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A review by muggsyspaniel
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
5.0
I'd never read any Olivia Manning before, truth to tell I only even vaguely knew her name but all that is changed now.
The Great Fortune is set among the British community in Bucharest at the beginning of WWII. The first in a trilogy this one shows the tension and boredom felt by the members of that community are expertly described and the reasonably large cast of characters beautifully drawn. Harriet Pringle, newly married to Guy is the main protagonist while Prince Yakimov, english educated Russian émigré on his uppers is another leading player. Both Harriet and Yakimov are wonderful characters in very different ways. She is strong willed and modern but in a new world and finding it difficult to understand her new husband and surroundings. Yakimov is a man lead by his stomach and his desire to keep on living the life he has become accustomed to, he borrows money and talks his way through humiliation after humiliation on his downward spiral.
The tale does appear by all accounts to be pretty well autobiographical and while there isn't much in the way of story it's a brilliant book and I'll be heading straight on to book two in the trilogy The Spoilt City.
The Great Fortune is set among the British community in Bucharest at the beginning of WWII. The first in a trilogy this one shows the tension and boredom felt by the members of that community are expertly described and the reasonably large cast of characters beautifully drawn. Harriet Pringle, newly married to Guy is the main protagonist while Prince Yakimov, english educated Russian émigré on his uppers is another leading player. Both Harriet and Yakimov are wonderful characters in very different ways. She is strong willed and modern but in a new world and finding it difficult to understand her new husband and surroundings. Yakimov is a man lead by his stomach and his desire to keep on living the life he has become accustomed to, he borrows money and talks his way through humiliation after humiliation on his downward spiral.
The tale does appear by all accounts to be pretty well autobiographical and while there isn't much in the way of story it's a brilliant book and I'll be heading straight on to book two in the trilogy The Spoilt City.