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A review by rubygranger
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
5.0
"The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there."
Leo's narration, whilst pretentious and naive, is laced with the innocence of our halcyon days of youth. I read this (for the first time) last summer and, truly, those August afternoons make the perfect setting for Leo's supposedly perfect summer and the wishful fulfillment which coats his regularly-checked thermometer.
Hartley explores the restrictions of social class, the role of women in the family and the deception which often impacts adult-child relationships. Ali Smith has said that Leo is "a child so naive that at first it's comical and then it breaks the heart". Indeed, whilst Leo is frustrating in his continuous trust of Marian and his miscomprehension of 'spooning', the reader is more annoyed with the adults in the novel who do not respect our charming and precoscious protagonist.
Leo's narration, whilst pretentious and naive, is laced with the innocence of our halcyon days of youth. I read this (for the first time) last summer and, truly, those August afternoons make the perfect setting for Leo's supposedly perfect summer and the wishful fulfillment which coats his regularly-checked thermometer.
Hartley explores the restrictions of social class, the role of women in the family and the deception which often impacts adult-child relationships. Ali Smith has said that Leo is "a child so naive that at first it's comical and then it breaks the heart". Indeed, whilst Leo is frustrating in his continuous trust of Marian and his miscomprehension of 'spooning', the reader is more annoyed with the adults in the novel who do not respect our charming and precoscious protagonist.