Reading: Marking Time

[white_hart]

The second of Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles spans the period from the declaration of war in 1939 to Pearl Harbor. Like the first, the viewpoint moves from character to character, with every member of the extended Cazalet family, apart from the babies, getting at least one section, although this time there's more of a focus on Louise, Clary and Polly, growing into young women during the war years, all feeling that they are "marking time" somehow, no longer children but not able to embark on their real adult lives.

I love how subtly Howard shows the changes to life at Home Place; brief mentions of rationing and the introduction of clothing coupons, descriptions of meals catered on the same grand scale as those in The Light Years but with much more limited fare, regrets at the unavailability of lemons, the growing discomfort and shabbiness of life in wartime Britain. And I love how the shifting viewpoints give the reader the opportunity to understand things that none of the characters do, and also allow us to continue to get to know all of the family and find things to sympathise with in each of them (well, except for the one person I didn't find sympathetic in the last book, who I now feel is probably an utter cad).

Having taken advantage of the Book People's offer to get all five books for a truly bargainous £5, I'm pretty sure I'll be on to number 3 very soon.

Comments

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Who is the person you now think is a proper cad?

I do like the Cazalets -I've been recommending them to my mum as i think she will too.

[white_hart]

Edward. Maybe not quite an utter cad, but whereas all other characters have something I find sympathetic, even if they are unlikeable in lots of other ways, I don't really find him to have any redeeming features. Well, maybe his obvious love for Hugh, but even that is tinged with superiority.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think the way that Howard handles the war is really well done, with the way that it just creeps on and things become normalised.

[white_hart]

Yes, there are the big shocks like the first night of the Blitz (which I thought was amazingly well handled) but lots of it is just the little changes in everyday lives.