Philip Hensher

My third read by Philup Hensher, and it's superb.
Narrator Spike recalls his politically charged teenage years. With a band of highly intelligent if, at times gauche and naive, socialist chums, life revolves around taking on the establishment...with much teenage bravado and self promotion. As they mix with a slightly older set, Spike meets his lifelong love, Chilean Joaquin..
Life moves on; the characters go off to university, forge careera, move away from the teen idealism. Re-inventing show more themselves, hushing up past activities, working the system...Spike and Ogden - once the leader (?) of the teenagers, now a political aide, take a holiday in the DDR....
And in the final section, Spike and Joaquin- the only ones who kept their youthful ideals, now nearly sixty, take a hiking holiday in Germany and tie up ends of their erstwhile clique.
I couldnt put it down. The evocation of life as an idealistic teen; the exploration of how we change to fit into society (or not).

"Ogden had not learnt the same lesson I had learnt. For him, still, politics consisted of what politicians choose to do to the people. Their agreement must be extracted, or the appearance of an agreement. Then the politician is free to do what he wants to them. For me political life is a matter of objecting from the floor, of making the individual voice heard." show less

The novel opens sometime in the 80s at a big party in Sheffield. A well-to-do Bangladeshi family are welcoming their friends, the marquee is up, the elderly British neighbour cutting the hedge next door is chatting...And then an incident occurs which brings the two families into closer contact.
And then the action switches to the British family with all its dysfunctional offshoots...And then the Bangladeshi family are re-introduced, as we live through their awful experiences under their show more Pakistani overlords during the 1971 fight for freedom.
Until about page 300, we don't know who the Friendly Ones are; we then learn they were a misnamed group of fanatical and terrifying muslims in 70s Bangladesh ... But the term also links in to the immigrant family's experiences in Britain, the neighbours who hold out the hand of friendship to them and those who abuse them.
A monumental (nearly 600 pages) book with a whole host of characters. I read this at speed over 3 days as library wanted it back and I HAD to finish the compelling narrative. Extremely strong writing; having read two of Mr Hensher's books (Scenes from Early Life being the other), I would say he gives a fabulous insight into the history and culture of Bangladesh (his partner is from that country) - it works because you don't feel you're being railroaded into embracing the people, he just tells it as it is. Knowing little about the place before, I think he really brings out how the Bengali folk are- mostly- a gentle and educated race, and despite a shared faith, have nothing in common with the brutal Pakistani government.
Utterly recommended! show less

"This is not going to last forever. Perhaps only a few years.", November 29, 2014

This review is from: Scenes from Early Life: A Novel (Hardcover)
Crafted from stories told him by his Bangladeshi partner, Mr Hensher has written an absolutely beautiful work that takes the reader into 1970s 'East Pakistan', on the verge of proclaiming independence. After partition, 'these two new countries - India and Pakistan, East and West - they looked on the map like a broad-shouldered ape with two show more coconuts, one on its right shoulder, one under its left armpit.' But despite their both being Moslem areas, Bangladesh retained a strong affinity with Hindu literature, its native Bengali tongue, a more moderate take on religion. And as troops were sent in from Pakistan to enforce a more fundamentalist lifestyle, terrible violence and terror ensues...

I loved the way that the author would repeat some events - it's an unusual style of writing but it adds to the impact of the narrative. I definitely want to read more of Mr Hensher's work. show less

The Northern Clemency begins in 1974 and follows two families living in Sheffield, England for the next twenty years. The Glover family holds a party, to which many in the neighborhood are invited. When Katherine conceived of the idea, it was with the assumption that the empty house across the street would have new owners, but it isn't until later that the Sellers family arrives from London to take up residence. Over the years, the two families become more entwined as they experience the show more changes brought by those two eventful decades, from the miners' strike to the changes caused by their children growing up and beginning life as adults.

I love novels like this, where ordinary people live ordinary lives, relationships strengthen or fail under adversity, children struggle through adolescence and find a place in the world, events swirl around them, some affecting them greatly, others barely noticed as they go about their lives.

For the most part, this was an excellent book. Hensher writes with compassion and understanding for the weaknesses and desires of his characters. It's only at the very end, when the least fleshed-out character behaves oddly and is treated unsympathetically by the author that I felt my interest flag a bit. It's like the author needed an event, for something more dramatic than the usual family crises, when the novel's strength lies in just those mundane affairs and relationships. Still, this was a solid novel and I look forward to reading more by this author. show less