It has proved a good time to get some serious reading done. I managed to get through 4 books, several rich tea biscuits, at least 5 cups of coffee a day, about 2 bags of crisps, 4 trips to the gym and a visit to the physio. All in all, a fairly productive holiday.
Tomorrow sees me going back to the grind and wishing that I could just spend all my time reading and writing about it.... one can live in hope!
Stephen King was one of the books I finished so the ones who did Maths for A level might have figured out that this means that there is still 3 books for me left to talk about. Depending on how well the back holds up I plan to get at least one done now and then will have to pick up the rest as I go along.
As it was a holiday I also had to go on a little book trip. This saw me busing off to Stony Stratford and trotting into the Willen Hospice Book shop. I trotted out again 30 minutes later with 4 books in my bag and a clear conscience.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
In Pale Battalions - Robert Goddard
I liked this one but I am not sure I liked it for the reasons that Goddard would have wanted me to. I get the feeling that he wants me to care for Leonora who tells her life story to her daughter and is in a way the main character of the book. However, I kind of care more about Franklin and what happens to him. Franklin's story is more engaging and involves more of the characters who end up shaping Leonora's past and future so perhaps that is why I care more about him. But he also just seems a nicer and more fleshed out character than Leonora.
Goddard has created a story within a story within a story - Leonora is telling her life story to her daughter and woven into this we have the story Leonora was told about her father by one of her father's friends, a Mr Franklin. Oh, and there are other smaller parts that are told by other family members and friends of the family that help complete the picture. All this adding in of different narrators and focus sometimes makes for a bit of a messy and unfocused story and I wonder if there would not have been a different way to tell the story better.. without moving the focus so often. I guess in a way it drives the plot forward but especially at the end it did make me go... "okay, then what part of the story are you going to fill in for us now?".
At the start of the book we meet Leonora and her daughter Penelope who have taken a trip to a war memorial and this is where Leonora decides to finally open up to her daughter about her past. Neither character gets a lot of time spent on them and I did not really care that much or them. They have a slightly distant relationship and it is made clear from the start that this is because Leonora chose to keep her past away from her children as not not have them influenced by it as she was. Leonora starts to tell us about a mother (also called Leonora) who died when she was only a few days old and a father who died in the war. He died in April 191 and she was born in March 1917.. even I can do that maths! So she was illegitimate and her family, especially her step mum never let her forget it. We follow the original Leonora through her young life spent at the mercy of her stepmother and into her marriage with a dashing young soldier who takes her away from all the bad stuff. Then we meet Mr Franklin or Mr Willis (had I only paid attention to that name more it would have put me onto the truth just about 100 pages sooner) who tells original Leonora what he knows about her father.. who may not be her father. Franklin's story is the one that really got me. Through him we get to know Leonora's father, the kind of man he was and what he stood for. We also get to know the family better and not all of it is pretty. Some of it is pretty atrocious. Franklin ends up at the old family estate by invitation as he is recovering from a war wound. While he is there he meets Leonora's mother and is also witness to a murder.. even gets fingered for it at some point. Through this murder we get drawn into the true story of Leonora's father and it is a good one! There is murder and intrigue, dad is not really dead and things are definitely not what they seem.
The story that Franklin tells us is the bulk of Leonora's history and it is a great tale. I have to say that this story was the part of the book that drew me in and made me want to read on. I did not care too much about the Leonora we met at the start and not even that much about what happened to the original Leonora in her past (she had a tough life and was hated by her stepmother.. so was Cinderella) but I wanted to know what happened to Franklin and to Leonora's father. This is the story of two men who met in battle (WW I) and formed a friendship that was based on respect and loyalty. So much so that they were both willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. I did find it a bit annoying that I had to wait for a few more outsiders and insiders to tell their bit of the story before the real truth was finally revealed but... all good things etc.
What I will say about the final reveal is that is that Mr Willis has left Leonora with more than just a nice painting. We do find out who really is Leonora's father and it is sad that she does not realise until it is too late that he was there the whole time. Also sad that circumstances made a father have to keep away from the only daughter he ever had.
Title: In Pale Battalions
Author: Robert Goddard
393 pages
Corgi Books
ISBN nr 978-0-552-13281-7
Books to be read: 116... (well I do have another two to do so really only 114 left to read but as I am easily confused I am going to tick them off one by one but still add on the new ones bought)
Books bought: 4
Books to be read: 120
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