The Greatcoat

Read: Dec 2015-Jan 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars

The Plot: Isabel and Philip are a newly married couple living in post-war 1950's England. They rent a flat from a mildly creepy, mysterious landlady and one day in the cupboard Isabel finds an old RAF greatcoat and puts it on the bed to keep warm. From then on she is visited on an almost daily basis by an RAF airman who says he's stationed nearby.

I borrowed my copy of The Greatcoat from the library who had shelved it under 'Horror' but I don't think that is entirely accurate. It's not a spoiler to say that this book is a ghost story but it's not horrifying; I would say it's more just sad. Dunmore is writing about one man in a whole generation of young men whose lives were cut short way before show more their time and the sadness of that fact underpins the whole story.

Isabel is an interesting narrator as it is hard to know how much is real and how much is her imagination. We find out over the course of the story how deeply she was affected by the war and that she was told as a child she had an overactive imagination. There are points in the story which simply seem unbelievable. For example, she tells us that the airman rode a motorbike and she sat on the back of the bike as he took them to the airfield. How could she have ridden a ghost motorbike for miles? It makes you wonder whether this is one big delusion on Isabel's part.

Overall I really enjoyed the creepy, gothic atmosphere and setting of this story and I will definitely look out for more Helen Dunmore novels in the future. show less

The cover of my edition carries an endorsement from a newspaper review, saying that "Dunmore is a writer of quiet, deadly power". This, I think is what her very different books all have in common, they all carry a powerful punch! I've recently read two of her historical novels which had a wide political and historical focus. The Greatcoat is a short novel, maybe a novella and the focus is narrower but its impact is just as great.

It is a cold winter in the early 1950s and newly wed Isabel Carey is living in an East Yorkshire market town with her doctor husband in dark, damp rooms which are crammed with furniture and smell of brussel sprouts! An unpleasant landlady lives above. Dunmore describes perfectly the claustrophobia of Isobel's show more situation and I felt like I was living through it with her. There is also a back story of a young man who flew a RAF plane in the second world war. When Isobel discovers an old greatcoat and uses it to keep warm, the two worlds start to merge. Dunmore initially brings the 1950s to life and then the memories of those living at this time become increasingly real too.

I loved the atmosphere and emotional resonance of this book. If you enjoy atmospheric ghost stories I would recommend this book. If ghost stories aren't usually your sort of thing but you like well written fiction which is good on historical detail, give it a try anyway. Most of all, I recommend it to women who loved books like Charlotte Sometimes, Come Back Lucy and Tom's Midnight Garden when they were girls. I did and this one felt a bit like a grown-up version of those spooky time-slip stories! show less

It’s just after WWII; rations are still in place, food and fuel shortages are still the norm, decent housing is hard to come by, blackout curtains still hang in some windows, the bombings are still a fresh memory and some don’t realize it’s all over. Newlyweds Isabel and Philip Carey have moved in to a small rental flat in Yorkshire, where Philip is beginning his medical practice. More often than not Isabel finds herself alone in the tiny, cold flat. Looking for more blankets that she is sure the stingy landlady has hidden away, Isabel discovers a “Greatcoat” tucked into the back of a cupboard. Although it is not a blanket Isabel decides the heavy wool coat will suit just fine to keep her warm through the night. Soon enough show more Isabel becomes aware that the coat brings with it more than warmth and learns that sometimes people are not exactly as they appear.

This was a short book, a simple story and, easily read. The scene Ms. Dunmore sets is contained; a small flat in a small village and, down the road, a deserted airfield. As far as the characters go, there are four main ones and everyone else is pretty much a walk-on. The limited cast and venue of the book aid in building the mystery and the suspense because it is clear to the reader that nothing goes unnoticed (almost). The mystery and suspense carry through to a very satisfying ending that I really didn’t see coming until, well … until the very end. show less

Oh boy. There are loads of bummed readers reviewing this on amazon.com. Huh. I found this title through a good mention in The New Yorker...I think. It sounded great! Once it was in my hands I started getting apprehensive that it's creep factor might be higher than I am comfortable with. Wrong-o! It's really a gentle war aftermath story, with desperation, longing and poignancy. I suppose it could be a romance. I am nearly always drawn to stories of this time and place, and this was done well with details and names of things fitting out the scene truly. You do have to read between the lines a bit, but it's a very short and smooth read. Certainly leaves you thinking about all those souls lost in any enormous event like war. What do they do show more as we go on living? And those who do go on might not be coping as they seem to be... show less

World War 2 ghost story, set in 1952
By sally tarbox on 18 June 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Maybe 3.5* for this very readable ghost story. It's 1952, winter, and newly-wed Isabel Carey is living in unlovely digs with her preoccupied GP husband and a landlady she dislikes. When she unearths an old greatcoat stashed in a cupboard, she uses it as an additional blanket in bed. And suddenly, and mysteriously, she starts getting visits from a WW2 airman...

"There was a man outside the window. She saw the pallor of his face first, as it seemed to bob against the glass, too high up to belong to a man who had his feet on the ground...The level of the ground there was higher than the floor inside. That was why he seemed to float in mid-air. A man in show more a greatcoat..."

The 'wrinkle in time' means that the local airbase, a ruin in 1952, is once again a hub of activity. Isabel seems to be morphing into the woman whom Alec the airman was seeing back in the War. It's a slightly confusing plotline, but one that Helen Dunmore manages to handle.
Read in one sitting; it's a short novel so I didn't get particularly wrapped up in the characters, but the plotline keeps you reading. show less

I bought this book on the strength of some of Helen Dunmore's other historical fiction. [The Siege], shortlisted for the Orange Prize, was a compelling story set during the siege of Leningrad. It's sequel, [The Betrayal], was also quite good and covered the fictitious Doctor's Plot, the last purge before Stalin's death.

[The Greatcoat] is also historical fiction set in World War II, but it is much shorter than the other two, and it is a ghost story of sorts. Normally I don't read paranormal fiction, but the setting and the strength of the author's other works convinced me to try it. Although I enjoyed the bits about the pilots flying sorties from England, I didn't care much for the main plot. A young newlywed and her doctor husband move show more into a shabby apartment, where the woman discovers a WWII greatcoat and uses it to stay warm. The owner of the coat then beings to make his appearance. A short read, it made for a diverting hour or two, but the book is not one that will stay with me long. show less

As you know, Helen Dunmore is one of my favourite authors. The GreatCoat was a disappointment to me though. It's the story of a young, recently married woman, Isabel Carey. She and her physician husband, Phillip live as renters in a cold basement apartment of Yorkshire. She is quite lonely and her husband, though very attentive, is busy with his new practise. Because the apartment is so cold, one night she digs up an old "Great Coat" from a former RAF to keep her warm. Via this greacoat, she is visited by a now dead RAF flier named Alec. The novel alternates between Isabel's life in 1952 with her husband, and back during WW11.

I found the story to be somewhat disjointed and truthfully, somewhat silly. I really wanted Isabel to adapt to show more her life as young wife and spend more time in the present, rather than the past. I guess I am not good with ghost stories.

3.25 stars. I want to note that I have read many books by Helen Dunmore and loved them! This was an exception show less