Eva recommended To the North by Elizabeth Bowen because one of my favorite books is Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding and Eva thought their writing styles were similar. I definitely agree. Like Welty, Bowen excels in capturing place, atmosphere, and the dynamic of groups of people. Bowen was an Irish writer, and this book is largely set in England, though it starts on a train traveling through the night in Europe. On that train, young widow Cecilia makes the acquaintance of the somewhat amoral Mark Linkwater. He later forms a romantic relationship with Cecilia’s sister-in-law and housemate, Emmeline. Cecilia meanwhile weighs whether to accept a proposal of marriage from a suitor.But the plot really isn’t the main draw of To The North. For me, the joy of reading this novel was in Bowen’s writing. When she is satirical, she is laugh-out-loud funny. There’s an older relative of Cecilia and Emmeline, named Lady Waters, who is shades of a comic Jane Austen character. Minor characters are sketched entertainingly but also with depth. I also loved how well Bowen could set a scene: "Gerda’s line as a hostess was of adorable inefficiency; with the air of a lost child she tottered among her guests, in one hand a glass dripping sherry, in the other a semi-opaque yellow drink in which the skewered cherry appeared as a threatening shadow. Wherever a glass was put down a small sticky ring stamped itself: she pounced on these rings with her handkerchief with little reproachful cries (no one advised her to wipe the underneath of the glasses) . . . She was followed around by a young man she had known in the Navy, who each time she succeeded in placing a drink with a guest smiled proudly, as though she had sold a raffle ticket, and gave her another drink off a tray." p. 157The book could also be characterized as a melodrama, especially in the story arc of Emmeline and Markie (yes that is what he is called). The ending reminded me of the classic film melodramas of that era. I’m not a huge fan of melodrama, but Bowen does it well.Both Welty and Bowen wrote dense psychological passages in their novels that, for me, range from impenetrable to brilliantly insightful. For instance, Bowen sometimes lost me when she described the many shifting moods of Markie and Emmeline’s relationship. On the other hand, a fairly intricate and ambitious metaphor comparing Cecilia’s widowhood to the redevelopment of an old estate really paid off emotionally and aesthetically; I was really moved by it.I’m so glad Eva’s recommendation pushed me to pick up a novel by Elizabeth Bowen. Bowen wrote about ten novels, so I know I’ll have more opportunities to soak in her writing.
Letter (in this novel) from a man to a woman who loves him. They probably have been sexually intimate, but their language is so decorous and vague that their relationship seems to be distant even when they have slipped off to Paris together for a secret weekend. On the aeroplane, he writes her a note and HANDS IT to her:"Or aren't you? These two days must be intolerable or perfect. You must know what I want; all I want. If I COULD marry, it would be you. I don't know if you know what this means. I don't think this could happen For God's sake, be kind to me. Understand?"And she responds by doodling on the back of it. "She could not see at what point the issue had become apparent, from what point she was committed: committed, however, she felt."I LIKED her character (Emmeline.) I even liked her awful housemate Cecilia: a monster of selfishness, but a soft little perfumed absurd monster. But that letter and the conversations among all the characters that resemble it finally drove me wild with impatience, and I skipped ahead to the last chapter, where the ending irked me pretty thoroughly. Then I sent the book back to the used bookstore whence it had come.
What do You think about To The North (2006)?
I loved the way this book was written, even though reading this book made me feel claustrophobic. Elizabeth Bowen made me see the characters and their lives, and how they made the only choices they could because of who they were and the kind of world they lived in. The main characters is a young widow, Cecilia, and her sister-in-law, Emmeline, who share a house in London. Cecilia is contemplating a second marriage with a man she doesn't love and finds somewhat boring, mostly because she doesn't know what else to do. Emmeline, on the other hand, runs a travel agency with a friend and seems to have the kind of life she wants, but falls in love with a man just wants an affair and who is a bit of a sadist since he likes it when the women he are involved with loves him while he just moves on.
—Asa
Elizabeth Bowen, an author in the genre of Virginia Wolfe and Dorothy Whipple, writes about English women’s lives in the 30’s and 40’s. In To the North we meet Cecelia, a young widow, and her younger, unmarried sister-in-law, Emmeline, who are living in London. Cecelia is a traditional woman heading towards another marriage but her restlessness and lack of direction make one question her purpose. Emmeline who runs a travel agency is more modern, but she takes risks that she may not be able to handle. Cecelia and Emmeline seem so close, but the question is , in a world where women’s lives are restricted and what is not said is often more important than what is, can they help each other.I thought the book was over written. There were lots of metaphors, many of which I just didn’t get. At one point when Emmeline is having an argument with a boyfriend, I read: “She said ‘You are like an insurance company,’ and did not explain why.” I imagined some woman reading this in 30’s London and laughing wryly, having an exact image of what that meant. But metaphors can be dated and in a different time and culture I was perplexed. The story was interesting but there were too many of these perplexing moments for me to really like the book.
—Sarah
This might be the best book I’ve read all year. It is a crying shame that Elizabeth Bowen is not more widely read, and I’m 100% ready to take up her literary apostleship. If you like Woolf, you will absolutely love Bowen. Her prose is just as gorgeous and her insights just as wrenching, but she’s also got something Woolf kind of lacks: the ability to tell a really good page-turner of a story. If you haven’t read Bowen before, this would be a great place to start, as the form is a little more traditional than some of her other novels—it’s got more of that (exceedingly British) “novel of manners” feel and less of the “experimental modernist” vibe.
—Jesi
