Walton, Jo - Half a Crown
Sat, Dec. 13th, 2008 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterHalf a Crown concludes the Small Change or Still Life with Fascists trilogy, which also consists of Farthing and Ha'Penny.
It's 1960, eleven years after the events of Farthing and nineteen after a group of powerful British politicians brokered a peace with Hitler. Elvira, the adopted niece of Carmichael, is about to debut when she's drawn into the world of politics that her uncle inhabits.
I didn't like Ha'Penny as much as I liked Farthing. But I think Half a Crown is the strongest in the series, largely because it departs from the mystery format that worked so well with the first book and not so well with the second. Of course, this may be influenced by my not being much of a mystery reader. Part, though, is because the second and third books in the trilogy lack the element of surprise and discovery about the worldbuilding that's so intrinsic to Farthing, so what we're left with in Ha'Penny is a more standard mystery, not one that simultaneously works as mystery and worldbuilding.
I also found Half a Crown effective because it places Carmichael front and center; we've been waiting for his story after realizing he's the continuing thread that ties the books together, and it's good to get it at last.
Spoilers
It's so painful to see Britain in this world, to see talk of sending undesirables off to concentration camps, to have talk of building one (!!) on British soil. And I had originally thought that maybe the people weren't fully aware of what happened in the concentration camps, but the later jokes about being made into soap make it very clear that they do. And I wonder how close we are now with Guantanamo.
I do wish we knew a little more about the state of the world elsewhere; the Japanese general's visit and the mention of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere hit me just as hard as Moscow wiped out by an atomic bomb. There's brief mention of India, and I want to know what happened to black people in the US.
But mostly, I love Carmichael, I love finally seeing him involved in a plot that personally matters to him. And oh, Jack. I also love that Walton calls him on his own privileges even as he's commanding the Inner Watch; Jacobson's reactions to the Jewish people they save compared with Carmichael's is contrasted with Carmichael's willingness to do anything once it's Elvira or Jack out there.
Still, I'm not entirely sure I believe the ending, largely because I want to believe it. I'm not sure we've seen enough protest to Britain's policy grow to fully buy the change that comes about, even though given all things, it's a very small change (no pun intended) that doesn't guarantee anything. But then, I'm not sure how else Walton could have ended the series otherwise without it being horrifically depressing.
I cried when I read this, and then I remembered elections and the change come January.
Links:
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oursin's review
-kate_nepveu's review
It's 1960, eleven years after the events of Farthing and nineteen after a group of powerful British politicians brokered a peace with Hitler. Elvira, the adopted niece of Carmichael, is about to debut when she's drawn into the world of politics that her uncle inhabits.
I didn't like Ha'Penny as much as I liked Farthing. But I think Half a Crown is the strongest in the series, largely because it departs from the mystery format that worked so well with the first book and not so well with the second. Of course, this may be influenced by my not being much of a mystery reader. Part, though, is because the second and third books in the trilogy lack the element of surprise and discovery about the worldbuilding that's so intrinsic to Farthing, so what we're left with in Ha'Penny is a more standard mystery, not one that simultaneously works as mystery and worldbuilding.
I also found Half a Crown effective because it places Carmichael front and center; we've been waiting for his story after realizing he's the continuing thread that ties the books together, and it's good to get it at last.
Spoilers
It's so painful to see Britain in this world, to see talk of sending undesirables off to concentration camps, to have talk of building one (!!) on British soil. And I had originally thought that maybe the people weren't fully aware of what happened in the concentration camps, but the later jokes about being made into soap make it very clear that they do. And I wonder how close we are now with Guantanamo.
I do wish we knew a little more about the state of the world elsewhere; the Japanese general's visit and the mention of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere hit me just as hard as Moscow wiped out by an atomic bomb. There's brief mention of India, and I want to know what happened to black people in the US.
But mostly, I love Carmichael, I love finally seeing him involved in a plot that personally matters to him. And oh, Jack. I also love that Walton calls him on his own privileges even as he's commanding the Inner Watch; Jacobson's reactions to the Jewish people they save compared with Carmichael's is contrasted with Carmichael's willingness to do anything once it's Elvira or Jack out there.
Still, I'm not entirely sure I believe the ending, largely because I want to believe it. I'm not sure we've seen enough protest to Britain's policy grow to fully buy the change that comes about, even though given all things, it's a very small change (no pun intended) that doesn't guarantee anything. But then, I'm not sure how else Walton could have ended the series otherwise without it being horrifically depressing.
I cried when I read this, and then I remembered elections and the change come January.
Links:
-
oursin's review-
kate_nepveu's reviewTags:
(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 05:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Dec. 14th, 2008 05:49 pm (UTC)I'll put the comment back once the review is live....