{"id":7643,"date":"2020-08-02T17:33:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T17:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2020-08-02T17:33:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T17:33:41","slug":"cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7643","title":{"rendered":"Cometh the hour, cometh the book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Blind Light\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How often does a book change you? Stuart Evers\u2019s new book \u2018The\nBlind Light<\/em>\u2019 has me rethinking my whole adult life, from Cuban missile\ncrisis to the brink of Covid-19.  That\u2019s\nthe timescale of the book, which explores the unlikely friendship of two very\ndifferent men and their families as they struggle through the turbulent world\nevents of recent history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One is an unassuming factory hand, the other an arrogant\nposh boy sent down from Oxford. They meet on National Service in Doom Town, a\nsimulated disaster area to train soldiers to deal with the aftermath of a\nnuclear attack. This initiation is what imprints them, more than most, with\ndeep feelings of horror and foreboding and sets them on a desperate search for\nsafety and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter is educated academically, a braggart who needs an\naudience. Drummond is self educated, streetwise, intuitive, an observer.  Early banter between them sets the scene: \u2018When\nthe revolution comes, you\u2019ll be the first against the wall\u2019\u2026\u2019We own the walls\u2019\u2026\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a long book, but not a word is wasted. Evers sweeps us along on a gripping story full of twists (one of them had me do a double take and feel like I\u2019d been punched in the gut) and a wide range of writing styles from bleak descriptions of destruction to lush evocations of Carter\u2019s \u2018curated\u2019 family pile; lyrical musings on parenthood: \u2018One day she\u2019ll talk in whole sentences, one day she\u2019ll answer me back\u2026\u2019 to a frenetic sketch of a rave and moving soliloquys near the end of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The default style is pared-down realism, often honed to an expressive shorthand, utterly convincing.  Evers has an uncanny ear for dialogue, especially inner dialogue: \u2018That face. Worth it to see that face\u2019, which brings the characters into intimate close up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fascinating, authentic characters. There\u2019s Gwen, Drum\u2019s wife, feisty yet loyal and thoughtful, Nick, an eccentric writer who becomes her friend and mentor, Anneka the rebellious daughter, Nate the troubled but caring son\u2026 We see their relationships grow and develop, through, for example, a particularly fine account of a long and mature marriage which still has mystery and tenderness. Here\u2019s Drum musing on his wife of many years: \u2018He watched her fiddling with the sash of her robe, the constellations of her mind, unknowable, unseen, yet sometimes illuminated.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blind Light back cover\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This epic novel explores themes of trust and betrayal, dreams and disillusionment, the divisions of British class system and the struggle to maintain a normal life in the face of disruption and disaster. It asks questions like: how far do you trust a friend? (all the way if you have no alternative)\u2026What creates deep family bonds and what tears them apart and how do you carry on in the fallout? And most tellingly, how much do you trust the government? Wholeheartedly, if the truth is deliberately hidden from you and the lies protected by the Official Secrets Act\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds familiar? In the same month this book was launched,\nthis quote* from the Guardian: \u2018The realities are terrifying, and the terror\ngoes deep, exposing our vulnerability not just to the disease but to the\nheartlessness of the powerful\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incredible that a book about global threats and bunkers\narrives as we emerge from our (first?) Covid lockdown\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all the fear and grief, this is a hopeful book. It\u2019s one of the great achievements of the book that Evers manages to convey the solid sacredness of the ordinary and how it saves us from being deluded by glamour, especially the glamour of disaster, constantly promoted by the media.The Blind Light<\/em> is a book for our times, but one which will be read and re-read for generations to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*\u2019The politics of loneliness\u2019 by Barbara Taylor, The\nGuardian 27.6.20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evers has an uncanny ear for dialogue, especially inner dialogue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,68,270,58,126],"tags":[106,129,271,258],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7657,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions\/7657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}