This is the third novel written by William Trevor, after "The Old Boys" that was excellent and "The Boarding House that was disappointing. "The Love Department" falls somewhere in between. I am working my way through his back catalogue. Typically, the book starts off with too much in the way of characters contemplating their life. Nothing much happens. "Mrs Hoop devoted much of her time to the consideration of two topics of thought".
One of the main characters Septimus Tuam - (where does Trevor find these names?) is described as "a gaunt young man with a face like the edge of a chisel and a mind that in some ways matched it". But it is Edward Blakestone-Smith that is central to the story, the most pathetic trainee private detective ever invented. However, the writer is always best with dialogue, some of the conversations have such a cutting tone.
When the book reaches half way, a very boring dinner party is suddenly pitched into farcical chaos. The book then becomes a much more interesting read as it gains huge momentum as Edward pursues his quest. I did like the mention of London Airport (the book was first published in 1966) and I can remember in that year driving my first car in the evening to one of the terminals or The Queens Building and parking right outside to have a coffee in a cafe there.
I have to agree with the review by W B Gooderham in The Guardian: "Admittedly "The Love Department" is not Trevor's finest work ...... the structure a little haphazard ...... 50 pages too long. But the story is engaging, the prose precise, the characters amusing ...... and eccentric charm." This was the reviewers nomination for a book out of print, having once not read anything by the author and picked up a second hand copy on a whim.
So many characters, not just Buffy's ex-wives and their children but ex lovers and their children, husbands of ex-wives and their children (so not actually his relatives) even sons and daughters in law, or are they already in the previous group? Who cares, Deborah Moggach keeps it brilliantly simple, the complications of the relationships are well realised and always amusing. For instance, there is one great piece about Jacquetta (Buffy's second wife?) who is such an awful person, where she considers her own personality and her situation with new husband Leon. All written in the third person. "Sometimes she did something that was just a cry for attention". "The trouble was (not working at her desk) she had too many ideas".
There is so much poignant stuff crammed into the writing, A great piece about Buffy's previous Christmases that mostly ended in rows. Mostly all Buffy's fault. "His various Christmases had come in all permutations, most of them uncomfortable and some so disastrous that he would have preferred to have spent the day in a Salvation Army hostel". Later there are very short pieces dodging between many of the characters that is very entertaining. The very final part is pretty much contrived, but how can you object to it's heart. I found this book to superior to the sequel "Heartbreak Hotel" that we read for book club.
Not my sort of book, so cannot complain to much. The short and "sharp" chapters are narrated by the alternating main characters. It is quite clever as one takes over from another in strict chronological order. There are plenty of secrets that are revealed along the way, and plot holes that are not plot holes as they are tweaked a little later. Good if you like that sort of thing. Me, I don't like books where everyone is so unpleasant to each other. And this book takes the biscuit.
I could never imagine a wedding where a "plus one" (i.e. a wife) is not put next to her husband at the ceremony or the dinner just because he is part of the wedding party! But I found the writing to be as confrontational as are the characters to each other.
SPOILER ALERT
The dead body (mentioned on the back cover) takes until page 330 of the 375 pages!
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