This book came out for a second outing since I read it in my first year at university, and it is surprising how much of it I had forgotten. I was never quite sure whether it was an observation of the lives of the three friends, Liz, Alix and Esther, or an examination of the effects of the political arena, as the 1980s dawn, on their lives.
The three friends met back at Cambridge University in the mid 1950s and now, approaching their mid 40s, they all meet up at Liz’s New Year’s Eve 1979 party where the winds of change are about to blow through all their lives in different ways as the new decade dawns. Drabble, like Liz and another minor character, comes from my home town and I was able to recognise it quite clearly from her descriptions; the local college (where I used to work), Park Hill Flats, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and the disappeared Royal Infirmary.
Of the three protagonists, it feels as if Liz is presented to us as the main character although the one I could relate to most, strangely enough, was Alix. Esther, I could not understand, or “get” at all (perhaps my lack of interest in art was responsible for this). I think, though, that the main character is Great Britain and the irrevocable changes that took place in our political landscape over the first half of the 1980s.
Were our three friends intended to have redeeming qualities? Liz was hard to understand and had come so far from her roots she had turned totally bourgeois. Her husband was a horror. Liz reflects, whilst getting ready for her New Year party, that she and Charles have a “modern marriage” which is simply another term for enabling infidelity. Although I related to Alix most, I have always leaned towards the Right politically and by re-examining our history – that I was too young to really appreciate – through this narrative, I could feel for her and Brian’s fears and sympathise with them. I was surprised that they had stayed so close as apart from their time together at university they seemed to have little in common once in their 40s. But their friendship endures and provides support and understanding through difficult times, shocking revelations and growth of character. And Liz realising she prefers the company of her cat to her unfaithful husband had me cheering all the way.
The Alix and Otto scenes were ludicrous, however as there was no reason to believe she was unhappy with her marriage. Equally ridiculous, and dangerous, was Alix’s behaviour with her prison students. I also felt the Harrow Road murderer and his last victim were beyond belief and verged on the sensationalist.
As well as being a good fiction read, this book is an education as well. The ending seems to fizzle out a little, but never fear, there are two sequels to take us into the 1990s. 4.5
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