A review by cocoonofbooks
Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton

4.0

This was a sweet little book that I read in about an hour. Through a collection of memories–happy, sad, funny–we experience the breadth of one schoolmaster's career at a particular boys' school in England. From a fearful young teacher trying to learn the art of discipline, to a doddering but wise old retiree still living across the street from the school grounds, we see how his life and the life of the school are intertwined. There were some particularly powerful passages about memory, such as whether a memory loses some of its power when there is no longer anyone else around who shares it, or even knows the people involved enough to appreciate the story. As a staff member who lives on a college campus, I could particularly appreciate the feeling of one's life being caught up in the rise and fall of the school. There's nothing particularly earth-shattering about it (I don't know why the cover describes his experiences as "madcap"), but its reflections and feeling of familiarity made it an enjoyable read for me.