Five Boys [Paperback]

None of the stories develop fully, although you'd like them to. What results is some splashes of wonderful writing and interesting characters amid a story utterly disjointed. In the end it reminds me of my English grandmother that laughed at the wrong places in jokes because she knew she was suppose to laugh but had no idea what was funny. Jackson can apparently tell a tale but has no idea how to tie a story together and seems to flounder around with ideas. I was very disapointed.

The second part of the book kind of wanders away from Bobby's tale and broadens out into little stories about some of the adult villagers and one of the five boys. A catalyst for this is the arrival of the large American Army preparing for D-Day. This means the forced relocation of those living in a large area right next to the village, which is an interesting and unknown story in its own right. But basically, the wacky antics of the kids gives way to the wacky antics of the adults. These include stories about an undercover operation to recover a pig from American territory, the effects of a dance to which the GIs are invited, and a detailed episode of how a ratatcher exterminates a field full of rats after the GIs are gone.

In the final third of the book, Bobby has returned to London and the five boys are enthralled by a different newcomer, a mysterious man who keeps bees and is impervious to village prying. The beekeeper completely captivates the boys and his enigmatic nature keeps one guessing as to what's really going on. Despite hints here and there, the ending comes as a bit of a shock, and can be read as emblematic of the end of innocence in England.

It's a good book, charming and well written, with plenty of evocative descriptions and smells, and good stories. However, one wonders why it's constructed (and marketed) as a novel, when it's really a series of linked short stories. Without a central figure, mood, or theme, the book doesn't quite hold together in the way one expects a novel to. That aside, it's quite enjoyable, and makes a good companion to Michael Frayn's novel Spies, which is about two London boys during the war.

A young man is evacuated from London with a group of children for their safety from the bombs of the German Luftwaffe. The problem is that in addition to the normal trauma of being separated from family and friends, he meets a quintet of young boys near his new home that makes the idea of staying in London and chancing the bombs an alternative worth considering. These five little brutes all born within two weeks of each other also share the same capacity for havoc and cruelty that came with the brief time they all entered the world. The progression of their abuse is fairly typical, and then it stops, and with it the traditional narrative sequence stops as well.

The author then shares a series of vignettes about a variety of people in and around the village and the effects of having a large pre D-Day contingent of Americans take over a portion of their community for invasion training. This causes a variety of inconveniences which in turn provide for a good deal of comedy. A source of food is behind the checkpoints the Americans have set up and it is decided that it must be retrieved. The cast of characters brought together, and the coffin, a baby carriage, and the effects of the animal eating far too many apples that have become hard cider, make for an interesting chase.

These various episodes continue until the arrival of a man known as the beekeeper. His arrival coincides with the book returning to a more traditional progression, and an end that is startling at the very least.

"The Underground Man", was the first novel by this author, and I will probably go back and read it once again. If I remember correctly that book was eccentric because of the character and his actions, while this book is a bit eccentric in its structure. This writer is enjoyable, he is not just another author treading familiar ground, he goes to new places, and takes new paths to reach them