I was mistaken in thinking that fragmented chronology (I now know the term of art) was invented in schools of Creative Writing (though I still believe they foment it. : ) I first read P H Newby because of the title Picnic at Sakkara, expecting it to be about Ancient Egypt. The Egypt it is about is nearly as ancient in feeling as that, the time when nationalistic feeling in Egypt was beginning to challenge the English position there. The English professor and the Egyptian student never quite understand each other – well-drawn but too sad to be enjoyable.
So following my new practice I searched the library catalog for other works by Mr Newby. (Isn’t it too bad he didn’t live into the technological time when his name could have been used for so many jokes? : ) The catalog software is otherwise a dog but has one good feature – it automatically arranges the items retrieved into chronological order, so I can start from the beginning, so to speak . Not really important for what one might call general novels, only for series, but it isn’t always easy to tell what is a series. (see Jane Gardam.)
Many of the older books I’ve asked for turn out not to be on the shelves when the staff go to look for them so they had to borrow The Retreat, 1953, from Manhattan College. It starts out a straightforward war story, officer caught up in miserable, messy retreat from France back to England. Once there, he goes straight to the home of – people whose relationship to him we aren’t told, one of whom is nuts. They carry on crazily, all around England. Well past the middle of the book we are told who one of them is, several chapters further his relationship to the protagonist’s mother(!) but the female person is not explained till almost the end and I wasn’t sure if this was real or understood to be a lie.
I could understand if the main character’s weird behavior is a form of war injury but there is no explanation for the other people. Fractured chronology, frequently changed points of view, and totally incomprehensible behavior – yet the book has an effect. Or perhaps I am overly sensitive to the protagonist’s suffering. Whatever, I strongly urge you to give this a miss.
Tags: "The Retreat", P H Newby, Picnic at Sakkara
December 20, 2009 at 7:17 pm |
It is surprising to ‘laypeople’ what joy librarians take in sending a book to another library, that their work in creating and safeguarding the collection has been appreciated. I salute Manhattan College and its library.