I feel rather guilty about saying this because it is a Persephone book and I really, really want to love everything they publish (well, everything aside from The Making of a Marchioness, but I was hoping that would be the only exception) but I did not enjoy The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens. I loved Dickens’ Mariana and thoroughly enjoyed One Pair of Hands but none of the energy or humour so evident in those works is present here. Instead, we have the rather toothless tale of the pathetic Louise who after her husband’s death finds herself destitute and reliant on the generosity of her three indifferent daughters.
It begins promisingly enough, setting up Louise and her three self-centered daughters, giving you an excellent sense of each woman. But then absolutely nothing happens. Louise is traded off between the three, pausing only for a humiliating winter stint at a friend’s hotel on the south coast, and is incredibly insipid and resigned about the whole thing. She dotes on her eldest granddaughter Ellen (otherwise ignored by her parents), is fond of her sluttish youngest daughter’s husband, Frank, and forms an attachment to Gordon Disher, a trashy-novel-writing bed salesmen. But she’s just such an indistinct character and is so frustratingly passive about her life! So much happens around her but she does next to nothing to improve her situation. And yes, frankly, if she has three daughters who don’t particularly want her around, then she has only herself to blame. If they’re apathetic towards their mother’s plight and borderline negligent, it’s because their mother was too weak to show them what they should have been.
I think what frustrated me most was the pointlessly episodic structure of the book. Each section felt so much the same, so repetitive and unvarying. Admittedly, I’m sure that’s how Louise’s life felt as well, being shuttled from location to location only to be treated with the same indifference and benign neglect wherever she landed. But, as I reader, I do want some plot, some indication that something might one day happen. There was no tension, no real sense of suspense to entice me to continue reading. In fact, I was so disinterested in both the characters and the plot that I had to abandon the book for more than a week after I started reading it, even though I had less than a hundred pages left at the time I did so. I had hoped that a break might allow me to come back with a fresh perspective, ready to appreciate…something. It didn’t quite work out that way.
I was equally bothered by the unwavering, almost sentimental sympathy with which Dickens’ treats her protagonist. I can neither like nor respect Louise and felt vaguely insulted that Dickens’ seemed to think I should feel otherwise. She is a sad creature, to be sure, but that alone cannot win her my compassion.
Mostly, I just feel sad for what this book could have been had Dickens infused it with even an ounce of sharpness; an acerbic bite of wit would have been most welcome. It is competent storytelling but it never asserts itself as anything other than average.
Aw, I’m sorry the book didn’t go over well for you. It doesn’t sound like one I’d particularly enjoy, either (what can you say for plots that aren’t plots?) but the characters do sound at least mildly interesting – or like they have the potential to be interesting! I’ve never read many Persephone books (WAY too broke) but I’ve heard such good things about so many of them, it’s a sad day when one doesn’t work out. But thanks for the great and honest review!
I admit that this one didn’t interest me when it came out. I may eventually read it but I will definitely pick up Mariana first.
I appreciate even the negative reviews. Persephone titles are not as convenient to come by here, so it’s nice to have help in prioritizing the ones I decide to seek out or order. I wonder why it is that we want to like them all? I feel the same way sometimes.
Haven’t read this one, although I did read a really positive review about it last week. Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it that much – from your review, it sounds quite banal and dull. 😦
Oh well… at least there are plenty of good Persephones out there…
I guess Persephone must have a dud or two in their selection since most of their titles are brilliant. Sorry that you really didn’t enjoy this though particularly since you’ve enjoyed the other titles by Dickens. It’s always a let down when a favourite author fails to deliver.
I have read this book a few times over the years and enjoyed it. I wondered who the characters might be based upon as I find Ms Dickens has often based her characters on real life people. By today’s standards yes the hapless Louise does come across as wet but the story is set in a time before women’s emancipation, having raised her family and been ground down by the overbearing Dudley, who referred to her as Tubby, she had neither the skills nor the confidence to be able to find a job after he died and left her destitute. I still know women in my generation (I’m 66) who have no idea what the running costs of their households are, the husband deals with it all, so can understand how Louise’s dire financial situation came as a shock to her because in those days wives were still regarded as chattels who didn’t need to know anything about financial matters. I have known one or two people like Louise and can understand her plight, although it’s good she finally ended up with Mr Disher, a man who understood it ‘wouldn’t be right’ for a lady like her to take a job at her age. There are a few dramatic situations throughout the book concerning the daughters, but I wouldn’t say I found it hard to read or get into in any way. The book I have is made of paper, not Persephone, so I don’t know whether that makes a difference.
I totally understand why you found Louise so annoying, Yes she was quite wet and pretty useless. She was however a rather typical woman of her time. I see the book was originally published in 1955, a time possibly as alien to todays women as the Victorian era. In Louise’s defence she had no purpose in life other than to raise the children, tend the house and pay due heed and attention to her husbands needs, opinions and wishes. Add to this that she had the misfortune to marry an unpleasant bully who then left her unprovided for. I have known many, many Louises, although I am 67 now. So I don’t think the fault is in the book or the story itself, rather that the story is now obsolete. I think at the time it was written it may well have been a salutary lesson to other Louises to take care they did not find themselves in the same situation when they were left alone later in life.