The seventh novel in Powell’s series, “A Dance to the Music of Time,” starts with narrator Nick Jenkins in basic training in the army at the beginning of WWII, first in England, then in Ireland. The title refers to the passage in Ezekiel where the prophet has a vision of a valley of dry bones in which the scattered bones assemble themselves, become enfleshed, and turn into a mighty army. Basic training introduces a whole new cast of characters to the series, each carefully delineated. Much less is said about civilian life, even about Isobel, Nick’s wife, and their new son, referred to in this volume only as “the boy.” A few familiar characters from former volumes are encountered, but often only as Nick’s memories. The general tone becomes harsher as the realities of life become more somber, and yet there are elements of humor that tie this book together with its companions. Life inexorably goes on.Here are some quotations that struck my fancy:“Though love may die, vanity lives on timelessly.”“How few people do anything for its own sake, from making love to practicing the arts.”And an extended exquisite passage:“Robert Tolland (Isobel’s brother), serving in France with his Field Security Section, was also killed. The news came in a letter from Isobel. Nothing was revealed, then or later, of the circumstances of Robert’s death. So far as it went, he died as mysteriously as he had lived, like many other young men to whom war put an end, an unsolved problem. Had Robert, as Chips Lovell alleged, lived a secret life with ‘night-club hostesses old enough to be his mother?’ Would he have made a lot of money in his export house trading with the Far East? Might he have married Flavia Wisebite? As in musical chairs, the piano stops suddenly, someone is left without a seat, petrified for all time in their attitude of that particular moment. The balance-sheet is struck there and then, a matter of luck whether its calculations have much bearing, one way or the other, on the commerce conducted. Some die in an apparently suitable manner, others like Robert on the field of battle with a certain incongruity. Yet Fate had ordained this end for him. Or had Robert decided for himself? Had he set aside the chance for a commission to fulfill a destiny that required him to fall in France; or was Flavia’s luck so irredeemably bad that her association with him was sufficient…to summon the Slayer of Osiris, her pattern of life, rather than Robert’s, dominating the issue of life and of death? Robert could even have died to escape her. The potential biographies of those who die young possess the mystic dignity of a headless statue, the poetry of enigmatic passages in an unfinished or mutilated manuscript, unburdened with contrived or banal ending. These were disturbing days, lived out in suffocating summer heat.”At the end of the book, the story seems to have come full circle, Nick finding himself serving under his longtime acquaintance, the ever-pompous Kenneth Widmerpool.
THE VALLEY OF BONES, the seventh volume of Anthony Powell's sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" sees World War II well under way. In early 1940 Nicholas Jenkins is assigned as a subaltern in a Welsh infantry unit, which is soon posted to Northern Ireland. The Dance perennially exhibits to the reader comical and grotesque personalities, and anyone who has ever done military service knows that nowhere else do you meet such a variety of odd people in such a short time. Thus we meet Gwatkin, a banker who sees being called up as a path to glory; Bithel the officer and Sayce the private who someone persist in the army in spite of poor turnout and criminal incompetency; Gittins who mans the company store as if it were the world's most valuable treasure, and many more. Indeed, so absorbing are these new figures that the usual cast of characters sit out most of the novel, visited only in one portion where Jenkins is on leave. Widmerpool appears at the close of the novel, again performing his role as the antagonist of the series. In spite of some tragedies -- many characters we have followed to date are to perish in the War -- this is one of the most uproariously funny volumes so far. The mysterious commander of their division is ultimately revealed to be a eccentric old man obsessed with eating a proper breakfast. Incidental matters of military routine descend into farce. And then there is an apocryphal quotation from Lord Byron that, like the earlier parody of Pepys, shows Powell's keen familiarity with the English canon. THE VALLEY OF BONES maintains the high standard of Powell's 12-volume work and I look forward to moving onto the next.
What do You think about The Valley Of Bones (1999)?
I thought of this book when I was reading New Moon last week. In Stephenie Meyer's novel, the heroine is abandoned by her boyfriend, whom she believes to be the love of her life, and goes into a black depression. Meyer completely chickens out of describing what this is like. The early parts of the book are arranged as a diary; she just presents four months as empty, with no entries at all. Well, given the general level of her writing skills, she no doubt made a good pragmatic decision, but it is in fact possible to do better than this.So, let's look at The Valley of Bones, Volume 7 of Powells's utterly brilliant Dance to the Music of Time. The first six books are full of incident. Nick has some memorable adventures at school, gets invited to classy and decadent parties, has a brush with the spirit world, and meets a variety of extraordinary people. Incidentally, it just occurs to me that he's also been recently abandoned by the love of his life. Give me warm, living, treacherous Jean any day in preference to cold, dead, faithful Edward. The scene where she opens the door to him naked is generally agreed to be the focal point of the entire series, and it's no accident that the BBC adaptation started here.In Volume 7, World War II has broken out, and Nick, who's really too old to serve but feels he has to anyway, has pulled strings to get himself into the Army. The choices were limited, and he's been assigned to a Welsh regiment, stuck in Northern Ireland and doing, basically, nothing very much. Instead of his usual cohort of glittering artists, socialites and eccentric peers, he's surrounded by dull-as-ditchwater miners and clerks, most of whom are ten to twenty years younger than him, and who view him with a mixture of suspicion and contempt.Stephenie Meyer would probably have given us four or five empty chapters. Powell describes it all, in perfect and understated detail. I remember reading this for the first time (I've since re-read it twice), and thinking how boring it was. About 50 pages in, I suddenly got the point. Of course it's boring. That's what Nick's existence is like. Boredom is also a part of life, and knowing how to deal with it is extremely important. And after a while, he sees, and you do too, that his life isn't nearly as boring as he'd imagined. There are some surprising dramas going on among these, at first sight, incredibly dull people. And the next two books, which have rather more happening, wouldn't be as realistic without the low-key introduction. But it's true, Powell is probably never going to outsell Meyer, so from that point of view she got it right. Though I still prefer Powell's treatment. As usual in Dance, the moral is that you get what you pay for.
—Manny
For me, the beginning of three books that make up the war trilogy section of A Dance to a Music of Time was an entertaining read with more of a tendency to farce than any of the previous novels so far. I wondered if this was the result of Powell’s own experience in the war.Those of you hoping for any action sequences will be disappointed. Nick Jenkins sees no combat service and is, instead, involved in a series of bureaucratic posts that seem, to me at least, interminably dull occupations.There’s the occasional military exercise to spice things up a bit but, for the most part, this novel in the sequence is most memorably characterised by comic events involving various army personnel. When I say ‘comic’ here, please bear in mind that they might raise a faint smile rather than see you split your sides laughing. Like the narrator he has created, Powell seems far too straight laced to actually be able to make anyone laugh out loud.The characters plod on. Widmerpool surfaces again (as I believe he does in all 12 novels at some point), this time in the role of a rising star of wartime administration. But several more are introduced often with most ludicrous names. What parents would ever call their son Odo for goodness sake?
—Arukiyomi
And here is #7 which I managed to knock off a week or so before the end of July so hooray for me! This section of Powell's grand opus is almost entirely filled with Manly Men doing Manly Things! Or rather, it's a quite farcical book filled with the absurdities of bureaucrats and war. I found that I quite missed the snarky little socialite conversations :-)Nick isn't exactly in the thick of the war just at the moment, he's bumbling around training areas and is mostly concerned with regulations rather than enemy bullets. I'm not sure if that will change - as everyone seems to be keen to point out to him, he's getting rather 'long in the tooth'.
—Nicola
