Author: whatcathyreadnext

#BookReview The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan #ReadJB2020

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20200716_152736-1About the Book

Guests at a country house party are enabled by an eccentric scientist to see a glimpse of an issue of The Times newspaper dated a year hence.

Format: Hardcover (320 pages)    Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: July 1932   Genre: Fiction

My Review

20200716_152751-1My Buchan of the Month for July is The Gap in the Curtain which was published in 1932 by Hodder & Stoughton.  My copy is a first edition but unfortunately without a dust jacket. You can read my earlier blog post introducing the book here.

The Gap in the Curtain concerns the experiences of a group of guests at a country house party, including lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who take part in an experiment conducted by the enigmatic Professor Moe. After a period of “training” involving mental exercises and a special diet, they are each given a glimpse of the future by way of an item in The Times newspaper dated a year hence. Being a logical and down-to-earth fellow, Leithen sees nothing but a blank page. However, the other five who take part are profoundly affected by what they see. The different ways in which they react to the foreknowledge they have been granted over the next twelve months are recounted by Leithen.

For two of the guests, David Mayot and Arnold Tavanger, the insights relate to the worlds of politics and finance. The attempts by Mayot (described by Leithen as having “not a very generous allowance of brains” and “as much magnetism as a pillar-box”) to second-guess how the political situation he saw might come about involves a good deal of tactical and frankly not very principled behind the scenes manoeuvring. I have to say I found this a little dull with way too much discussion of the positions of the different political factions. The satirical nature of the description of politics may have been more recognisable to readers of the day.

What keen investor Arnold Tavanger sees in The Times leads him to embark on a journey across continents to secure what he believes will bring him huge financial rewards. His epic trip across Africa sees him take to the air with a pilot “who was one-fourth scientist and three-fourths adventurer, and who did not value his on or anybody else’s life at two pins”. They encounter thunderstorms and at one point end up with two lizards and a snake in the fuselage! In the end though, Tavanger’s experiences lead him to conclude “Our ignorance of the future has been widely ordained of Heaven. For unless man were to be like God and know everything, it is better that he should know nothing. If he knows one fact only, instead of profiting by it he will assuredly land in the soup”.

Reggie Daker’s insight into what he will be undertaking a year hence takes him completely by surprise, being the last thing on earth he would consider doing. However, over the course of the next few months, the reader witnesses the influence of the attractive Verona Cortal and her family on the rather compliant by nature Reggie. Says Leithen, “He had the air of a smallish rabbit caught in a largish trap. But it was a stoical rabbit, for to me he made no complaint.” Eventually, fate lends a hand to provide Reggie with a means of escape.

The final two guests – Robert Goodeve and Captain Charles Ottery – both see articles in The Times concerning themselves that are much more profound in nature. It is in their two stories that Buchan really addresses the notions of predestination and free will. For one of the characters, the fate he is presented with turns him into a haunted man. It confirms a subconscious belief he has always held that his is a family whose lives are destined to end tragically, that “They have spirit without fortitude.”

For the other, it provokes a courageous response to the hand dealt him, helped by the love of a good woman. “What concerned him was how to pass the next eight months without disgracing his manhood”. It seems clear which of the two responses Buchan admires most. Not only by the way in which the last story ends but also by the fact it contains a reference to one of Buchan’s most cherished books, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. “He had come out of the Valley of the Shadow to the Delectable Mountains.”

Essentially a collection of short stories exploring the psychological impact of foreknowledge, The Gap in the Curtain is a mixed bag with some stories I enjoyed and others less so. Next month’s Buchan of the Month is A Prince of the Captivity.

In three words: Inventive, entertaining, thoughtful

Try something similar: The Watcher by the Threshold by John Buchan

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John BuchanAbout the Author

John Buchan (1875 – 1940) was an author, poet, lawyer, publisher, journalist, war correspondent, Member of Parliament, University Chancellor, keen angler and family man.  He was ennobled and, as Lord Tweedsmuir, became Governor-General of Canada.  In this role, he signed Canada’s entry into the Second World War.   Nowadays he is probably best known – maybe only known – as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  However, in his lifetime he published over 100 books: fiction, poetry, short stories, biographies, memoirs and history.

You can find out more about John Buchan, his life and literary output by visiting The John Buchan Society website.

#BookReview Belladonna by Anbara Salam

whatcathyreadnext

9780241404799About the Book

It is summer 1956 when fifteen-year-old Bridget first meets Isabella. In their conservative Connecticut town, Isabella is a breath of fresh air. She is worldly, alluring and brazen: an enigma.

When they receive an offer to study at the Academy in Italy, Bridget is thrilled. This is her ticket to Europe and – better still – a chance to spend nine whole months with her glamorous and unpredictable best friend.

There, lodged in a convent of nuns who have taken a vow of silence, the two girls move toward a passionate but fragile intimacy. As the year rolls on, Bridget grows increasingly fearful that she will lose Isabella’s affections – and the more desperate she gets, the greater the lengths she will go to keep her.

Format: ebook (352 pages)            Publisher: Fig Tree
Publication date: 16th July 2020 Genre: Historical fiction

Find Belladonna on Goodreads

Purchase links*
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*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I really enjoyed Anbara Salam’s first novel, Things Bright and Beautiful, set on an island in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). For her second novel, she stays in the 1950s but this time the locations are Connecticut and Northern Italy.

Belladonna explores the relationship between two young women – Bridget and Isabella. Seen through Bridget’s adoring eyes, Isabella is sophisticated and mature compared to the other girls at their school. She’s the sort of girl who effortlessly becomes the centre of attention. Conversely, Bridget is an outsider with a home life that she is anxious to conceal. In search of acceptance and a sense of belonging, not least because of her mixed race heritage that makes her the object of insidious racism, Bridget cherishes “the luxury of hope” that Isabella will become her friend.

Always alert for small signs of Isabella’s favour – a glance, a word, a gesture – Bridget is overjoyed when Isabella returns her affection. Even better, there is the prospect of them spending time together studying art along with a group of other girls at the Accademia, housed in the convent of an order of silent nuns in northern Italy.

Arriving first at the Accademia, Bridget feels protective towards Isabella, wondering how the other girls will regard her. “Isabella had such a certain kind of boldness, it was hard to tell how the other girls would take to her. How much she would be hated, or loved.” The fact Bridget imagines Isabella provoking such extreme emotions and not anything in between is in subtle contrast to the quiet restraint exhibited by the nuns.

As term starts, the author really captures the atmosphere of a boarding school-like situation: the petty jealousy, the cliques, the strained friendships, the fallings out over perceived small slights. The reader witnesses how Bridget continually tries to anticipate Isabella’s changing moods, taking heart from small acts of kindness, even relishing being the only one who can understand Isabella’s quirks and then pondering on things she’s afraid she might have said wrong.

The nuanced depiction of the relationship between the young women was one I found fascinating and thought-provoking. I came to think that perhaps Isabella was more dependent on Bridget than Bridget supposed and that Bridget undervalued herself. As the reader witnesses through her dealings with others, Bridget is kind, witty, patient, a keen student. People like her. However, her desire to retain Isabella’s affections – ‘I’d have to be more interesting, more delightful’ – when they seem to be directed elsewhere leads to a series of actions that will have unforseen consequences. In the end, there is a sense of betrayal on both sides.

One of the things I loved about the book was the way the effect of the changing seasons on the landscape surrounding the Academy was described. For example, arriving there for the first time in August, Bridget notices the fields “strumming with cicadas in jouncing waves of noise, the air gritty with toasted grass”. Conversely, in winter, “The wind was sharp and sought out vulnerable skin to slice, slamming unseen doors, whistling frosty arias in the courtyard.” The arrival of spring is marked by the plum trees in the orchards surrounding the convent springing into blossom so that, “The hills around the lake were a mantle of pink and white, a flurry of pastels and silk that flew in the air and settled on the water.”

Belladonna is an acutely-observed exploration of the dynamics of a relationship. As Bridget learns, “Setting your heart on something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea… No matter how much you want it” and that “Sometimes love isn’t enough.”

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Fig Tree via NetGalley.

In three words: Intimate, insightful, intense

Try something similar: Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

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Anbara SalamAbout the Author

Anbara Salam is half-Palestinian and half-Scottish, and grew up in London. She has a PhD in Theology and now lives in Oxford. She spent six months working on a small South Pacific island and her experiences there served as the inspiration for her first novel, Things Bright and Beautiful.

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