Read the 1940s - Feb 2019: Relationships

In February, we'll be reading books on the topic Relationships

As a reminder, books can be fiction or nonfiction, Viragos, Persephones, books by Virago/Persephone authors, or books that otherwise embody the "Virago spirit." They can be set in the 1940s, or published in the 1940s. In short, there are no rules here -- participants can set rules to suit themselves. For questions, comments, and general chat about the theme read go to our General Discussion thread.

Visit the Book Recommendations thread for help choosing books that fit the theme & monthly topic. Or, check out the fabulous Google spreadsheet created by Heather/souloftherose, which compiles and classifies all the book recommendations mentioned on the thread. The spreadsheet includes a "categories" column that shows which topic(s) each book would be suitable for. Below are links to two different views of the data:
* Full spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-b4Y2YrG4VseFT5qn546IjWy0JYst7cOVIrmeBHB...
* Filtered on the "Relationships" category:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-b4Y2YrG4VseFT5qn546IjWy0JYst7cOVIrmeBHB...

Note that the filtered view does not work on mobile devices, and it may take a few extra seconds to load in your browser. Please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions for the spreadsheet.

What are you planning to read in February? Be sure to come back and let us know what you think!

Thanks Laura!

Since I am unlikely to get to Dimanche before the end of this month, I shall carry it forward for February...

>2 kaggsy: That sounds like a win! There's a fair amount of overlap between "Family" and "Relationships" anyway.

I went through Heather's amazing spreadsheet the other day, identifying unread VMCs on my shelves that matched one of our categories. I now have potential candidates for most of the monthly topics, but I also plan to examine the rest of my TBRs in some detail to see if any others might be suitable for this theme read. If so, I'll be sure to mention on the Book Recs thread.

Meanwhile, in February I'm planning to read A Fine of 200 Francs.

>3 lauralkeet: Sounds like an excellent idea, Laura! I am determined to read from my shelves for this too and I have plenty of candidates!

I had considered the Triolet too, as I’ve had it lurking for ages and actually started it once. Maybe I can give it another try!

I've read so many of my Persephones and VMCs already, so I'm going to follow Belva's lead on this and read The Two Mrs. Abbotts which I presume will fit under relationships.

Oh I've got A Fine of 200 Francs but can remember nothing about it!

I'm planning to read To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski (a Persephone).

I shall be choosing between Long live Great Bardfield, The blank wall, Mariana and a reread of The willow cabin. *sigh* so many good books and such a short month!

>8 Sakerfalcon: There's always the wildcard months to catch up on anything you don't get to in February. Enjoy!

>5 romain:;
My dear Barbara........ you will find many relationships with the covers of The Two Mrs. Abbotts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
So swell to 'see' you again.
hugs,

I have decided to give the ever beloved Rumer Godden a nod for my February relationship choiceby reading her A Fugue in Time. I've not yet read it and am looking forward to it.

Thank you for all of the time and effort you (& your elves) are putting into our reading of the 1940s, Laura. I am enjoying it.

February's category of relationships gives me the opportunity to read The Little Company which is probably one of my longest-standing TBRs. If I get through that I'll scan the list again, but after only reading one of the three I hoped to read in January, I'll be less ambitious this time.

I just started Mr Fox by Barbara Comyns which was published in 1987 though written around thirty years earlier. It starts just before war breaks out and the inside flap of my edition describes it as a perfect portrait of wartime life. Due to the odd, ambiguous relationship between our heroine Caroline and the eponymous Mr Fox it seems to fit perfectly into our relationship theme. Not a VMC book, but a popular VMC author.

Not sure if this book has been already put into the spreadsheet but it could well fit into several of our theme months.

Dimanche and other stories was excellent. I am simply astonished at how the author managed to capture male perspectives and intra-familial relationships, particularly in the longest story in this collection 'Liens du Sang', or 'Flesh and Blood'. This contained enough complexity and depth to be a novel but was only 55 pages long. If any story was weaker than the others it would be the last one, 'L'Inconnu', or 'The Unknown Soldier', as I found it hard to believe its central premise. This was written and set in wartime, not long before her tragic death.

The author seems to have been very well served by her translators into English too, not just in this book but in the other two books by her I have read so far. I have yet to read Suite Francaise but intend to do so as part of the 1940s read. Ultimately I hope to read everything I can find by Irene Nemirovsky as I'm sure she will turn out to be a favourite author.

I'm planning to read The Flight of the Maidens by Jane Gardam.

Stuck inside a lot this last week because of the weather so I read The Two Mrs. Abbotts by D E Stevenson. The third in the trilogy and definitely my favorite. Too many warm fuzzies, quite far fetched at times, but oh what a wonderful comfort read during a polar vortex.

I've started Mariana as it's been on the TBR pile for the longest time. So far it is amusing and perceptive. I'm really enjoying the dynamics between Mary and her cousins.

I reviewed Mr Fox yesterday.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/mr-fox-barbara-comyns-1987/

A VMC, set in Britain just after Dunkirk, but about (gay) men, not women: Mary Renault, The Charioteer. I gave it 3½*** rather than 4**** because it sometimes got a bit confusing – toward the end, there's an episode where Laurie's in bed and it immediately transitions to a nighttime excursion which initially I thought was a dream but then realized it was just a poor transition.

I'm just wondering whether the VMC might have been poorly edited and that there should have been a space between paragraphs to indicate an inter-chapter section break? Maybe I'm being unfair to Renault here, but there were some other occasions when I found ambiguity – in conversations, but this may have been deliberate on Renault's part to recognize ambiguity in gay relational conversations.

Personally, I prefer Renault's later books, historical fiction and mythologization of classical Greece, but The Charioteer's still a worthwhile read.

I finished and loved the Virago bio of Idina Sackville The Bolter subtitled Idina Sackville-the Woman Who Scandalized 1920s Society and Became White Mischief's Infamous Seductress. It started in the 20s but ran throug WWII so I think it fits into this theme. I reviewed it on the book's main page. I never expected to like this book as much as I did. I came to it after reading Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love last month. She modeled a character in her book after Sackville and called her The Bolter.

I've finally started A Fine of Two Hundred Francs. I was delayed by three library books coming in all at once, but now I'm settling in.

Forgot to record that I finished Mariana, which I liked but didn't love, and also read The blank wall which was very good.

I am reading Two Days in Aragon (1941) which was on the list for February. Really love Molly Keane, (not keen on the hunting stuff but love her writing and eccentric characters).

I finished rereading The willow cabin, which I remember liking less than other books by Frankau. That remains the same, but I tried to work out why that should be. The prose and characters are as well-drawn as usual, and the wartime scenes in particular are very good. But I find Caroline's obsession with Michael, to the point where she throws away her career for the sake of meetings with him, exasperating in the extreme which makes the first section of the book hard to get through. Also, I miss Frankau's brilliant portrayals of children, as there are none in this book until the end and even then they are very minor. I very much like the end of the book though, when Caroline and Mercedes meet and become friends. I also like that we only Michael through the eyes of other characters and thus we have to decide on his feelings and motives based on their impressions.

I finished A Fine of Two Hundred Francs, which was just okay. The connected stories all deal with the French resistance, and its impact on the characters' lives and relationships. I didn't really connect with any of the characters and I found myself skimming by the end. It was disappointing; I had high hopes for this one.

I've just finished The Little Company, a long-term TBR which I enjoyed although making the characters mouthpieces for different political views can make parts of the narrative quite dry.

I read The Woman Novelist and Other Stories by Diana Gardner (loved) and Breakfast with the Nikolides by Rumer Godden (not so much).

I read The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding (Persephone edition) as my February read and really enjoyed it. The story is a crime thriller about murder and blackmail and the measures the main character Lucia is prepared to take to protect her daughter Bee and her reputation. The book moved along very quickly with a reasonably satisfactory resolution for Lucia’s family. Although there is a confession from one of the characters about the first murder, (which is not convincing) I am still puzzled about who actually committed that first crime. If other Viragoites have read this novel, I would be pleased to know what they think about the issue.