Heaven 2023: June book group - The Romantic by William Boyd.
Apologies I should have posted this yesterday, and I thought I’d done it earlier today, but I’m on holiday and it obviously didn’t work.
June’s book is The Romantic by William Boyd. I’ll post some more details when I’m back on the 12th, and questions on the 20th.
June’s book is The Romantic by William Boyd. I’ll post some more details when I’m back on the 12th, and questions on the 20th.
Comments
As usual I'll post some questions on or around the 20th.
My questions are:
1. Did you warm to Cashel Ross as a person, did he feel real, or just a device to pin various events and developments of the 19th century on?
2. The book is very episodic. Did you have a favourite episode?
1. Did you warm to Cashel Ross as a person, did he feel real, or just a device to pin various events and developments of the 19th century on?
I don't know that I ever warmed to Cashel Ross except as a child and as an elderly man. In between he led an interesting life and was often kind to certain people, but he could also be really selfish. Especially when he left the U.S. and then never went back to resume his relationship with Frances or be there for his children. It was understandable, in a time when divorce was very difficult, that he was unfaithful to his wife once she became emotionally abusive. However he never did much to help her with her mental health and only attempted to reconnect with his daughters years later. He seemed to care more about making money than fighting for custody or contact with his daughters. Given all that he did seem like a real person with a good heart in some ways, but lots of flaws as well.
I wasn't as convinced by his relationships with famous characters, especially the Shelleys and Byron. I thought a lot more could have been done with that section, given the tumultuous lives those three and their friends lived.
2. The book is very episodic. Did you have a favourite episode?
My favourite episode was when Cashel Ross became a public speaker about his discovery of the Nile. It was interesting to read about his success and his growing addiction to addictive pain killers - though I'm glad he overcame his addiction! At that time there weren't a whole lot of treatments, so even children were given opium based medicines and addiction must have been rife.
It was quite shocking when Hogan killed Speke and a bit disturbing that Cashel reasoned away or disassociated about what really happened. He left England, as he acknowledged Hogan might be found out and Cashel might also be blamed for the murder. However he never seemed to look full in the face at what Hogan had done or accept it was murder. He overlooked what happened and Hogan's other violent acts and pretended to himself there was nothing wrong with Hogan. It would be interesting, but probably disturbing, to read a novel based on Hogan's life.
I also liked it that Cashel eventually reunited with his daughter Nessa and that she and Ignatz formed a relationship. Ignatz was my favourite character in the book, though perhaps he was a bit too faultless for real life, except where his loyalty to Cashel led him astray.
I never really felt that Ross came alive as a character, in the way the protagonist of Boyd's Any Human Heart did, or the way Rose Tremain brought Merrivel to life in Restoration and its sequel. Ross seemed to act first and think later, hence becoming a drummer boy in the army rather than following the academic career that might have been expected. He also seemed to not being very good at weighing people up, hence being duped by the count and then by Brooke Mason.
I thought a lot of the characters seemed quite flat, Ignatz was such an important person in Ross's life and I felt I knew very little about him for instance. Maybe Ross was so self-centred that few people really ever mattered to him.
2. The book is very episodic. Did you have a favourite episode?
I enjoyed quite a few of the episodes, the journey to find the source of the Nile, the battle of Waterloo and I liked the way the booked moved on at a pace. However I think I was expecting rather more from the book. I know Boyd is a good writer, and this was well written, it just didn't really grab me, or make me care much about Ross and what happened to him.