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A review by grubstlodger
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
4.0
Caravanning must have been in the air in the first decade of the twentieth-century, it was while caravanning that Mr Toad saw his first motor car and in this book a German couple decide to go caravanning for themselves.
Unfortunately for Baron Otto and his wife, they picked one of the rainiest summers of the century. Unfortunately for everyone else, they have to travel with Baron Otto. He’s a humourless, opinionated bore who thinks he’s a social butterfly with a brilliant sense of humour. The book is narrated by him and he never notices how much everyone hates him, even when the party, who are supposed to be travelling together for a month, breaks up after a week.
This book took me a while to get into. While I trusted Elizabeth Von Arnim to be in control of her story, the narrating Otto is not. He’s writing after the fact and in the first few chapters we are launched forwards, backwards and sideways, even suggesting amendments of the text as he goes.
Every few lines are quote-able, this book made Virginia Woolf howl with laughter. It’s a very well told joke but it is a little of a one joke book.
Unfortunately for Baron Otto and his wife, they picked one of the rainiest summers of the century. Unfortunately for everyone else, they have to travel with Baron Otto. He’s a humourless, opinionated bore who thinks he’s a social butterfly with a brilliant sense of humour. The book is narrated by him and he never notices how much everyone hates him, even when the party, who are supposed to be travelling together for a month, breaks up after a week.
This book took me a while to get into. While I trusted Elizabeth Von Arnim to be in control of her story, the narrating Otto is not. He’s writing after the fact and in the first few chapters we are launched forwards, backwards and sideways, even suggesting amendments of the text as he goes.
Every few lines are quote-able, this book made Virginia Woolf howl with laughter. It’s a very well told joke but it is a little of a one joke book.