Casualties [Hardcover]

Lynne Reid Banks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When another of the vituperative quarrels between househusband Cal and his breadwinner wife, romance-novelist Sue, is interrupted by a telephone call from Holland, it's a welcome respite. Sue's friend from student days, Mariolain, asks if her husband, Niels, can stay with them while he is in London. Subsequently, Mariolain reciprocates, and the two couples and their children spend an Easter vacation together. Mariolain, whose home and family Sue finds a shaming contrast to her own messy menage, reveals to Sue her childhood experiences during the Occupation and the complex reasons for the difficulties she and Neils are experiencing in their apparently perfect marriage. Banks (The Warning Bell) makes the bonds between the two women and the immediate understanding reestablished between them tremendously moving. Shattering details of wartime hardships and childhood abuse are insinuated into matter-of-fact particulars about daily domestic routines. A visit to the house where Mariolain and her sister hid during the Nazi Occupation provides a catharsis for the reader as well. As the vacation ends, each couple has a new realization of the love they bear each other, and the children have grown up a little and learned something about tolerance. To call this a woman's book is no criticism; Banks's achievement here evidences that blend of intellect and emotion that is called feminine.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This story of friendship renewed and old histories brought to light is an interesting weave of narratives. Sue and Cal are invited to visit Sue's old chum in Holland. The two couples, each with a pair of children, find that the years have not so much changed them as borne the fruit of youthful events. Mariolain and Nils are casualties of the warMariolain in Holland where her mother and father became political enemies, Nils in Java where his own parents were taken from him and he survived among Indonesians. The two couples also share present troubles: marital discord, financial worries, the stress of parenthood. During Easter week, old mysteries and traumas are reexamined and present relationships take on new meaning for these very modern and engaging characters. A welcome new novel from Banks, well-remembered for The L-Shaped Room . Ann Donovan, Central Washington Univ. Lib., Ellensburg
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition (September 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312010133
• ISBN-13: 978-0312010133
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,581,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lynne Reid Banks is a best-selling author for children and adults. Her classic children's novel 'The Indian in the Cupboard' has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. She was born in London in 1929 and worked as an actress, writer and TV news reporter. Lynne has written thirty books: her first, 'The L-Shaped Room', was published in 1960. She now lives in Dorset, where she continues to write. Lynne says that writing for children comes much more easily than writing for adults. Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He has worked as an art director at an advertising agency, a graphic designer, a cartoonist, a teacher, a film maker and as a Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets of war will not remain hidden, March 31, 2007

By 

Julie Ludwig "Julie" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casualties (Hardcover)

This is a powerful book which examines the hidden shame and wounds of war. The novel begins with an argument between one couple and moves back and forth through time and across borders. The characters are initially not particularly attractive or compelling but bearing with them you learn of depth and anguish unimagined by looking at the modish, artistic and intelligent selves they present to the world. The strongest recommendation for this novel came from an acquaintance who called me late at night after finishing the book to thank me for recommending it. She felt this slim novel explained so much anguish that she had sensed but not comprehended in the relationship with her family which had - to all appearances - survived World War II and moved on with their lives.

The power of this novel is in its examination of the tentacles of war which reach through time and generations to hold us in ways that we can ignore but not escape.