I read this on the recommendation of the great Clive James, who writes about in ‘Latest Readings’. I enjoyed it but it is a bit pedestrian at times and, when you read the trilogy in one go, there is a bit of repetition as each novel is expected to stand on its own.
It concerns a couple, Guy and Harriet Manning, who go to Rumania just as the Second World War is about to begin. They are both from unhappy family backgrounds and they marry in great haste. The story is told from the point of view of Harriet and she is in many ways the most complex and fully developed character.
The author lived through similar experiences so some degree of autobiography is involved. Guy is working for what appears to be the British Council, the UK’s cultural diplomacy agency, but is called in the book ‘the Organisation’. The Council gets mentioned a few times but as a separate entity. Having worked a bit with the Council, it is indeed the outfit that would send people to far-flung places to teach English literature or stage Shakespeare plays.
The story moves along at a good pace, although some of the action feels a bit soap opera-ish. People are constantly bumping into other people in hotels and cafes. But maybe that is what life was like for transient emigrant communities in European cities in the 1930s.
One small point about the blurb on the Penguin paperback edition I have – it includes a quote from some Daily Mail critic that says ‘Guy Manning is destined to become one of the great characters of 20th century literature’. But he isn’t, because he is actually portrayed as a superficial idealist with the emotions of a plank. The interesting character is Harriet. I don’t know whether the critic was just being sexist. Perhaps.
A good read, though I am not sure I will get round to the follow-up, the Levant Trilogy.
Reading in order to live 