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aniennis's review
3.0
Even though I was more prepared for the pacing of this book after having read The Shrimp and the Anemone, it still took me a few chapters to get into it, but that probably says more about me as a reader than it does about the book — I wanted to figure out what was the conflict that would drive the body of the novel, but there is no specific conflict, it is simply a snapshot of a life at a specific point in time. Once I could wrap my mind around that, I got through the rest of the book in an instant.
Eustace is not much of a likeable protagonist because he is too real, his point of view too transparent, it lets us see at once his weaknesses. In this book, he's lost the charm of childhood and is instead presented as a grown man with more money than he needs, who has let the inheritance turn him into someone who can just procrastinate through life, the contrast with Hilda starker than ever. However, it is through Hilda, through his devotion for her, that I found a point of contact with him.
Once again, Hartley triumphs at portraying siblinghood in a way that gets me deeply. They have a bond no one can quite understand, not even Barbara, because she was a baby when they were children, creating worlds, sharing secrets and games, and more importantly, defining their roles in relation to each other. It is compelling to see these roles challenged, and I can't wait to finish this trilogy and see where these two land after being thrown into the whirlwind of adulthood.
Eustace is not much of a likeable protagonist because he is too real, his point of view too transparent, it lets us see at once his weaknesses. In this book, he's lost the charm of childhood and is instead presented as a grown man with more money than he needs, who has let the inheritance turn him into someone who can just procrastinate through life, the contrast with Hilda starker than ever. However, it is through Hilda, through his devotion for her, that I found a point of contact with him.
Once again, Hartley triumphs at portraying siblinghood in a way that gets me deeply. They have a bond no one can quite understand, not even Barbara, because she was a baby when they were children, creating worlds, sharing secrets and games, and more importantly, defining their roles in relation to each other. It is compelling to see these roles challenged, and I can't wait to finish this trilogy and see where these two land after being thrown into the whirlwind of adulthood.
muggsyspaniel's review
3.0
The continued adventures, if adventures is the right word, of Eustace and Hilda first met in The Shrimp and the Anemone.
It's now post WWI and Eustace is at Oxford, Hilda is running a clinic for crippled children while baby Barbara is now a married woman.
If you are familiar with L.P. Hartley then you will know that plot isn't his main concern, as such there isn't one. Well not to speak of, Eustace talks Hilda in to going for a country house weekend with the minor aristocracy of the first book... I was considering ticking the hide review because of spoilers box at the bottom because I have told you everything that happens plotwise.
However plot doesn't matter, what matters for Hartley is the inner life of his characters and the way in which people see each other and Eustace is the person who we learn most about here.
According to Hilda "You know how apt he (Eustace) is to see things from someone else's point of view. It's partly laziness, because he doesn't like to make a fuss, and partly a morbid feeling that merely by asserting your rights you put yourself in the wrong. He doesn't really believe that justice could be on his side, which is as stupid as thinking you are always in the right, and much less human."
While Hartley says this of Eustace "He had a strong sense of what other people would think tiresome, and was influenced more by that than by his own grievances, he did complain, to outsiders, if he thought he could make his sufferings sound funny"
And "Eustace shrank from being taken seriously; he liked to think he did not matter, for then the disappointment he was fated to cause would not matter either."
If you can bare to spend the length of this book inside the mind of a young man so utterly devoid of confidence or self respect, one so totally in awe of others who is forever seeking to fly under the radar then you will get a whole lot out of this book.
Hartley again proves himself a master of putting peoples innermost thoughts on the page and everyone must surely have moments of recognition through this book.
The reason it only gets 3 stars is mainly down to my own dislike of the country house weekend that is so often depicted and so often gets my back up. The only people I have anytime for in such settings are Jeeves and Wooster.
It's now post WWI and Eustace is at Oxford, Hilda is running a clinic for crippled children while baby Barbara is now a married woman.
If you are familiar with L.P. Hartley then you will know that plot isn't his main concern, as such there isn't one. Well not to speak of, Eustace talks Hilda in to going for a country house weekend with the minor aristocracy of the first book... I was considering ticking the hide review because of spoilers box at the bottom because I have told you everything that happens plotwise.
However plot doesn't matter, what matters for Hartley is the inner life of his characters and the way in which people see each other and Eustace is the person who we learn most about here.
According to Hilda "You know how apt he (Eustace) is to see things from someone else's point of view. It's partly laziness, because he doesn't like to make a fuss, and partly a morbid feeling that merely by asserting your rights you put yourself in the wrong. He doesn't really believe that justice could be on his side, which is as stupid as thinking you are always in the right, and much less human."
While Hartley says this of Eustace "He had a strong sense of what other people would think tiresome, and was influenced more by that than by his own grievances, he did complain, to outsiders, if he thought he could make his sufferings sound funny"
And "Eustace shrank from being taken seriously; he liked to think he did not matter, for then the disappointment he was fated to cause would not matter either."
If you can bare to spend the length of this book inside the mind of a young man so utterly devoid of confidence or self respect, one so totally in awe of others who is forever seeking to fly under the radar then you will get a whole lot out of this book.
Hartley again proves himself a master of putting peoples innermost thoughts on the page and everyone must surely have moments of recognition through this book.
The reason it only gets 3 stars is mainly down to my own dislike of the country house weekend that is so often depicted and so often gets my back up. The only people I have anytime for in such settings are Jeeves and Wooster.
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