Caught by Henry Green
A Novel 1943
I intend to real-time review all novels of Henry Green in the tradition of my other marathon reviews of 20th Century authors, and this is my fifth one.
All my reviews of Henry Green to be linked HERE
My previous reviews of literary authors: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/some-of-my-serial-reviews-indexed/
My review will appear in the comment stream below….
Unlike in my heyday in recent years regarding older literature and genre short stories and novels whereby I accomplished in detail many experimental or personal critiques as linked here: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/some-of-my-serial-reviews-indexed/, my ageing and lazing brain now finds it more difficult to continue to do so.
I now feel satisfyingly imbued with the marvellous Green by osmosis as well as by efforts of a less conscientious reading-mind. Suffice to quote here from Goodreads about CAUGHT:
“When the war breaks out, Rose, a well-to-do widower with a young son, Christopher, volunteers for the Auxiliary Fire Service in London, and is trained under a professional fire officer, Pye. The two men discover that a quite different link already exists between them: it was Pye’s strange, disturbed sister who once upon a time abducted Christopher and kept him in her room until Pye rescued the terrified child. In the apocalyptic atmosphere of the Blitz the relationship between the two men develops as each of them grapples with his own troubled emotional attachments, the one to his dead wife, the other to his unhappy sister. Inevitably matters come to a head when history shows signs of repeating itself. The subtle handling of relationships, the brilliance of the dialogue and description – including one of the best accounts ever written of London under the Blitz – established ‘Caught’ as one of Henry Green’s most powerful novels.”
‘More power to his elbow mate, more power to it.’
— From the text of CAUGHT
My review of THE LULL by Henry Green in May 2022, also about a similar scenario in the Fire Service:
Now, perhaps aptly, on to NOTHING: