Customer Reviews

Random Harvest

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This completes the trilogy of classic James Hilton novels (the other two being "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips") which were all made into movies during Hollywood's Golden Era. It is the lesser known of the three novels, although Random Harvest is his most complete work.

The story is a romance, a mystery, a critque on England's class structure, and a parable. Hilton uses the lost years of Charles Rainier as a methaphor for the lost years of the 1920/1930's when England failed to prepare for the next war. Told in flashbacks and bookended by World War I and World War II, the resolution is only revealed in its final sentence that will shock you and change everything that you have just read & thought you understood. You will go back and re-read the book as your perception of all the characters are altered by the surprise ending.

Two cautions: First, see the 1942 Ronald Coleman/ Greer Garson movie AFTER reading the book to see how the ending is handled. Second, the opening few pages are set in an England and of a time that will be unfamiliar to most Americans, but if one continues on, the reader will be deeply rewarded. The ability to be surprised is a rare gift and Hilton delivers.

I had first seen the wonderfully sentimental movie, which is one of my favorites.

The book is not so sentimental. In reading the book, I was unprepared for how well-depicted would be the pain of the protagonist's psychological plight, how thought-provoking this book would be about society, and how much an individual could realistically be shown to be at a loss - no matter his external circumstances.

This is very much about someone who senses that once his life had meaning to him, and he had happily occupied a niche in the world - and can't rediscover it. The author is so wonderful in conveying this desperation.

Mr. Hilton also wonderfully conveys the highs and lows of both the well-born establishment, and the utterly displaced, of inter-war England.

And amazingly, he brilliantly evokes the wonderfully dreamy feeling of being in love. The scenes in which Smitty finds the small town, climbs up to the small lake in the hills, what he sees when he awakens, and the following several days, must be among the most moving in fiction.

I also love how the author shows the differences in personality between the earnest, sweet, easily alarmed, humble Smitty and the somewhat cynical, immensely able, practical-joking, self-deprecating Rainier - much of the difference seems engendered by the way they're treated and their places in life.

I love how subtly the author shows Mrs. Rainier's reaction to Rainier's discoveries - it's just brilliantly done. And the book's ending could not be more satisfying.

This is a more thought-provoking book than Goodbye Mr. Chips - and as much as I enjoyed that, this is a better one. I loved this as much as Hilton's So Well Remembered - which is high praise.

An exquisite wartime romance that bears a few resemblances to The English Patient, James Hilton's time-spinning tale is the type of book that grabs you in its first paragraph and leaves you breathless with its last sentence. Just make sure you don't see the wonderful, more straightforward Ronald Colman-Greer Garson film version first. The heartstopping plot twist at the end makes everything that goes before even more magical. Random Harvest is one of those books that you'll read and re-read for many years; I know I have, three times already.

this book is simply a great example of solid story-telling. you fall in love with the main characters, but the secondary players are fascinating as well. (i especially love the way hilton presents charles's siblings and their interactions -- as will anyone else from a large family.) i saw the movie first, but the book is still great every time i read it. anyone who is a fan of WWI-WWII era england is in for a treat with this book. if you want something wonderful to curl up with, a book you hate to see come to an end, this is the one.

'Random Harvest' I took to read only because its author was James Hilton, whose works like 'Goodbye..' and 'Lost..' I had enjoyed no end. But 'Random Harvest' is entirely different.A wonderfully written book which aptly fits the term 'poetry in prose',it is basically a romance of the 1st world war and yet remains aloof from the activities of the war.It touches it only to establish the romance plot.It is told in the form of a conversation and the finale is brilliantly told.'John Smith' and Paula just walk into your hearts and stay there for a long time after you have finished it.Yet there is a typical laid-back Hilton-ic strain right through the book.I recommend all to read the book, if not for the plot at least the beautiful country atmosphere of the England of the 1930s and 40s it creates.I loved the book.And know that all 'softer' hearted readers will enjoy it as well.

I am an avid reader (and work as a librarian) yet I almost never keep a novel. "Random Harvest" is one of five books I own and will never give away. It shows the English spirit during the 1930's and 1940's in a brilliant, well done manner. The real reason that I have kept it though is it is one of the best love stories I have ever read! I highly recommend it to anyone who is in need of a little romance

A magnificently engrossing story that takes place over several years and including many twists and turns that make it difficult to write a review that does not give away too much of the plot. It starts with a war injury that brings amnesia induced loss of identity to our main character. The life that he builds from scratch is washed away when a car accident brings back his earlier memory, while losing the memory of his most recent life and identity. The two identities are quite dissimilar making it most difficult for the love of his second life to trace him once again to where he has built an entire life upon his early roots. The clash of his two identities and what he does with the women from both his lives is the crux of the book. Both his lives are truly worthwhile and if only there were a way to combine the best of both parts - but impossible to go back . . . the eventual answer is one of the most breathtakingly satisfying conclusions of all time.

James Hilton's (Goodbye Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon) greatest novel. A romance for the ages. If still possible for you, this is one time the book should definitely be digested before the movie (also great but substantially different).

This book is fantastic. First I saw the movie with Ronald Colman and Greer Garson and enjoyed it (despite its tear-jerky nature). However, I found the book a lot more substantial and thought-provoking.

A book I reread over and over and still enjoy. Knowing the most important plot device ahead doesn't spoil it, but if you don't know it (and haven't seen the wonderful movie), you'll get a special delight from this great story.

Despite all the kind things the other reviewers have already said about this book, I still feel that I need to add my own feelings here. I had read and thoroughly enjoyed both "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips" for the first time this past month and was astounded by Hilton's story-telling abilities and his deep humanity and civility. I began Random Harvest because it was the only other work by him in our public library. It developed slowly and I was at first inclined to feel that it was an inferior work to his more celebrated bestsellers. By the time I approached the end of Part Three, however, I was absolutely enthralled and could no longer put it down. The ending was so marvelous and so completely unexpected that I was left with the stunned sensation of disbelief that any author had the gifts to write (at least!) three works of such quality. The reviewer who finds in Charles Rainier's amnesia a metaphor for Britain's somnolent heedlessness between the Wars is quite correct. This is a superb romance novel but with a profundity of social observation and commentary. I think the fact that every single reviewer has given this book five stars is indication enough of the delight that any reader will encounter if they give themselves over to it.