Farthing

This is possibly one of the most frightening stories I've ever read. It shows how some ambitious people, convinced that their way of life is best and to be protected, can conspire to murder and to throw the blame on an innocent man who happens to be a member of a despised group - in this case, a Jew. Some may not like the dialogue, but from my reading it is fairly typical of upper class British society in the 1940s and 50s. This story shows how easy it is to "go along to get along", and how easy it is to persuade others of the automatic guilt of the outsider. This is nothing like other books Jo Walton has written. It is a somewhat difficult read partly because the people and settings are so different from what we in the U.S. think of as normal; partly because it doesn't read like the usual mystery, and a major part of the story is the detective's efforts to solve the murder; and partly because it could have happened that way, and if it had, how terrible the results would have been. Near the end, the story refers to U.S. President Lindbergh, and the fact that Jews cannot enter the United States. I am old enough to have been denied a job in the late 1950s because my married name "sounded Jewish" - which is part of why I find this book so frightening.

This is an English country house murder mystery, extremely well done but basically typical of its kind--except that it's set in 1949 in a Britain that made peace with Nazi Germany in 1941, and is sliding closer and closer to fascism. The Farthing set, the political clique within the Conservative party that ousted Churchill and negotiated the peace, are currently in partial eclipse, and are holding a retreat at the Eversley family estate. The Eversleys' daughter Lucy, who married a Jewish man over family objections, is surprised and somewhat annoyed that her mother has invited them, or rather, insisted that they attend, but she and her husband are there. On the first night, Sir James Thirkie, a major leader of the group and the man who actually negotiated the peace, is murdered, with evidence planted to make it appear to uncritical observers that the murder was committed by a Jew. The story is told in alternating chapters, Lucy's account of her experiences, and the progress of Inspector Carmichael's investigation. It's really beautifully done, the English country house murder and the story of a country sinking into fascism wound around each in a way that works perfectly--the murder investigation winding to a satisfying, nicely complex but fair-to-the-reader resolution, and the political story and its human impact told honestly, convincingly, going where you know it has to go, while never getting as tough to read as it easily could get. Maybe not the thing to read when you're feeling stressed and need something soothing or distracting, but really excellent. Highly recommended.

Farthing is a book that I found compulsively readable, but that I dreaded reading. Not because I didn't want to know what happened, but because I knew what happened would be wrenching. It delivered, too -- the novel is powerful, thought-provoking, and deeply sad. It is set in a country house in England in about 1950. But not our England: in this one a splinter group of the Tories, the Farthing Set, pushed for a separate peace with Hitler in 1941, ending the war. Europe is under Nazi control, and is a hellhole for Jews. The Germans continue to fight with the Soviets. Th US, under President Lindbergh, has remained neutral. And the Farthing Set continue to jockey for power in an increasingly unpleasant, though still green, England. Lucy Kahn is the daughter of the power behind the scenes of the Farthing Set, Lady Eversley. Lucy and her Jewish husband, David, are at her parents' home for a party prior to a crucial vote, despite Lucy's break with her anti-Semitic parents over her marriage to David. Then a leading Farthing MP is murdered, in a way that seems crudely to suggest Jewish involvement. Alternating chapters tell of the investigation of the crime by Inspector Carmichael, an intelligent man with a dangerous secret of his own: he is homosexual. (Indeed, so are many of the characters in this book, including several of the Farthing Set.) Carmichael slowly figures out what has really happened, while the powers that be push for David Kahn's arrest, despite the ultimate absurd nature of any claims that he committed the murder. The waters are muddied by a curious attack on Lucy and her father. As I said, I could see all along that this was leading to a scary resolution, and so it does. Scary, bitter, almost hopeless, and quite moving. And thought-provoking about the dangers of fascism. It's not a perfect book. Some of the plot details seem a bit too pat, too much of a setup. While the two main characters (Lucy Kahn and Inspector Carmichael) are well-depicted, and very sympathetic, the other characters are hard to grasp. David Kahn comes off as little more than a saint, while we get almost no understanding the true villains, particularly Lucy's evil Mummy, Lady Eversley. All the characters seem to have absurdly perfect "gaydar", as well. But these are but quibbles, and only slightly muffle the impact of a powerful book.

Jo Walton is very good at taking something familiar and putting an unfamiliar, intriguing spin on it. Previously, she's done this with King Arthur (_The King's Peace_ and _The King's Name_), Irish mythology (_The Prize in the Game_), and Victorian society (_Tooth and Claw_). In _Farthing_, she takes the traditional English country mystery, adds in alternate history, and comes up with something new and brilliant. Lucy Kahn has come to her parents' country house, Farthing, for the weekend, bringing her new husband, David. Their marriage caused a scandal, because David is Jewish, while Lucy is of the British upper class, and Lucy is hoping that the stay with her parents will bring about a reconciliation. Instead, it brings violent death, when one of the other houseguests, who was instrumental in bringing about the 1941 peace with Hitler and Germany, is murdered, under circumstances that seem to implicate David. Soon, Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard enters the scene, and he and Lucy follow separate but parallel investigative tracks which lead to shocking conclusions. The point-of-view alternates between Lucy's first person and Carmichael's third person, both splendidly done. I particularly liked Lucy, who's not quite as scatterbrained as she might initially appear, and who has a marvelous style of speaking and system of allusions (I loved her terms for sexual orientation). Both she and Carmichael are outsiders to some extent, Lucy because she's chosen to marry a Jew, Carmichael because he's a policeman (and for other reasons), and thus both are excellent viewpoints characters, looking from the outside in at different angles. Walton slowly slips in bits and pieces of the alternate history, of which the salient fact, as mentioned above, is England's peace with Hitler, engineered by a group of conservative politicians called "the Farthing Set". Eventually, a clearer picture of this alternate history emerges, of what's already happened, and what might be going to happen. The resonances with today's political scene are chilling, and the book's ending is very unsettling. I'm glad I know there's to be a sequel. _Farthing_ might just be the best book I've read this year.

Have you ever read a book and thought, 'By all rights, this will be an award-winning best-seller'? That was my reaction all the way through Farthing. Jo Walton's previous book, Tooth and claw won the World Fantasy Award and started a small resurgence of Trollope reading. But the dragons may have turned some readers off, limiting the book's appeal. Farthing has a chance at becoming a crossover hit among mainstream audiences, in part because it avoids the more obvious fantasy elements and tells (what appears in the beginning to be) a more conventional story. The book is set in 1949 England, and posits an alternate universe where Rudolf Hess's mission was successful and Britain made peace with the Nazis in 1941. The story itself begins with a cozy murder mystery in a country estate. The narrative alternates chapter-by-chapter between the first person account of Lucy Kahn née Eversley, a young heiress who's not quite as twitterpated as she appears on first glance, and a third person police procedural, focused on the stolid Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard. I don't want to say too much about the plot, because its unfolding is one of the delights of the book. Suffice it to say, both inspector and daughter take separate but parallel paths to uncovering the mystery, each learning only part of the story. Lucy's voice is utterly captivating: "I don't suppose you've ever considered what it would mean to know that someone close to you had done something unspeakable -- and by that I don't mean shooting a fox or putting lemonade into a single malt, the way Daddy would." Lucy's voice just wins me over every time she speaks. She's got the most charming personal shorthand for certain terms that I really wish would catch on more widely. You can read the first two chapters online on Jo Walton's website. Go ahead; I'll wait. [Though you may not be able to afterwards.] I give this book my highest recommendation, and urge everyone to read it.