Rating: 
Summary: Introduction to an English family
Review: This is the first of a four-book series about the relatively wealthy family Cazalet, a large British family in pre-war England. The family consists of William and his wife Kitty, their four children, their spouses and grandchildren, as well as the servants and close friends and relations. He is always referred to as "The Brig" and she as "Duchy," short for the Brigadier and the Duchess although he has never been in military service, nor is his wife truly a duchess. Their children consist of three boys, all married, two of whom went to war (officers, of course) in the First World War. The daughter is unmarried and in love with another woman, but there is no sexual relationship. The interplay of relationships, the sometimes-Victorian moirés and values, the amenities they enjoy compared to the lower, servant class, their views of world politics, education and marital and extra-marital sex are not only entertaining, but also instructive--for the author is obviously personally familiar with the environment and people she portrays. Howard was born in London and lives in Suffolk. The book begins in 1937, in pre-war England. The Brig is head of a successful lumber company dealing in exotic hardwoods, and has brought his two WW1 veteran sons, Hugh (who lost an arm in the conflict) and handsome Edward (who is a rake) into the firm. His other son, Rupert is a schoolteacher and painter who lost a wife in childbrith and replaced her with a 23-year-old selfish airhead beauty whom his children detest. Each of the sons have children. Each summer they all go to the country and live together with the boys' parents, together with their servants and friends, including Rachel, the maiden sister who lives with their parents the year-'round, and her female friend, half Jewish Sid. There is no single over-arching conflict, except for the looming Second World War on the immediate horizon and speculation about it. The novel dwells, instead, on the innumerable small crises in the individual families--particularly the children. The book is extremely well-written. The author has several other books, plays and movie scripts to her credit and her skill is not only obvious but well-earned. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this series. This one has been a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating:
Summary: Introduction to an English family
Review:
This is the first of a four-book series about the relatively wealthy family Cazalet, a large British family in pre-war England. The family consists of William and his wife Kitty, their four children, their spouses and grandchildren, as well as the servants and close friends and relations. He is always referred to as "The Brig" and she as "Duchy," short for the Brigadier and the Duchess although he has never been in military service, nor is his wife truly a duchess. Their children consist of three boys, all married, two of whom went to war (officers, of course) in the First World War. The daughter is unmarried and in love with another woman, but there is no sexual relationship. The interplay of relationships, the sometimes-Victorian moirés and values, the amenities they enjoy compared to the lower, servant class, their views of world politics, education and marital and extra-marital sex are not only entertaining, but also instructive--for the author is obviously personally familiar with the environment and people she portrays. Howard was born in London and lives in Suffolk. The book begins in 1937, in pre-war England. The Brig is head of a successful lumber company dealing in exotic hardwoods, and has brought his two WW1 veteran sons, Hugh (who lost an arm in the conflict) and handsome Edward (who is a rake) into the firm. His other son, Rupert is a schoolteacher and painter who lost a wife in childbrith and replaced her with a 23-year-old selfish airhead beauty whom his children detest. Each of the sons have children. Each summer they all go to the country and live together with the boys' parents, together with their servants and friends, including Rachel, the maiden sister who lives with their parents the year-'round, and her female friend, half Jewish Sid. There is no single over-arching conflict, except for the looming Second World War on the immediate horizon and speculation about it. The novel dwells, instead, on the innumerable small crises in the individual families--particularly the children. The book is extremely well-written. The author has several other books, plays and movie scripts to her credit and her skill is not only obvious but well-earned. I am looking forward to reading the other books in this series. This one has been a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the Masterpiece Theatre series
Review: Enjoyed the BBC production of this, so rushed out to get the books in the series. This is the first of four (so far). It takes you up to the summer of 1938, before the war. There's a tremendous amount about all the kids, which sometimes becomes tedious if you're more into the adults' world. But it's hard to not get caught up in the world that Elizabeth Jane Howard creates here - she delivers so much compelling detail that you feel like you're there.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Family Drama
Review: Having decided it was high time I revisted the Cazalet Family (having read the Chronicles well over 20 years ago), I decided to "read" Book I, The Light Years, by listening to the superb Books on Tape unabridged version. I just loved it, from start to finish, and recommend it highly, especially for chilly fall evenings when one needs a good, meaty story.
The Light Years introduces the reader to three generations of the wealthy, upper-class Cazalet Family, of London and the countryside (the parents' estate) in the uneasy pre-War years of 1937 and 1938. Here, as in so many well-written books about this particular time period in England, we are on the very cusp of a way of life that will disappear forever during the war, never to return. The rigidly structured society, completely ignorant of the lower classes and their needs and wants, was doomed as never before, and that sense of doom is exquisitely portrayed, not in words, but in subtleties all through this first book.
The Cazalets are in a charmed world of their own, and although they are intelligent, mostly kind, very open-minded in many cases, and truly nice people in others, in fact they haven't a clue about what is to come to destroy their world and that of their society. England between the wars was such a tenuous, almost careful time, based on all of the books written about that particular microcosm, and this book seems to capture every essence and feeling, so delicately and yet so unforgettably.
From the most senior Cazalets, the elderly Brig and his wife, the Duchy, to their brood of children: Edward and Hugh, each having fought in World War I (one unscathed, one deeply wounded in body and soul), unmarried daughter Rachel, a lesbian who does not know her own bent, and younger son Rupert, shakily married to a much-younger woman upon the loss of his first wife, each is a true human being facing his or her own fears and doubts against the backdrop of a larger reality.
The daughters-in-law: Edward's wife Villie, grappling with an unwanted pregnancy and trying to ignore her husband's philandering; Hugh's Sybil, always self-effacing in the face of her husband's terrible wounds; and Rupert's silly Zoe, who is terrified of losing him, form the strength of the family along with the matriarch, the Duchy.
But it is the children, all the cousins who gather with their parents at the grandparents' summer estate, who truly speak the hopes and fears of a generation wanting to live a normal life while terrified of a faceless man named Hitler who might destroy it all.
This book stands up to its third reading (albeit by tape) as well as it did the first, and I look forward very much to the second in the series. For those who love generational family novels, The Cazalet Chronicles is a wonderful choice for very happy reading.
Rating:
Summary: The whole series is a must-read, from start to finish
Review: I enjoyed this book and it made me want to read the others (after having been introduced to the series by Masterpiece Theatre). The author really did create a world here, and follows up with every character, rather than just presenting one main character's point of view. It gave me a feeling of getting to know each person over time, as though I were another guest in the household. Particularly interesting was the backdrop of international events and Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler over Czechoslovakia. He is almost universally condemned for it today, with the benefit of hindsight. The reactions of the characters, and Britain's being so unprepared for war one doesnt hear about now. The one thing I didn't like was the author's compulsion to mention every single thing that happened, every move that everyone made, every bite at every meal. It got tedious after awhile; some things can be assumed. She should not mistake description of every breath taken for action.
Rating: 
Summary: Do we really need to know all this period detail?
Review: I found this a tough book to finish and did not enjoy it. The wealth of presumably accurate period detail is certainly impressive and adds some verismo. However it is really only wallpaper and did not paper over the very significant dramatic cracks in the work. Events are in very short supply. We have inklings of adultery, incest and lesbianism but there is little true development of these themes beyond introduction and elaboration. One yearns for confrontations, conflicts and resolutions but there is only the cloudy malaise of pre-war England. Mrs Howard is clearly fascinated by the world of children and we have endless descriptions of their emotions and play. Actually the depiction of childish thought process is very well done. But at the end of the book little has happened other than the birth of a child.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start to a Trilogy
Review: I have just finished reading this first of three novels about the Cazalet family set on the eve of the Second World War. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next two volumes.
There are lots of characters and I did have to refer many times to the family tree at the front of the novel but all of these characters help to really set the stage for understanding the life and times of upper class English families who still bore the scars of the First World War and who are now gearing up for the inevitable return to the battlefields. One facet of the book which fascinated me was how much time was devoted to the preparation of and eating of enormous quantities of food. When one looks at how many meals were eaten daily, at how rich or loaded with sugar these meals were, one is amazed that the English were not a race of totally obese, diabetic people! If you enjoy historical English family sagas, I think you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I hope the next two volumes live up to my expectations.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Characters
Review: I have just finished reading this novel and I am already on the lookout for the other 3 volumes in this series. The character development in this book was wonderful. This book appeared to be mostly about getting to know the Cazalet family rather than trying to follow an action-packed plot. The children were especially well-drawn. After watching their development from 1937-1938, I am especially curious to see what will happen to them as they grow up. Another strong point of this book is the author's ability to teach about British society of the time without being too obvious. She shows, rather than tells, what goes in English households in order to make her points.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Characters
Review: I have just finished reading this novel and I am already on the lookout for the other 3 volumes in this series. The character development in this book was wonderful. This book appeared to be mostly about getting to know the Cazalet family rather than trying to follow an action-packed plot. The children were especially well-drawn. After watching their development from 1937-1938, I am especially curious to see what will happen to them as they grow up. Another strong point of this book is the author's ability to teach about British society of the time without being too obvious. She shows, rather than tells, what goes in English households in order to make her points.
Rating:
Summary: Heir to the great Victorians and E.M. Forster
Review: If you enjoy Victorian/Edwardian writers like the Brontes, George Eliot and Forster, Elizabeth Jane Howard will be right up your alley. She takes you back to another age (WWII era) and recreates that world so realistically that it's easy to become completely immersed. Putting one of her books down is like emerging from underwater -- it takes me a few minutes to adjust to the light and air of the "real world"!
I love the fact that Howard pulls no punches. Characters and situations are portrayed so honestly and empathetically that it's hard to believe they aren't real.
I am partway through the 4th book in the Cazalet Chronicles and dreading the end -- but I feel confident that unlike most contemporary fiction, I'll be re-reading these books over and over again. (And for me, only Jane Austen and a few of the Victorians usually merit re-reading!)
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