“Seeing the world is the greatest thing a man can do”
- Book: The Glass House
- Location: Scotland
- Author: Beatrice Colin
Oh My! This is one of those stories which took me on a completely unique, totally immersive and enthralling individual journey, at a slow and luxurious pace. I escaped my everyday life and became completely invested in both the characters and storyline, to the point where I didn’t want to have turn that final page and for my travels to be over.
Just pre First World War, The Glass House transported me north of the UK border, to the Dunoon area of Scotland, where the vividly descriptive, richly atmospheric writing about the region and countryside, was lavish, replete with detail, completely evocative of the era and drew me straight into the period, with a real sense of time and place.
This was partially a work of cultural fiction, covering topics which in today’s climate of racial equality, made for some cringeworthy reading moments, which were however, pertinent to the storyline, totally relevant for inclusion and did not form too large a part of the overall content. Despite my discomfort, I am still firmly of the belief that you cannot change history and neither should we. We should amend information where necessary, documenting and recording events truthfully and accurately. Going forward we should then work to change our mindset and views, so that the history books of the future will record our new advanced and informed thinking.
But first! Step back in time to the days of inherited estate, wealth and title, when a woman’s job was the household management of staff and finances, together with caring for the family. Whilst the men, either conducted their daily business, or set about pursuing their follies and hobbies, without discussion or argument from the females of the family. Vividly remembered and brought to life through some excellent social commentary, the recently deceased, Edward Pike personifies a patriarch of this rigid societal and etiquette driven structure. A family fortune won and lost in the sugar refining business, the secret disgrace and indiscretion of an ancestral family member hidden for all time, a passion for collecting specimen plants and seeds from far-flung corners of the world at huge expense both personally and financially. This is the domineering, selfish and vain man who Antonia and George knew as their father, although it isn’t until much later that they discover just how racist and duplicitous he really was.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg, but it sets the scene accurately and without any real spoilers, to a story which challenges the societal mores of the time, reveals long buried potentially explosive secrets, nurtures forbidden friendships, uncovers illicit affairs, discovers latent talents, proves that the truth and forgiveness can set you free, and ultimately shows that loyalty and true love can happen at the most unexpected of times and change lives forever!
Because of, rather than in spite of, the air of mystery and secrecy which surrounds the individual members of this disjointed and dysfunctional family, and their immediate contacts and representatives, the characters were needless to say, very emotionally complex and almost remote, from the very first turn of the page. Whilst being extremely well defined and developed for the reader as individuals, they were all rather insular and self sufficient, not prone to interacting with either each other or outsiders, almost to the point where they had become excluded from the society of which they were part. Despite being intelligent and resourceful individuals, I rather felt that they had been stifled, not only by the spectre of Edward Pike, but almost by the house itself. There was so much British ‘stiff upper lip’, that even the presence of a young child around the place couldn’t shake off the lethargy of the family dynamics.
However, it seemed that when Edward’s ghost was no longer hanging over them, there was a transformation of enormous proportions and new life was suddenly breathed into bodies which had been suspended in time and place. There were multi-stranded, totally diverse and very unexpected outcomes for the individual members of the family, and many of their future plans and dreams were left to me to imagine and surmise. Were there happy ever afters? – I suspect there might well have been and really do hope there were, as this was a family who needed to learn how to live, love, laugh and fulfil their true potential.
The Glass House has a multi-layered, textured storyline, with plenty of natural peaks and troughs in its pace, which I felt had the potential to go much further than it did and didn’t quite reach the pinnacle of my expectations, but perhaps that was just my yearning for the book to go on for much longer. Parts of the story were intense, although unless you had got under the skin of the characters, this might not have been immediately obvious from their words and actions. Scratch beneath the surface though and there was a real depth and range of emotion and feeling, seamlessly delivered and masterfully managed, by an author consummate in the art of storytelling and completely at ease with the authority she commanded, which is why this one still more than earned its 4 stars from me.
Please wait...
