Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923–2014)

The first installment in Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, The Light Years introduces us to an upper-middle-class English family in the late 1930s. The Cazalets—parents, three sons and their wives, a bevy of grandchildren—and their servants gather in their country house in Sussex. Over the course of two long, hot summers—by turns idyllic and stifling—the Cazalets face both familial issues and the looming shadow of war.

Howard's clear-eyed view of the opportunities for women show more in this time and place provides some bite to what in other hands might have been a fairly conventional family saga, and stops it from being too soap-y BBC period drama. It's a very large cast of characters, and I did find the frequent POV changes a bit irritating—I would have preferred to spend longer in one POV rather than constantly headhopping. I also found myself having to turn to the family tree quite a bit to keep track of the numerous grandchildren, although I will grant that Howard managed the rare feat of writing children who sound like children. Will definitely be continuing on with the series. show less

The second book in the Cazalet Family Chronicles focuses on the younger generation of Cazalets as World War II gets underway. At the end of The Light Years, the prospect of war with Germany was temporarily averted but as this volume opens a year later in 1940, hostilities have officially begun. While the older generations — patriarch The Brig and his wife The Duchy, their sons and daughters-in-law Hugh (Sybil), Edward (Viola), and Rupert (Zoë), their unmarried daughter Rachel — grapple show more with making sure the family lumber business survives and enlisting in the military, they don't have much time for the teenagers who are caught between childhood and adulthood.

Most of the story this time is focused on cousins Louise, Clary and Polly. Louise, daughter of Edward and Viola, longs to be an actress, an idea her entire family finds ludicrous. Polly has an overwhelming fear of the war, which isn't helped by her mother's mysterious illness, and as the days pass she wonders what is the point of her life when she has no skills and no passions. Clary has to cope with the fear of being orphaned when her father Rupert joins the Navy and leaves her at home with her stepmother Zoë and younger brother and sister. The girl who once burned to be a famous author is left writing a desultory journal, the medium through which we see much of the events of a year both eventful and boring.

There are a lot of characters here, as befits a Family Chronicle, but I found it much easier to keep them all straight in this second book, as the children develop unique personalities and come into their own. The three girls — and their parents, for that matter — couldn't be more different from each other in some ways, even as they experience very similar upbringings. And they are all, in their own ways, both sympathetic and infuriating by turns, as Howard refuses to create two-dimensional characters. Even the slow-motion "romance" between the cook and the chauffeur is given depth even as it is also played for humor.

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next for the Cazalet family in Confusion. 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