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A review by gh7
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
4.0
I knew before starting this that it wasn't going to be any kind of dazzling literary masterpiece (despite Anthony Burgess telling me Olivia Manning is the most considerable of our woman writers - a quote I find patronising and begs the question, how many women writers has he read?) What I was hoping was that it would be entertaining and also provide insights into how the second world war was experienced by a novelist living through it. It delivered on both those accounts.
An interesting debate would be whether or not a novelist has an advantage if she is writing about something she has experienced first hand. The advantages are obvious. First and foremost, the poignant and telling small details first hand observation provides. The disadvantages probably reside in the temptation to get carried away with all the minutiae of the personal experience. Manning, wanting to be faithful to her experience, probably tries to cram in too many characters all of whom you sense are modelled on real people and which necessitate too many sideshows. Which is why this novel, a trilogy, is so long. You also sense Manning perhaps uses the novel to settle scores. She doesn't seem very keen on most of her characters, including her blundering, insensitive well-meaning husband. Some details though would be hard for a novelist to invent. Like the battle between the German and British propaganda offices in Bucharest in 1940 where they war for attention with their window displays.
So, no, it's not any kind of dazzling literary masterpiece but yes, it is entertaining and I'm looking forward to reading the second instalment.
An interesting debate would be whether or not a novelist has an advantage if she is writing about something she has experienced first hand. The advantages are obvious. First and foremost, the poignant and telling small details first hand observation provides. The disadvantages probably reside in the temptation to get carried away with all the minutiae of the personal experience. Manning, wanting to be faithful to her experience, probably tries to cram in too many characters all of whom you sense are modelled on real people and which necessitate too many sideshows. Which is why this novel, a trilogy, is so long. You also sense Manning perhaps uses the novel to settle scores. She doesn't seem very keen on most of her characters, including her blundering, insensitive well-meaning husband. Some details though would be hard for a novelist to invent. Like the battle between the German and British propaganda offices in Bucharest in 1940 where they war for attention with their window displays.
So, no, it's not any kind of dazzling literary masterpiece but yes, it is entertaining and I'm looking forward to reading the second instalment.