiWine
Aug 18, 2020 @ 12:44:11
This does sound very good indeed, and I do love a family dynamic with a bit of bite. Dean Street Press seem to have picked some excellent books for their list!
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Liz Dexter
Aug 18, 2020 @ 14:07:11
This author’s books are excellent – I’ve got her other two TBR as well and can’t wait to get to them!
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Cathy746books
Aug 18, 2020 @ 13:43:24
Still plenty of time to finish Liz, you are doing so well, especially given all your other reading commitments x
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Liz Dexter
Aug 18, 2020 @ 14:07:38
I’m getting on well with The Call and shifting my Paul Magrs to next month, so I might well do it – I do have two weekends to go at least!
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wadholloway
Aug 18, 2020 @ 14:35:56
By the time my generation, the Boomers, had grown up the 50s were regarded as the way things had always been, and of course we rebelled. But it seems to me, reading back through the decades, that the 50s were in fact an aberration, men coming out of the War(s) imposing themselves and forcing a generation of women back into the kitchen – reinforced of course by the power of American film and television.
(I’m posting my Magrs review on Friday, so it will be forgotten by next month).
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Liz Dexter
Aug 18, 2020 @ 14:51:30
That’s a good point, although we see some of the alternatives to the slavery in the kitchen option here, with the narrator leading a somewhat rackety life among the intellectuals. I’m quite relieved I have a nice interview to post this month as I’m getting a bit clogged up with getting all my reading done this month as it is, and yet another blogger is going to give Exchange a go in Sept!
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Jane
Aug 18, 2020 @ 15:37:14
I haven’t heard of this before but it sounds great, I love the family dynamic!
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Liz Dexter
Aug 18, 2020 @ 15:44:21
Eliot is a great author esp if you like quite a dry and naive narrator.
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heavenali
Aug 18, 2020 @ 16:12:32
I liked this too, though I remember Alice far better. I really like Elizabeth Eliot’s style and I still have Cecil tbr.
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Liz Dexter
Aug 21, 2020 @ 07:07:45
We should try to read Cecil together once I’ve got through this month!
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Aug 18, 2020 @ 19:42:39
Sounds very jolly – must read more of the Furrowed Middlebrow titles I have lurking!
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Liz Dexter
Aug 21, 2020 @ 07:08:11
It’s very entertaining and I think you’ll like it. I still have a few others to go, notably the third and fourth Mrs Tim books!
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