Spell the Month in Books, hosted by Jana at Reviews From the Stacks. Spell the Month in Books, is deceptively simple. All you have to do is to match a book title to each letter of the name of the month. Sounds easy right? Well you try finding books whose titles begin with J (remember that there are three months with this letter of each year), U, or Y, particularly when Jana picks a theme for the month.
This month’s theme is History.
I didn’t think i’d have too much difficulty with this theme since I’ve read a fair number of historical fiction novels over the years. Quite by accident, three of these titles relate to the Second World War.
Links will take you to reviews where they exist.
J
The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
One of my favourite novels of all time, The Jewel in the Crown is a 1966 novel by Paul Scott that is the first title in his Raj Quartet series. The four books are set during the final days of the British Raj in India as seen through the experience of individuals connected with the military and civilian authorities. Scott includes a tremendous number of ideas in the novels, often showing the clash between the British and Indian cultures, and attitudes towards Indian self determination.
There’s actually a fifth book in the series — Staying On which shows what happens to one British couple who decide to stay on after India’s independence.
U
The Undertaking by Audrey Magee
Magee’s novel focuses on elements of World War 2 that don’t feature prominently in literature — the experience of German soldiers on the eastern front and their families back home.
The two aspects come together in a marriage of convenience between Peter Faber, a German soldier, and a woman in Berlin he has never met. The union means he is granted honeymoon leave so can get away from the misery of the front for a while and she gets a guaranteed pension if he dies on active service. But this is a brief period of happiness in otherwise miserable lives.
N
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Gaskell’s personal experience of the poverty and suffering of working class people in northern England informs this novel about the way one woman’s eyes are opened when her family moves from the rural South to the mill towns of Lancashire. She’s more hard hitting than Dickens in his depiction of the social problems caused by industrialisation.
E
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
One of my favourite Booker Prize winners, Ondaatje’s novel is set towards the end of the Second World War and features four people who are physically, emotionally and mentally damaged by the conflict. They come together in an abandoned Italian villa where they try to heal their wounds.
.If you fancy having a go at Spell the Month, you’ll find all the info you need on the website of the host, Reviews From the Stacks. The theme for July is “Stars/Sky”.
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