A Long Way from Verona

A long way from Verona indeed. Jane Gardam's novel is set not in the Italian city but in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Verona is, in fact, never mentioned in the book, although there are a couple of references to "Romeo and Juliet", and an Italian prisoner-of-war plays a minor role. The story takes place in 1940/41, during the early days of the Second World War. The narrator and central character is Jessica Vye, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a local clergyman. There may be autobiographical elements in the book; Ms Gardam would have been thirteen in 1941, and the seaside town in which it is set is clearly based on her own home town of Redcar. Jessica herself has ambitions to become a writer. There is no central, strongly-defined plot line; the book is episodic in structure, recounting the main occurrences in Jessica's life over a period of several months. Despite the historical period in which it is set, this is not so much a war story as a coming-of-age story with a wartime setting. Only in one, crucial, episode do the hostilities play a significant role. Jessica has become friendly with Christian Fanshawe-Smythe, the fifteen-year-old son of one of her father's clerical colleagues, and he suggests that they should together visit a neighbouring industrial town to see how its working-class inhabitants live. When they do, they are caught up in an air raid. The theme of social class is an important one in the book. Although the fathers of both families are clergymen, there is a strong contrast between the wealthy Fanshaw-Smythes and the lower-middle-class Vyes, a contrast brought out when Jessica is invited to spend an uncomfortable weekend as a guest of the Fanshawe-Smythes, and is dismissed as "gharsley" (ghastly) by their daughters. Christian, an ardent Communist, regards the working-class neighbourhood as a hellish slum, whereas Jessica cannot see what is so bad about it. Christian's friendship with Jessica has less to do with any romantic interest in her than with his (probably incorrect) belief that her mildly left-wing father, a former schoolmaster who has left that profession to follow his religious vocation as a curate, shares his Communist convictions. There is more to the novel, however, than a guide to the British class system as it existed in the early forties. Ms Gardam's main concern was not to explore social issues but to create a portrait of a sensitive girl in her early teens. As one might imagine, the most important element in Jessica's world, apart from her family, is her school, and many of the incidents describe concern her relationships with her classmates and her teachers. One point that comes through is that the British educational system at this period seems to have been in many ways a stiflingly conservative one, more concerned with turning out well-scrubbed, well-behaved little conformists than with encouraging children to think for themselves. (A similar point is made in Muriel Spark's "The Prime

It's one of those rare books that began as a children's tale and ended up considerably adult 30-some years down the line. This happens to a great many children's books over time. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", and others all began with kids as the intended audience but later ended up in the hands of scholarly adults everywhere. Such is the fate of the remarkably well-written "A Long Way From Verona". A thoughtful book that considers what it is to be a writer, one girl's battle with the crippling depression of adolescence, and some mild magical realism for kicks, this is a mighty intelligent 190 pages. It's funny, insightful, and one of the few books that I will concede that adults will enjoy far more than children. Jessica Vye cannot tell a lie. Or rather, she probably could but she would prefer not to. Growing up in the middle of World War II and attending an all girls local school, Jessica has been having some difficulty with certain members of the educational staff. She's occasionally abrasive but always amusing to listen to and has a far clearer eye than most of the adults around her. She is convinced that she can be a writer by an elderly author at the start of the book, and as such she dedicates herself to her own style. The rest of "A Long Way From Verona" follows suit, with Jessica doing exactly what she wants in the face of those with more power around her. By the book's end she has grappled with what it means to be happy in this world in spite of all its misery and has been ultimately redeemed in terms of her own writing. By the time I finished reading this book, I found that I had been continually comparing it to 1972's mighty similar, "A Sound of Chariots", by Mollie Hunter. In both cases, English girls growing up during and after major world wars deal with their communist/socialist fathers and defy authority at every turn. I wish heartily that I had read, "Chariots", only after reading "Verona", since Gardam's book was not only the first written but is also more amusing as a whole. Gardam is not afraid to dive deep into the world of biting satire. Some of the best passages in this book come when Jessica reluctantly stays a week-end with some rich neighbors on their own insistence. These people are the kind of pink-cheeked, healthy, all-British family that you'd see on greeting cards or advertisements. Their relentlessly cheerful and utterly and completely awful. For a brief amount of time, Jessica falls for the family's son, Christian, a boy who adores her father for his articles about human dignity in the New Statesman. In my favorite passage, Christian decides that Jessica has never seen any slums and takes her to see one. The thing is, Christian is coming from a very privileged background. The area that he repeatedly calls "hell" is, to Jessica's eyes, not so bad. As he tries to convince her that she's in the worst place in the world, Jessica just says, "Well, I think

It's good to see this exceptional book back in print. I don't think Gardam's adult novels--fine as they are--have the dancing intensity of her early work for children. Jessica Vye is immediately engaging, and her growth takes her out into the world instead of into herself, and towards the amazed discovery that "good things take place" in spite of everything. I was a teenager way too long ago, am male, and never lived in the north of England; but this remains one of my favorite pieces of fiction. Read it, reread it, and go dig up a copy of "Bilgewater", too....

I first read this book at the age of ten. After I returned it to the library, I forgot the title and had to spend hours scouring the bookshelves to find it again. It was worth it. Even now, at eighteen, I love it more than ever. This book should be read by everyone, but especially by children. The basic story is; a young girl who dreams of being a writer goes to a stuffy English private school where the teachers take every action possible to crush her ambitions. However, she prevails with irrepressible wit and humor. If you're passionate about life, literature, or anything at all, READ THIS BOOK!

This is my favourite book of all time. I never get tired of reading it. It's about this thirteen year old girl in England during the second world war, and stuff that happens to her over a year or two. It's one of those books where the girl is narrating and perceiving one thing but you (with your superior wisdom and experience) can see more than she does. I think it's very real and subtle and a true statement of what it's like to be a teenage girl. This part is so true, that I feel like I'm really learning about how it must have been like during the war in England. So often I feel a disconnect when people write about this age group.