I kept wanting to dislike this book. My hard, black heart kept muttering ... heartwarming story of a homeless orphan and an unloved and incompetent would-be con-woman, during the Blitz? Bah humbug!! Wafer thin plot, trading shamelessly on the likeability of the two odd-couple main characters? Oh, please, I deserve better than this! ... And as I compulsively turned page after page, I kept telling myself that I should be giving up on this, moving on to something better, harder, crueler and more realistic.
And you know what -- I couldn't do it. I had to read on, and I enjoyed it very much. I think what I liked best about it was Evans' understanding that, even as the war raged around them, life had to go on (until it didn't, in many, many sad cases ...) with all its cunning plots and stupid schemes, messy family dynamics, and unreasonable expectations that all would be well if they could finally get just this one thing right. A comedy, not a tragedy, and like another comedy based on tragedy, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," the great events unfold offstage, and only at the last do they seriously impact our heroes.
And you know what -- I couldn't do it. I had to read on, and I enjoyed it very much. I think what I liked best about it was Evans' understanding that, even as the war raged around them, life had to go on (until it didn't, in many, many sad cases ...) with all its cunning plots and stupid schemes, messy family dynamics, and unreasonable expectations that all would be well if they could finally get just this one thing right. A comedy, not a tragedy, and like another comedy based on tragedy, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," the great events unfold offstage, and only at the last do they seriously impact our heroes.
