Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923–2014)

This is the fifth and final volume of the Cazalet Chronicles and I have finished all five. I love these books and wish that EJH was still alive so that I could write her a letter, and tell her how much I appreciate her humor, psychological astuteness, the world she brings to life (England 1937-1959), the company of her characters. I admit it all makes me hugely nostalgic for a world that wasn't even mine except by extension--many of the characters are contemporary to my parents and show more grandparents, though English. Still there are resonances.

And comforts: These are not edgy, post-modern literary efforts. Everyone calls everyone "darling" (not the movie star darling, the familial darling) and love is strong and steady, even though the extended family has its share of conflicts, betrayals, misfits, outsiders; people make life-long mistakes and suffer deep losses. Still in these days of Trump, Brexit, etc., there is something almost exalted in bringing to life a cast of characters finding their way through change at the mid-century. It makes clear, at least to me, how all our freedoms are also the loss of belonging and accepted ways, of being embedded in an intelligible society.

EJH is a fine writer. She is wonderful with dialogue, especially with her cast of children, and can be quite funny describing opinions, conflicts, stages along the way from childhood through adolescence that are entirely familiar to anyone who has had a child or been one. Even her adults get to grow--Howard is especially good at portraying growth and keeping the essential personality of her characters. She loves her lovers and tells their stories with such tenderness. There are several deaths that are conveyed piercingly, for both reader and character.

I know that much of the story and many of the characters are taken from EJH's life, so I guess she knows much of what she writes from intimate experience. I've just begun reading her biography.

I loved every page of every volume. show less

The Cazalets–patriarch, matriarch, three adult sons, their wives and children–traditionally spend their summers at their country house in Sussex. The Light Years opens in 1937, with the first part of the novel developing each of the characters as they enjoy an idyllic summer together: eldest son Hugh his devoted wife Sybil and their three children; second son Edward, his strong-willed wife Viola aka Villy, and their three children; and youngest son Rupert, his much younger wife Zoe, and show more their children from Rupert’s previous marriage. Hugh and Edward make occasional trips to London for the family timber business, while Sybil and Villy capably manage household affairs while gossiping about Zoe. The cousins band together with those closest to their own age, with occasional drama and shifting loyalties. Most of this sounds too good to be true, and sure enough the second part of the novel, set in late 1938, exposes chinks in the family armor and some closely guarded secrets. The threat of war is palpable: Hitler is already laying groundwork for what we know is to come. The family engages both in denial, and preparations for living at their country house for the foreseeable future.

I love a good family saga, and this most certainly is one. Elizabeth Jane Howard puts her female characters at the center, often the source of real power in the family. At the same time, she shows the ways women are disadvantaged in society, through limited education (which continues with the female Cazalet children), to dependence on male wage earners and a complete lack of reproductive freedom. Also, the children are multi-dimensional, setting them up to play more significant roles in the ten years that play out in the remaining Cazalet Chronicles novels. I am really looking forward to continuing this series. show less

The second installment of the Cazalet Chronicles opens with Britain’s declaration of war against Germany. Initially, life goes on pretty much as it did before the war. Even air raid sirens and German bombers flying overhead don’t disrupt the family’s lives as much as one might think. Only the youngest Cazalet brother, Rupert, is young enough to join up for active service. Oldest brother Hugh takes charge of the family business, with assistance from Edward who is also part of the show more reserves. They travel freely from Sussex to London. The women, of course, remain in the countryside managing the household and the children, constantly juggling living arrangements as various parts of the family come and go.

The Cazalet novels drive home the reality of women’s lives in the 1940s. Men have all the power, making important decisions and withholding information from their wives and daughters if they think it will make them anxious or upset. They are also free to have physical relationships with other women as well as their wives (who participate primarily out of a sense of duty). The women have very few options, and it appears their daughters’ lives will be similarly limited by their lack of formal education.

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s writing is simply brilliant. Most of the narrative is seen through the eldest child of each of the three families, all teenage daughters, who are in a unique position to observe events unfolding around them. Each one feels as if their life is on hold (“marking time”) because of the war, but their perspective is limited by their parents, who shield them from any serious discussions about the war and the family. So they only know what they know, and the reader has to make inferences and see how they play out. In terms of plot development, Howard leaves no stone unturned. Something notable happens to nearly every character, even the minor ones, and she leaves us with two significant loose ends that I’m sure will be taken up in the next installment. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/confusion-by-elizabeth-jane-howard/

Third in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s brilliant family saga of the Cazalets, set during the Second World War, with the young and middle-aged women who are the central characters falling in love and having plenty of (off-stage) sex, not always with the right people or the same people. I almost feel that we had 900 pages of set-up in the first two volumes, which then explodes into lots and lots of plot here, which is maybe a show more little unfair as the first two were hardly without incident. Howard’s own gruesome first marriage (to Peter Scott) is unsparingly mined for material, with two particularly memorable passages involving very small babies.

Along with the turbulent love lives of the various viewpoint figures, there are some gems of observation about women’s roles in the society of 1940s England, and a quietly devastating subplot about the Holocaust and the uncovering of the concentration camps. Howard is tremendous at showing a society on the verge of tremendous change – mostly of course from the viewpoint of the privileged, but you write about what you know. And again there is an unlooked-for twist at the end which has my appetite whetted for the fourth volume.

This is not a fast-paced series, but I’m hugely enjoying it. show less