Customer Reviews

The Radiant Way

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was my second Margaret Drabble, and I liked it even more than the other one [Millstone], I would have thought this a difficult feat, just a week ago. But here it is, this is a great book.

The story line is so simple it is ridiculously difficult to define. Drabble just shows us the lives of three friends who meet regularly and grow into maturity, together--in their separate ways. When we meet them it is the end of the 1970s decade. They had been friends for 25 years and know each other well. When we leave them, five years later, just like life itself, nothing is clearly resolved in their lives, they have gained some self knowledge, but not much, they have gone on living. No dramatic gestures or operatic drama. Each has made changes and moved on to new realities, never however betraying her own integrity. Liz Headland, a psychoterapist, through events she cannot control, eventually comes to understand more about about human relations than her training could have done. Alix Bowen, naive and politically engaged, wearer of her social conscience and responsibility on her sleeve, wises up when she realizes the dead-endedness of fighting alone for a better and just world, when the forces of the establishment have no interest in change. And Esther Breuer, a romantic spirit, an academic and a WWII refugee, a woman who always felt herself an outsider, realizes that she built a belljar around herself through the studying of art, to the point of distancing herself from the men who engage her.

In the background is life of the early 1980s in England. Riots, labor problems, murders, class stigmatization, and all the other nuances of England under Thatcher.

The book is very funny, very biting and understated. It is open ended, just as life is. And we all feel sorry that we will not follow these friends for another 10 years, but we are reassured of their wellness, and their ability to handle the future.

This book is a jewel and a great portrait of a time and a generation. FIVE STARS!!!

In her own inimitable SHIMMERING style, Margaret Drabble's Radiant Way, is radiant indeed. The novel opens with a grand New Year's party, and Drabble is one of the best at rendering the ebb and flow, highs and lows, of a party. You will not get bogged down in a confusion of characters because this author knows how to deftly create individuals swirling within group chaos. Social groups, whether they be society at large or a few close friends, are Drabble's forte. The reader is immersed in the ever-changing world of three women who share a life-long friendship. Join them as they make their way down the path of the radiant way.

I didn't finish this book. I found it too dull even though I generally like Drabble's novels (The Sea Lady is the best IMO). The Radiant Way starts on New Year's Eve 1979 which was also a crucial time in my life, so I thought I would be interested. Drabble flings a wide net and takes in many aspects of life in England in the 1980s, following the careers and lives of several families from different levels of society. Drabble is not, however, able effectively and engagingly to handle this large scope. The half or so of The Radiant Way that I read drifted and lagged confusedly. I rarely don't finish a book I've started. (Alas, I agree with Ropa's terse review.)

One minor thing that bothered me is that Drabble uses lots of sentence fragments. Fragments occur on almost every page. Often several on a page. (Like that.) This is a cheesy stylistic trope, which Drabble is drastically overusing.

I would recommend this novel only if you are very interested in the lives and loves of mostly middle-class and upper-middle-class Britons in the 1980s and the social milieu in Britain during that era.

This is a novel which repays a slow and thoughtful reading. I have just finished a re-reading and was sorry to come to the end. Margaret Drabble's writing is exquisite; her insight into the experience of human life is both moving and powerful: a beautiful book by a great writer.

This book is one that, once you put it down, you'll never pick it up again.

While the topic for this novel seemed promising, the lack of dialogue and the constant "author comments" that broke the flow of this book made it a disjointed and difficult read. Where was her editor? Really a disappointing read.