GOOD story!I have now read four books by William Boyd. I like how he writes. This is a mystery, and I am not a mystery reader, but I picked it up simply because I was pretty darn sure I would not be disappointed. I wasn’t.I am beginning to see a pattern in his writing. In this book, as in his others, you are delivered an interesting story. The themes covered here are the occupation of the Philippines by America, the birth of aviation, the improvement of the surgical science at the beginning of the 1900s. And love. Physical attraction, love between couples, love between parents and offspring, and relationships without love. Rather than providing a list of correct historical details you get a feel for the era. It is not the details but rather a sense of what conditions were like. In this book you are confronted with the filth of earlier surgical practices; you are confronted with the atrocities committed during America's occupation; the exhilaration of flying for the first time. What you get is more an emotional understanding than a mental learning of historical facts. I want to feel myself in another person's skin. I am less interested in the historical details. I will soon forget the historical details if I don't feel an emotional empathy for those who lived through those times.This is a mystery story too. There are murders. I personally think the ending is clear, at least we know how Kay Fischer interprets the events. What is not conclusively known is not that important, and this is an important message of the book.I enjoyed how love was portrayed. My emotional reaction to the book was quite simply that I liked it. So three stars. I recommend the book to others. Some parts were a bit unbelievable: (view spoiler)[The chilling down of Delphine's body when she supposedly dies. I have another problem. Both Dr. Salvadore Carriscant and Delphine Sieverance seemed so sure of never being able to love their respective wife and husband ever again. They felt so sure of what they were doing. Is that believable? (hide spoiler)]
The Blue Afternoon. I thought this was referring to the meteorological phenomena that occurs in Manila but I think it might be an oblique reference to the descriptions of the relationship Salvador Carriscant has with his lover in the nippa barn......Other reviewers have critised the ease with which Kay Fischer agrees to travel from the USA to manila with Salvador, and fund the trip, in pursuit of his claim to be her father. I think this is rather harsh and is wholly plausible give the turmoil in Kays life as her ex husband taps her for money, her ex business partner tries to dismantle her architectural practice and she struggles to deal with the angst over the death of her little baby. She needs to get away from all that and why not do it on what seems a wild goose chase.I'm not sure about the story-within-a-story structure to the book and it feels at times that Boyd wrote the central, and much larger portion of the book then decided to wrap it in the Kay/Salvador "mystery" bit. I do like the gentle jibes between surgeons and anesthetists ("you're no better than a butcher... all the magic lies in anaesthesia. Without that enchanted sleep you'd still be barbers assistants, sawbones, killing people." "You're just a chemist..") and the tensions in the hospital over progress and discoveries about hygiene (this is 1902 of course). There are a number of other sub plots in here, the development of the aero-mobile, the mysterious murders of American soldiers and historical reminders of the war in the Philippines where atrocities were carried out the like of which we still hear about in today's futile conflicts.For all that this is essentially a tragic love story and a very well written one.
What do You think about The Blue Afternoon (1995)?
This is not William Boyd's best novel, let's make this clear. But this is a very good novel & very typical of Boyd's work : big story, complex plot, interesting people, no idea where he'll take it until you get there blah blah...Lots of reviews of this book focus on a beginning & an ending that don’t quite fit, that feel superfluous. I agree, I think these are the weakest elements. But in between the reader is treated to a tale involving a doomed love affairs which weaves in an account of the somewhat barbaric medical practices of the time, an attempt to break an early flying record and several murders. All of this is set in atmospheric turn of the century Philippines.All in all a good read but not a great read.
—Andrew Smith
Ever since I read Armadillo many years ago, I've found a reliable voice in Boyd that I really envy. His books, and Blue Afternoon is no exception, are always books that stick around for a while when I've finished them. I think about the characters as more than characters. They are almost like people I've met--they way they are fleshed out and driven around in the story is one of Boyd's best talents. I finished the book early this morning and I'm still thinking about Dr. Carriscant. Wondering what might have been . . . Carriscant's a fictional character, and here I am imagining "what if" scenarios for an imaginary person. Impressive.
—Dennis
I read this for a book club - if it had not been chosen I probably would not have read it. I have not read Boyd before. The story is disjointed and awkward in places. We start off in the US with a woman going through relationship problems and we have several pages of rather dull architecture description then her 'father' turns up and she doesnt know who he is.The father's story then unfolds in flashback. It is set in the Phillipines and this part of the book picks up and begins to gather pace and interest. There is a thwarted love affair, lots of medical gory stuff and 4 murders. By the end of the book we still have a thwarted love affair, a crashed plane and 4 murders - dont ask me who did them, what the relevance of the murders were or the motives for most of the actions in the book. None of this is explained - I thought it might just be me but in my book group no one got how the ending worked or who was responsible for what.Unsatifactory.
—Penny
