Customer Reviews

Think of England: A Novel

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Humorous, devastating, and completely satisfying, 'Think of England' tells a story that bridges a generation gap in its characters and readers alike. It's obvious that Dark is most comfortable in writing the shorter form, for her book reads like 3 short stories. That is, until the subtle conclusion ties each section together brilliantly. As I closed the book, I realized that I had no questions. Every element of the story had been perfectly uncovered - each wound, each joke, each character. Unlike most novels I read, I had no doubts...that is a rare occasion, and I urge you to read this book.

This book is similar to Ian McEwan's "Atonement" in several respects: Both take place in sections over three different years in the course of a lifetime; both focus on a female protagonist with writerly ambitions who comes to terms with tragic events; and the bulk of both take place in England, though Dark's characters are mainly Americans. McEwan uses obfuscation and trickery, which ultimately renders his story false. Dark 's novel, in contrast, is bracingly honest, yielding far deeper and more resonant insights. Concise, beautifully written, and emotionally poignant, this quiet, wise book deserves a large, McEwan-size audience and regard.

In 1964 Wynnemoor, Pennsylvania, nine-year-old Jane MacLeod escapes from her unhappily married parents by writing about happy families coming together. However, on the night the Beatles appear on TV, her mother unable to stand the way her surgeon husband constantly deserts her to care for his patients, takes the children and leaves. Jane blames herself because she informed her father the phone was off the hook, something her mother did to keep the hospital from calling.

Now in her mid twenties, Jane is visiting London, heeding the advice of her grandmother to always THINK OF ENGLAND when depressed. She makes friends there, but feels guilt from what she caused to her family. Jane remains disconnected and still yearning for a happy family.

Thirty-six, Jane is a single mother of nine-year old Emily. At her mother's sixty-fifth birthday bash, Jane and her mother discuss that fateful day for the first time since it happened. Jane begins to finally come to grips with the underlying cause of why she lives s life filled with guilt. Perhaps now she can heal and shower the love of a happy family on her child?

THINK OF ENGLAND is at his best when Jane takes center stage, as she is a wonderfully complex character. When the story line places her in a back seat (during the middle years), the tale loses focus spinning in a different direction. However, the plot rights itself for the final segment. Alice Elliot Dart's tale is a well written character study that is intended for those who want to know the answer to is that all there is?

Harriet Klausner

Alice Elliott Dark's first novel was certainly worth waiting for and a worthy follower of the book of short stories IN THE GLOAMING that received such critical acclaim a few years ago. Jane, a youngster when her beloved father has an accident and is killed, grows up believing she is responsible for his death. This misconception follows her into adulthood and colors her entire life and is what much of the novel is about.

Ms. Dark is very good with dialogue and verbal fencing. When the uoung man from England Nigel tells her he is gay and asks if she's bothered with learning that, the conversation goes like this:

"'Of Course not. My uncle is gay,' she offered, and immediately regretted it. 'I'm sorry.That was stupid.'
'Quite all right. My sister's a girl, if that makes you feel any better.'"

Dark delves into the complexity and difficulty of family relationships that sound all too familiar to many of us. Once again she writes about lost opportunities and living with the consequences.

Oh, the title for this novel comes from wedding-night advice for Victorian brides: "Just close your eyes and think of England."

Ms. Dark sends us on a literary journey that leaves us breathless, thanks to gasps of recognition, sadness, hope, and delight. It's amazing how she can summon up the voice of an 8-year-old girl, Jane, and allow us to see the world through her eyes.

We are then allowed to follow this old soul through her twenties and into her forties as she makes acquaintances, lovers, friends, decisions, and realizations that resonated with me and all of those to whom I've lent the book.

I laughed, I cried, I could dance to it. Honestly. It's a true coming of age story. And if you haven't gone through a few Kleenex before its ending...get out of my house and never darken my sheets again.

What I liked about the beginning of the book , and early parts of the London section, were Jane's introspective nature and her need to rewrite what she thought was happening. Even when she is not writing poetry, she is shaping her view of the world through words, correcting herself, re-setting scenes. Dark does a wonderful job of showing this young creative mind. However, this introspection becomes a crutch. People don't really know Jane as she doesn't even reveal herself much to the reader.

I loved best how a small action begets a lifetime of regret and guilt. Jane does not feel sorry for herself per se, but it does feed her introspection and her self-doubt. She has moments of quiet strength and humor which seem suddenly squashed and absent when Clay comes into the story.

There are sections in the book where the focus veers away from Jane, and I agree with another reviewer when they say these are the weaker parts of the book.

I especially thought that the character of Clay West was a shallow one. Although the "plot" seemed to tread water during the Nigel-Colette-Jane section, I appreciated how their interaction challenged Jane and she seemed more "present" in their relationship. The Jane that loved Clay seemed just as vacuous as his character.

Emily is a potentially wonderful character but our scenes with her are few as the author rushes through these pages to get to the ending. The family reunion scene seemed awfully belated and thus contrived. It's crowded with voices of the other siblings who we don't really know or care about. There was good tension with Jane waiting to confront Via. But why add as a coda the letter in the end? And what about Colette? Didn't she serve as a great foil in the middle section?

There were good parts, but the throughline of the story was not a compelling one. We are not compelled to move from one section to the next, we just follow the character.

If you want to think of England, think again before choosing this book. The main characters and their author Alice Elliott Dark are all American. Even during heroine Jane MacLeod's pivotal sojourn in London, key people she meets - her best friend Colette and her lover Clay - also are Americans. In its defense, Think of England is a quick entertaining read about coming to terms in midlife with both unresolved family trauma leftover from childhood and the unfulfilled promises of young adulthood told from the perspective of a female Baby Boomer. However Meg Wolitzer has covered this territory in her deeper more literary novel The Position. And for fans of literature from the UK, so does Irish writer Anne Enright's exquisite Booker winner The Gathering.
The Gathering: A Novel
The Position: A Novel

I recently read Think of England. Raced through it in about 24 hours. I found the writing beautiful, the sense of place very convincing, both in the Philadelphia suburbs and London. I'm glad I read it. My only quibble was the development of friendship and love, which seemed too fast to me, as if the writer wanted to get past that part in a hurry. A minor point. I look forward to her next novel and strongly recommend this one.

Alice Elliott Dark remembers '60s family life and brings it
back to life in the definitely worthwhile Think of England.
The phrase "think of England" was a favorite of the protagonist
Jane's grandmother's of an activity to do when things were tough.

Structurally and thematically, Think of England is VERY reminiscent of Ian McEwan's Atonement:

First part - detailed account of "the day that changed
everything" in a young girl's life, mostly from her point of view

Middle part - ramifications of the event years later by
the character who suffered the most because of this event

Last part - the girl grown up understanding what really happened to her family

While McEwan's work is mostly chronological, Dark jumps around
in the first part of the book which made the introductory material somewhat hard to follow. Dark's characters are a little
more vivid, particularly Jane, the protagonist, her uncle Francis, and Colette, Jane's friend when she grows up
and goes to live in England for a time.

If you enjoy reading about the migration from childhood to adulthood, and how life looks different from different vantage
points, I recommend this book.