Human Voices (Flamingo) (Paperback)

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Review
'Of all the novelists of the last quarter-century, she has the most unarguable claim on greatness. [It has been] a career we, as readers, can only count ourselves lucky to have lived through.' Philip Hensher, Spectator 'One of the pleasures of reading Penelope Fitzgerald is the unpredictability of her intelligence, which never loses its quality, but springs constant surprises, and if you make the mistake of reading her fast because she is so readable, you will miss some of the best jokes. This is a very funny novel.' The Times 'Comic, and sometimes extraordinarily sad.' A.S. Byatt, TLS

Set in Broadcasting House at the start of the Second World War and first published in 1980, this is a tragi-comic novel about truth, love and survival. Booker Prize-winner Fitzgerald focuses on the eccentricities of the English at war; she shows how people cope, and falter, under tremendous pressure. As France falls to the Nazis, London enters a new phase of unease. The BBC concert hall is turned into emergency accommodation and Broadcasting House becomes a target for air raids. Against this setting, we follow the working lives of a core of BBC staff. Directors struggle to maintain national morale; young employees try to balance work against sexuality. As ever, Fitzgerald's characterization is brilliant and succinct. Her two Directors, Jeff Haggard and Sam Brooks, are leviathan figures around whom all else revolves. Jeff's brusque, tender manner counterpoints Sam's self-delusion and insouciance. Particularly well etched is the growing love between Sam and Annie Asra, a candid young employee. Seemingly trapped in a love without hope, Annie eventually proves herself as a seductress. The BBC itself dominates, however. Although cosmopolitan, the institution emerges as strange and secluded. Described as an exhilarating ocean liner ready to scorn disaster, Broadcasting House harbours obsessive behaviour and eccentricity. Fitzgerald delights in Jeff's fixation with truth, and in the engineers' quest to record the 'sound' of Englishness. In our media-wary age, Fitzgerald's central theme is refreshing. Truth is shown to be more important than consolation: the BBC serves its listeners ethically and responsibly. Jeff Haggard may be aware of the difference between truth and contingency but he remains an example to 21st-century journalists. Human Voices evokes 1940s London with both humour and a horrible clarity, using the BBC and its peculiar employees to remind us just how much integrity was at stake during the war. (Kirkus UK)

Admirers of The Blue Flower and The Bookshop (both 1997) will be happy for this wonderful touch of the Fitzgerald hand, published in 1980 in England but here only now. The place is London, the time 1940, the main concern that the Germans may invade at any moment. Under such circumstances, there's no choice for those working at the BBC (and no thought of one) other than to carry on the weekly, daily, and hourly work of the big bureaucracy in its vital role of keeping the British people informed, prepared, and calmed. Broadcast House, where these efforts take place, has the look of a seven-story ocean liner, and those inside are much like its passengers and crew, especially when air bombardments begin and overnight encampments are set up - in, for example, the broadcasting concert hall. Emerging gradually as the story's chief figure is Jeffrey Haggard, DPP (Director of Programme Planning), a suave, worldly, weary, divorced, Graham Greene-like character unsure of his own future who keeps everything going, works far too hard - and is turned to incessantly by others for help, care, and advice. Dominant among the latter is Sam Brooks, RPD (Recorded Programme Director), who works even harder than Haggard, wants decent mobile recording equipment to record the invasion if it comes about - and whose department is nicknamed "the Seraglio" for his habit of hiring numerous young women as assistants. Among such are the half-French Lise, who disappears near story's beginning (to reappear later under changed, charged, and revealing circumstances), and the positively captivating creation, Annie Asra, a young thing down from Birmingham who's the very quintessence of pluck and stability - and who changes all. Ingeniously delivered tragicomedy from one of the very finest of writers. The feel of history, England under the blitz, civilization at the brink of doom - all with perfect stories, too, of private hearts. A hundred-plus pages from Fitzgerald can hold more than five times that from many another. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
New cover re-issue The human voices of Penelope Fitzgerald's novel are those of the BBC in the first years of the Second World War, the time when the Concert Hall was turned into a dormitory for both sexes, the whole building became a target for enemy bombers, and in the BBC -- as elsewhere -- some had to fail and some had to die. It does not pretend to be an accurate history of Broadcasting House in those years, but 'one is left with the sensation,' as William Boyd said, reviewing it in the London Magazine, 'that this is what it was really like.'

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1 Review 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   9 of 10 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars The TRUTH, usually, 1 Dec 2002 By  taking a rest - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    Ms. Fitzgerald actually did work for the BBC during WWII, and while there was at least one annoying trait, I found the book to be her wittiest I have read. My complaint has to do with the use of acronyms; if you worked at the BBC this will not be an issue. But when used liberally, in a compact novel that defines how she writes, there is little time to learn them. "CJ get me AJ the SECDEF, RJ the SECTRES, ASAP, for a get together at MOJ, PDQ...OK? The PPA, and 2 JPA'S, should attend as well." Usually this sort of banter is reserved for a Tom Clancy Novel. The book ended with a great bang like many of her works, but this time we are not left wondering if the book we are holding is a few pages short. There still is more to unfold for some central characters, but this time the reader decides whether or not to pursue a continuance. The TRUTH is the mission the BBC is on. To broadcast this and nothing else, not even speeches by the King that have been mended to delete his stutter. However in one of the funniest passages of the book, a French general feels compelled to share the "truth" with England and the English he so loves. Fortunately for both country and citizens alike, and to the amusement of the PM, he had the plugs pulled upon him. Since Ms. Fitzgerald did work at the BBC, it offers an additional avenue for thought. Simply stated, how much is true, how many of these people actually lived, and how much was pure fiction. It is a tribute to her writing that the reader is unsure. By writing as she has, whether in a complimentary manner, or unflattering, I doubt some of the subjects would recognize themselves. Another novel, without repetition, that demonstrates the vast skill this woman commanded. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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