The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 4 May 2015
by Henry Green
By now, many readers of British fiction will also have seen an episode or two of the wildly popular Downton Abbey. With this short below-stairs novel, such a reader can be forgiven for putting the faces of the television characters onto those in the book. Indeed, several of the characters among the staff of this Irish/British country estate do strongly resemble those of the contemporary television series. But there is a gloomier aspect to the book, and an even stronger sense that a way of life is evaporating. It is the early years of World War 2, and the nation of Ireland is officially neutral while London is in the midst of the Blitz. Most of the staff of this country estate are English, and they enjoy relative obscurity and safety in the big house. The landlords, widow Mrs Tennant and her daughter-in-law Mrs Jack, and her two small children, are distracted owners of the big house, more than half of which is closed up like an abandoned museum. The war has brought some level of privation, but the greatest anxiety amongst the staff is that of loved ones back home, living under the Blitz, and the threat that the remnants of the IRA will take advantage of the war to attack the remaining English estates. Indeed, during Irish neutrality in the war, small guerilla attacks were carried out in a distracted England. Still, with all of this, the focus of the novel is the relationships among members of the staff, and their professional relationships with the land owners. As the novel opens, the elderly butler is on his deathbed, and his position is soon taken by the under-butler, Raunce, who has a dalliance with one of the maids, Edith. Edith's roommate, Kate, is attracted to the Irish keeper of the flock of peacocks on the estate. We get to know the housekeeper, the cook, the nanny and others; and a mystery develops when the mistress of the house misplaces valuable jewelry. Almost all of the story is told in dialogue which often leaps between scenes without a clear break. There is very little supporting exposition, and so the reader is asked to apply a lot of imagination to the scene. Perhaps before Downton Abbey or the classic Upstairs, Downstairs, this would have been more of a challenge. Now, these popular shows, perhaps themselves inspired in part by Green's novels, lend their imagery to the story.
Green's book, first published in 1945, is shot through with sharply observed language and how language illuminates character. In his day, Green was highly regarded for what was innovative modernist story-telling and inventive use of language. He was praised as a writer's writer, and was admired by many writers far more famous than he. The inventions of his writing, though, seem less innovative today, with our trends in post-modern literature. Still, this darkly comic novel has its merits. It is a finely encapsulated portrait of a country estate in decline and the anxieties of country living in a neutral Ireland during the war.
(These comments refer to a version of the novel published with two others (Living and Party Going) in a single volume by Penguin in 1978, which also includes an introduction by John Updike.)