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A review by mollyoneillwrites
All Clear by Connie Willis
4.0
Dual Review for Blackout and All Clear
This is a looong book, and I didn't have the stamina to read the volumes together. I got through all of Blackout and a third of All Clear in May before giving up for few months and eventually finishing it in August. Next time I read it I'll take proper advantage of the split and read something inbetween.
I'm in two minds about this book, and I think the reason is that the style is unfashionable. A lot of time and paper is spent dealing with the minutae of every day life for three people in Blitzed London and there is a strong sense of deja vu as they go through the same experiences of hiding in bomb shelters, working,and worrying about the war, on a loop for most of the two volumes. There are characters and plot-lines at different times in the war which don't reveal their identity and purpose til late in the second book which are frustrating to have to hold in your head when you don't know why they're important.
In short it's too long and it needed a good edit, at half the length I think it would have much wider appeal.
And yet that might be missing the point of the books, which is to place the reader, with the Oxford historians, into war-torn Britain and witness what it was like, that it did go on and on and the British people had to go on and on with it. Reading the book you get a sense of what it was like to live in darkness with nightly terrifying raids, with rationing and fear, and the fact that they didn't know they were going to win, (a fact which is so obvious that it is often forgotten).
The book also hammers home the ordinary and varied acts of bravery and heroism that are found in times of great trial and celebrates the strength of will to simply keep going and keep sacrificing. This theme is obviously made but with an undeniable emotional power.
For all its faults this is a book which powerfully portrays its subject and is an enjoyable read.
This is a looong book, and I didn't have the stamina to read the volumes together. I got through all of Blackout and a third of All Clear in May before giving up for few months and eventually finishing it in August. Next time I read it I'll take proper advantage of the split and read something inbetween.
I'm in two minds about this book, and I think the reason is that the style is unfashionable. A lot of time and paper is spent dealing with the minutae of every day life for three people in Blitzed London and there is a strong sense of deja vu as they go through the same experiences of hiding in bomb shelters, working,and worrying about the war, on a loop for most of the two volumes. There are characters and plot-lines at different times in the war which don't reveal their identity and purpose til late in the second book which are frustrating to have to hold in your head when you don't know why they're important.
In short it's too long and it needed a good edit, at half the length I think it would have much wider appeal.
And yet that might be missing the point of the books, which is to place the reader, with the Oxford historians, into war-torn Britain and witness what it was like, that it did go on and on and the British people had to go on and on with it. Reading the book you get a sense of what it was like to live in darkness with nightly terrifying raids, with rationing and fear, and the fact that they didn't know they were going to win, (a fact which is so obvious that it is often forgotten).
The book also hammers home the ordinary and varied acts of bravery and heroism that are found in times of great trial and celebrates the strength of will to simply keep going and keep sacrificing. This theme is obviously made but with an undeniable emotional power.
For all its faults this is a book which powerfully portrays its subject and is an enjoyable read.