The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
Silly me for thinking that this book would be a lighthearted and feel-good romance in the same vein as Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Simonson draws the time and place so well that one cannot imagine living in that time and place with anything other than a sense of dread and horror. I can think of more than one dystopian YA novel universe I’d rather live in than early 20th century anywhere, unless I could be reborn into someone rich and male and of upper class lineage. Scratch that, not even then.
This novel is marketed on the cover as being a good book for people who can’t get enough Downton Abbey, but I loved Downton Abbey and still found this borderline horror. On TV, you can just admire the pretty flowers and costumes and enjoy the drama enough to pretend that Edith Crowley doesn’t treat innocent people with pitiless cruelty due to her unwillingness to take responsibility for her actions. In this book, the rich people aren’t the main focus, and we know too much about how badly women fare if they have no man to vouch for them. Beatrice is competent and skilled and courageous and hard working, and she still can barely get a job that barely gives her enough money for food (but not clothing, that costs extra) and she still almost loses her job because in this time and place, no one feels comfortable with a woman who is not under the control of a man. Suffragettes are seen as akin to social vermin. One man divorced and remarried, and his wife is ostracized, as well as pretty much anyone who associates with her. He’s fine, of course. They tut, but real pariah status is reserved for women. Women in this small, xenophobic, extremely conservative time and place have a very narrow path to walk, and even Beatrice, who is of this time and place, finds it hard to do things that won’t result in her losing her job, her home, and her place in society.
In short, I am too much of a feminist to read realistic period fiction without feeling as though I am reading dystopian horror. The way in which women’s lives are controlled and curtailed by men makes me writhe in indignation, and it’s uncomfortable because things have changed, but not that much, so it just gives me rage with no outlet. But this is an equal opportunity dystopian horror, because the war is coming, which means that the men will be coerced into going to the front, where they can be executed for “malingering” or “shirking” or hitting an officer. Anyone who’s read about World War 1 knows that it was not exactly a summer camp.
Boy howdy, there’s death and tragedy aplenty in this. Powerful people do really horrible things to other people with no recourse, just because that’s the way this ossified society is set up. And I felt the tragedy and sorrow so much more keenly because I had come to really identify with and like the characters. There is a romance in this, and that was good, but no one gets out of this book happy.
And that’s the weird thing, because the setting of a rural English country town in a simpler time is like the epitome of an idyllic spot to set a romance. Like Jane Austen novels, the pretty setting is just an incongruous stage for life-or-death battles. The romance isn’t about romance. Beatrice may really love the beau she ends up with, but what she’s really marrying is the right to access her inherited money so she doesn’t have to choose between eating and wearing clothes. She’s really marrying a man who can provide her access to basic civil rights. There’s another marriage in this that is also not so romantic, because it’s two people marrying to gain the veneer of respectability to save themselves from their situations, each of which would otherwise result in the equivalent of a death sentence. It’s like if you had a combination between Hunger Games and the Bachelor, where any woman who didn’t find a man could either be a servant or dead. Everyone has their own private pain. Everyone (excepting perhaps Lady Emily) has been hurt in a large or small way by the dictaes of this stringent world in which they live.
Oh, and the war also sucks.
So, this didn’t feel like a happy feel-good romance set in a charming location. It was too close to modern times and the characters were so believable and I felt for them so much that I was just too wrapped up in their horrible situation to feel joy at the romance plots. It was like 20% happy, 60% people making each other miserable, and 20% good people forced to either watch or partake in the suffering of others because they didn’t have enough power because they were poor or female or unwed or young or had the wrong bloodline. I cried so much.
To sum up, good job on the characters and plot, but THIS IS NOT A HAPPY FEEL GOOD ROMANCE and THIS IS NOT A HAPPY SETTING.
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