Scan barcode
A review by eddie
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, Robie MacAuley
5.0
Hugely impressive - the best book in the series thus far (this is book 3 of Ford’s Parade’s End tetralogy). The structure of the whole starts to become plain - this is clearly part of a unified whole; the books are not stand alone and can’t be read in isolation or out of order.
The first book sets up the action and shows pre-war society on the verge of catastrophe. The second book - which I had problems with - is set on the Western Front but continues in many respects the frivolous social intrigue of the first, with Sylvia gatecrashing the British army HQ with sexual intrigue. In retrospect, Ford cleverly delays the expected battle-front action into the third book. Sylvia is present in the 2nd, Valentine absent. In the third book this is inverted - Sylvia is absent and Valentine is the lead character.
The book opens on Armistice day. Valentine receives a call that Christopher has returned from the front. It’s only then the story turns in a flashback to the war and we get the sustained battle scenes lasting the majority of the book. Ford’s use of flashback and chronological manipulation is technically superb and emotionally incredibly powerful. Enemy fire power, whilst terrifying in itself, is made ironically vastly worse by the British Establishment’s insane limpet-like embrace of stultifying social protocols from the past.
This refusal of the old order to die is present even in the last astonishing scene of the book, where Christopher speaks to Valentine’s mother - a representative of Victorian attitudes - on the phone during bizarrely surreal Victory Day celebrations in his empty house (Sylvia has removed all the furniture). An astonishing climax to the book.
The first book sets up the action and shows pre-war society on the verge of catastrophe. The second book - which I had problems with - is set on the Western Front but continues in many respects the frivolous social intrigue of the first, with Sylvia gatecrashing the British army HQ with sexual intrigue. In retrospect, Ford cleverly delays the expected battle-front action into the third book. Sylvia is present in the 2nd, Valentine absent. In the third book this is inverted - Sylvia is absent and Valentine is the lead character.
The book opens on Armistice day. Valentine receives a call that Christopher has returned from the front. It’s only then the story turns in a flashback to the war and we get the sustained battle scenes lasting the majority of the book. Ford’s use of flashback and chronological manipulation is technically superb and emotionally incredibly powerful. Enemy fire power, whilst terrifying in itself, is made ironically vastly worse by the British Establishment’s insane limpet-like embrace of stultifying social protocols from the past.
This refusal of the old order to die is present even in the last astonishing scene of the book, where Christopher speaks to Valentine’s mother - a representative of Victorian attitudes - on the phone during bizarrely surreal Victory Day celebrations in his empty house (Sylvia has removed all the furniture). An astonishing climax to the book.