Troubles by J. G. Farrell
In 1919 Major Brendan Archer returns to England from the trenches of WWI and goes to Ireland to meet the woman--Angela Spencer--to whom he may or may not be engaged. He does not recall a definite agreement to become engaged, but he met Angela briefly before being sent overseas and she has written to him regularly throughout the war, always signing her letters "Your loving fiancée, Angela." So the major goes to the small Irish town of Kilnalough, where he finds Angela living at the Majestic, a resort hotel recently acquired by her father, Edward Spencer.
The Majestic, enormous and at one time luxurious, has suffered a serious decline since its days of glory. It is in a state of disrepair and neglect, with very few guests (mostly penurious old ladies), armies of cats on the upper stories (at least they keep the rat population down), and a general air of dilapidation and decay. The Major stays on, puzzled still whether he is engaged. He begins to think that he doesn't want to be. When circumstances make marriage to Angela impossible, he becomes attracted to another woman, Sarah, with whom he has a tentative, on-again-off-again relationship, and for whose sake he stays at the Majestic. The hotel continues to decline.
All this is set against the background of the political crisis in Ireland in which Irish separatists fought a guerrilla war against the British Government, with ambushes, bombs, assassinations, and escalating violence; the conflict is known as the Irish War of Independence or the Black and Tan war. The account of the Major's life and pursuit of love at the Majestic is frequently interrupted by accounts of these "troubles." It is impossible not to see the crumbling Majestic Hotel as reflecting the fragmenting social fabric.
J. G. Farrell is a marvelous writer, with a wonderful, vivid imagination, and his descriptions are always engaging and sometimes very funny. The decline of the Majestic, as he presents it, is pushed far beyond any semblance of realism, but it is so amusingly presented and so inventive that realism--or lack of realism--is simply not a relevant criterion. I highly recommend this book.
The Majestic, enormous and at one time luxurious, has suffered a serious decline since its days of glory. It is in a state of disrepair and neglect, with very few guests (mostly penurious old ladies), armies of cats on the upper stories (at least they keep the rat population down), and a general air of dilapidation and decay. The Major stays on, puzzled still whether he is engaged. He begins to think that he doesn't want to be. When circumstances make marriage to Angela impossible, he becomes attracted to another woman, Sarah, with whom he has a tentative, on-again-off-again relationship, and for whose sake he stays at the Majestic. The hotel continues to decline.
All this is set against the background of the political crisis in Ireland in which Irish separatists fought a guerrilla war against the British Government, with ambushes, bombs, assassinations, and escalating violence; the conflict is known as the Irish War of Independence or the Black and Tan war. The account of the Major's life and pursuit of love at the Majestic is frequently interrupted by accounts of these "troubles." It is impossible not to see the crumbling Majestic Hotel as reflecting the fragmenting social fabric.
J. G. Farrell is a marvelous writer, with a wonderful, vivid imagination, and his descriptions are always engaging and sometimes very funny. The decline of the Majestic, as he presents it, is pushed far beyond any semblance of realism, but it is so amusingly presented and so inventive that realism--or lack of realism--is simply not a relevant criterion. I highly recommend this book.