The Honours
Sep. 24th, 2015 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI don't read nearly as much as I used to. In fact, I went through a long period back in the summer where I was struggling to finish a book I didn't like that much but didn't want to give up on entirely, where I went for days - weeks, even - without reading a word.
I did struggle to the end of this book eventually, though, and started on something else. This time, I whizzed through it.
It was The Honours, the first novel by performance poet Tim Clare.
It's a strange tale, set in a stately home and its environs the 1930s, with war looming in a nebulous kind of way and the shadow of the last war still hanging over everyone. The main character is a thirteen year old girl called Delphine, who has just been expelled from boarding school for (allegedly) setting the place on fire. Delphine's father, who is seriously mentally ill, and mother decamp with her to the estate of Lazarus, Lord Aldeberen in Norfolk, and join a bizarre group of people seemingly in the thrall of the mysterious Mr Propp.
Things then get a whole lot weirder. Delphine suspects Bolsheviks, but the truth turns out to be stranger than she could imagine, while the people around her are far more complicated, and often a lot braver, than she ever thought possible.
At times, it was stranger than I could imagine too, and occasionally a little too visceral, but it was exciting and very beautifully written (though at times the author did seem to be trying to break the world record on how many similes you could fit into a sentence). The end was a bit of a let-down, partly because there were too many climactic set pieces, if that's possible. I counted at least five. Then, at the end, I wasn't sure I quite understood what was supposed to have happened. But it turns out the book is the first in a trilogy, so I suppose all will be explained at some point?
Really, though, the best thing about the book is Delphine. She's not particularly likeable to start with (I loved her by the end), but she's such a well realised character it didn't matter, and the book is worth reading just to get to know her.
Really well done (which makes it even more of a pity that there was an awful typo in one of the chapter names. Doesn't anyone proof read things these days?)
I did struggle to the end of this book eventually, though, and started on something else. This time, I whizzed through it.
It was The Honours, the first novel by performance poet Tim Clare.
It's a strange tale, set in a stately home and its environs the 1930s, with war looming in a nebulous kind of way and the shadow of the last war still hanging over everyone. The main character is a thirteen year old girl called Delphine, who has just been expelled from boarding school for (allegedly) setting the place on fire. Delphine's father, who is seriously mentally ill, and mother decamp with her to the estate of Lazarus, Lord Aldeberen in Norfolk, and join a bizarre group of people seemingly in the thrall of the mysterious Mr Propp.
Things then get a whole lot weirder. Delphine suspects Bolsheviks, but the truth turns out to be stranger than she could imagine, while the people around her are far more complicated, and often a lot braver, than she ever thought possible.
At times, it was stranger than I could imagine too, and occasionally a little too visceral, but it was exciting and very beautifully written (though at times the author did seem to be trying to break the world record on how many similes you could fit into a sentence). The end was a bit of a let-down, partly because there were too many climactic set pieces, if that's possible. I counted at least five. Then, at the end, I wasn't sure I quite understood what was supposed to have happened. But it turns out the book is the first in a trilogy, so I suppose all will be explained at some point?
Really, though, the best thing about the book is Delphine. She's not particularly likeable to start with (I loved her by the end), but she's such a well realised character it didn't matter, and the book is worth reading just to get to know her.
Really well done (which makes it even more of a pity that there was an awful typo in one of the chapter names. Doesn't anyone proof read things these days?)