Reading 1001 discussion

I read The Siege of Krishnapur a couple of years ago and rated it a five star book. I had not realised that it had been styled one of the Empire Trilogy, Troubles being the first in the series. There were similarities. Both depicted the British Empire confronted with change and the adaptation of the characters to their hitherto comfortable way of life. In both books a privileged lifestyle is threatened, much more obvertly in Krishnapur, but the rising feeling of threat and uncertainty in post World War One Ireland in this book had a similar tone. What Farrell captures uniquely is the blust and swagger of a dominant group, but his descriptions are gentle, humourous and quite delightful. Troubles is set in Ireland circa 1919. The Major, as he is consistently referred to, visits the Majestic Hotel south-east of Dublin to meet a woman with whom he had been corresponding during the war. He is not sure whether he is engaged to her or not, and as a sterotypically blundering Englishman he cannot find a way to ask. He becomes a permanent fixture in the hotel, which is deteriorating in many alarming ways, much like the British Empire itself. The owner, Edward, more of a country gentleman than a hotelier, is a quintessential Anglo-Irishman who cannot believe that the Irish would vote for Sinn Fein rather than British rule. It sounds rather grim, but it is actually both very funny and quite appalling. In both books Farrell is able to conjur up characters who exhibit both the best and worst of British culture in such a way as they become characters the reader cares about. I am looking forward to reading the third in the trilogy - Singapore Grip.

Gave this one 4 stars, finally completing the Empire trilogy (I rated all of them 4 stars if I recall correctly).

I really enjoyed the way the deteriorating hotel stands in for the decaying grasp of the British Empire on Ireland. The way the old Major and the landlord types are totally in denial both about the hotel and the actual country was often darkly funny.

One aspect I also really enjoyed about this book is the prominence of a character with an invisible disability who is an ambulatory wheelchair user (me too!) ...so that was cool. The way some other characters think she is faking it and actually doesn't need the wheelchair...but when Archer meets her alone the first time he's like "yeah she can walk, but it was shaky and bad" was great. Sarah's not faking., she clearly has ME/CFS lol. There was a bit of 'written from an abled perception of disabled people' going on with the extent to which her focus on being disabled is abundant and self-pitying. More realistic in myself and other disabled people I've met their obsession with their own disability is typically much lower and instead of self-pity, frustration with abled society's lack of understanding and accommodation is far more likely.

But, overall, it is a good attempt- Sarah's condition varies (common), she has her own personality and is a feisty teaser and believer in Ireland's independence, as is the desired love interest (amazing!). Her riled-up back and forth with Archer and their mutual interest and agitation was a fun read.

I actually enjoyed this book far more than I expected to once I got into the story. Certain aspects particularly the romance aspects felt forced and more like it was included to move the story rather than because any of the characters felt an emotional attachment to each other.

In the crumbling Majestic hotel the reader can see a metaphor for crumbing Anglo/Irish relationships as the hotel falls apart the Ireland outside is also falling away from English rule.

While the aristocracy are shown as bumbling and out of touch Farrell still manages to build the tension in such a way that the reader cares for all the characters no matter what their politics. It is this non-judgemental writing that compels the reader to keep reading we care what will happen to everyone and that is a very fine line to tread and one that Farrell treads well.

3 Stars – some aspects didn’t work for me but overall this is a compassionate and compelling look at the Troubles through the microcosm of life in a hotel. Well worth reading.

Reason Read: 2023/November botm
I've owned this one for awhile and I liked the previous novel by Farrell that I read but never seemed to get around to reading this one.
This is the Lost Booker that was awarded for books of 1970 that never got a chance to win the Booker. Farrell wrote this Trilogy about the British Empire and the end of that empire. In this one, we are emersed in "the troubles" which was an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998 and perhaps it isn't completely resolved. The story is told around a hotel called The Majestic. We think grandeur but it is a decaying ruin. I saw the hotel as representing the British government in Ireland that was no longer grand and losing its hold on Ireland. I saw the two girls; Angela (protestant) and Sarah (Catholic) also representing "the troubles". One reserved and dying out and the other growing in strength from wheelchair to ambulatory. The story occurs at this hotel so in many ways it is isolated from what is happening outside the hotel but slowly the outside turmoil invades the hotel. Another great read by the author who died too young.

I had read the other two books in Farrell's trilogy about the British Empire and I found this to be as well done as The Siege of Krishnapur. Farrell gives us a number of capable metaphors for the slow and ungainly decline of the Empire, including the slightly tilted statue of Victoria, the romance which was all tender love on paper but nothing emotional at all in real life, and the Majestic hotel. The Majestic is an old rambling affair with ballrooms and stables, squash courts and pools, libraries, conservatories and a servant's wing. However, it is well past its prime. It is described as largely a dusty cat filled maze of decline and it is barely standing although it still attracts a certain set of Anglo-Irish aristocracy to its doors because of what it once represented. The characters are really well described and strangely likable even if we don't care for their political stand and even if they are all a bit 'off'. Some of the secondary characters such as Dr. Ryan are quite a delight. Farrell, at the young age of 35, was able to bring to life a time and a way of life that existed 50 years earlier with a great deal of sympathy, especially toward the tribe of old women that inhabited the hotel. Although he is ridiculing and mocking the Anglos, he does it with gentle humor. He does not bring us many characters from the other side. We meet the servants and the Devlins but largely do not get to personally know many characters who are fighting for their independence. Instead we see women dressed in black invading the dumpsters in search of food, farmers who come in the night to harvest a bit of the crop they planted and which they left due to not being loyal to Edward or the King. As we know a bit of history, we know where the political conditions are going from the beginning, but the characters do not and Farrell also does this very well. The hope that their time and their way of life is not over, slowly dies.
I gave it 4 stars.

***

As much as I liked The Siege of Krishnapur, the more I cringed about Troubles, partly because I was expecting something similar to the former. True, the environment of the crumbling ramshackle Majestic Hotel was an apt allegory of the deteriorating relationship between Ireland and the British Empire, as well as the ineluctable disintegration of the Empire itself in an oblivious atmosphere of "she'll be fine, mate". But I almost felt bored to death by some of the peripetiae of the inhabitants of the hotel, with a humoristic level closer to Diary of a Nobody than to the funnier Irish stories from Somerville & Ross.