Cheerfulness Breaks in (1940)

Another delightful audio, and a lovely return to Barsetshire, the fictional county created by Anthony Trollope and lovingly sustained by Angela Thirkell. Though I've read only two of Ms. Thirkell's novels (listened, actually; the other one is The Brandons), I find them "just the thing." They are great fun, wickedly funny, and full of social commentary and mild romance. Think early 20th century Jane Austen. They also remind me of the Greek expression about a smooth river - we often use this expression in music, too, where the surface is smooth and legato, but what's happening underneath the surface (or in the accompaniment) is lively and quick or even turbulent. Nothing much ever happens plot-wise in these novels, but the book is bubbling with interesting characters, polite discussions where much is said by remaining unsaid, and a fascinating dynamic between all of the characters. This is a wartime novel, which delightfully captures the mood and excitement of the English countryside at the outset -- the villages rev into high gear to shelter evacuees, the young nurses complain about boring cases of measles while longing for gruesome war trauma, and the men fervently hope to suffer the glory and nobility of being blown to bits, or frozen to death, or perhaps even torpedoed and drowned. From my 21st century vantage point, all of the earnestness is both admirable -- the characters tirelessly throw themselves into the fulfillment of national duty -- and heartbreaking. A complex counterpoint to a light and funny novel.

The cover of this Barsetshire novel tries very hard to make it sound like a romance novel: "Another girl's wedding leads her marriage-shy bridesmaid to love . . . she found herself caught up in a maelstrom of emotion that, no matter how she tried to fight, simply had to be love." Well, there is a wedding, and there is a bridesmaid who's less than keen on marriage but finds herself falling in love in the aftermath of the wedding. But those stories are all only threads of the larger story going on here. And the tone is nothing like what the cover tries to make out it will be.

This is the story of a community of people and how all of their lives intersect and influence one another. And at heart it's a social commentary which comments on love (among other things), rather than a romance. And that's fine with me. I'd heard nothing but good things about Thirkell, so when, after a lot of fruitless looking first, I finally came across fifteen or so of her Barsetshire books in a used book shop, I scooped them all up. And I was feeling a bit so-so about that purchase when I read the tag-lines and back cover material when I got them home. I don't mind a good romance story every once in a (great) while, but fifteen of them? That would probably satisfy my slight desire for romance novels for thirty or forty years. So I was quite pleased to find that Cheerfulness Breaks In was really nothing of the sort.

The commentary is sharp, and often humorous--sometimes gently so and sometimes not. The characters feel real, both because Thirkell develops them well and because of the way she moves among the various Barsetshire families, staying with one for awhile and then leaving them for another. This movement creates a strong sense that the characters' lives go on even when we're not looking at them, and we often see evidence of that "going on" when earlier characters pop back into the novel through someone else's story. I can't say I was completely swept up into Cheerfulness Breaks In, but I did enjoy it, and I do want to read more about Barsetshire and its inhabitants. And I dare say it won't take me thirty or forty years to do so. ( )

I do love Angela Thirkell's work, her imagined county of Barsetshire and the residents thereof. This is one of the first books in the extensive series to be set during World War II and as such it captures the feel of the early days of the war, at least as it was seen from rural village England. In this installment of the story, Rose Birkett finally gets married to the relief of her family who figured they'd have the care of her selfishly flighty self forever. Other village girls take up wartime efforts, working in local hospitals and caring for evacuee children while settling into engagements with the men so soon to be leaving. There's no muss, no fuss about the courtships or indeed the characters themselves.

Thirkell is an ace at portraying the British stiff upper lip so evident in times of stress and she pokes fun at many of her characters, having them lament the lack of good patients at the hospital and thrill at the thought of catastrophic injuries. She presents the London children in all their dirt and coarseness but makes it evident that the ladies of the village have no intention of facing reality in their dealings with the urchins. As the series reader has come to expect, Thirkell's biting wit is just as evident in this war time novel as it is in previous novels. Her characters are a delight with whom to spend time and the reader is easily engrossed in their daily lives. Thirkell is, as always, a writer of domestic fiction par excellence. A reading experience to savour, I look forward to the rest of the series, especially since this book in particular ends with a terrible cloud hanging over it (and enough information to know the outcome despite its perceived ambiguity). If you're not yet reading Thirkell's delightful books, why ever not? ( )

this series gets better and better, and by Cheerfulness Breaks In, Thirkell has definiitely got well into her stride - fantastic! ( )

It seems wrong to me that there should be no reviews here of this book, but what can I say about it, without spoiling the fun for first-time readers? To read it is to love it.

Gallant little Czechoslovakia. ( )