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A review by frodolives
Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
adventurous
4.0
Won’t Somebody Please Allow Mr Bush A Good Night’s Sleep: A Novel
This was a strong sequel to Midshipman Hornblower. I enjoyed it quite a bit more actually - unlike the first book, it's one continuous story (if you've seen the TV series, episodes 5, 6 and the beginning of 7 follows the events in this novel pretty closely). It's also told from the point of view of William Bush so we get to meet Hornblower from somebody else's eyes, and Bush provides a good foil to Hornblower's leadership skills and heroism by being more of an average (albeit conservative and unimaginative) guy. It's not really mind-blowing or incredible literature but I still had a fun time reading this. It's fast-paced, entertaining, and engaging and that's mostly all it's trying to be.
I think the thing that really makes this book are the characters Hornblower and Bush and their relationship. Hornblower continues to be a fascinating and amusing character and it's nice to finally see the poor sod get a friend. A major focus of this book and probably its most compelling theme is its deconstruction of toxic masculinity (I don't think I've ever said "what is wrong with men??" more times than I did while reading this novel). The way the Bush/Hornblower relationship develops within this framework of male emotional repression was handled masterfully: at first there's uncertainty, competitiveness, and jealousy, and you can't really tell if they like each other or not, but subtlety their fondness grows and seeing them become best friends and genuinely tender with each other by the end of the novel was so satisfying and had me grinning like a crazy person. Also, it's homoerotic as hell, some scenes almost shockingly so. Great stuff.
An issue I had with the first book was that the action scenes were too numerous and difficult to follow. I don't have the same complaint here - the action in this was much more engaging and held proper weight to the narrative. I will say I was slightly disappointed by how the novel engaged with the broader war stuff: This is set in 1802 Santo Domingo and it goes without saying there was potential for a much more interesting story somewhere, but Forester purposefully avoided engaging too much with the real history and made Bush an intentionally ignorant character. On one hand I get it, Forester just wanted to write a fun adventure story and it's better for a writer to know and set their limits than biting into more than they can handle, but I do think I'd maybe enjoy this more if it was more ambitious. The few parts of this book where Bush actually self-reflects on what it means to be apart of the British navy and the moral and existential quandaries regarding that were some of the more interesting parts of the book but Forester always pulls away before it can get too deep (though I guess, given when this book was written, the fact that there is a degree of self-awareness at all is nice to see lol).
Plot-wise, this book was fine. It honestly isn't that remarkable or memorable, but it was a serviceable backdrop to the development of Bush and Hornblower's characters and their relationship. The structure was a bit awkward - I think the climax really occurs around the 80% mark once everything is resolved in Kingston and the rest of the book (the parts in England) read much more like it's supposed to be the beginning of the next novel as it starts introducing completely new characters and conflicts. The ending is a bit of an abrupt cliffhanger. Though I guess it does its job at making me want to read more, because despite my criticisms with this series I really do love it and have found myself terribly invested in these young men... onto Hornblower and the Hotspur it is!
[Edit: I originally gave this book three stars but after reading more of the series my fondness for this one has grown so I'm upping it to four. I recommend reading this after you’re already familiar with Hornblower’s neurotic inner monologue because it makes Bush’s POV more interesting as a contrast.]
This was a strong sequel to Midshipman Hornblower. I enjoyed it quite a bit more actually - unlike the first book, it's one continuous story (if you've seen the TV series, episodes 5, 6 and the beginning of 7 follows the events in this novel pretty closely). It's also told from the point of view of William Bush so we get to meet Hornblower from somebody else's eyes, and Bush provides a good foil to Hornblower's leadership skills and heroism by being more of an average (albeit conservative and unimaginative) guy. It's not really mind-blowing or incredible literature but I still had a fun time reading this. It's fast-paced, entertaining, and engaging and that's mostly all it's trying to be.
I think the thing that really makes this book are the characters Hornblower and Bush and their relationship. Hornblower continues to be a fascinating and amusing character and it's nice to finally see the poor sod get a friend. A major focus of this book and probably its most compelling theme is its deconstruction of toxic masculinity (I don't think I've ever said "what is wrong with men??" more times than I did while reading this novel). The way the Bush/Hornblower relationship develops within this framework of male emotional repression was handled masterfully: at first there's uncertainty, competitiveness, and jealousy, and you can't really tell if they like each other or not, but subtlety their fondness grows and seeing them become best friends and genuinely tender with each other by the end of the novel was so satisfying and had me grinning like a crazy person. Also, it's homoerotic as hell, some scenes almost shockingly so. Great stuff.
An issue I had with the first book was that the action scenes were too numerous and difficult to follow. I don't have the same complaint here - the action in this was much more engaging and held proper weight to the narrative. I will say I was slightly disappointed by how the novel engaged with the broader war stuff: This is set in 1802 Santo Domingo and it goes without saying there was potential for a much more interesting story somewhere, but Forester purposefully avoided engaging too much with the real history and made Bush an intentionally ignorant character. On one hand I get it, Forester just wanted to write a fun adventure story and it's better for a writer to know and set their limits than biting into more than they can handle, but I do think I'd maybe enjoy this more if it was more ambitious. The few parts of this book where Bush actually self-reflects on what it means to be apart of the British navy and the moral and existential quandaries regarding that were some of the more interesting parts of the book but Forester always pulls away before it can get too deep (though I guess, given when this book was written, the fact that there is a degree of self-awareness at all is nice to see lol).
Plot-wise, this book was fine. It honestly isn't that remarkable or memorable, but it was a serviceable backdrop to the development of Bush and Hornblower's characters and their relationship. The structure was a bit awkward - I think the climax really occurs around the 80% mark once everything is resolved in Kingston and the rest of the book (the parts in England) read much more like it's supposed to be the beginning of the next novel as it starts introducing completely new characters and conflicts. The ending is a bit of an abrupt cliffhanger. Though I guess it does its job at making me want to read more, because despite my criticisms with this series I really do love it and have found myself terribly invested in these young men... onto Hornblower and the Hotspur it is!
[Edit: I originally gave this book three stars but after reading more of the series my fondness for this one has grown so I'm upping it to four. I recommend reading this after you’re already familiar with Hornblower’s neurotic inner monologue because it makes Bush’s POV more interesting as a contrast.]