In Memoriam: Alice Winn
Warning: some, necessary, spoilers in this…
Intriguingly, I found myself with a range of changing reactions as I read this book. Once a few chapters in, I was feeling rather disappointed as it seemed rather repetitive – the unspoken feelings on both sides of the main characters were too similar and there was a lack of emotion al and narrative drive – we seemed in a way, to be treading dramatic water.
However, I was getting a grimly effective and evocative picture of British public boarding schools in the early years of the 20th century – and pretty brutish it seemed to be too - although, in a weird way, given what was on the horizon, perhaps some kind of preparation for the horrors soon to be experienced. There was a particularly chilling little detail (not in the early part of the novel however), where ‘learning how to cry silently’ was a ‘skill’ rapidly acquired by the youngest pupils.
The horrors of the life on the front were remarkably vivid – not least for being so; briefly described almost as if these horrors were just glancingly seen out of the corner of the eye – but horrendously and vividly remembered.
However, one the two main characters were separated, dramatically, the novel improved as far as dramatic engagement of the reader was concerned. There was the constant question of who might be killed and if they survived, how they would react when they met again. And the likelihood of one or both of them being killed was always very and painfully real. A number of school characters reintroduced on the front were frequently killed. Frequently they were recalled only in passing which brought home the ghastly nature of the front line experience very vividly indeed. The deaths were invariably cursorily dealt with which perhaps was a stylistic way of indicating how the survivors coped with the constant losses. This old-school/public school control and bottling up of emotions transferred chillingly effectively to life (and death) on the front line.
One of the ways in which this emotional distancing occurred (both in terms of life on the front line and in terms of personal relationships and feelings acknowledged or not acknowledged there and at school) was with the use of frequent classical quotations. At the start of the novel I was thinking that this was unnecessarily pretentious, as much on the part of the writer as on the part of the speakers in the story but as the work progressed I realized that this was a very smart and informative device – and in a number of different ways. Firstly, as we are dealing with 16/17/18 year olds, we are dealing with people who, naturally, can be a bit pretentious. In this context, the casual use of Greek quotations is evidence of being smart – and effortlessly so; God forbid one be seen to be trying to be smart; that would lead to being regarded as a swot! But secondly, there is an emotionally distancing effect of using quotations/other people’s words and ideas as that means that the user does not need to engage emotion ally with the situation but can distance himself from it by a glib remark and not have to examine the situation or himself really closely at all.
As earlier indicated, once the two main characters separated we were able to get a better sense of them each as individuals rather than as two people who were only seen in terms of their relationship (or lack of a relationship) with the other. This, major section, was more emotionally engaging, surprisingly, than some of the earlier parts set at the school. However I was rather less convin ced by the poetry writing ‘theme’. For one thilng it was difficukl to gnet a sense o;f the nature of this work as no example/es, perhmaps understandably , were given, but at times it did seem somewhat of a trite coping device (poetry as therapy for trauma and the soul!) rather than arising organically from the character and the story. Once the two central characters were reunited, (I did warn of spoilers…) and after the war, the changing/developing relationship was very finely done – although there were aspects pf the tale that seemed a little trite – Maud telling of Weimar Germany/Magnus Hirschfeld and new hope etc. etc. all seemed rather too dramatically and emotionally easy.
So, overall, slightly mixed – but finally, at the end, it did work, emotionally and dramatically – and not in a glibly easy way either, as far as the central two were concerned. The final use of the Lear quotation was magnificent though – absolutely dependent on the reader knowing the dramatic context and, ironically, given my remarks about the characters use of quotations earlier, of remarkable power and optimism for the future.
But very well worth reading.
