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5.0 out of 5 stars
The British family Cazalet in the midst of WWII, Jun 22 2001
This is the third in the four book series about the English family Cazalet. The family consists of William and his wife Kitty, their four children, their spouses and grandchildren, as well as the servants and close friends and relations. He is always referred to as "The Brig" and she as "Duchy," short for the Brigadier and the Duchess although he has never been in military service, nor is his wife truly a duchess. Their children consist of three boys, all married, two of whom went to war (officers, of course) in the First World War. The daughter is unmarried and in love with another woman, but there is no sexual relationship. The first book, The Light Years, begins in 1937. This one progresses from March 1942 through the winter of 1944/45. The series is not really about military action, although that is always in the background and some events are alluded to in their conversations, but rather it concerns the actions and reactions of individuals in the family--their private thoughts and lives; especially those who started the series as children. Many of the chapters are from one or another of their viewpoints. Their sexual relationships are referred to obliquely, but happily without explicit details. The daughter mentioned in the last paragraph, for instance, is in love with a lesbian, Sid, but there is no physical consummation of their passion for each other due to the daughter (Rachel's) disgust at physical intimacy of any kind, with male or female. Sid longs for such a relationship, however, and finds it elsewhere--and then is confronted with guilt and conflict as the fruits of her deceit. One of the girls tells her lover, an American officer, that her parent's generation would be appalled at their affair, stating that their generation in England does not indulge in affairs. Of course, unknown to her, they do but are discrete about them. This is a most interesting series. The author is obviously familiar with the environment and the people, and the resulting insight into the British character is enlightening. For those of us who lived through those years it is not only entertaining but also nostalgic. Joseph H. Pierre
author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
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