"Casualties" by Lynne Reid Banks.
The AA Book Club found this 1986 book extraordinarily difficult to evaluate.
Views expressed covered the whole spectrum of reactions, and there was no clear consensus at the end of the evening.
Sue’s reason for choosing the book goes back to an event at the Pocklington Arts Centre many years ago at which she met the author, the author being famous for her first novel, “The L-Shaped Room”.
It was asserted at that meeting that “Casualties” is a true story.
And whilst that in itself might be true, it doesn’t answer all of the questions raised by the book, especially in relation to the Resistance movement in northern Europe during WWII.
Another factor which came to bear was a view by the author that, with the blessing of her family, she had prioritised writing over quality of involvement with her family.
So the story of loose personal friendships resulting in a Netherlands holiday for two dysfunctional and incompatible families was believable but distasteful.
The further observations on the role of the wartime resistance in that country was impossible to evaluate owing to our lack of knowledge and understanding, especially from an British Islands perspective.
Observations made during our review:
The comments made by Sue by way of introduction make sense but we were still left with a sense that something is missing from the story.
The characters lacked depth and it’s unclear what the residual message was meant to be.
The real and well-written story is about survival.
The supposed “true story” is intriguing.
Two of the members “loved the book” and gave it the highest possible rating.
They liked the writing, the layering, and the time slicing even if the “horrors of the war” were hard to evaluate.
Compelling and powerfully told, appreciated, stunning writing, but “enjoyable” is the wrong adjective.
AABC: 3.5 stars.
PC. 10th September 2022.
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