A review by prashiie
Giant's Bread by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie

adventurous emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“You can have the brains to foresee things, and the wits to plan things and the force to succeed, but with all the cleverness in the world you can't avoid suffering some way or another.”

I’m currently reading all of Agatha Christie’s books in order of publications and that’s how I ended up reading this book. I didn’t realise that this is not one of her classic works. I expected there to be a mystery and was very disappointed. My habit of not reading the synopsis before starting a book therefore made this an interesting adventure. At some point I didn’t understand where this story was going, so I decided to Google for more information and found out that this was a tragedy. I thought it would be only fair to finish this book to see if this is a genre that I like. Well, the answer is no. Nevertheless, there were quite some interesting aspects in this story. This book touches upon xenophobia, classism, the first world war and the new world thereafter. 

Agatha Christie had a good understanding of human psychology and this is what makes her work really stand out, be it a mystery or a tragedy. I particularly enjoyed the first part of the book where Vernon is still a young boy and we experience his world through his eyes which is very fascinating. His world is very simple and only a few people are really part of it. His parents were not aware of how perceptive Vernon actually is, but as a reader we know what he sees/hears and how he feels about it. I think this is good for (future) parents to realise! The relationship that his parents had was not healthy and definitely had an impact on Vernon. We also see how Vernon and Joe’s parents are and the children realise that this is not what they want to be like when they grow up.
“She was too soft,” said Joe. “I'm not going to be soft. People are mean to you if you are. Men are beasts anyway, but if you're a beast to them first, they're all right. All men are beasts.”
But as they get older they start looking more and more like their parents.

Love is the central topic of this book and the characters realise throughout the story that love is not as simple as it seems. The rational side of life catches up to the irrational side of love and Nell definitely struggles with this. Vernon and Nell and their love for each other was exhausting. Every time Vernon decided to go for Jane, Nell would come into the picture. I pitied Jane so much… And Nell’s time during the war didn’t really interest me, so I skimmed that part.
When I got towards the end, I actually didn’t understand why this book was classified as a tragedy. That was until I read the last few chapters. It’s always the last few chapters of a book that get you.
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