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Larchfield
It's early summer when a young poet, Dora Fielding, moves to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland and her hopes are first challenged. Newly married, pregnant, she's excited by the prospect of a life that combines family and creativity. She thinks she knows what being a person, a wife, a mother, means. She is soon shown that she is wrong. As the battle begins for her very sense of self, Dora comes to find the realities of small town life suffocating, and, eventually, terrifying; until she finds a way to escape reality altogether.
Another poet, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan H. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, with his first book of poetry published, should be embarking on success and society in London. Instead, in 1930, fleeing a broken engagement, he takes a teaching post at Larchfield School for boys where he is mocked for his Englishness and suspected - rightly - of homosexuality. Yet in this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fears.
The need for human connection compels these two vulnerable outsiders to find each other and make a reality of their own that will save them both. Echoing the depths of Possession, the elegance of The Stranger's Child and the ingenuity of Longbourn, Larchfield is a beautiful and haunting novel about heroism - the unusual bravery that allows unusual people to go on living; to transcend banality and suffering with the power of their imagination.
Another poet, she discovers, lived in Helensburgh once. Wystan H. Auden, brilliant and awkward at 24, with his first book of poetry published, should be embarking on success and society in London. Instead, in 1930, fleeing a broken engagement, he takes a teaching post at Larchfield School for boys where he is mocked for his Englishness and suspected - rightly - of homosexuality. Yet in this repressed limbo Wystan will fall in love for the first time, even as he fights his deepest fears.
The need for human connection compels these two vulnerable outsiders to find each other and make a reality of their own that will save them both. Echoing the depths of Possession, the elegance of The Stranger's Child and the ingenuity of Longbourn, Larchfield is a beautiful and haunting novel about heroism - the unusual bravery that allows unusual people to go on living; to transcend banality and suffering with the power of their imagination.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published March 23, 2017
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November 21, 2023
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Christopher Isherwood a sinistra, e W.H. Auden, che furono molto amici e molto amanti.
La storia, o meglio, le storie, perché si tratta di due, almeno fino a un certo punto, si svolgono su due piani temporali diversi.
In una il protagonista è Wystan, siamo all’inizio degli anni Trenta (1930-1932), e Wystan è il celebre poeta Auden, quello della mitica breve raccolta Tell Me the Truth About Love � La verità, vi prego, sull’amore, quella piccola gemma che ne contiene almeno un’altra, più breve, la poesia intitolata Funeral Blues. E quindi, Wystan Auden è un personaggio realmente esistito, e ha effettivamente trascorso un paio d’anni sulla costa occidentale scozzese insegnando in una public school.
Polly Clark
Il secondo piano temporale si svolge qualche decennio dopo, più o meno alla fine della prima decade del terzo millennio, quando Barak Obama diventava il primo presidente afroamericano degli Stati Uniti (gennaio 2009).
Al centro di quest’altro filo narrativo è Dora, donna che si sta avvicinando ai quarant’anni, poetessa, sposata con Kit, architetto, che ha una quindicina d’anni più di lei.
Anche Dora, e Kit, si trasferiscono per lavoro nello stesso posto dove si fermò Auden: la cittadina di Helensburgh. Quando arrivano nella nuova casa, che è il piano terra di una magnifica villa che col tempo è stata divisa, e al piano di sopra abitano dei vicini diabolici, Dora è incinta: nel corso delle pagine, partorisce la piccola Beatrice, Bea, che nasce prematura e che seguiamo nei primi mesi di vita, probabilmente il suo primo anno.
Larchfield
Chi scrive è una poetessa canadese che da tempo vive in Inghilterra.
Per la precisione, in Scozia: sulla costa occidentale, proprio a Helensburgh. Questo è il suo primo romanzo: ed è bello. Convincente, emozionante, poetico nella sua lingua semplice, diretta, che però si apre a più significati, valenze.
Helensburgh
Larchfield è il nome della scuola dove Auden insegna inglese e francese: gli allievi sono bambini, ragazzi, e adolescenti. Tutti maschi.
Le analogie tra i due piani temporali è che entrambi hanno protagonista un poeta, un uomo e una donna: due poeti che a Helensburgh finiscono presto per sentirsi pesci fuor d’acqua, ostracizzati da una popolazione chiusa e bigotta, conservatrice e moralista, sia nel 1930 che nel 2010. Due poeti che sono individui, e anime, troppo diversi per potersi amalgamare in una comunità locale del genere: soffriranno, a cominciare dalla solitudine.
Due persone che hanno il coraggio di scegliere se stessi, di non rinunciare ai propri sogni e desideri, entrambe convinte che nell’arte e nella creatività è il cuore pulsante del loro essere.
Tramonto a Helensburgh.
Qual è la colpa di Wistan?
Essere diverso. A cominciare dalla sua omosessualità, che allora era un reato. per viverla liberamente Wystan passa le vacanze a Berlino, con il suo amico Christopher (Isherwood). A Berlino l’omosessualità è tollerata. Almeno finché non arrivano le camicie brune: poi, anche lì, la festa finisce.
Qual è la colpa di Dora?
Più difficile da dire: forse, essere una donna che non si riconosce nell’unico ruolo di madre. E quindi, che non rinuncia alla sua poesia, alla sua arte, ai suoi sogni.
Nebbia a Helensburgh
I due piani temporali a un certo punto sembrano incrociarsi, unificarsi. Forse. Sì. Chissà.
Quando Dora trova una bottiglia portata dal mare che contiene un rotolino di carta con una breve frase, un messaggio che arriva da un altro luogo, o forse da un altro tempo, allora sembra che�
E forse è proprio vero, forse l’SOS arriva a destinazione, i forse destini dei due protagonisti vengono a contatto, s’intrecciano. Forse. Chissà.
Polly Clark gioca con altri piani, i più classici: finzione e realtà, invenzione e autobiografia. Perché non solo anche lei è poetessa (questo è il suo primo romanzo, al quale per ora ne è seguito un altro), anche lei vive a Helensburgh: ma anche lei, proprio come Dora, si è interessata a Auden, a studiarlo, a fare ricerche sul suo periodo in quel borgo scozzese (durante il quale scrisse il poema The Oratorians).
Forse. Chissà.
Christopher Isherwood a sinistra, e W.H. Auden, che furono molto amici e molto amanti.
La storia, o meglio, le storie, perché si tratta di due, almeno fino a un certo punto, si svolgono su due piani temporali diversi.
In una il protagonista è Wystan, siamo all’inizio degli anni Trenta (1930-1932), e Wystan è il celebre poeta Auden, quello della mitica breve raccolta Tell Me the Truth About Love � La verità, vi prego, sull’amore, quella piccola gemma che ne contiene almeno un’altra, più breve, la poesia intitolata Funeral Blues. E quindi, Wystan Auden è un personaggio realmente esistito, e ha effettivamente trascorso un paio d’anni sulla costa occidentale scozzese insegnando in una public school.
Polly Clark
Il secondo piano temporale si svolge qualche decennio dopo, più o meno alla fine della prima decade del terzo millennio, quando Barak Obama diventava il primo presidente afroamericano degli Stati Uniti (gennaio 2009).
Al centro di quest’altro filo narrativo è Dora, donna che si sta avvicinando ai quarant’anni, poetessa, sposata con Kit, architetto, che ha una quindicina d’anni più di lei.
Anche Dora, e Kit, si trasferiscono per lavoro nello stesso posto dove si fermò Auden: la cittadina di Helensburgh. Quando arrivano nella nuova casa, che è il piano terra di una magnifica villa che col tempo è stata divisa, e al piano di sopra abitano dei vicini diabolici, Dora è incinta: nel corso delle pagine, partorisce la piccola Beatrice, Bea, che nasce prematura e che seguiamo nei primi mesi di vita, probabilmente il suo primo anno.
Larchfield
Chi scrive è una poetessa canadese che da tempo vive in Inghilterra.
Per la precisione, in Scozia: sulla costa occidentale, proprio a Helensburgh. Questo è il suo primo romanzo: ed è bello. Convincente, emozionante, poetico nella sua lingua semplice, diretta, che però si apre a più significati, valenze.
Helensburgh
Larchfield è il nome della scuola dove Auden insegna inglese e francese: gli allievi sono bambini, ragazzi, e adolescenti. Tutti maschi.
Le analogie tra i due piani temporali è che entrambi hanno protagonista un poeta, un uomo e una donna: due poeti che a Helensburgh finiscono presto per sentirsi pesci fuor d’acqua, ostracizzati da una popolazione chiusa e bigotta, conservatrice e moralista, sia nel 1930 che nel 2010. Due poeti che sono individui, e anime, troppo diversi per potersi amalgamare in una comunità locale del genere: soffriranno, a cominciare dalla solitudine.
Due persone che hanno il coraggio di scegliere se stessi, di non rinunciare ai propri sogni e desideri, entrambe convinte che nell’arte e nella creatività è il cuore pulsante del loro essere.
Tramonto a Helensburgh.
Qual è la colpa di Wistan?
Essere diverso. A cominciare dalla sua omosessualità, che allora era un reato. per viverla liberamente Wystan passa le vacanze a Berlino, con il suo amico Christopher (Isherwood). A Berlino l’omosessualità è tollerata. Almeno finché non arrivano le camicie brune: poi, anche lì, la festa finisce.
Qual è la colpa di Dora?
Più difficile da dire: forse, essere una donna che non si riconosce nell’unico ruolo di madre. E quindi, che non rinuncia alla sua poesia, alla sua arte, ai suoi sogni.
Nebbia a Helensburgh
I due piani temporali a un certo punto sembrano incrociarsi, unificarsi. Forse. Sì. Chissà.
Quando Dora trova una bottiglia portata dal mare che contiene un rotolino di carta con una breve frase, un messaggio che arriva da un altro luogo, o forse da un altro tempo, allora sembra che�
E forse è proprio vero, forse l’SOS arriva a destinazione, i forse destini dei due protagonisti vengono a contatto, s’intrecciano. Forse. Chissà.
Polly Clark gioca con altri piani, i più classici: finzione e realtà, invenzione e autobiografia. Perché non solo anche lei è poetessa (questo è il suo primo romanzo, al quale per ora ne è seguito un altro), anche lei vive a Helensburgh: ma anche lei, proprio come Dora, si è interessata a Auden, a studiarlo, a fare ricerche sul suo periodo in quel borgo scozzese (durante il quale scrisse il poema The Oratorians).
Forse. Chissà.
April 26, 2021
This is the story of Dora, a young poet and soon-to-be-mother recently moved to Helensburgh, a small town on the west coast of Scotland. This is also the story of Wystan, another poet who left the supportive circles of Oxford to live and write in the same area nearly a hundred years ago, taking up a job teaching school-boys at the titular Larchfield. Equally, this is the story of its author Polly Clark, who was inspired to it following the turn of events her own life took on moving to the epicentre of it all: the Scottish seaside town of Helensburgh.
On the face of it, Larchfield is a poet's debut novel about poets—one entirely fictional; one a fictionalised form of W H Auden. In that, it is all that one would expect of it: Clark writes with verve, and the story she tells is lyrical, atmospheric, and incredibly ambitious; a story where two poets meet across time and share in their loneliness, their shame, and the uncertainty of the lives they are to lead amidst the hostility of their new world(s).
In Dora is echoed the question many women are inadvertently led to; the question of identity, individuality, and whether “this”—marriage and a child—is all there is for them; there is a descent into madness that one can feel coming from the very first page. In Wystan, we see a sensitive reflection of Auden as a youthful and repressed young man yet unsure of the success he was to become. That Clark pieced his character together from traces of Auden’s lived experiences and correspondence is admirably held together by the textures of personhood that are accorded to him, so real and believable. The interior lives of the two protagonists are wonderfully rendered here, and (surprisingly for a novel with such a pointed focus on the poetic mind and its machinations and desperations) so is the description of the physical world around them.
Yet, there is something deeply unsatisfactory—at least, to me—about Larchfield, as if the narrative is blurred a little around the edges and right in the centre—a disorienting picture one isn’t sure how to feel about. Perhaps it was the predictability of the two poets� fate for me, the ease and neatness with which their stories wrapped up—it felt to me like an injustice being done to the beauty and effort with which their torment is first fleshed out. Perhaps it was how flat most of the supporting characters fell against these multi-dimensional poets—I constantly felt like something was about to be divulged about them, something to make them turn from hologram to human, but it never happened. Were Mo and Daphne foils of each other in some way? I rack my brains but I do not know.
This is not to say that I disliked this book—I merely feel strangely about it. There are scores of positive ratings on this site that would do a good job convincing you to read this book. I, too, would say go for it, but only if it is your admiration for W H Auden or The Orators that moves you to do so. I suppose the thing about this book is that it brings the feverish haze of lyric poetry into the arena of plot and prose: not for everyone, but perhaps far more rewarding for those who can understand and delight in it.
2.5 stars.
On the face of it, Larchfield is a poet's debut novel about poets—one entirely fictional; one a fictionalised form of W H Auden. In that, it is all that one would expect of it: Clark writes with verve, and the story she tells is lyrical, atmospheric, and incredibly ambitious; a story where two poets meet across time and share in their loneliness, their shame, and the uncertainty of the lives they are to lead amidst the hostility of their new world(s).
In Dora is echoed the question many women are inadvertently led to; the question of identity, individuality, and whether “this”—marriage and a child—is all there is for them; there is a descent into madness that one can feel coming from the very first page. In Wystan, we see a sensitive reflection of Auden as a youthful and repressed young man yet unsure of the success he was to become. That Clark pieced his character together from traces of Auden’s lived experiences and correspondence is admirably held together by the textures of personhood that are accorded to him, so real and believable. The interior lives of the two protagonists are wonderfully rendered here, and (surprisingly for a novel with such a pointed focus on the poetic mind and its machinations and desperations) so is the description of the physical world around them.
Yet, there is something deeply unsatisfactory—at least, to me—about Larchfield, as if the narrative is blurred a little around the edges and right in the centre—a disorienting picture one isn’t sure how to feel about. Perhaps it was the predictability of the two poets� fate for me, the ease and neatness with which their stories wrapped up—it felt to me like an injustice being done to the beauty and effort with which their torment is first fleshed out. Perhaps it was how flat most of the supporting characters fell against these multi-dimensional poets—I constantly felt like something was about to be divulged about them, something to make them turn from hologram to human, but it never happened. Were Mo and Daphne foils of each other in some way? I rack my brains but I do not know.
This is not to say that I disliked this book—I merely feel strangely about it. There are scores of positive ratings on this site that would do a good job convincing you to read this book. I, too, would say go for it, but only if it is your admiration for W H Auden or The Orators that moves you to do so. I suppose the thing about this book is that it brings the feverish haze of lyric poetry into the arena of plot and prose: not for everyone, but perhaps far more rewarding for those who can understand and delight in it.
2.5 stars.
March 10, 2017
With thanks to Quercus Books for the opportunity to read this.
An interesting take on the theme of feeling an outsider, and an unwelcome outsider at that. Two stories are intertwined very effectively and with great originality. The 21st century narrator is Dora, an aspiring poet. A natural city-dweller and from England, at several months pregnant she relocates with her architect husband to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland. A difficult premature birth and probable post-natal depression, nasty, resentful neighbours and a largely oblivious husband conspire to undermine her confidence and mental health. She takes refuge in an unlikely friendship across almost a century with Wystan (Auden) who taught at a local prep school in the early 1930s, also from south of the border and further alienated by being homosexual with no legal way to live as one in the Britain of his day. Both struggle in hostile environments with little or no support and have more in common that it would seem at first glance.
One of the author’s greatest achievements for me was the atmosphere she created of hostility and foreboding. Social interactions are fraught with tension - Dora’s dealings with social services over her baby’s well-being, her relationship with the neighbours, Wystan’s need to keep his homosexuality secret, his distress at the culture of abuse in the school - a misjudged word or gesture could spark an explosion. I was riveted, scared for them both. The other strength of the novel is the quality of the writing - not a word out of place, you could guess the author is a poet too - and there are lines of poetry quoted, some of it the author’s own, always a delight.
A terrific read and I’ll be recommending it as widely as I can.
An interesting take on the theme of feeling an outsider, and an unwelcome outsider at that. Two stories are intertwined very effectively and with great originality. The 21st century narrator is Dora, an aspiring poet. A natural city-dweller and from England, at several months pregnant she relocates with her architect husband to Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland. A difficult premature birth and probable post-natal depression, nasty, resentful neighbours and a largely oblivious husband conspire to undermine her confidence and mental health. She takes refuge in an unlikely friendship across almost a century with Wystan (Auden) who taught at a local prep school in the early 1930s, also from south of the border and further alienated by being homosexual with no legal way to live as one in the Britain of his day. Both struggle in hostile environments with little or no support and have more in common that it would seem at first glance.
One of the author’s greatest achievements for me was the atmosphere she created of hostility and foreboding. Social interactions are fraught with tension - Dora’s dealings with social services over her baby’s well-being, her relationship with the neighbours, Wystan’s need to keep his homosexuality secret, his distress at the culture of abuse in the school - a misjudged word or gesture could spark an explosion. I was riveted, scared for them both. The other strength of the novel is the quality of the writing - not a word out of place, you could guess the author is a poet too - and there are lines of poetry quoted, some of it the author’s own, always a delight.
A terrific read and I’ll be recommending it as widely as I can.
May 19, 2017
I received a free advance copy of Larchfield in return for an honest and unbiased review
When it comes to beautiful writing Polly Clark is immensely talented. Her prose is wonderfully and fittingly poetic if occasionally to mannered to be natural, and Larchfield and Helensburgh evocatively described. Auden is as melancholy and thoughtful as one would imagine, with bouts of self-doubt and flashes of brilliance and verve. He is young and struggling to find his way in his work and the world, forced into a remote teaching position in a crumbling, underfunded public school even as his first volume of poetry is published. Auden is lonely and adrift, even driven to send out a lonely message but he also befriends first the invalid wife of his headmaster and then Gregory, a young man glimpsed at the railway station who has since haunted Auden's thoughts. The contrast between his quiet, isolated life in Larchfield is contrasted with the colour and freedom of his periodic trips to the more "debauched" Berlin to visit Christopher Isherwood. Auden's relationships in Scotland and Germany are written with great colour and contrast, revealing several sides to a complex man. This part of the novel, I loved.
I was far less invested and, to be honest, interested in the parallel story of Dora, a contemporary poet recently moved to Helenburgh. She is married to an older man and pregnant with their first child and is struggling to come to terms with the sudden shift in her life from Cambridge to Helensburgh, work to family. As she tries to adjust to her baby and the neighbours their shared house she is inspired by the news that WH Auden spent a short period in the area, and even wrote his famous Orators there. There was plenty of potential in this thread, two poets separated by years and both oppressed by isolation and the fear of thwarted ambition. But when Dora miraculously finds the bottle cast away by Auden decades ago the connection between the two characters that this discovery forged wasn't what I was expecting. Alongside Dora's developing "neighbours from Hell" situation at home this whole story-line became far too outlandish and dramatic for me. The denouement between Dora's family and their neighbour was really quite silly.
Polly Clark has a marvellous way with words but the structure and plot of Larchfield ultimately let it down.
When it comes to beautiful writing Polly Clark is immensely talented. Her prose is wonderfully and fittingly poetic if occasionally to mannered to be natural, and Larchfield and Helensburgh evocatively described. Auden is as melancholy and thoughtful as one would imagine, with bouts of self-doubt and flashes of brilliance and verve. He is young and struggling to find his way in his work and the world, forced into a remote teaching position in a crumbling, underfunded public school even as his first volume of poetry is published. Auden is lonely and adrift, even driven to send out a lonely message but he also befriends first the invalid wife of his headmaster and then Gregory, a young man glimpsed at the railway station who has since haunted Auden's thoughts. The contrast between his quiet, isolated life in Larchfield is contrasted with the colour and freedom of his periodic trips to the more "debauched" Berlin to visit Christopher Isherwood. Auden's relationships in Scotland and Germany are written with great colour and contrast, revealing several sides to a complex man. This part of the novel, I loved.
I was far less invested and, to be honest, interested in the parallel story of Dora, a contemporary poet recently moved to Helenburgh. She is married to an older man and pregnant with their first child and is struggling to come to terms with the sudden shift in her life from Cambridge to Helensburgh, work to family. As she tries to adjust to her baby and the neighbours their shared house she is inspired by the news that WH Auden spent a short period in the area, and even wrote his famous Orators there. There was plenty of potential in this thread, two poets separated by years and both oppressed by isolation and the fear of thwarted ambition. But when Dora miraculously finds the bottle cast away by Auden decades ago the connection between the two characters that this discovery forged wasn't what I was expecting. Alongside Dora's developing "neighbours from Hell" situation at home this whole story-line became far too outlandish and dramatic for me. The denouement between Dora's family and their neighbour was really quite silly.
Polly Clark has a marvellous way with words but the structure and plot of Larchfield ultimately let it down.
April 10, 2022
A wonderful intertwining of W. H. Auden’s time teaching at Larchfield School on the western coast of Scotland in the early 1930’s, and a contemporary young mother struggling to maintain her sanity. A lovely story beautifully told.
January 4, 2018
I completed reading Larchfield on New Year's Day. It is an unusual book, weaving the lives of historical characters with Dora Fielding, a young poet, who moves with her husband to Helensborough on the west coast of Scotland. This is small town life at its most excrutiating and it starts to smother Dora, who is looking to find her true self. What to do?
When Dora discovers that the poet Wystan H. Auden lived in Helensborough in the 30s Dora finds a way to escape reality. This is handled by Polly Clark with great imagination. Auden taught at Larchfield school where he is mocked for his Englishness. He is rightly suspected of homosexuality and spends his holidays with Christopher Isherwood in Germany. Dora and Auden 'find each other' and Dora's imagination becomes all consuming. These are vulnerable people and Larchfield is beautifully written; a haunting novel about heroism and repression - a story that draws you in with a compelling sense of danger.
This is an ambitious story, which Polly Clark handles perfectly. Highly recommended.
When Dora discovers that the poet Wystan H. Auden lived in Helensborough in the 30s Dora finds a way to escape reality. This is handled by Polly Clark with great imagination. Auden taught at Larchfield school where he is mocked for his Englishness. He is rightly suspected of homosexuality and spends his holidays with Christopher Isherwood in Germany. Dora and Auden 'find each other' and Dora's imagination becomes all consuming. These are vulnerable people and Larchfield is beautifully written; a haunting novel about heroism and repression - a story that draws you in with a compelling sense of danger.
This is an ambitious story, which Polly Clark handles perfectly. Highly recommended.
April 1, 2017
Polly Clark is already a successful poet - she was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize - and this, her first novel, won the Mslexia novel competition when it was still in manuscript. As far as debut novelists go she seems like a sound bet and Larchfield doesn't disappoint. It's a beautiful and accomplished piece of writing with smooth resonant prose and rhythmic pacing that make it a delight to read. Clark shows a delicate mastery over dialogue too, which I often find a sticking point in first novels. It was one of those books I didn't have any difficulty either picking up or putting down; I could sink into it in a moment. It's one of its strengths - and I'm sure it's going to do very well, especially in paperback - but it's also a weakness, because it suggests there is something quite ordinary about the rest of the book.
The story is told principally through the eyes of two characters. Dora is a young poet recently moved to present day Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland with her older husband Kit, a successful architect. She is heavily pregnant with their first child and distanced from her previous life as an academic and writer. The couple have bought the ground floor flat of a grand old house, sharing the building with local evangelists Mo and Terence. As Dora's relationship with their new neighbours deteriorates and the birth of premature Beatrice puts strain on her marriage the scene is set for crisis. Our other point of view belongs to Wystan Auden, a schoolteacher recently arrvied at Helensburgh's boys school, Larchfield, in the early 1930s. His first poetry collection has just been published but he's yet to establish his reputation - of course, we know him as W.H. Auden - and teaching is what young men with third class Cambridge degrees do. He is haunted and frustrated by his homosexuality, escaping to spend time in Berlin with his friend Christopher Isherwood whenever he can. An unlikely friendship with the headteacher's ill wife Daphne is all that keeps him sane. Ultimately these two storylines knit together, in an intriguing way that I won't spoil.
Clark writes the interior lives of both her main characters with vivid sensitivity. It's impossible not to feel Dora's postnatal desperation or Wystan's curdling mix of anger and shame. Wystan's chapters in particular are absorbing, and you can feel Clark's love and respect for the gawky young man she brings to life on the page. My problem, I suppose, is that I have read both of these stories before, many times. The repressed gay man and the mentally precarious young mother have a whole world of tropes behind them and Clark doesn't stray far from expectation. I absolutely knew what was going to happen to each of them, almost down to the particulars of the mistakes they made and the conversations they had. It felt like the story was on rails. At the mid-point (almost to the page) the book flips a switch and offers a tangy and unexpected twist on the connection between Dora and Auden. It throws your interpretation of the first half of the book into a new light and it made me sit up and take notice again for a while. But I didn't feel the conceit was ever completely embraced, and in the end I thought the ending wrapped up rather too easily. I yearned for a weirder more prickly book that fully acknowledged the seriousness of both Dora and Wystan's situation but particularly of Dora's. The book had made me completely believe in the impossibility of reconciling their desires and their life situations and then fizzled out by resolving itself with a bow on top.
I don't regret reading Larchfield for a moment; it's a lovely lyrical first novel and I will look out for Polly Clark's next book. But I think it could have been a better book if it had been bolder and less intent on tidiness.
The story is told principally through the eyes of two characters. Dora is a young poet recently moved to present day Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland with her older husband Kit, a successful architect. She is heavily pregnant with their first child and distanced from her previous life as an academic and writer. The couple have bought the ground floor flat of a grand old house, sharing the building with local evangelists Mo and Terence. As Dora's relationship with their new neighbours deteriorates and the birth of premature Beatrice puts strain on her marriage the scene is set for crisis. Our other point of view belongs to Wystan Auden, a schoolteacher recently arrvied at Helensburgh's boys school, Larchfield, in the early 1930s. His first poetry collection has just been published but he's yet to establish his reputation - of course, we know him as W.H. Auden - and teaching is what young men with third class Cambridge degrees do. He is haunted and frustrated by his homosexuality, escaping to spend time in Berlin with his friend Christopher Isherwood whenever he can. An unlikely friendship with the headteacher's ill wife Daphne is all that keeps him sane. Ultimately these two storylines knit together, in an intriguing way that I won't spoil.
Clark writes the interior lives of both her main characters with vivid sensitivity. It's impossible not to feel Dora's postnatal desperation or Wystan's curdling mix of anger and shame. Wystan's chapters in particular are absorbing, and you can feel Clark's love and respect for the gawky young man she brings to life on the page. My problem, I suppose, is that I have read both of these stories before, many times. The repressed gay man and the mentally precarious young mother have a whole world of tropes behind them and Clark doesn't stray far from expectation. I absolutely knew what was going to happen to each of them, almost down to the particulars of the mistakes they made and the conversations they had. It felt like the story was on rails. At the mid-point (almost to the page) the book flips a switch and offers a tangy and unexpected twist on the connection between Dora and Auden. It throws your interpretation of the first half of the book into a new light and it made me sit up and take notice again for a while. But I didn't feel the conceit was ever completely embraced, and in the end I thought the ending wrapped up rather too easily. I yearned for a weirder more prickly book that fully acknowledged the seriousness of both Dora and Wystan's situation but particularly of Dora's. The book had made me completely believe in the impossibility of reconciling their desires and their life situations and then fizzled out by resolving itself with a bow on top.
I don't regret reading Larchfield for a moment; it's a lovely lyrical first novel and I will look out for Polly Clark's next book. But I think it could have been a better book if it had been bolder and less intent on tidiness.
March 20, 2017
Larchfield, by Polly Clark, is an intricately constructed tale of the devastating impact of prejudice and hate. Set over two distinct yet entwined time periods, it introduces the reader to two young poets � Wystan Auden and Dora Fielding. Both have recently had their debut collections accepted for publication but, for personal reasons, have left the supportive circle of the Oxford literary elite to live in the Scottish coastal town of Helensburgh.
The book opens in 1930 when Wystan travels north to take up a post teaching English and French at a small boarding school for boys, named Larchfield. His part in the tale is loosely based on known facts. The reader will know him as W.H. Auden and he wrote The Orators during the two years he spent in this place. The poem is a meditation on paranoia and repression set in Helensburgh. The author also lives here and mined her experiences to portray the suspicion with which those regarded as outsiders are treated.
Alternate chapters follow modern day Dora, recently married and expecting her first child, who moves to a seafront apartment constructed when a large house, once owned by a wealthy shipbuilder, was divided up into more affordable living spaces. Dora’s husband, Kit, was raised in Scotland and has an involving job as an architect so is easily accepted. Bereft of her friends and facing the challenges of new motherhood, Dora struggles with the local’s expectations of how she should behave.
Kit and Dora live below an elderly couple, Mo and Terence, who are popular members of the community and church. Dora finds her neighbours� blatant antagonism difficult to bear. Kit is sympathetic but believes his wife is over reacting. When the health professionals also berate her, making thinly veiled threats for the choices she makes in caring for her child, Dora seeks solace in escape.
Wystan is barely coping with the legally required suppression of his desires. He visits a good friend in Berlin where their lifestyle is overlooked, but in early 1930s Germany this is about to change. The consequences when an individual will not conform to what an intolerant society considers necessary for the wider good has been proven to be devastating.
The comparative similarities in how Wystan and Dora are treated will be recognisable to any modern mother, as will Kit’s assumptions that his wife’s complaints are overplayed. When both protagonists refuse to back down and act as is demanded, the ramifications, although shocking, seem inevitable.
Like its protagonists, this is a book that does not conform to a standard. The originality is never a challenge as the prose is so satisfying to read. I felt Wystan and Dora’s pain and frustration, their determination to remain true to themselves. As Dora realised early on, belonging requires giving up something of self.
“Dora suspected she had probably never belonged anywhere […] while many thought her shy and brainy to the point of passionlessness, they were wrong. There had been love affairs […] These had always fallen apart at the point where she was expected somehow to change, to accommodate them in some profound way. She never wanted to, enough, and they certainly seemed to have no notion of accommodating her, and her need to scribble and read.�
The plot threads are intense but also entertaining. The writing throughout is utterly captivating. I enjoyed everything about this book but especially how it made me think and feel. It is a literary depth charge that I recommend you read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, riverrun.
The book opens in 1930 when Wystan travels north to take up a post teaching English and French at a small boarding school for boys, named Larchfield. His part in the tale is loosely based on known facts. The reader will know him as W.H. Auden and he wrote The Orators during the two years he spent in this place. The poem is a meditation on paranoia and repression set in Helensburgh. The author also lives here and mined her experiences to portray the suspicion with which those regarded as outsiders are treated.
Alternate chapters follow modern day Dora, recently married and expecting her first child, who moves to a seafront apartment constructed when a large house, once owned by a wealthy shipbuilder, was divided up into more affordable living spaces. Dora’s husband, Kit, was raised in Scotland and has an involving job as an architect so is easily accepted. Bereft of her friends and facing the challenges of new motherhood, Dora struggles with the local’s expectations of how she should behave.
Kit and Dora live below an elderly couple, Mo and Terence, who are popular members of the community and church. Dora finds her neighbours� blatant antagonism difficult to bear. Kit is sympathetic but believes his wife is over reacting. When the health professionals also berate her, making thinly veiled threats for the choices she makes in caring for her child, Dora seeks solace in escape.
Wystan is barely coping with the legally required suppression of his desires. He visits a good friend in Berlin where their lifestyle is overlooked, but in early 1930s Germany this is about to change. The consequences when an individual will not conform to what an intolerant society considers necessary for the wider good has been proven to be devastating.
The comparative similarities in how Wystan and Dora are treated will be recognisable to any modern mother, as will Kit’s assumptions that his wife’s complaints are overplayed. When both protagonists refuse to back down and act as is demanded, the ramifications, although shocking, seem inevitable.
Like its protagonists, this is a book that does not conform to a standard. The originality is never a challenge as the prose is so satisfying to read. I felt Wystan and Dora’s pain and frustration, their determination to remain true to themselves. As Dora realised early on, belonging requires giving up something of self.
“Dora suspected she had probably never belonged anywhere […] while many thought her shy and brainy to the point of passionlessness, they were wrong. There had been love affairs […] These had always fallen apart at the point where she was expected somehow to change, to accommodate them in some profound way. She never wanted to, enough, and they certainly seemed to have no notion of accommodating her, and her need to scribble and read.�
The plot threads are intense but also entertaining. The writing throughout is utterly captivating. I enjoyed everything about this book but especially how it made me think and feel. It is a literary depth charge that I recommend you read.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, riverrun.
March 22, 2017
One of the most beautifully written novels of 2017 so far and I have no doubt will feature as one of my books of the year. Larchfield the debut novel by Polly Clark already shortlisted for the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize is one book that should be on everyone’s ‘must read� books this Spring. I have high expectations for this book through 2017.
A novel set over two time-frames firstly during the early years of the 1930’s and a young poet W H Auden was based at Larchfield School and then to the present day when Dora tries to cope with motherhood and a life that seems to be in isolation. It is not unusual these days in literary terms to see novels set over two timeframes but Clark as more than written a timeless novel this is a modern day classic, it is just so beautiful and captivating in every sense.
Dora’s life is one really one that she looks back on and thinks of what could have been. She met her future husband (Kit) while they were both studying at university. Dora had dreams of being a writer and has swapped that life for a life in a large converted house and they live in one of the flats, she has to cope with the baby more or less on her own and feels alone and there is an overwhelming sense when reading that the walls are closing in on Dora as there is mistrust between her and those that live in the other flats. All this while her husband seems to be away working all the time. Dora is alone and depression is setting in and there is some concern here for her welfare and that of her baby. Dora tries to cope by escaping into another world that only she knows.
Meanwhile back in 1930 Auden is to struggling but in a very different time and different sent of scenarios he was viewed with suspicion because of his sexuality and mocked by the very school boys he is trying to teach. Just imagine for one moment the mental torture that Auden himself must have gone through not just trying to teach and write poetry but the bigotry that must have followed.
For both Dora and Auden two very different people sent in two very different time-frames the results are the same a crisis for both a human crisis. For both Clark has treated so passionately and sensitively that you feel for both protagonists to the point of shedding a few tears. You connect with both characters as the need for compassion is so very strong through the pages of Larchfield that you just want to reach out to both. Maybe in a way just by reading that is exactly what we are doing. This however is a novel but built on personal experiences after she moved to Helensburgh and the desolate isolations she felt. Without doubt one THE debuts I have read in a long time. Unforgettable and deeply moving as well as haunting. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Thank you to Elizabeth Masters for the advanced review copy.
A novel set over two time-frames firstly during the early years of the 1930’s and a young poet W H Auden was based at Larchfield School and then to the present day when Dora tries to cope with motherhood and a life that seems to be in isolation. It is not unusual these days in literary terms to see novels set over two timeframes but Clark as more than written a timeless novel this is a modern day classic, it is just so beautiful and captivating in every sense.
Dora’s life is one really one that she looks back on and thinks of what could have been. She met her future husband (Kit) while they were both studying at university. Dora had dreams of being a writer and has swapped that life for a life in a large converted house and they live in one of the flats, she has to cope with the baby more or less on her own and feels alone and there is an overwhelming sense when reading that the walls are closing in on Dora as there is mistrust between her and those that live in the other flats. All this while her husband seems to be away working all the time. Dora is alone and depression is setting in and there is some concern here for her welfare and that of her baby. Dora tries to cope by escaping into another world that only she knows.
Meanwhile back in 1930 Auden is to struggling but in a very different time and different sent of scenarios he was viewed with suspicion because of his sexuality and mocked by the very school boys he is trying to teach. Just imagine for one moment the mental torture that Auden himself must have gone through not just trying to teach and write poetry but the bigotry that must have followed.
For both Dora and Auden two very different people sent in two very different time-frames the results are the same a crisis for both a human crisis. For both Clark has treated so passionately and sensitively that you feel for both protagonists to the point of shedding a few tears. You connect with both characters as the need for compassion is so very strong through the pages of Larchfield that you just want to reach out to both. Maybe in a way just by reading that is exactly what we are doing. This however is a novel but built on personal experiences after she moved to Helensburgh and the desolate isolations she felt. Without doubt one THE debuts I have read in a long time. Unforgettable and deeply moving as well as haunting. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Thank you to Elizabeth Masters for the advanced review copy.
June 29, 2017
Atmospheric, quirky and promising, but I felt that the narrative got too tangled up in its own mists and missing the opportunity for more poignant reflections on topics such as isolation, mental health, motherhood, identity and artistic expression.
September 25, 2017
So far my book of the year
August 30, 2017
Two stars are all I can summon for Larchfield. The beginning chapter had me anticipating a wonderful literary feast. I was mistaken. From Wystan's getting off the train in Helensburgh, the feast dwindled to a few scraps being thrown from the table, here and there. Some of the scraps were very tasty, though, I do acknowledge.
The characters of Dora and Mo were excruciating. The dialogue was pretty puerile. Kit and Terrence (with two rs!?) had very little credibility as indeed did most of the other characters. The minor characters were stereotyped.Daphne had some promise and Wystan was drawn with obvious love. The chapters headed Wystan were much more able to be tholed.
When it became clear that Dora had developed a real illness, I really could not cope with it at all. It did account for some of her earlier actions, I guess.
Not my best read this year.
The characters of Dora and Mo were excruciating. The dialogue was pretty puerile. Kit and Terrence (with two rs!?) had very little credibility as indeed did most of the other characters. The minor characters were stereotyped.Daphne had some promise and Wystan was drawn with obvious love. The chapters headed Wystan were much more able to be tholed.
When it became clear that Dora had developed a real illness, I really could not cope with it at all. It did account for some of her earlier actions, I guess.
Not my best read this year.
March 21, 2017
LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark is an utterly compelling, emotional read with a completely unique storyline. In this novel, we meet Dora, a poet who is recently married, now pregnant, and has recently moved to Helensburgh in Scotland. Hoping that this will be her new beginning where she will finally come into herself, it is not long before Dora realises her mistake. Struggling with her creativity and sense of self, and constantly at odds with her hostile neighbours who seem to influence everyone around them, Dora's positive future is now drowning in sorrow and fear. Discovering that the poet W.H Auden used to live and work in Larchfield, an old boys school in Helensburgh, during the 1930s, gives Dora a link to sanity and herself that she desperately clings to. At the same time, the author also tells us a fictionalised account of the life of Wystan H. Auden's life as a teacher at that time. Forced to conceal his homosexuality, Wystan throws himself into his poetry which is garnering much success, but when he falls in love, he is forced to confront his non-existent life that seems completely unfulfilled. Wanting to change the world around them, Wystan and Dora make a connection as they try to become their true selves in a world of their own making, but will they be brave enough to find their way back to their own realities.
LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark has a sense of foreboding and hostility throughout, and even though there are distressing and heartbreaking moments at times, the deeply evocative characters pull you in deeper and deeper into their world until you no longer want to leave. Interspersed with the beauty of poetry throughout, LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark is a stunning portrait of what life can become when you struggle to be who you really are, and undoubtedly the beauty and fragility of love. A hauntingly hypnotic read.
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark has a sense of foreboding and hostility throughout, and even though there are distressing and heartbreaking moments at times, the deeply evocative characters pull you in deeper and deeper into their world until you no longer want to leave. Interspersed with the beauty of poetry throughout, LARCHFIELD by Polly Clark is a stunning portrait of what life can become when you struggle to be who you really are, and undoubtedly the beauty and fragility of love. A hauntingly hypnotic read.
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
February 25, 2017
Two timelines, two poets. One is Wytsan Hugh Auden, about to embark on a career as a schoolmaster at boys school Larchfield, Helensburgh, a small coastal town on the west coast of Scotland.
The other is Dora, recently married and expecting her first child moves to Helensburgh to start on her new life.
Both are full of optimism and, a hope that the new starts will provide the happiness and fulfillment. they are looking for.
But life is never that straight forward as Dora and Wystan are about to discover.
When Dora gives birth to daughter Beatrice at 6 months life begins to unravel. It is not that Dora struggles with mother hood which she does with aplomb but life that happens around her. She becomes paranoid that Mo and Terrance the couple who reside in the upstairs flat are trying to drive them out and to some extent this is true. As Dora grapples with her loss of identity and her growing isolation midwives and social workers begin to question her abilities to care for her daughter and she is plunged further and further in to the depths of despair.
For Wystan Auden, his appointment as a schoolmaster is a stop gap, a chance to replenish his dwindling finances but it also becomes a time in which he reflects on his life so far and what may await him in the future. A self confessed homosexual, Wystan suffers the loneliness of not being able to share his sexuality for fear of arrest and social recriminations. His summer escapes to Berlin to spend time with Christopher Isherwood allow him to live more freely and be exactly whom he wants to be. His downfall is his relationship with a young local lad which arouses suspicion amongst the locals.
As Dora and Wystan each plunge deeper into despair and loneliness their stories slowly begin to converge.before resolutions both good and bad are reached.
What I loved about this novel is the authors weaving together of fact and fiction when retelling Auden's story. Clarke's ability to lay bare his inner turmoil is expertly done and you genuinely feel great empathy with his situation.
As for Dora's deep descent into despair, I wanted to yell at her neighbours, shake her husband and make them understand her , her loneliness and her loss of identity.
What Polly Clark has achieved is a novel that is hugely emotive with lyrical prose that cannot help but draw the reader in.
As I closed the final page I was sad to leave Dora and Wystan behind.
Thank you to Quercus Books for providing a proof copy and the opportunity to read and review.
The other is Dora, recently married and expecting her first child moves to Helensburgh to start on her new life.
Both are full of optimism and, a hope that the new starts will provide the happiness and fulfillment. they are looking for.
But life is never that straight forward as Dora and Wystan are about to discover.
When Dora gives birth to daughter Beatrice at 6 months life begins to unravel. It is not that Dora struggles with mother hood which she does with aplomb but life that happens around her. She becomes paranoid that Mo and Terrance the couple who reside in the upstairs flat are trying to drive them out and to some extent this is true. As Dora grapples with her loss of identity and her growing isolation midwives and social workers begin to question her abilities to care for her daughter and she is plunged further and further in to the depths of despair.
For Wystan Auden, his appointment as a schoolmaster is a stop gap, a chance to replenish his dwindling finances but it also becomes a time in which he reflects on his life so far and what may await him in the future. A self confessed homosexual, Wystan suffers the loneliness of not being able to share his sexuality for fear of arrest and social recriminations. His summer escapes to Berlin to spend time with Christopher Isherwood allow him to live more freely and be exactly whom he wants to be. His downfall is his relationship with a young local lad which arouses suspicion amongst the locals.
As Dora and Wystan each plunge deeper into despair and loneliness their stories slowly begin to converge.before resolutions both good and bad are reached.
What I loved about this novel is the authors weaving together of fact and fiction when retelling Auden's story. Clarke's ability to lay bare his inner turmoil is expertly done and you genuinely feel great empathy with his situation.
As for Dora's deep descent into despair, I wanted to yell at her neighbours, shake her husband and make them understand her , her loneliness and her loss of identity.
What Polly Clark has achieved is a novel that is hugely emotive with lyrical prose that cannot help but draw the reader in.
As I closed the final page I was sad to leave Dora and Wystan behind.
Thank you to Quercus Books for providing a proof copy and the opportunity to read and review.
March 7, 2017
Dora, an academic and poet, moves to Helensburgh on the coast of Scotland with her new architect husband. They buy an apartment, the downstairs part of a grand old house, and she starts to organise her new life as she awaits the birth of her baby.
Her plan falters when the baby arrives early, and she finds herself lonely and fearful, with her husband at work, no family or friends, and upstairs neighbours from hell.
While out walking one day, Dora happens upon the site of Larchfield, the boarding school where Wystan H Auden taught for two years in 1930. She comes up with a plan for a project to research and write about Auden that might help to clear her baby brain.
This novel starts with chapters alternating between Dora and Wystan . While Dora’s situation is an understandably unhappy one, she is a difficult character to sympathise with. We start to wonder if the antipathy of the neighbours and their friends is partly justified, and question why Kit, her husband is not being overly supportive.
On the other hand, the portrayal of Auden is as an attractive creative, who stands out in crowd. Just down from Oxford, with no teaching experience, agreeing to take the job to help an acquaintance who has just left the post, he is also lonely like Dora. Painfully aware of his loneliness, and society’s embargo upon him ever establishing a loving relationship and finding happiness in life, he still manages to bond with his pupils, displaying interest in, and compassion towards them. He finds an unexpected soul mate in the person of the eccentric headmaster’s wife Daphne. They quickly establish a mutually instinctive trust which allows a freer discussion of their disappointments and obstacles to happiness than would otherwise be advisable.
As pressure increases on Dora and Wystan, their lives merge and they discover solace and calm in each other’s company. Is this only a temporary reprieve or can there be any sort of resolution for either?
This is a quiet, calm and confident debut novel. Auden’s story, interspersed as it is with his visits to his friend Christopher Isherwood in Berlin, provides the more interesting sections of the book. This sympathetic and respectful telling of an extract (fictional) in Auden’s life, fires up an enthusiasm to find out more about him.
Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read this copy
Her plan falters when the baby arrives early, and she finds herself lonely and fearful, with her husband at work, no family or friends, and upstairs neighbours from hell.
While out walking one day, Dora happens upon the site of Larchfield, the boarding school where Wystan H Auden taught for two years in 1930. She comes up with a plan for a project to research and write about Auden that might help to clear her baby brain.
This novel starts with chapters alternating between Dora and Wystan . While Dora’s situation is an understandably unhappy one, she is a difficult character to sympathise with. We start to wonder if the antipathy of the neighbours and their friends is partly justified, and question why Kit, her husband is not being overly supportive.
On the other hand, the portrayal of Auden is as an attractive creative, who stands out in crowd. Just down from Oxford, with no teaching experience, agreeing to take the job to help an acquaintance who has just left the post, he is also lonely like Dora. Painfully aware of his loneliness, and society’s embargo upon him ever establishing a loving relationship and finding happiness in life, he still manages to bond with his pupils, displaying interest in, and compassion towards them. He finds an unexpected soul mate in the person of the eccentric headmaster’s wife Daphne. They quickly establish a mutually instinctive trust which allows a freer discussion of their disappointments and obstacles to happiness than would otherwise be advisable.
As pressure increases on Dora and Wystan, their lives merge and they discover solace and calm in each other’s company. Is this only a temporary reprieve or can there be any sort of resolution for either?
This is a quiet, calm and confident debut novel. Auden’s story, interspersed as it is with his visits to his friend Christopher Isherwood in Berlin, provides the more interesting sections of the book. This sympathetic and respectful telling of an extract (fictional) in Auden’s life, fires up an enthusiasm to find out more about him.
Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read this copy
September 10, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was incredibly beautiful so that you were drawn along and with the characters as their lives unfolded at Larchfield, in Helensburgh, in Berlin. The characters were ‘real� living, breathing, hurting. Each character was skilfully drawn, even minor ones. One cared what happened to them and we were apprehensive for the sensitive ones in a small town. I feel it is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
August 30, 2018
The prose in this book is exquisite, and I can't wait to read everything else that Polly Clark publishes. It is the interwoven stories of W. H. Auden in the 1930s and Dora Fielding, a young writer in the present day. The novel is set in Helensburgh, Scotland and a good portion happens at Larchfield, the school at which Auden taught for two years, hence the title. Auden is struggling with loneliness, his sexuality, and generally fitting in, all the while trying to write beautiful poetry. Dora is coming to terms with motherhood, her neighbours who bear a grudge against them for buying the flat underneath them, giving up her literary life in London, as well as loneliness and generally fitting in just like Auden. On finding that Auden lived for a while in Helensburgh Dora decides to recommence her writing and tries to put together a book about his time there. Slowly Dora joins Auden in his time and life. On the back cover of the book we are told that 'what happens next is a breathtaking leap of faith that rejoices in the power of the human imagination', personally I believe that Dora was suffering from acute postnatal depression. Either way, it is a fascinating story and one to which I will return.
May 24, 2020
A very poetic look at postpartum depression and uneasiness that a major life change can bring. And, of course, an ode to Wystan Auden and to poetry itself.
March 21, 2017
"He can write about a hero, but he cannot be one."
Larchfield is one of those books that is well written, has fleshed-out characters and covers interesting themes, but it's also one I just could not get into. I should like it, I know, it ticks all the boxes but I really struggled to finish it. Maybe I'm just not intellectual enough. I only know a couple of W. H. Auden's poems and not much else about him. Whatever it was I just didn't connect with this book.
Even though I didn't particularly enjoy Larchfield, it's really difficult to pick out anything that's wrong with it. There were elements that in theory should all work, but put them all together and it just didn't do anything for me.
The characters are interesting and thoroughly explored. Both Dora and Auden felt real, even if Auden's portrayal if fictionalised. You can feel the isolation and desperation that they both suffer.
Polly Clark is good at pinning down characters on the page, both psychologically and physically. I like her descriptions of characters which allowed you to see them fully.
"Mrs Perkins sees a most intriguing young man, odd to look at, certainly, with a long, ungainly face, fragile skin and large ears. He's very tall and unaccustomed to managing height, so seems to lop and flail. His eyes are pale blue and penetrating, however, and he has a manner about him that is unreadable. She cannot tell what he is thinking at all, unlike all the boys who parade in and out of this room."
Yet for some reason I just didn't feel that invested in either of them. I liked Auden a bit more but really couldn't connect with Dora. Which is odd as I felt she is a good representation of someone suffering from isolation and stress, topics I can empathise with. But, sometimes she irritated me with the way she handled the neighbours. The whole 'neighbours from hell' story-line didn't do anything for me really, instead of making me want to read on and hope they got their comeuppance they just irritated me and I wasn't interested enough to really care. I also felt like the story-line just tailed off and didn't have a satisfying conclusion.
I was interested in the themes that this book covers, such as depression, motherhood, class, and homosexuality. I was interested in the way that Auden dealt with his homosexuality in a time when it was illegal to be gay. His own shame at himself is heartbreaking and I thought the way Clark handled this, and his love story, was both sad and beautiful.
"Why does God despise him so? Of course, he knows why. He was the brilliant, delightful son of a good mother, who got stuck somehow and became an abomination.
Christopher manages not to feel this cancerous shame. Christopher coexists with his nature - embraces it, even. But then, he does live in Berlin."
And yet...I think maybe the subjects were just a bit too depressing and I didn't really want to keep reading. Also the writing, which is undoubtedly brilliant, was almost too good, in that the book is infused with a desperation mixed with lethargy, especially in Dora's case, and I think the lethargy spread to me and I just could not be bothered with it.
I think lots of people will like Larchfield, and for good reason, and I can't fault Polly Clark's skill with words. This book just wasn't for me.
My Rating: 3 Stars
I received a digital copy of Larchfield via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.
Read the original review here:
Larchfield is one of those books that is well written, has fleshed-out characters and covers interesting themes, but it's also one I just could not get into. I should like it, I know, it ticks all the boxes but I really struggled to finish it. Maybe I'm just not intellectual enough. I only know a couple of W. H. Auden's poems and not much else about him. Whatever it was I just didn't connect with this book.
Even though I didn't particularly enjoy Larchfield, it's really difficult to pick out anything that's wrong with it. There were elements that in theory should all work, but put them all together and it just didn't do anything for me.
The characters are interesting and thoroughly explored. Both Dora and Auden felt real, even if Auden's portrayal if fictionalised. You can feel the isolation and desperation that they both suffer.
Polly Clark is good at pinning down characters on the page, both psychologically and physically. I like her descriptions of characters which allowed you to see them fully.
"Mrs Perkins sees a most intriguing young man, odd to look at, certainly, with a long, ungainly face, fragile skin and large ears. He's very tall and unaccustomed to managing height, so seems to lop and flail. His eyes are pale blue and penetrating, however, and he has a manner about him that is unreadable. She cannot tell what he is thinking at all, unlike all the boys who parade in and out of this room."
Yet for some reason I just didn't feel that invested in either of them. I liked Auden a bit more but really couldn't connect with Dora. Which is odd as I felt she is a good representation of someone suffering from isolation and stress, topics I can empathise with. But, sometimes she irritated me with the way she handled the neighbours. The whole 'neighbours from hell' story-line didn't do anything for me really, instead of making me want to read on and hope they got their comeuppance they just irritated me and I wasn't interested enough to really care. I also felt like the story-line just tailed off and didn't have a satisfying conclusion.
I was interested in the themes that this book covers, such as depression, motherhood, class, and homosexuality. I was interested in the way that Auden dealt with his homosexuality in a time when it was illegal to be gay. His own shame at himself is heartbreaking and I thought the way Clark handled this, and his love story, was both sad and beautiful.
"Why does God despise him so? Of course, he knows why. He was the brilliant, delightful son of a good mother, who got stuck somehow and became an abomination.
Christopher manages not to feel this cancerous shame. Christopher coexists with his nature - embraces it, even. But then, he does live in Berlin."
And yet...I think maybe the subjects were just a bit too depressing and I didn't really want to keep reading. Also the writing, which is undoubtedly brilliant, was almost too good, in that the book is infused with a desperation mixed with lethargy, especially in Dora's case, and I think the lethargy spread to me and I just could not be bothered with it.
I think lots of people will like Larchfield, and for good reason, and I can't fault Polly Clark's skill with words. This book just wasn't for me.
My Rating: 3 Stars
I received a digital copy of Larchfield via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.
Read the original review here:
April 15, 2017
A deeply compelling read - not often a happy one, but always engaging and absorbing and so beautifully written. A story of disparate lives that cross over time: the 24 year old poet Wystan - WH - Auden, a poet with a young but good reputation, forced to teach for a living in a Scottish boys school; gay at a time when it was dangerous to be so. and Dora, another outsider - English and also an acclaimed and published poet - and a new mother, suffering from severe post-natal depression, in a church-strapped, disapproving and ever-watchful town, very far from home. Living in different times, but in the same place, the odd, unwelcoming, deeply religious Scottish town of Helensburgh. Both characters are like flies in amber: watched and judged; always the outsider; objects of confused fascination and both trapped, constrained by this alien world. Both find it difficult to fit in, to adapt. Auden’s saviour is his annual holiday in Weimar Berlin, where he can drop all pretence and experience true freedom in company with his friend Christopher Isherwood and a series of rent boys. Dora’s escape is Auden, a mind-created bolt-hole, where she visits and talks with Auden in the Helensburgh of the nineteen thirties - incidents she believes to be completely real.
Dora is often a difficult character to follow. One feels desperately sorry for her, but I begin to wonder just how much of what sparks her unhappiness was real and how much imagined, especially as time passes and it becomes increasingly clear that this is a deeply delusional woman suffering from increasingly severe psychotic episodes. How much of what happens to her is real and how much imagined is, at first, hard to tell - easier as the narrative moves on and she forms her relationship with Auden, slipping through time and space as easily as a knife through butter.
Both characters are marvellously well-written. Auden is meticulously researched, beautifully imagined. Dora, the fictional character, is every bit as real, sometimes even more so than the ‘real� Auden. And possibly, reading between the lines of the author’s bio, what Dora experiences is close to the author’s own experiences; certainly the minutiae of her desperate life is perfectly told. Both Auden and Dora are paranoid to some extent. Auden copes with it better than Dora, he kicks against the traces - and suffers the consequences. He does not go mad, but he is driven away and loses the man he believes he loves. Dora tries harder to cope and pays a heavier price.
I was left wondering about her neighbours, the apparently ‘evil� Mo - was she, really? Did she, and Terrence her husband, really do the terrible things Dora attributes to them? If so, Mo paid a truly awful price, but it is so hard to say. Mo and Terrence seem to do horrible things, apparently with the full collusion of the community, and yet I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Their lives had taken an unhappy turn and it was easy for me to see their projection of their sadness, their desperation and disappointment, on to the affluent couple, so out of place in their ordered, church-going lives, usurping - if accidentally - all their plans for a happy future. I felt a great deal of sympathy for them, dreadful though they doubtless were.
Dora is often a difficult character to follow. One feels desperately sorry for her, but I begin to wonder just how much of what sparks her unhappiness was real and how much imagined, especially as time passes and it becomes increasingly clear that this is a deeply delusional woman suffering from increasingly severe psychotic episodes. How much of what happens to her is real and how much imagined is, at first, hard to tell - easier as the narrative moves on and she forms her relationship with Auden, slipping through time and space as easily as a knife through butter.
Both characters are marvellously well-written. Auden is meticulously researched, beautifully imagined. Dora, the fictional character, is every bit as real, sometimes even more so than the ‘real� Auden. And possibly, reading between the lines of the author’s bio, what Dora experiences is close to the author’s own experiences; certainly the minutiae of her desperate life is perfectly told. Both Auden and Dora are paranoid to some extent. Auden copes with it better than Dora, he kicks against the traces - and suffers the consequences. He does not go mad, but he is driven away and loses the man he believes he loves. Dora tries harder to cope and pays a heavier price.
I was left wondering about her neighbours, the apparently ‘evil� Mo - was she, really? Did she, and Terrence her husband, really do the terrible things Dora attributes to them? If so, Mo paid a truly awful price, but it is so hard to say. Mo and Terrence seem to do horrible things, apparently with the full collusion of the community, and yet I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Their lives had taken an unhappy turn and it was easy for me to see their projection of their sadness, their desperation and disappointment, on to the affluent couple, so out of place in their ordered, church-going lives, usurping - if accidentally - all their plans for a happy future. I felt a great deal of sympathy for them, dreadful though they doubtless were.
February 19, 2017
3.75 stars.
I enjoyed this,I know nothing about Auden other than he wrote,so was interesting to put a bit of history to his name. I do know Isherwood though,so the Berlin days felt like another chapter in his books.
Dora was an interesting character,left alone,with baby,coping with the babies needs but clearly not her own....slowly being driven mad by her isolation and her neighbours.
How much did she imagine? We're those nice church people really trying to drive her out?
It didn't feel at all odd,the cross over of timeliness,and I would have accepted it happened,not a sign of her madness...well done on that one.
I only had one complaint on this book,I could tell WHEN Auden was by a quick Google check,but I couldn't date Dora's story for some time,and it niggled. Mention of Friends narrowed it down,followed by Obamas inauguration.
I enjoyed this,I know nothing about Auden other than he wrote,so was interesting to put a bit of history to his name. I do know Isherwood though,so the Berlin days felt like another chapter in his books.
Dora was an interesting character,left alone,with baby,coping with the babies needs but clearly not her own....slowly being driven mad by her isolation and her neighbours.
How much did she imagine? We're those nice church people really trying to drive her out?
It didn't feel at all odd,the cross over of timeliness,and I would have accepted it happened,not a sign of her madness...well done on that one.
I only had one complaint on this book,I could tell WHEN Auden was by a quick Google check,but I couldn't date Dora's story for some time,and it niggled. Mention of Friends narrowed it down,followed by Obamas inauguration.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2016
This brilliantly innovative novel has two time lines. In the present day, Dora is a young, English academic and poet who moves with her older husband to the remote town of Helensburgh in Scotland. Pregnant when they arrive, the baby is born prematurely and Dora soon becomes trapped on her own, isolated in a cold house with hostile neighbours upstairs, the sinister, devout Christians Mo and Terrence. Under their influence, she feels that the whole town hates and resents her just because Mo and Terrence wanted the downstairs apartment for themselves. Social workers and midwives appear to disapprove of her because she can't breastfeed her baby, and she feels alienated from her old university friends when they come to visit.
Meanwhile, back in the 1930s, the poet W.H. Auden arrives in Helensburgh to teach at the private boys' school Larchfield. A fish out of water, he takes up a post arranged for him by his old friend Cecil Day-Lewis, and soon finds himself floundering. Many of the locals and staff are against for his eccentric ways and disapprove his homosexuality. He starts up a relationship with a local man, but often feels the need to escape and visit his friend Christopher Isherwood in Berlin.
Somehow, magically, these two stories converge, as Dora embarks on a quest to write a book about W.H. Auden. The Auden parts of this novel are based on truth - Auden did indeed teach at Larchfield in the 1930s, but much of it is invented. The author herself is a poet and moved to Helensburgh... which does make you wonder if Dora represents her in some way.
SPOILER ALERT
I really enjoyed this book, but I wasn't sure about the ending... did Dora really meet Auden in the way she thought, or was she suffering from mental health problems and it was all in her head? I'd like to think that she did meet him - but it's deliberately left ambiguous. In that way, the book is rather true to life. It really is a memorable, lyrical novel.
Meanwhile, back in the 1930s, the poet W.H. Auden arrives in Helensburgh to teach at the private boys' school Larchfield. A fish out of water, he takes up a post arranged for him by his old friend Cecil Day-Lewis, and soon finds himself floundering. Many of the locals and staff are against for his eccentric ways and disapprove his homosexuality. He starts up a relationship with a local man, but often feels the need to escape and visit his friend Christopher Isherwood in Berlin.
Somehow, magically, these two stories converge, as Dora embarks on a quest to write a book about W.H. Auden. The Auden parts of this novel are based on truth - Auden did indeed teach at Larchfield in the 1930s, but much of it is invented. The author herself is a poet and moved to Helensburgh... which does make you wonder if Dora represents her in some way.
SPOILER ALERT
I really enjoyed this book, but I wasn't sure about the ending... did Dora really meet Auden in the way she thought, or was she suffering from mental health problems and it was all in her head? I'd like to think that she did meet him - but it's deliberately left ambiguous. In that way, the book is rather true to life. It really is a memorable, lyrical novel.
August 28, 2018
Extremely well written and tightly plotted so there was nothing extraneous. Just spare and beautiful prose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 1, 2018
This dual timeline book about isolation slips easily yet suddenly into the realm of magical realism as two people - both outsiders despite the 80 year difference in their worlds - end up in the Scottish seaside town of Helensburgh.
This started well, and I enjoyed the slip into something more magical than I had initially expected, but about 2/3 of the way through it lost me. Magical realism I enjoy, other explanations for events I can also get behind, but I don't think Larchfield expresses itself clearly enough for either interpretation to land. To me, this is a beautiful poet starting with great intentions on a piece of prose, but struggling as it becomes unwieldy in a different way to the poetry she's used to.
I get that the author wanted to get across the isolation one can feel when one shores up somewhere that regards you as "other", and the resistance often faced by tight-knit communities, but towards the end - although Dora's journey is heartbreaking - for me everything else going on had me skeptical.
The author currently lives in Helensburgh, and reading this I wonder why. Auden and Dora's dislike and distrust of the place and the community come across so strongly, with no positives at all, it's hard to imagine why Clark stays.
I was on track to giving this 4 stars (despite the rather disturbing pregnancy-related event early on, which was a struggle for a preggo-phobe like me) because it is gripping and beautifully written, but I'm afraid the last third lost me entirely.
This started well, and I enjoyed the slip into something more magical than I had initially expected, but about 2/3 of the way through it lost me. Magical realism I enjoy, other explanations for events I can also get behind, but I don't think Larchfield expresses itself clearly enough for either interpretation to land. To me, this is a beautiful poet starting with great intentions on a piece of prose, but struggling as it becomes unwieldy in a different way to the poetry she's used to.
I get that the author wanted to get across the isolation one can feel when one shores up somewhere that regards you as "other", and the resistance often faced by tight-knit communities, but towards the end - although Dora's journey is heartbreaking - for me everything else going on had me skeptical.
The author currently lives in Helensburgh, and reading this I wonder why. Auden and Dora's dislike and distrust of the place and the community come across so strongly, with no positives at all, it's hard to imagine why Clark stays.
I was on track to giving this 4 stars (despite the rather disturbing pregnancy-related event early on, which was a struggle for a preggo-phobe like me) because it is gripping and beautifully written, but I'm afraid the last third lost me entirely.
February 9, 2017
I love the things I learn from books. This one offered a lesson in the poet WH Auden, a understanding of the effects of isolation that can effect your mental state. And it was a interesting example of neighbour dynamics, pre war mindsets and private boys schools. It held so much but was never difficult to follow.
I found the 2 time dimensions wonderfully linked and explained. The way the story was woven together across these time periods was skilful and believable.
I would recommend it for anyone who loved history, poetry, and a good love story.
I found the 2 time dimensions wonderfully linked and explained. The way the story was woven together across these time periods was skilful and believable.
I would recommend it for anyone who loved history, poetry, and a good love story.
June 25, 2018
Took a few chapters but once I got into the two storylines I was hooked and couldn't put it down. An empathetic and utterly believable portrayal of mental illness and profound truths about the nature of love and loss.
March 24, 2017
Hi ForeverBookers, I've just finished Larchfield. It was a good story of hope, loss, finding oneself and redemption. I believe this is a standalone also.
I got Larchfield through NetGalley so thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read it! It releases on March 23rd 2017!
NOTE: there are adult situations in Larchfield!
3 Stars!
Larchfield tells the story of two characters. One, Wystan is a relative of WH Auden. He's also a writer. He's going to Scotland to work at Larchfield, a boys school. We see him struggle with who he's meant to be throughout the novel. The other character is called Dora, also a writer. She's a married, pregnant woman at the beginning of Larchfield. Her and her husband have just moved house, to a place on the sea. However, not all is right with Dora who experiences set backs throughout Larchfield.
Spoilers below...
Wystan is gay. We see this quite early on in the novel. Working at a boys school puts temptation in his way, quite often. However, he never acts on it with any of the students. He does have a few affairs. A couple in Germany, when he visits with friends, as well as Gregory in Scotland, with whom he thinks is his true love. The parents of Gregory, don't agree, however. It was good to see diversity in Larchfield.
Dora has a hard time getting on with people. Mainly because of her neighbours, who don't like her. I felt sorry for Dora, because she was just a mother, trying to do the best thing for her daughter. I didn't like the bullying neighbours. They went so far as to try and poison Dora's dog, to prove her unstable and just, no. I don't like reading about animal cruelty. It's really not a big part of the story, just a few pages really but still I didn't like reading it. Towards the end of Larchfield, we see Dora's mental health brought into question. I'm not going to say why but I thought the author did well covering the topic of mental health in a non condescending way.
Larchfield is told from 3rd person narrative. However, the chapters are titled either Wystan, Dora or Wystan and Dora. This made it easy to follow. Wystan's chapters are present tense and Dora's chapters are past tense. The characters sometimes overlapped, so Dora would be in Wystan's chapters and vice versa but only in thoughts. They only appear together in the chapters with both of their names, and there aren't many of those. I certainly enjoyed Dora's chapters more than Wystan's. I think this is because I'm female so I can see Dora's struggles more clearly than Wystan's.
What I liked about Larchfield...having two characters primarily focused on. I think anyone could find something to relate to in this story. I thought that mental health was dealt with well in the last part of the book. Dora didn't appear to have to do anything she didn't really want to. There was only the incidence of leaving her daughter with her husband that could be classed as this. Nothing more.
What I didn't like about Larchfield...how the two main characters don't end up together. As Wystan is gay, he obviously doesn't end up with Dora. I went into Larchfield thinking that this would probably happen so I'm a little annoyed that it didn't. Although, I did still like the story.
I was also unsure of the time that Larchfield was supposed to be set. At the beginning, the book mentions 1930's. But then later it mentions both Barack Obama as well as Scooby Doo. My rating went down one star just for this. As it's necessary to know the time a story is set in.
I'm giving Larchfield 3 stars because while it was a good book, I won't ever want to reread it. I knew the story wouldn't grab me the same way a fantasy, for example would but I wanted a little more from the plot because while the characters weren't boring, the plot was a little repetitive. While I really would have liked to have seen Wystan and Dora get together, it was nice to just see friends in a book, too. While I preferred Dora's story over Wystan's, I still see that Wystan was just as necessary to the story as Dora, maybe more so. I could just see myself in Dora more so.
Look forward to my next review, coming soon!
I got Larchfield through NetGalley so thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read it! It releases on March 23rd 2017!
NOTE: there are adult situations in Larchfield!
3 Stars!
Larchfield tells the story of two characters. One, Wystan is a relative of WH Auden. He's also a writer. He's going to Scotland to work at Larchfield, a boys school. We see him struggle with who he's meant to be throughout the novel. The other character is called Dora, also a writer. She's a married, pregnant woman at the beginning of Larchfield. Her and her husband have just moved house, to a place on the sea. However, not all is right with Dora who experiences set backs throughout Larchfield.
Spoilers below...
Wystan is gay. We see this quite early on in the novel. Working at a boys school puts temptation in his way, quite often. However, he never acts on it with any of the students. He does have a few affairs. A couple in Germany, when he visits with friends, as well as Gregory in Scotland, with whom he thinks is his true love. The parents of Gregory, don't agree, however. It was good to see diversity in Larchfield.
Dora has a hard time getting on with people. Mainly because of her neighbours, who don't like her. I felt sorry for Dora, because she was just a mother, trying to do the best thing for her daughter. I didn't like the bullying neighbours. They went so far as to try and poison Dora's dog, to prove her unstable and just, no. I don't like reading about animal cruelty. It's really not a big part of the story, just a few pages really but still I didn't like reading it. Towards the end of Larchfield, we see Dora's mental health brought into question. I'm not going to say why but I thought the author did well covering the topic of mental health in a non condescending way.
Larchfield is told from 3rd person narrative. However, the chapters are titled either Wystan, Dora or Wystan and Dora. This made it easy to follow. Wystan's chapters are present tense and Dora's chapters are past tense. The characters sometimes overlapped, so Dora would be in Wystan's chapters and vice versa but only in thoughts. They only appear together in the chapters with both of their names, and there aren't many of those. I certainly enjoyed Dora's chapters more than Wystan's. I think this is because I'm female so I can see Dora's struggles more clearly than Wystan's.
What I liked about Larchfield...having two characters primarily focused on. I think anyone could find something to relate to in this story. I thought that mental health was dealt with well in the last part of the book. Dora didn't appear to have to do anything she didn't really want to. There was only the incidence of leaving her daughter with her husband that could be classed as this. Nothing more.
What I didn't like about Larchfield...how the two main characters don't end up together. As Wystan is gay, he obviously doesn't end up with Dora. I went into Larchfield thinking that this would probably happen so I'm a little annoyed that it didn't. Although, I did still like the story.
I was also unsure of the time that Larchfield was supposed to be set. At the beginning, the book mentions 1930's. But then later it mentions both Barack Obama as well as Scooby Doo. My rating went down one star just for this. As it's necessary to know the time a story is set in.
I'm giving Larchfield 3 stars because while it was a good book, I won't ever want to reread it. I knew the story wouldn't grab me the same way a fantasy, for example would but I wanted a little more from the plot because while the characters weren't boring, the plot was a little repetitive. While I really would have liked to have seen Wystan and Dora get together, it was nice to just see friends in a book, too. While I preferred Dora's story over Wystan's, I still see that Wystan was just as necessary to the story as Dora, maybe more so. I could just see myself in Dora more so.
Look forward to my next review, coming soon!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2017
The most striking thing about this novel is how effortlessly Clarke transports the reader back in time for the story of Wystan Auden but also grounds you firmly in the present with Dora's storyline. The effect of this is an atmosphere of a kind of timelessness, which is effective because of the magical way the two story lines then intertwine. This sense of changing time and place is also a very effective way of capturing the physical and emotional escape both the main characters seek. This is a book where time and place both matter and don't matter.
Clarke's writing style also feels both fitting of a classic novel and a contemporary novel. It is moving towards literary fiction but incredibly enjoyable and full of beautiful exposition. I loved the opening description of Auden:
"His arms are huge, the arms of an ape, and he's lighting a cigarette as he gets settled for the journey from Oxford to Glasgow. ......His left ear sticks out, the remains of the schoolboy. The impression made is one of pale, large fragility. It isn't until he looks up that his attractiveness becomes apparent."
Unusually Clarke builds intrigue by almost telling us what is to come in the story and this made it an appealing opening. There was something very assured about the voice and I immediately trusted the author to deliver a tale that would be character driven and memorable.
"He does not know that he will be more alone than he has ever been, that he will love more deeply than he ever thought possible - and he will long for the consolations that poetry cannot give, at least not to the writer."
There is a lot about poetry and writing in the story because it so important to both Dora and Wystan; both characters use poetry to 'make sense' of life. But there is much more to this novel; it is also a wonderful piece of character study and the emotional journeys of these characters and whether you know who Auden is or not, whether you've read his poems or not, you will still enjoy this book.
"'Do you know about poetry, Mr Wallace?'
'I know enough to know that rugby is more important.'"
Both characters are completely three dimensional and completely convincing, engaging and interesting. I took to Dora and found her journey into motherhood compelling and sensitively handled. I particularly enjoyed Dora's interaction with the midwives in the hospital, for example her request to move from the ward to a hotel:
"A hotel? [the nurse] repeated, almost wonderingly, looking at Dora anew, as if perhaps she were Oliver Twist and had said, Please sir, can I have some more?"
Dora gives birth prematurely and the effect of this on her as a new parent is colossal. Clarke writes some simply stunning sentences that are subtle and understated yet poignant and powerful. I thought Clarke's description of Dora at the toddler group was painfully emotive and imaginative.
"The mothers lining the walls raised their drooping heads like desiccated flowers suddenly given a drink. Dora hauled herself across the room, just a step ahead of the silence cresting behind her."
I had many favourite lines in Larchfield and I found the evocation of a small community as claustrophobic and inhibiting as the characters themselves. This is a gem of a book, to be savoured, read slowly and enjoyed. It reminded me of Jo Baker's novels and of "Let me tell you about a man I knew" by Susan Fletcher. It has also been compared to "Possession".
Clarke's writing style also feels both fitting of a classic novel and a contemporary novel. It is moving towards literary fiction but incredibly enjoyable and full of beautiful exposition. I loved the opening description of Auden:
"His arms are huge, the arms of an ape, and he's lighting a cigarette as he gets settled for the journey from Oxford to Glasgow. ......His left ear sticks out, the remains of the schoolboy. The impression made is one of pale, large fragility. It isn't until he looks up that his attractiveness becomes apparent."
Unusually Clarke builds intrigue by almost telling us what is to come in the story and this made it an appealing opening. There was something very assured about the voice and I immediately trusted the author to deliver a tale that would be character driven and memorable.
"He does not know that he will be more alone than he has ever been, that he will love more deeply than he ever thought possible - and he will long for the consolations that poetry cannot give, at least not to the writer."
There is a lot about poetry and writing in the story because it so important to both Dora and Wystan; both characters use poetry to 'make sense' of life. But there is much more to this novel; it is also a wonderful piece of character study and the emotional journeys of these characters and whether you know who Auden is or not, whether you've read his poems or not, you will still enjoy this book.
"'Do you know about poetry, Mr Wallace?'
'I know enough to know that rugby is more important.'"
Both characters are completely three dimensional and completely convincing, engaging and interesting. I took to Dora and found her journey into motherhood compelling and sensitively handled. I particularly enjoyed Dora's interaction with the midwives in the hospital, for example her request to move from the ward to a hotel:
"A hotel? [the nurse] repeated, almost wonderingly, looking at Dora anew, as if perhaps she were Oliver Twist and had said, Please sir, can I have some more?"
Dora gives birth prematurely and the effect of this on her as a new parent is colossal. Clarke writes some simply stunning sentences that are subtle and understated yet poignant and powerful. I thought Clarke's description of Dora at the toddler group was painfully emotive and imaginative.
"The mothers lining the walls raised their drooping heads like desiccated flowers suddenly given a drink. Dora hauled herself across the room, just a step ahead of the silence cresting behind her."
I had many favourite lines in Larchfield and I found the evocation of a small community as claustrophobic and inhibiting as the characters themselves. This is a gem of a book, to be savoured, read slowly and enjoyed. It reminded me of Jo Baker's novels and of "Let me tell you about a man I knew" by Susan Fletcher. It has also been compared to "Possession".
April 20, 2018
This book is about two characters, one real and one fictional. Both are poets and both spent a part of their lives in Helensburgh, separated in time by a number of decades. Wystan (WH Auden) spends two years as a schoolmaster at Larchfield School for boys in the 1930s. His narrative is loosely constructed around facts which are known about his time there. Struggling with the need to repress his homosexuality yet falling hopelessly in love, Wystan longs to escape the strictures of public school and find a more convivial place to complete his current book. 21st century Dora is newly married and pregnant. She moves to Helensburgh with her husband Kit, full of aspirations and excitement about their new life in which she dreams they will live as a happy family unit and she will flourish as a poet. The reality for Dora is somewhat different and moving from city life in England to a small Scottish town brings challenges that begin to take a toll on her sanity. As both their lives start to unravel the story unfolds, told from the point of view of both characters in alternate chapters.
This is an unusual debut novel and whilst I am full of praise for the author’s creativity, I cannot truthfully say that I enjoyed the book. I am not sure why, but I found it quite dull in places and found the writing style, which was quite poetic, did not sit comfortably with me. One of the problems with the plot was that the (somewhat inevitable) connection which is forged between the two characters was very contrived and, in my opinion, not entirely successful. Also, the second half of the book is full of angst and is not a particularly comfortable (or convincing) read. The downwards spiral into despair and overwhelming mental turmoil became a little draining. Finally, I think plausibility was stretched pretty much to breaking point, particularly with Dora’s narrative which just didn’t ring true with me at all. The situation with the “neighbours from hell� just seemed too far-fetched to be credible, even taking into account the fact that we are seeing it through Dora’s eyes and she, in this case, is an unreliable narrator.
On the plus side the book has big ideas. Linking two characters from different eras is a fairly ambitious concept, especially when one of the people is a real historical figure who will be known to many readers. This concept has been implemented in a creative way. However, for me it just didn’t quite work which was a shame.
On the whole I found this book disappointing. The lyrical prose was not to my taste (I gather the author herself is a poet which may contribute to this) and the plot was too imaginative to be convincing. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad book, just not for me.
This is an unusual debut novel and whilst I am full of praise for the author’s creativity, I cannot truthfully say that I enjoyed the book. I am not sure why, but I found it quite dull in places and found the writing style, which was quite poetic, did not sit comfortably with me. One of the problems with the plot was that the (somewhat inevitable) connection which is forged between the two characters was very contrived and, in my opinion, not entirely successful. Also, the second half of the book is full of angst and is not a particularly comfortable (or convincing) read. The downwards spiral into despair and overwhelming mental turmoil became a little draining. Finally, I think plausibility was stretched pretty much to breaking point, particularly with Dora’s narrative which just didn’t ring true with me at all. The situation with the “neighbours from hell� just seemed too far-fetched to be credible, even taking into account the fact that we are seeing it through Dora’s eyes and she, in this case, is an unreliable narrator.
On the plus side the book has big ideas. Linking two characters from different eras is a fairly ambitious concept, especially when one of the people is a real historical figure who will be known to many readers. This concept has been implemented in a creative way. However, for me it just didn’t quite work which was a shame.
On the whole I found this book disappointing. The lyrical prose was not to my taste (I gather the author herself is a poet which may contribute to this) and the plot was too imaginative to be convincing. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad book, just not for me.
May 4, 2018
This was a book group read for Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Group. Copies of the book were provided by Quercus Books via The Reading Agency.
In 1930, a young man, torn apart by his illegal desire, stands on a deserted Scottish beach. Wystan H Auden is longing to be a great poet: longing too for someone who understands him. He scribbles down his telephone number, puts it in an empty milk bottle and flings it into the tea.
Decades late, Dora Fielding stands on he same beach, lost and desperate. Struggling to cope alone with her baby and suffocating in the small town [Helensburgh], she yearns for connection. This is when she finds the message in the bottle. And calls the number.
Book Group review: The 'Larchfield' story comes to life through the two main characters; Dora and Auden by using (mainly) alternate chapters, a literary device that works really well for this story. Larchfield is the school where Auden has taken up a teaching job and although a published poet, he needs to earn a living through teaching and this is where some of the book's real highlights are to be found. Auden's novel approach in getting the interest of the boys to focus in his lessons provides a generous amount of humour in a novel that can be pretty dark at times.
Auden struggles to survive in a heterosexual society and his occasional jaunts to Berlin provide a view of an alternate reality for him, although one that is fraught with danger as Auden's tale is set in the early 1930s when the Nazi party are making their presence felt.
Dora, lonely, isolated, and struggling to cope with neighbours who appear friendly at first but seem to be plotting Dora's downfall, enters Auden's world and finds an ally.
The group didn't find this an easy read and there are lots of challenging themes: child abuse in public schools, post natal depression, isolation and adjusting to new environments. However, we all agreed that this was a good book to read with a very engaging story line. We really liked how Auden was depicted and we empathised with Dora's life and the challenges she was struggling with.
As the book group discussed this novel it was lovely to discover that the area we live in has a link to Auden, as he stayed at Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland, during Easter 1930 (within the period in which the book is set). Many years later Auden wrote that 'it is a number of years now since I stayed at the Lord Crewe Arms, but no other spot brings me sweeter memories' (W.H. Auden 1954).
Rating: 'Larchfield' was a great book to read and review in the book group as there was so much to discuss...scores were generally pretty high with one 5+ and several 4.5 out of 5 for this book. A couple of members scored lower (3.5).
In 1930, a young man, torn apart by his illegal desire, stands on a deserted Scottish beach. Wystan H Auden is longing to be a great poet: longing too for someone who understands him. He scribbles down his telephone number, puts it in an empty milk bottle and flings it into the tea.
Decades late, Dora Fielding stands on he same beach, lost and desperate. Struggling to cope alone with her baby and suffocating in the small town [Helensburgh], she yearns for connection. This is when she finds the message in the bottle. And calls the number.
Book Group review: The 'Larchfield' story comes to life through the two main characters; Dora and Auden by using (mainly) alternate chapters, a literary device that works really well for this story. Larchfield is the school where Auden has taken up a teaching job and although a published poet, he needs to earn a living through teaching and this is where some of the book's real highlights are to be found. Auden's novel approach in getting the interest of the boys to focus in his lessons provides a generous amount of humour in a novel that can be pretty dark at times.
Auden struggles to survive in a heterosexual society and his occasional jaunts to Berlin provide a view of an alternate reality for him, although one that is fraught with danger as Auden's tale is set in the early 1930s when the Nazi party are making their presence felt.
Dora, lonely, isolated, and struggling to cope with neighbours who appear friendly at first but seem to be plotting Dora's downfall, enters Auden's world and finds an ally.
The group didn't find this an easy read and there are lots of challenging themes: child abuse in public schools, post natal depression, isolation and adjusting to new environments. However, we all agreed that this was a good book to read with a very engaging story line. We really liked how Auden was depicted and we empathised with Dora's life and the challenges she was struggling with.
As the book group discussed this novel it was lovely to discover that the area we live in has a link to Auden, as he stayed at Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland, during Easter 1930 (within the period in which the book is set). Many years later Auden wrote that 'it is a number of years now since I stayed at the Lord Crewe Arms, but no other spot brings me sweeter memories' (W.H. Auden 1954).
Rating: 'Larchfield' was a great book to read and review in the book group as there was so much to discuss...scores were generally pretty high with one 5+ and several 4.5 out of 5 for this book. A couple of members scored lower (3.5).
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