What do You think about School For Love (2009)?
Felix Lattimer is left orphaned in Baghdad when his mother dies of typhoid, and since it’s during WWII he can’t be sent back to Britain and the care of relatives. There is, however, a relative much closer – in Jerusalem. Mrs Bohun. So Felix is sent there. Mrs Bohun really is a piece of work – the blurb describes her as “one of the most reoubtable (and ridiculous) of comic horrors in English fiction”, and it’s true. The actual plot – Felix interacts with the other residents of Mrs Bohun’s house, is too immature to see what is really going on, and, well, things happen – is more or less incidental. The old working class man in the attice ends up in hospital, and his room is let to a young and pregnant widow. Mrs Bohun’s attitude changes to the first, and then the other, but it’s all in character. Manning is a good writer and worth reading, but this is a slight piece. Its setting is interesting, and that setting is handled reasonably sensitively, albeit with the patrician sensibilities of a British expat from the first half of the twentieth century. While Mrs Bohun appears quite horrific in some respects to modern sensibilities, I suspect time has sharpened that edge. Manning doesn’t deserve to be forgotten – she was an excellent writer during her day and her books are still worth reading today.
—Ian
I really don't know what to think of this quiet book. As I read, I kept wondering if anything was ever really going to happen. However, the characterizations drew me in, especially of course of Miss Bosun. What are her true motivations? How self-aware is she? Is she really so hypocritical? One subtle way in which Manning generated suspense is the fate of the cat. She is a big part of Felix's life, and you kept fearing Miss B. was going to do something horrible--I was so relieved by the ending. It was fascinating to see how Felix's opinions of the others changed as he knew them better, and as he was influenced by the others' worldviews. I suppose his maturation was one real plot of the story. The characters have stayed with me for days, which is a sign of good writing for me. I kept wondering what happened to Felix as he returned to England. What sort of life did this bright, sensitive boy come to have?
—JodiP
(Note: I actually read the Penguin 1983 published edition)Olivia Manning has this ability to evoke characters without particularly describing the character. You know them by their actions. In this case, a young orphan unwanted and homeless finds himself stranded in a cold winter Jerusalem. And in a cold household.The school for love is hardly that: a child starved of affection and love, tries to develop relationships - admiration, gratitude, sympathy... - with the other flotsam in and around a lodging house. His lesson is a hard one, that it is so difficult to build those bridges when the object has limited interest in developing any attachment. Here is a child that just needs to be loved as a child: is there anyone there?Anyone who's spent any time in boarding houses (digs) will certainly have met the mean landlady. Miss Bohun is it in trumps, the unsympathetic host whose claims to wanting the lodgings to be a family are hardly convincing when the whole demeanour excludes the intimate. Miss Bohun is the monster who Felix - out of loyalty? Out of hope? Out of desperation? - fixes his first loyalties. She is pure selfishness, self-satisfaction. But from our distance, we can see the bitter old woman herself in need of love, but unable to offer it. She is a caricature of a monster, something to laugh at, but as the story proceeds, a certain sympathy for her begins to sneak in. Unfortunately, she can always mange something outrageous to dash any liking of her. Except, perhaps, allowing Felix and the cat...: you'll have to read to find out what happens there between Felix and the only thing that allows Felix to express his need for love.There is a relief when you see Felix's escape from this world gradually get closer. But there is also a certain sympathy for Miss Bohun as she starts to look forward to her next paying guest - or will it be victim? Or another failed hope?Delicious writing and the pages flew by.
—Martin Boyle
