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amyalicejakob's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This one suffered slightly from my own high expectations of it, and my hope of everything I read being a learning experience. This book looks at the time of the sanatorium, where TB sufferers were institutionalised in huge buildings and told to rest. We meet twin brother and sister, rough as anything, who are the first NHS patients in the previously private abode. I really thought this was going to be exactly my kind of book. However, there seemed to me, to be less factual stuff than character development, which is maybe what normal readers want, but not me. I also felt that there was a lot of telling rather than showing. I felt fairly surprised at the end when we were being told about the level of suffering that each of them felt they had endured, as I learned more about the clothes and lipstick shades than I did their interior lives.
What I did learn was interesting, but only a dribble and so I left with the feeling that I should have read the wiki page instead and saved myself a few hours!
What I did learn was interesting, but only a dribble and so I left with the feeling that I should have read the wiki page instead and saved myself a few hours!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism and Medical trauma
mellybird7's review
hopeful
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
blackcatlouise's review
4.0
I loved the first half of this book and felt confident it would be my Baileys shortlist favourite then for me it felt quite flat for a few chapters before finally picking up again in "part 2". However I really enjoyed the book overall; I loved the characters, and the " being patient". The limited life of the sanatorium resonated with me as I have a chronic illness and there are a lot of things I can't do! I often don't enjoy postscript chapters in books but I did feel that these extra chapters really added to my enjoyment of the book.
I absolutely recommend reading this book but now I'm not sure which was my favourite Baileys book....
I absolutely recommend reading this book but now I'm not sure which was my favourite Baileys book....
sadiesrobot's review
3.0
I was pretty excited going into The Dark Circle, as I had heard it was essentially NHS fanfiction. That part is true, but I never really felt like the book delivered. We're set up with an interesting cast, but none of them seemed to really grow over the story. At the end the impression is that their lives are bleak rather than tragic - that they mostly continue living in the past, or in what could have been, into their old age. The idea of setting a novel in a tuberculosis sanatorium is brilliant, but I felt like the book never really chose an angle on it. Medical authoritarianism and institutional abuse are strong themes, but it feels like a real alternative is missing from the book.
savidgereads's review
5.0
I am not going to forget this book in a hurry. The Dark Circle takes us into a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Kent country side four years after the Second World War. We are invited through its doors with Lenny and Millie, twins both recently diagnosed, as we meet those already staying there along with their stories and the siblings before they arrived. I won't say more on the plot because I want everyone to read it but I absolutely loved it. I won't forget the world of the Gwendo or the characters who inhabited it for a long, long time.
wandering_reader's review
3.0
3.75 stars.
It was really interesting reading about what sanatoriums were like and what how people were "treated". The cast of characters were fleshed out well and were the driving force in the story. I liked the way that people from different cultures and backgrounds were thrown together and flourished on their relationships. The post-war setting for the novel was also interesting to read about.
It was really interesting reading about what sanatoriums were like and what how people were "treated". The cast of characters were fleshed out well and were the driving force in the story. I liked the way that people from different cultures and backgrounds were thrown together and flourished on their relationships. The post-war setting for the novel was also interesting to read about.
johannalm's review
3.0
The Dark Circle, Linda Grant
Grant wrote one of my most favorite books - When I Lived in Modern Times, about post WWII Jews in Europe and Israel.
This new novel is not anywhere near as spectacular and emotional but it is quite interesting. Grant focuses again on post WWII Britain and what happened to those afflicted with TB.
19 year old twins Lenny and Miriam are newly admitted to a sanatorium in the countryside when they are diagnosed with TB. At the time the "cure" is lots of rest and forced exposure to the elements so they breath in fresh air - cold air, rain snow etc. Miriam must lie on her balcony day and night with her roommate while Lenny is allowed to enjoy the facilities, as long as he follows all the rules and is a good patient.
All kinds of people are resting and recuperating at the facility, hoping to make it out alive. The cast of characters, the patients, their family members allowed to visit once weekly, the strict and unbending staff, all add to the ennui and unhappiness of this forced seclusion and stifling boredom.
The change in circumstances comes when a miracle medicine comes from America and the chance at survival grows.
This was a traumatic experience for all those survivors who live to tell the tale of their time in the sanatorium. Even as they age and marry and move on, they are haunted by this unhappy time in their lives.
Grant wrote one of my most favorite books - When I Lived in Modern Times, about post WWII Jews in Europe and Israel.
This new novel is not anywhere near as spectacular and emotional but it is quite interesting. Grant focuses again on post WWII Britain and what happened to those afflicted with TB.
19 year old twins Lenny and Miriam are newly admitted to a sanatorium in the countryside when they are diagnosed with TB. At the time the "cure" is lots of rest and forced exposure to the elements so they breath in fresh air - cold air, rain snow etc. Miriam must lie on her balcony day and night with her roommate while Lenny is allowed to enjoy the facilities, as long as he follows all the rules and is a good patient.
All kinds of people are resting and recuperating at the facility, hoping to make it out alive. The cast of characters, the patients, their family members allowed to visit once weekly, the strict and unbending staff, all add to the ennui and unhappiness of this forced seclusion and stifling boredom.
The change in circumstances comes when a miracle medicine comes from America and the chance at survival grows.
This was a traumatic experience for all those survivors who live to tell the tale of their time in the sanatorium. Even as they age and marry and move on, they are haunted by this unhappy time in their lives.
hobbes199's review
4.0
Review previously published at If These Books Could Talk. Copy provided by publisher.
Never think of your life journey as a straight line – always think of it as a circle. That’s Linda Grant’s message behind her latest novel The Dark Circle, as she compellingly connects a struggle against a viscous disease with rebuilding lives in a post war Britain.
It’s 1949, and Britain is still in shock after the war. Rationing still exists, along with suspicions, bigotry, and hatred. Within this mix are Lenny and Miriam Lynskey, Jewish twins full of fight and vigour, desperate to take advantage of anything this new world can provide them. That spirit is soon crushed when it’s discovered (thanks to an Army medical) that Lenny has a serious case of tuberculosis. Along with Miriam, who has a lesser strain of the disease, they are sent packing to a sanatorium in Kent, as part of a new scheme under the newly formed National Health Service. Mixing with the private patients who were previously the only ones able to afford such care, they soon have their eyes opened to the world around them – in spite of their restrictive setting.
This is my first foray in a Linda Grant novel, and I’m now annoyed at myself. Her writing is truly mesmerising and involves you from the first page. Told in a quasi-first person style, we get each character’s perspective on events but as if we are floating above them – we never really see things through their eyes, acting instead as a voyeur, just a millimetre out of reach. While the narrative has that ‘fly-on-the-wall’ sense about it, the language and tone juxtaposes that as it’s searingly realistic. Conversations go from snappy dialogue to morose observations, but at no point does Grant lose any sense of the characters as she guides them on their journeys.
While in the beginning of The Dark Circle Lenny is the principle character of the twins, it is Miriam that truly shines here. Artistic and feisty, but easily impressed, Miriam would be making the most of the new decadent 1950’s were it not for her incarceration. Obsessed with Hollywood stars and all their trappings, she’s caught up in the activities of Arthur Perskey, and American Navy man who’s determined to shake up the hospital. Here is a young woman who, despite her ailments, wants to live and live loud, and Grant writes Miriam with the ‘f*ck you’ attitude from beginning to end.
Lenny, on the other hand, loses more of himself during his treatment. Once a young man of sharp-suits, cons, and quick wits, he soon gets into a comfortable routine of cardigans and double helpings of puddings, not only altering his appearance, but his mind-set too. Like Miriam he is given a wake-up call by Arthur and soon realises that he isn’t drifting into middle-age, but is a young man of possibilities.
While this is a character driven novel for the most part, The Dark Circle is as much of a historical piece of work as it is fictional. If your knowledge of mid-century medicine or healthcare is limited, then some of the treatments may come as a shock to you. Nowadays, there’s no way we’d leave patients outside in the cold 24/7 or collapse a lung with the same cavalier attitude you’d attach to extracting a tooth. While at times, Grant’s depictions seem horrific, she has clearly done her research, bringing a stark authenticity to her story. These two aspects of The Dark Circle bring out it’s only real failing – there isn’t much of a plot. While the antics of the hospital residents are enough to keep the pages turning, there’s really only one cataclysmic event about two-thirds of the way through the book that could be called anything approaching a plot point. Although this isn’t always a bad thing, it did cause the book to drag slightly for me at the half-way point.
What it lacks in plot, The Dark Circle certainly makes up for in atmosphere. From the streets of London teaming with life, protest, and action, to the quiet village life of the Kent countryside, Grant ticks all the boxes. As the patients are forced through their situation to mingle and cohabit, while waiting on a miracle drug that is sure to save them, the atmosphere changes from one of desperation mixed with resignation, to one of hope and possibility.
Grant certainly doesn’t play the ‘predictable’ card when it comes to the fate of her characters, and the novel ends wonderfully with a glimpse of an older Miriam, still yelling her lungs out to anyone who’ll listen. As an allegory for the ‘trudge’ of life and the unexpected things it throws at you, TB could’ve been a poor choice, but in Grant’s able hands it becomes a beautiful ode to freedom and possibilty.
Never think of your life journey as a straight line – always think of it as a circle. That’s Linda Grant’s message behind her latest novel The Dark Circle, as she compellingly connects a struggle against a viscous disease with rebuilding lives in a post war Britain.
It’s 1949, and Britain is still in shock after the war. Rationing still exists, along with suspicions, bigotry, and hatred. Within this mix are Lenny and Miriam Lynskey, Jewish twins full of fight and vigour, desperate to take advantage of anything this new world can provide them. That spirit is soon crushed when it’s discovered (thanks to an Army medical) that Lenny has a serious case of tuberculosis. Along with Miriam, who has a lesser strain of the disease, they are sent packing to a sanatorium in Kent, as part of a new scheme under the newly formed National Health Service. Mixing with the private patients who were previously the only ones able to afford such care, they soon have their eyes opened to the world around them – in spite of their restrictive setting.
This is my first foray in a Linda Grant novel, and I’m now annoyed at myself. Her writing is truly mesmerising and involves you from the first page. Told in a quasi-first person style, we get each character’s perspective on events but as if we are floating above them – we never really see things through their eyes, acting instead as a voyeur, just a millimetre out of reach. While the narrative has that ‘fly-on-the-wall’ sense about it, the language and tone juxtaposes that as it’s searingly realistic. Conversations go from snappy dialogue to morose observations, but at no point does Grant lose any sense of the characters as she guides them on their journeys.
While in the beginning of The Dark Circle Lenny is the principle character of the twins, it is Miriam that truly shines here. Artistic and feisty, but easily impressed, Miriam would be making the most of the new decadent 1950’s were it not for her incarceration. Obsessed with Hollywood stars and all their trappings, she’s caught up in the activities of Arthur Perskey, and American Navy man who’s determined to shake up the hospital. Here is a young woman who, despite her ailments, wants to live and live loud, and Grant writes Miriam with the ‘f*ck you’ attitude from beginning to end.
Lenny, on the other hand, loses more of himself during his treatment. Once a young man of sharp-suits, cons, and quick wits, he soon gets into a comfortable routine of cardigans and double helpings of puddings, not only altering his appearance, but his mind-set too. Like Miriam he is given a wake-up call by Arthur and soon realises that he isn’t drifting into middle-age, but is a young man of possibilities.
While this is a character driven novel for the most part, The Dark Circle is as much of a historical piece of work as it is fictional. If your knowledge of mid-century medicine or healthcare is limited, then some of the treatments may come as a shock to you. Nowadays, there’s no way we’d leave patients outside in the cold 24/7 or collapse a lung with the same cavalier attitude you’d attach to extracting a tooth. While at times, Grant’s depictions seem horrific, she has clearly done her research, bringing a stark authenticity to her story. These two aspects of The Dark Circle bring out it’s only real failing – there isn’t much of a plot. While the antics of the hospital residents are enough to keep the pages turning, there’s really only one cataclysmic event about two-thirds of the way through the book that could be called anything approaching a plot point. Although this isn’t always a bad thing, it did cause the book to drag slightly for me at the half-way point.
What it lacks in plot, The Dark Circle certainly makes up for in atmosphere. From the streets of London teaming with life, protest, and action, to the quiet village life of the Kent countryside, Grant ticks all the boxes. As the patients are forced through their situation to mingle and cohabit, while waiting on a miracle drug that is sure to save them, the atmosphere changes from one of desperation mixed with resignation, to one of hope and possibility.
Grant certainly doesn’t play the ‘predictable’ card when it comes to the fate of her characters, and the novel ends wonderfully with a glimpse of an older Miriam, still yelling her lungs out to anyone who’ll listen. As an allegory for the ‘trudge’ of life and the unexpected things it throws at you, TB could’ve been a poor choice, but in Grant’s able hands it becomes a beautiful ode to freedom and possibilty.
kiwialexa's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The last two sections felt quite disjointed from the first (much larger) section of this book. A bit of a strange ending.