Sarah Harrison (1) (1946–)

3.5 stars.

Love in a Mist by Sarah Harrison is an intriguing novel that reads like a memoir.

Flora Mayfield lives with her parents Nico and Zinny in a seaside town along the British coast. Her mom is glamorous and beautiful whereas her dad is more playful without much ambition. They are so in love that Flora sometimes often feels like an afterthought to their lives. An only child, Flora is rather introverted with few friends. It is not until she is an adult that Flora uncovers the truth about the odd dynamic between her and her parents.

After reaching adulthood, Flora eschews going on to university and she enjoys the various jobs she undertakes. It is not until she begins working for college professor and mystery writer Edwin Clayborne that she is completely content. She and Edwin have a easy working relationship and she is content with her life. However, Flora's relationship with her parents remains a bit distant but an unexpected letter leads to a shocking revelation.

Weaving back and forth in time, Love in a Mist is a somewhat slow-paced novel with an interesting premise. Flora is a delightful narrator but she is rather prone to introspection. The plot is well-written and Sarah Harrison's descriptive prose brings the various settings vibrantly to life. An overall enjoyable read that keeps readers in suspense right up until the novel's surprising conclusion.… (mehr)

Exquisitely constructed tale of mystery and revenge, a story that begins in 1929 at an exclusive boys' boarding school when three lives collide in a moment of ugliness and jealousy and confused adolescent sexuality. The story resumes after the fall of Burma, in the Changi prison camp and on the long march to the infamous Thai-Burmese railroad, and finally concludes decades later after a chance encounter on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Three men - the wealthy Butler, the weak Oliphant and Maitland the gardener's boy, endure appalling suffering at the hands of their Japanese captors. Hundreds of men die around them while they are caught up in their own strange triangle of need and hate.

This is extremely well-written, particularly the first-person present-day sections as the unidentified narrator expresses his own archly ironic distance from his pilgrimage through the Far East. The psychological tensions of the principal personalities is set against the epic scale of the horror and violence, the needless cruelty and apparently endless physical suffering. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but the personal drama they are caught in is utterly compelling while the wider human drama is flabbergasting.

I don't know much about the author, but to judge by the listings at the back of my 1991 edition paperback she had written two historical romances and two bawdy comedies, so this looks atypical. I wonder if she wrote any more like this? I wonder of her other work is as acutely, savagely brilliant as this?… (mehr)

A stonking family saga set during the First World War, prettily repackaged in time for the 100th anniversary this year. I must admit, I fell for the pretty cover and didn't really check the publication date, but mostly enjoyed the epic story and extended cast of characters anyway. Younger sister Dulcie, of the 'charm and style', 'optimism and joie de vivre', was irritating and wholly unconvincing, especially in Paris, but long-suffering Thea (whose name continually morphed into 'they' and 'there' while reading), blustering Ralph and the quietly determined Maurice, made up for her forced personality. In fact, Thea and Dulcie reminded me of a very un-Austen like Elinor and Marianne - or, keeping everything on a level, Beatrice and Evangeline, from the House of Eliott!

In any novel about the war, however, the characters are only really there to bring the very real suffering and grief to life for the reader, and the soap opera subplots must necessarily take second place. Harrison describes the horrors of fighting and nursing on the Front with vivid yet poignant clarity, balancing the violence and gore with human fears and despair.

'Ghosts, all ghosts, who had started out as men with some notion of patriotism, however paltry and misguided, but had now crossed to the other side where there wasn't a single thing for a fellow to hang on to.'

I really felt for all the characters - apart from Dulcie - and even though most of the developments were telegraphed early, and all the happy endings unlikely, I gladly suffered the wrist strain - from reading an actual book - and hours lost to survive the war with them.… (mehr)