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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

How to Be Brave by Louise Beech & Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

17/4/2016

8 Comments

 
I must confess I’m rather suspicious of the word brave. On the one hand, the term is overused, especially when referring to endurance in the face of tragedy. (Is it brave not to succumb when your life is threatened or is the human drive for survival? Do we call people brave to avoid having to empathise fully with the enormity of their trauma or to deny their despair?) On the other hand, I think bravery, even when applied to cases in which the person has a genuine choice whether to act, is overrated. Sure, if I were drowning I’d be grateful to anyone who dived in and rescued me, but if a stranger were in the same situation I’d rather my loved ones didn’t risk their own lives to save them. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up these two novels with the b-word in the title. Read on to see whether the characters’ bravery convinced me. (Incidentally, I wasn’t aware when I decided to pair them based solely on the titles that both are partly influenced by the author’s grandfather’s experience in the Second World War, and both featuring the ordeal of hunger.)

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You have to know how to be happy to know how to be sad and if you know both of those things you’ll know how to be brave.

When nine-year-old Rose collapses and is rushed to hospital instead of going out with her friends trick-or treating, her mother, Natalie, is understandably distraught. While adapting to her daughter’s diagnosis of diabetes, and the accompanying regime of blood tests, insulin and never leaving the house without emergency glucose, she discovers the diary of the grandfather she’s never known. The account of Colin’s survival for fifty days in a lifeboat in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943 proves compelling for both mother and daughter and, by trading words for blood, the only way Natalie can get Rose to accept the injections that keep her alive.

I enjoyed the story of Rose’s journey from initial protest and regression to assuming control, as far as that’s possible, of her high-maintenance illness, along with Natalie’s path from fear and grief and loneliness to gratitude and a partial letting go. I was gripped, as I was by another story about survival in a lifeboat, by Colin’s account of those harrowing weeks at sea. I liked how Louise Beech drew out the parallels between them in the hunger and thirst and the need for self-discipline; in Colin’s case not to succumb to the temptation of slaking his thirst with seawater, in Rose’s enduring the needles that leave her body bruised.

I was less enamoured by the spiritual aspects whereby Rose and Colin appear through dreams and hallucination in each other’s stories, but I can see why the author might have wanted to strengthen the connection between these narratives that, at first glance, don’t have much in common. Since both are based on her own family’s experience, I can see why she might be driven to put them together (though I was curious that she didn’t go down the route of memoir). But it’s a credit to Louise Beech’s writing that I was able to put aside these niggles that, in some circumstances, might lead me to giving up on a novel, and enjoy it. Congratulations on an engaging debut and thanks to Orenda for my review copy.

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When war is declared in September 1939, Mary North has signed up to within the hour. From her finishing school in Switzerland, she travels to London, ready for adventure. When she’s assigned to a most ordinary-looking school, she’s sure it’s a cover for something more glamorous. Unfortunately for Mary, not only does the War Office have no notion of her exceptional talents, as soon as she discovers her pleasure in teaching, she’s dismissed from her post. As the entire school is evacuated to the safety of the countryside, Mary is left behind.

Of course I loved Mary right from the first page. At eighteen, she’s sizzling with self-confidence and idealism, and proves a highly amusing companion through the first few pages. I wondered, however, how what I assumed would be a serious novel would develop through the prism of her witty but naive gaze. The short answer is quite brilliantly. The slightly longer answer is as follows.

Mary badgers Tom, her pseudo-manager at the Education Department to give her another teaching post and, incidentally, to take her out to dinner. With his grudging support, she sets up a small school for the children the countryside doesn’t want and whose existence officialdom denies. A little way into their relationship, Tom and Mary go out as a foursome, hoping that her friend Hilda, who dreams of marriage to a man in uniform, will hit it off with his friend, Alastair, who also signed up on the first day of the war. Their varying perspectives broaden the scope of the novel from London in the Blitz to the Siege of Malta.

Through his engaging and endearing and entirely credible characters (yes, I even felt some sympathy for the priggish Hilda by the end), Chris Cleave demonstrates the devastation and destruction of war. But this is more than another Second World War novel (of which there have been many excellent examples of late). It’s also an acute psychological dissection of friendship, grief, prejudice and resilience, and the loss of innocence that precedes learning to live in an imperfect world. On a societal level, it’s about bureaucracy and organisational structures, about social class and racism, and the potential for a fairer society. It also takes in dyslexia and opiate addiction and the once popular, but now embarrassing, minstrel shows.

The prose is beautiful: at turns witty, amusing, lyrical and poignant (although I didn’t actually cry till page 390). Having greatly enjoyed The Other Hand and Incendiary, I knew Chris Cleave’s fourth novel would be good, but how! As a love story set against survival in extremis in the Second World War, I couldn’t help thinking of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which went on to win the Man Booker Prize. I’d be delighted if Everyone Brave Is Forgiven did likewise. Thanks to Sceptre Books for my advance proof copy. You can read Chris Cleave’s thoughts on his grandparents’ war letters here.

I’d planned to post these reviews on Everyone Brave’s publication day but 21 April happens to be Charlotte Brontë’s birthday and I have something else in the pipeline for that. In addition, while helping out the head honcho at the Carrot Ranch, Lisa Reiter has challenged us to write a 99-word story about offering to help someone, with a deadline of 19th. There are times when there’s nothing braver than accepting help (something Natalie gradually learns in How to Be Brave) or in assertively offering help when the person is presenting an independent the side (the theme of Lisa’s flash). So even though it means a longer post than my usual thousand-word limit, this is the right place for mine:

Humanitarian aid

Night after night on the television, I couldn’t stand it anymore. What use will you be? they said. Out there, you’re just one more mouth to feed. So I marched and knitted squares and fund-raised, but the gruesome images went on invading my dreams. I fought it with my pen and keyboard, but still felt unclean. On screen, their anguish shamed me, but what could I do? Would I swap my comforts for a night under tarpaulin? Would I give a stranger my spare room? Signing another cheque, I claimed it was for their sake, not mine.

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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Norah Colvin link
17/4/2016 11:51:49 am

Well, Anne, you have mentioned both these books in comments on my blog. You did mention a headteacher in "How to be Brave" but haven't done so here - it mustn't be an important part of the story. I do like the sound of "Everyone Brave is Forgiven". I guess I am drawn to stories about teachers and education. But in fact it's all the other aspects you mention that make it appealing. I'm not sure when or if I might get to it, but I'll add it to my list.
Your flash is perfect. How often we think that we have done our bit by signing a cheque. I haven't written my flash yet, but I've written the post and included a TED talk in which action, not money, is currency. It fits beautifully with your flash. Maybe I could borrow it?

Reply
Annecdotist
17/4/2016 06:01:08 pm

Yes the teacher is just a very small part in How to Be Brave – I did think to put it in the review because I thought you’d be interested but didn’t have anything more to say about it than already on your blog.
Everyone Brave is well worth your time (although I know you need to be careful after Divided Kingdom) and Mary, although she’s lived a very privileged life herself, has a lovely way of relating to the disadvantaged children in her class. And I’m totally in awe of the writing.
I’m glad you liked my flash. To be honest, giving money is probably as far as I’ll go myself, these days, although in a climate in which so many people resent paying their taxes to support others less fortunate (while I think paying tax is a privilege given you have to have some kind of an income to do so as part of being grown-up) I’m not knocking giving money!
I think you were joking about borrowing, but you’d be most welcome if you weren’t.

Reply
Lisa Reiter link
18/4/2016 04:23:05 pm

I've come over here to show my inner coward. Being brave enough to offer help over at the Ranch has near done me in. Where does Charli hide the clones?! I think it's something about having quick and meaningful comments to throw at responses whereas I can struggle for hours! LOL
Anyway, thank you for playing whilst I am 'acting up'. Chris Cleave's "The Other Hand" is one of my favourite novels for some of it's raw observation of every day life so I am drawn to buy this one. My shelf is otherwise stacked with Memoirs I want to draw upon at the moment but this one is very tempting.
I love the flash and your honesty about giving help. It's refreshing to admit to your limits - there are oh so many people kid themselves they'd help anyone in any circumstances and then do that whole cognitive dissonance weird justification why they can't or won't when push comes to shove!

Reply
Annecdotist
18/4/2016 04:48:58 pm

Hah, I’ve just been on your blog recommending How to Be Brave to try to persuade you away from memoir!!! But I do hope you read Everyone Brave, especially if you’re already acquainted with his work.
I’m glad you like the flash. I’m a lot more comfortable with my selfishness in my old age! It’s a theme that crops up quite a bit in my fiction and I’ve just submitted a short story about tourism in poor countries.
You were indeed very helpful and brave to volunteer for the flash prompt and from what I’ve seen you carried out those responsibilities with aplomb but I do agree that Charli is gifted in finding the right words. I did offer to do the next one but I think Charli is back in the saddle. It’s a bit of a relief as although I had the time and the idea to write the prompt post, I hadn’t factored for the buzzing about and commenting afterwards, at a time when things will be getting busier.

Reply
Gargi link
20/4/2016 08:31:40 am

I’ve read Chris Cleave’s earlier books too and fully expected this one to be as good. I see from your review that he doesn’t disappoint! Adding this to my (ever-growing) TBR pile.

Reply
Annecdotist
22/4/2016 12:50:34 pm

Thanks, Gargi. Why not push it to the top of your pile and we can discuss it?!!

Reply
Jeanne link
20/4/2016 11:35:03 pm

You are my one click-through treat before I go back to my writing this afternoon Anne. I've been very slow with my novel reading for some time now, but am very tempted by the Chris Cleave you review here. I do check out your reviews frequently in my in-box...sigh...and imagine reading as much as you do. Your flash here really touched me, surely because like many relatively affluent Westerners I feel guilty and ashamed and so very sad when I imagine the lives of the refugees whose faces I glimpse in the news. You captured that ambivalence and ultimate sense of powerlessness and the quick if unsatisfying absolution that comes with sending money.

Reply
Annecdotist
22/4/2016 12:49:18 pm

Thanks for that feedback, Jeanne. It is hard to be fully open to those inequalities and terrible deprivation while nevertheless living our own lives as authentically as we can. I suppose for me I’m trying to be honest with myself about the limits of my own compassion, or how far I’m prepared to take it. I do think giving money, even if it’s motivated more by making ourselves feel better, is still a step up from turning the other way.
Thanks for reading my reviews and I do hope you find time for Everyone Brave.

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