Reviews

To Calais, in Ordinary Time by James Meek

hannicogood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Thumbs up for the weird linguistic stuff. Thumbs down because the Hayne vs Softly plot never really clicked into place for me; Will doing an abrupt 180 and deciding he did in fact love Madden/Hab came out of nowhere; and the absurd bdsm/anal thing with the queen mother was just so unnecessary. 
There’s a lot here but it’s certainly not all quality. 

tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition

4.5

 

‘A company of archers pervenes to Malmesbury imminently, on its way to France.’ 

England, 1348. Three very different people meet on the road to Calais. Bernadine, a gentlewoman, is fleeing an arranged marriage. Thomas Pitkerro, a proctor having finished his work in Malmesbury, is returning home to Avignon, and Will Quate, a young ploughman and skilled bowman, is on his way to volunteer with a company of archers. Heading towards them is the Black Death, the plague which will eventually wipe out half the population of northern Europe. 

Having provided three interesting main characters, Mr Meek intensifies the story by using language which would often be more familiar to the 14th century characters than to the 21st century readers. Unfamiliar language slowed me down, enough to appreciate the alien (to me) world in which I found myself but never stopped me following the story. Will the world end, as the clerics claim? Should the archers be concerned about past misdeeds, or simply focus on the present? And what of Lady Bernadine? 

There are other characters as well: the language they use reflects their social status, as do their concerns. Thomas Pitkerro does not know what he will find, Will Quate seeks adventure while Lady Bernadine wants the freedom to make her own choices.  But as they travel, as the Black Death becomes ever present, I am reminded of present-day uncertainties as the current pandemic commenced its spread a couple of  years ago (after this novel was written). And, as in 1348, pandemics know no social boundaries. 

I wondered, as I read, what it would be like to be travelling at such a time. I marvelled at the ingenuity and courage of some and at the opportunism of others. This is a challenging and rewarding read. 

Jennifer Cameron-Smith 

_moomin's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

For some reason, I cannot stop thinking about this book. I read it about two years ago and it has lived in my mind rent free since. I'm about to read the Roman de la Rose (which this book references and plays off of) for class and I am so excited. This is such a weird but damn brilliant book.

firerosearien's review

4.0

I really enjoyed this, although reading it while a pandemic is raging about the world might not have been my smartest decision.

There is a very, very clever use of language here that feels true to the time period. The plot doesn't have a ton of sudden reveals, and you can more or less guess at what is going to happen from page one - although it does take the Black Death some time to appear.

The book was written before COVID was a pandemic, but a lot of people will be like to compare the two.

hfnuala's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I found the emphasis on how the other men thought about the woman trying at first but over time I grew to like it. Lots of literary parallels and discussion of the romance of the rose. Some very medieval sudden occurances. This is definitely 2 men and a woman, all setting out on their own journies. Some interesting gender swapping too.

In summary, glad I read it, will probably read more by him but not blown away by this particular book.

runkefer's review against another edition

3.0

Meh. Disappointing. I probably should have put it down weeks ago, but I’m stubborn about finishing books. I loved Meek’s “The People’s Act of Love” and I keep hoping he’ll repeat that feat, but so far no.

rowanhc's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

4.0

sawyerbell's review against another edition

4.0

I find it difficult to review To Calais, in Ordinary Time. I admired so much about it: the author's use of archaic Latinate, Norman French and Saxon vocabulary to flesh out the characters and setting, the laugh-out-loud bits of dialog, the almost Shakespearean nature of the plot, the almost cinematic nature of the prose, the experience of reading about the characters' fear of the plague while quarantined myself, nervously checking my temperature over and over to see if our modern day plague has infected me.

And yet, and yet. There were so many boring sections, so many places where the archaic vocabulary dragged me out of the story, so many sentences that were almost incomprehensible. For a relatively short book, it seemed to take an aeon to get through.

My final verdict is this: To Calais, in Ordinary Time would make an excellent movie or mini-series. A director would slash away the excessive use of archaic language that slows the story down and would be able to compress the boring bits. 3.5 stars; mildly recommended for the patient reader.

hagiasophia's review against another edition

wanted to love this. however, the pace was just too slow and the story jumped between characters too quickly. the author writes in a style that mimics medieval English but is still readable. However, I also struggled to get into the story because of this. 

kate_can's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Mixing elements of The Canterbury Tales and Shakespearean comedy, this story takes place in South-West England in 1348 as a group of bowmen (led by a man called Hayne) travel through the country from Outen Green in Gloucestershire to Calais to fight the French, as the plague is advancing steadily towards them. As the novel was published in 2019 all the reviewers drew contemporary parallels with Brexit and the existentialist threat of the climate crisis, but anyone now would automatically think of the Covid pandemic. 

The novel is narrated from three different people’s perspectives, all with a clearly different voice. Will Quate is a serf who is bound to work the land of a nobleman, and he is betrothed to local beauty, Ness, but he sees a better future in proving himself an archer and buying his freedom through his service. The Lady Bernadine is the daughter of the aforementioned nobleman and betrothed to his friend in a deal done between them which favours the old men and not their promised daughters. Seduced by romantic notions inspired by a French novel, Le Roman de La Rose, she believes herself in love with a young knight, Laurence Haket who happens to be the owner of the troop of archers. Lastly, Thomas Pitkerro is a proctor or clerical administrator from Avignon on secondment to Malmesbury Abbey, who just wants to go home. He provides a record of the journey and acts as a substitute priest to the travellers. 

The bowmen are earthy and brutal: with the exception of Quate, who has joined them later, they are rough men who kill, kidnap and rape. There are stories of fights and people being put in the stocks; there are set pieces of violent battles and startling frank sex scenes. Lady Bernadine thinks she is in love with Laurence Haket, but he has failed in her ideas of courtly love and has got a country woman, Ness, pregnant. While she steals away from her father, she disguises herself as Madlen, who is pretending to be Lady Bernadine, but Madlen is actually Hab – a rough young serf, pretending to be his sister, Madlen, wearing a dress he stole from Bernadine. Will Quate has agreed to marry Ness, but he falls for Madlen, while knowing she is an incarnation of Hab. It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world indeed; one could almost call that a Shakespearean plot. 

Some of the etymology is intriguing in itself: a river full of fish is ‘fishous’; once a woman is pregnant, she becomes the responsibility of the man who impregnated her – she must marry him and become his burden/ burd/ bird. The language is part French and part old English: the common-folk do not understand the words of the nobles and vice versa. The adventures and exploits will end at the sea, but for some, it ended when they left their village. “Only in Merioneth are there true things. Only there is the world true and forever. Here, or in France, everything is a tale. All shifts. Everything haps once, no more, and then it’s gone, out-take that some bard like me minds it.” If stories aren’t remembered, they might as well never have occurred. James Meek suggests that we need a common language to understand them.