From the famous opening line - The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there - to the very last word, The Go-Between by L P Hartley is an absolute corker of a book. The story is narrated by Leo Colston, who is around 60 years of age, but whose memories of childhood are brought into sharp focus by the diary he kept during the year 1900. We first see Leo at school where he is bullied into misery until the bullies are vanquished by, so he believes, a magic spell he casts on them. This gives him a bit of celebrity and when one of his few friends, Marcus Maudsley, invites him to stay over the summer, he is thrilled. Leo is desperate to fit in with the Maudsley's whose circle includes a Viscount who is about to propose to Marian, Marcus's older sister. When Marcus becomes ill, Leo has time on his hands and the beautiful Marian pays him such lavish attention that he would do anything to please her, and so he begins to act as a messenger between her and local farmer, Ted Burgess. Set in a more innocent time, Leo is blissfully unaware that he is aiding an illicit love affair. As events unfold, Leo finally realises what's going on, and the bitterness he feels at the betrayal to both himself and the Viscount (who he very much admires) comes to the surface with devastating results. This is a sublime book that cannot help but affect the reader. You can really feel the heat of the summer, the rawness of the betrayal and the utter sadness of the characters who are locked into what is expected of them, but desperate to somehow find a way out. This is a beautifully observed study of class, and childhood, at the turn of the 20th Century. There wasn't anything I didn't like about this book, and as an added bonus, I used the audio edition narrated by the sublime Sean Barrett.
POPSUGAR Challenge 2018 prompt 20: A book by a local author.
My STAR rating: FIVE.
Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment