à propos Berlin
A couple of days short of September, procrastinating with my term paper, I have started the next novel, volume nine, in »A Dance to the Music of Time« by Anthony Powell. It is a 1971 edition, Fontana book, I purchased second hand, featuring on the cover [...] a likely scenario behind the many doors of Whitehall were Nicholas Jenkins works with the Intelligence Corps, as Pennistone’s assistant in Polish Liaison in WWII.

Here’s to Berlin (p. 31):
»Michalski, now in his late thirties, had served like Bobrowski with the Polish contingent in France. Of large size, sceptical about most matters, he belonged to the world of industrial design – statuettes for radiator caps and such decorative items – working latterly in Berlin, which had left some marks on him of its bitter individual humor. In fact Pennistone always said talking to Michalski made him feel he was sitting in the Romanisches Café.« [28 August 2020] ( )

"Such a mental picture of the past was no doubt largely unhistorical, indeed totally illusory, freedom from one sort of humbug merely implying, with human beings of any epoch, thraldom to another. The past, just as the present, had to be accepted for what it thought and what it was."

Really very strong. Taking place during the second half of WWII, Powell's 9th Music of Time novel deals candidly with the rigours of war: the perpetual loss, the feeling of society being one unanimous organ brought together for a cause, and - of course - the paperwork.

It strikes me that the book's Goodreads rating is highly subjective. I imagine few people make it to #9 in a series from half a century ago unless they're quite enjoying the proceedings!I note this more because, although I am absorbed by Powell's writing, I think he has justly faded from the general public consciousness. So much of what made his work so powerful to its contemporary audience was that they had lived the proceedings. Our culture's current fetishisation of works set in 1980s and early '90s will no doubt yield some true classics. But it's fair to say that many of the works we are enjoying in this mode are zeitgeist-y at best. Well made, but ultimately appealing to us because of what they teach us about the now, as refracted through our recent past. Similarly, for 1960s audiences who had lived through the War, the archetypes and exchanges herein must have had much greater depth.

What is neat about this volume - which flits between Jenkins' postings over 3 or 4 years - is the feeling of time elongated. In 1945, someone can completely have forgotten a person they served with in 1942. Someone who lost their relative only a couple of years ago can see it as "long past". From my 2020 vantage point - only 8 weeks since my country activated its pandemic response plan, the most bizarre uprooting of the status quo in my lifetime - I am horrified by the prospect of what six long years at war would feel like.

By now, Powell has so perfected his style that the brief sketches of new characters are as probing and subtle as those of our longstanding friends and enemies. Widmerpool (is he the only character to have appeared in every book thus far, aside from NJ?) is more odious than ever. And we at last meet Pamela Flitton, a character whom I have associated with this series long before I knew anything about it, knowing only that she was played by Miranda Richardson in the UK TV adaptation; she certainly makes an impression here as a potential villainess (although character roles have changed before, so I will remain agnostic).

The final chapter, in which Jenkins attends the Victory church service, is one of the author's most assured pieces of writing yet, tackling his internal mental state through an almost stream-of-consciousness range of memories. Afterward, in a London deeply damaged by the Blitz and general decay, we descend into a dark despair but also - from our retrospective point-of-view - hopeful for the reconstruction and the new Elizabethan Golden Age we know lies ahead. (Probably less Golden for our boy Kenneth, setting his sights on administrating one of the colonies!)

Where to from here? ( )

Can’t believe I am 3/4 done with this series now. Another great one. Glad we are through the war, though. ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as other books in the series. I found it hard to relate to many of the characters and to keep track of what was happening: not so much in terms of the plot as the themes and what it's all supposed to mean. Of course that might have been a reflection on the reader as much as the text. I think some of the political intrigue left me a bit cold because it's all ancient history now and long resolved. It didn't even have the poignant ending that I love in a humorous book. ( )

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