Review: Days Of Grace

Did we like the book, yes we did, very much. We liked the characters, we did not object to the backward, forward time narrative (both in the same voice). The story was easily told from today, and needed the inputs from the past to make it all make sense. We sympathised with some people and empathised with others. We even forgave the bad guys, as they were just behaving as society at that time wanted or demanded. Well maybe not Bernard, but did he really deserve his end? So we were well wrapped up in the story, not so much a story but more a tale, a cautionary tale of repressed feelings and society normality. So many people not showing how they felt, stiff upper lip, “this is our lot in life, get on with it”. Would they have been better served to let it all out, what a different tale that would be.

It was suggested that Catherine Hall was a “disciplined” writer. That was the term that I was searching for, I felt that the words were very carefully chosen, that everything was in its place, it seemed to have been rewritten, and carefully edited several times. That made for both easy reading, and somehow a coldness in the style. Not unpleasant, and adding to the “this actually happened” feeling of the book. There is nothing to distract the reader, no endless descriptions, but still the plot has enough twists to stop the reader wandering off in their own head. The characters become more and more real as the plot develops and you begin to see and understand why they are, what they are.

Grace in Christianity is “the free and unmerited favour of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowing of blessings”. This was not a name chosen at random for Grace, the person did not bestow blessings, in some ways the reverse but maybe she loved in here own way. Certainly Norah saw the “smoothness and elegance of movement” that forms another meaning of Grace. And Norah “derived from the Latin word Honor (with that meaning)” Was she honourable? Not really, her attitudes to Rose and to her mother was less than honourable. I think the names were carefully chosen.

Now the bit that I confess to being very self-indulgent, and not easy to make meaningful to someone who wants to know whether to read this book. So I will tell you straight out now, yes you should read this book, I think it will become a classic both in style and in plot.

When I had reached the end of the book, I was so angry, “how dare she write about my feelings like that? What did she know of my guilt? How could she expose all those things I had bottled up? She had pulled the stopper, and they were all around me again. How dare she! But maybe she did know me. Not in the flesh, but in the world of tortured souls, maybe I was not the only one.

Should you tell the truth about how you feel? But then you pass your demon on like a virus, you are no better, but now it has spread. And now your confidante must think less of you, you were not particularly worthy before, but now you are worthless, or so you think. Maybe Norah thought like that.

Of course this holding back does not do a person any good, but to tell is not an option. “I want you to know, but I don’t want to be the one to tell you”. Can we get from Depression to Acceptance without it, and is Acceptance only the gateway to more self-loathing?

So here we are getting to the end of the page, if you have read this far, I admire your perseverance, and I will not burden you with much more. What have we learned? That “Days of Grace” is a good book. That it has real insights, that it provoked a very powerful reaction in me. Also that everyone in our group liked it. I have avoided the word enjoy, because I believe that there was little joy in the characters. Unrequited love, physical love, requited love, love of God. All you need is love, as the poet JL said …. ah but which love? We only have one word, but we need many more to express ourselves.

Maybe we have also learned that Tanya is some crazy girl! .... Yes, but you should have met her before!