Exit West, The Flight of the Maidens and The Man Who Saw Everything

 

Knowing my dislike of most fantasy stuff, I should have read the back cover more closely. "All over the world doors are appearing. They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives. ........ But the doors only go one way. Once you leave, there is no going back".

I had loved the author's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" and this book was recommended as a BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick. Yes, there is lots about doors. I liked the early part when we are introduced to Saeed and Nadia, two young people who find a connection for each other. Their lives, and those of their community, are under threat and they decide to leave through.....

There are intermittent very short pieces about other people, other lives. Some were fine, others less so. The writing is still pretty good and kept me sort of interested. Just not my kind of story.

This was my seventh book by Jane Gardmam, and in my opinion her best. I think it surpasses her award winning and nominated novels and even the "Old Filth" trilogy about Sir Edward Feathers QC, where I gave the last two books five stars. It may be that this novel is not "important" enough for award juries, but that is to ignore the masterful prose, brilliant characters, wonderful humour and fabulous descriptions of the English countryside.

The main characters are Hetty (Hester or Hesta! if you prefer), Una and Lieselotte, the three friends whose experiences during that month or so in 1946 between "A" Levels and University, reminds us of that poignant time. Although they are the main characters, there are others who I found even more engaging. I am particularly thinking about Hetty's father Malcolm Fallowes (mostly referred to as the Gravedigger) an enigmatic veteran of the first war, damaged in some ways, but still that incredible intelligence that occasionally rises to the surface, seemingly less disturbed of mind than was once thought.

Then there is Una's widowed mother (Mrs Vane) whose hairdressing salon at the front of their house had "once been a doctor's surgery and still held the whiff of anxiety and prognosis". Una herself has a cycling friend in Ray ( a railway porter) who ultimately makes the proposal "You'd do for my life, Una. You know that".

All sorts of reminders of those days after the war. It's Hetty who finds the "WC, which was ancient and decorated inside the cracked bowl with garlands of grey flowers. There was an overhead chain and rusty cistern and the toilet paper was squares of newspaper threaded on a string". Exactly as my grandmothers outdoor lavatory before the council installed one indoors. Then there is the ending, one of the most emotional that I have ever come across. Superb.

I enjoyed the construction of this interesting and ingenious story that is told in two halves. The first is set in 1988 and our (unreliable?) narrator Saul Adler is involved in an accident on that famous zebra crossing on Abbey Road. Only superficial injuries this time, which is fortunate as Saul is off on an academic trip to Eastern Germany, his girlfriend Jennifer having ended their affair. But not to worry as in East Berlin, Saul meets Walter.

Fast forward to 2016 and here we are on Abbey Road again? Saul's description of what happens seems identical to that at from the first page of the book. Except the driver is crying. In hospital Saul is confused and so are we. The description of an older man, doped up with morphine, with only fragments of memory is truly awesome. The people who visit maybe someone else to Saul. They sometimes trigger fragments of memory from more recent past, but mainly it's only old memories that occupy his thoughts and morphine fueled dreams. There is a new important character, but Saul tells us "I ignored Jack's attempt to plant himself in my more recent history". Very, very clever.

There is mention of an Italian restaurant in 1989 where Saul discovers spaghetti vongole and penne arribiata. It reminded me of eating spaghetti bolognese for the first time at an Italian restaurant on a corner down Chiswick High Road in 1965/6.