Newly orphaned Harriet met and married Guy Pringle over the span of one summer, then moved back to Romania with him. It was 1938 and she didn’t speak the language…
This first volume of ‘The Balkan Trilogy’ follows the couple’s minor relationship problems, major moral issues, and constant drama between friends and native residents of the country they've chosen to live in. Olivia Manning is ruthless with her racism and misandry; anything Romanian is at once morally corrupt and physically grotesque, and men! Oh, faithless! Uncomprehending!
Harriet pretends to be an intellectual liberal but really is only pleased to be passé about extramarital affairs, to mention menstruation in casual conversation at a fancy restaurant, and loudly refusing to be quiet when a drunk colleague of her husband’s tells her to “shut up”. The book was published in 1960, but was it a shocking epic of love and deceit and the banner of intellectual freedom even then?
The pace of the novel is stately, though the events surrounding the narrative are set in the time right before the Second World War; the tone is a persistent high pitch of tension and anxiety. The sense of place is gorgeous—but to see it you must overlook the author’s conviction that everything lower class or Romanian (or worse—both!) is inherently flawed. As the first part in a trilogy, it leaves everything to be desired.
But how on earth will these people and their prejudices respond to the looming war? With all its troubles, the story ends on an irresistible cliffhanger and despite all my disappointment I am nevertheless curious to see these unsympathetic protagonists meet the next chapter in their lives.
I FEEL REALLY BAD ABOUT BEING SARCASTIC IN THIS REVIEW. I'M NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad!!! I loved it and worked so well as a Kirkus review!!!
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