The genesis of this story is brilliant. The author's granny was asked to pass on to the family all her family history knowledge before it was lost. In the list of relations was an entry: “Uncle Eddie escapologist and womaniser.” The author says: “from that point on I felt almost obliged to write his story.” The result is a romp through 1930s Sheffield, taking in actual events – which lends an authentic feel – and the adventures of someone who reminds me a bit of a working class Raffles (though without the high-class jewellery theft and the homo-erotic undertones). The main character is a “bit of a rogue” as they say, but is so well drawn as to be very believable and have you rooting for him. The description, historical detail and setting is well done and you feel really grounded in the period and the place. It will be really interesting to see where Green takes his hero next, since this is apparently book #1.
Sheffield, 1934 and it's turning into a hot summer. Across the country, Britain is struggling with the hangover of the Great War and Depression with possible world conflict on the horizon and change everywhere.Eddie Reynolds is a drayman, trying to balance work, relationships and his dream career as an escapologist. He is waiting for his big break and this comes when a theatre booking agent asks him to look into the suicide of a female colleague who lived in the Catholic slum area where Eddie was brought up.What Eddie hoped would be a couple of simple enquiries becomes much more…
I love fiction that takes me somewhere I don't know and reveals to me things I never knew. This story is also a tender love story: not in a schmaltzy sense, though. It tells of human cruelty and compassion, flawed and beautiful relationships, loyalty, misguided and progressive patriotism, and the ending is satisfying. The characters are well drawn and have you rooting for them. What more do you want from a novel? These are certainly things I aspire to in my own writing.
1986, The Panama Hotel The old Seattle landmark has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made a startling discovery in the basement: personal belongings stored away by Japanese families sent to interment camps during the Second World War. Among the fascinated crowd gathering outside the hotel, stands Henry Lee, and, as the owner unfurls a distinctive parasol, he is flooded by memories of his childhood. He wonders if by some miracle, in amongst the boxes of dusty treasures, lies a link to the Okabe family, and the girl he lost his young heart to, so…
This is a classic novel, and deserves to still be read for its importance historically. Not many novels cover so accurately that turbulent period of Britain's Chartist rebellion of the 1840s - and the reason so many talented individuals were lost to the country, emigrating to the United States to help build that nation. There are plenty of non-fiction accounts but they rarely capture what it felt like. The novel is well-plotted up to the last segment where an attempt is made to describe the protagonist's feverish dreams and his eventual reconciliation with Christ, which to me was almost unreadable. I still enjoyed it despite that, and would recommend it to anyone interested in that period.
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Elsie has two feet in the 20th century. Smith has one foot in the 19th. Their marriage, founded on physical attraction, is built on sand as all around them the earth of Europe also starts to quake. Prised apart by emotional conflict and the loss of two children they are flung apart by the most violent physical conflict in human history. The question is whether they can survive, together or at all.
