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christinecc 's review for:
The Charioteer
by Mary Renault
One of Mary Renault's books that isn't set in Ancient Greece.
I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed this one. No cliches. It's a very subtle and human story about Odell, a young soldier wounded at Dunkirk recovering at a country hospital. Unbeknownst to his fellow soldiers, Odell is gay (and rather nervous about letting it slip). Renault takes us into Odell's head without making anything heavy-handed. He is conscious of how to speak in a "straight" manner, he worries about sleep-talking and covering slips of the tongue (e.g. when a boat picks him up at Dunkirk, he is half-conscious and accidentally flirts with his rescuer, then has to laugh and not correct anyone when his friends joke that he was so confused he took a bearded man for a woman...).
The resolution is a little frustrating but I can't say it disappointed. It's frustrating because that's how Odell feels in the end. He can hardly ever be himself, and when he finds one person with whom he can be honest he inevitably hides a different part of himself. With Andrew the Quaker/conscientious objector, he can have a (sort of?) platonic relationship where Andrew apparently doesn't (or won't) realize that he, too, is gay. But with an older flame, Odell can become equals with someone he once idolized. Basically this is a love triangle, but not so much between humans as between two different approaches to love: secret in the outside world, or open in an underground world. I suppose that Odell makes the best of his situation and period, even if I'm inclined to find his treatment of Andrew a little patronizing.
Recommended for anyone who wants a WWII period romance set with a protagonist navigating two worlds (while also trying to adjust to life after a severe physical injury and witnessing war).
I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed this one. No cliches. It's a very subtle and human story about Odell, a young soldier wounded at Dunkirk recovering at a country hospital. Unbeknownst to his fellow soldiers, Odell is gay (and rather nervous about letting it slip). Renault takes us into Odell's head without making anything heavy-handed. He is conscious of how to speak in a "straight" manner, he worries about sleep-talking and covering slips of the tongue (e.g. when a boat picks him up at Dunkirk, he is half-conscious and accidentally flirts with his rescuer, then has to laugh and not correct anyone when his friends joke that he was so confused he took a bearded man for a woman...).
The resolution is a little frustrating but I can't say it disappointed. It's frustrating because that's how Odell feels in the end. He can hardly ever be himself, and when he finds one person with whom he can be honest he inevitably hides a different part of himself. With Andrew the Quaker/conscientious objector, he can have a (sort of?) platonic relationship where Andrew apparently doesn't (or won't) realize that he, too, is gay. But with an older flame, Odell can become equals with someone he once idolized. Basically this is a love triangle, but not so much between humans as between two different approaches to love: secret in the outside world, or open in an underground world.
Recommended for anyone who wants a WWII period romance set with a protagonist navigating two worlds (while also trying to adjust to life after a severe physical injury and witnessing war).