Reviews

The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell

paola_mobileread's review

4.0

This volume opens and close with war: the great war, that closes up the flashback to Nicholas' childhood, and the WWII which is at this stage luring in almost everyone, ready to serve for king and country.

In Nick's childhood home we see more of the “upstairs-downstairs” relationships in a middle class household - not a grand one, that of a military man who can however support a housemaid, a cook, a gardener, a nurse, a parlourmaid and a butler. Yet it is a poor man’s version of the good life, and even the occasional fox-hunting expedition in dreary settings ends up in failure.

The spotlight is firmly on the provincial life (which can support the odd personality, Dr Trevelyan being a case in point), suddenly called to a halt by the start of the great war:

war had come for most people utterly without warning-like being pushed suddenly on a winter’s day into a swirling whirlpool of ice-cold water by an acquaintance, unpredictable perhaps, but not actively homicidal – war was now materialising in slow motion. Like one of the Stonehurst ‘ghosts’, war towered by the bed when you awoke in the morning; unlike those more transient, more accommodating spectres, its tall form, so far from dissolving immediately, remained, on the contrary, a looming, menacing shape of ever greater height, ever thickening density. The grey, flickering sequences of the screen showed with increased persistence close-ups of stocky demagogues, fuming, gesticulating, stamping; oceans of raised forearms; steel-helmeted men tramping in column; armoured vehicles rumbling over the pavé of broad boulevards. Crisis was unremitting, cataclysm not long to be delayed.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and now Nick and his circle are in a different phase in life - the main theme here seems to be disappointment. Those ambitions and aspirations nourished earlier in life mostly start to unravel for all - it is not the flings, but those that looked like solid relationships which start to crumble, and so do some careers (Matty), while others still stutter and cannot seem to flourish. And so life seem to be going around in circles, with the impending war adding to the uncertainty and the restlessness.

I still find it hard to figure out what Nick feels, but he is as observant as ever: of Dr Trelawney he notes that

there was something decidedly unpleasant about him, sinister, at the same time absurd, that combination of the ludicrous and alarming soon to be widely experienced by contact with those set in authority in wartime

while Erridge is

a rebel whose life had been exasperatingly lacking in persecution

Still witty and funny, yet the impending doom is now palpable - and I am hooked!

silvej01's review

4.0

Another very fine work that follows Nick Jenkins, the narrator, and his many associates, family members and in-laws up from around the Munich Agreement to the Second World War's beginning. The book opens, however, with an extended remembrance of Jenkins in childhood, living in the country house with his family and their servants and aides just prior to the beginning of the First World War. Thus, this individual book possesses a sort of symmetry and balance, even as it takes us to the halfway mark of the Dance... series as a whole. The sense of doom that one feels at the end of the first section - the foreboding of some on hearing the news that Archduke Ferdinand has been assasinated with his wife and the knowledge of what followed - is felt throughout the rest of the book. Once again, new characters enter and many earlier characters are back - this is how all these books work, not coincidentally, like life itself. It's not always easy remembering the relationships that these characters have had with Jenkins or each other or what we've already heard about them in earlier books. And it's still the case that there aren't many here that I find to be strongly sympathetic or likable. Nevertheless, I am finding that my interest in them continues to grow. Jenkins himself has always been an appealing person, even as he is much more interested in the doings of the others in his world than in revealing much about his own thoughts and feelings. Erridge, modeled after George Orwell, who in this book is mostly just referenced in conversation by his friends and family (he is now Jenkin's brother-in-law), comes across to me as quite appealing, even as I think he is not especially loved by Powell himself. But then I am certainly biased by my independent fond feelings for Orwell. Again, what is most compelling about this book is the language and the subtle observations about human character and the way we all behave in the world.

charlottesometimes's review

funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

andriella's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

phileasfogg's review against another edition

4.0

I didn't know, when I read it in August, that The Kindly Ones would turn out to be the most topical book I read in 2016, one to which my thoughts have returned often. (I'm only a little surprised, on flicking through it now, to find Trump is mentioned... well, the Last Trump.)

Much of it is set in the period of suspense before World War 2. Nick and co try to carry on with their everyday working lives, knowing the world is about to change utterly. How do you write novels or compose music while fascists are conquering Europe?

At a time when the world is unexpectedly turning itself inside out and upside down, and states of affairs that seemed unassailable are being swept away, it's good to be reminded that such all-changing upheavals are nothing new. The wheel turns, it's turned before, and will turn again.

bookpossum's review against another edition

4.0

The Kindly Ones are the Furies, and in this volume we are reminded that Nick was a child in the First World War, and at the end of the book, the Second has begun. Meanwhile the dance of the many lives intertwined in this brilliant series of novels continues. I liked this observation towards the end of the book:

"One passes through the world knowing few, if any, of the important things about even the people with whom one has been from time to time in the closest intimacy."

The book ends on a serious note as Nick looks ahead to "the wild country ... where the Rules and Discipline of War prevailed."

Brilliant.

nocto's review against another edition

3.0

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this series. This was much faster to get back into than previous books. I recognised the recurring characters quickly and enjoyed the run up to the Second World War ramblings. Some of the older characters dying off, other relationships being developed. I liked the way this started with a look back to Nick's childhood, which is kind of missing from the books as the first one started near the end of his schooldays. At this point I am beginning to see why the series is loved so much, up to now it's seemed a collection of pieces but I'm now starting to see the picture come together. Looking forward to the second half of the series.

neiljung78's review against another edition

3.75

This sat better with me than some of the recent Powell’s -maybe the sense of the approaching war gave things a depth and piquancy 

joh17's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The best so far. Very funny, but with very powerful historical backdrop. The childhood seen in the lead-up to the First Wold War and the seven deadly sins tableaux particularly effective. Also the childhood scene introduced a slightly different world (upstairs downstairs) which added a potency and variety which I have missed from other books in the series.

omnibozo22's review

4.0

Nick Jenkins wends his way through British society on the verge of WWII. Widmerpool has bungled his way into a military position of some import, while the shifting marriages of Nick's friends continue unabated. A wandering mystic cult leader named Trelawney appears... hum, the name and character ring a bell.