The Choir

Contemporary novels of manners seem to be a province almost exclusively of the English. These gems of human observation and wit center on a small community's reaction to an event which affects each member."The Choir" involves the Cathedral of Aldminster and its boys' choir and school. The dean of the Cathedral, Hugh Cavendish, is a man who buries his disappointment with his four outrageous children and his insensitive wife in single-minded devotion to the architecture and history of the old cathedral and the buildings which encompass its close.The headmaster of the school, Alexander Troy, is currently preoccupied with his independent wife's latest defection. Frank Ashworth, a councilman and a principled socialist of the old school who bemoans the cathedral close's elitist aspect, hatches a scheme to acquire the headmaster's beautiful old house for the benefit of the people of Aldminster.The dean, appalled at the prospect of losing a treasured old building to the council, soon receives another blow - extensive and immediate repairs are needed to the cathedral's roof - and the amount would just about be covered by the sale of the headmaster's house.But the dean sees a way out of his dilemma, a way which will also consolidate his power. He proposes to Frank that the council take over the choir, pointing out that access to it would then become more egalitarian. In return for Frank's support he will consider selling the house, having, of course, no intention of doing any such thing.Meanwhile Frank's grandson, 11-year-old Henry, is the newest and most talented chorister. Henry's father is off making money in Saudi Arabia and his mother, Sally, is ready to end her unhappy marriage. Through Henry's talents Sally meets the organist and choirmaster, the divorced and mercurial Leo Beckford, who falls madly in love with her. And Ianthe, the dean's daughter, who owns a partial interest in a fly-by-night recording company, is suffering agonies of unrequited love for Leo. Then there's the sad and directionless former chorister who haunts his school seeking the sense of purpose he once found there - and finds again in the ensuing fight over the choir.Lines are quickly drawn. The council (as expected) spurns the choir as expensive and irrelevant and the dean dooms it to disband. The headmaster digs in his heels, Ianthe sees her chance to make points with Leo, Sally cuts off contact with her father-in-law, Frank, and Frank, torn between his principles and his personal loyalties, sees all he has worked for in his life slipping away in political backbiting.The ripples of the fight continue to expand as emotions rise, bringing several marriages and friendships to crisis even as the community cleaves together in ways that inspire and exhilirate the whole.Trollope has a gift for seamless development. Although there's a lot going on, the novel never seems overcrowded or confused. And ever simmering under the common public effort are the myriad individual maneuverings a

As a devotee of Joanna Trollope, I had always avoided this one book, due to the dreary book notes that invariably describe it as some row or other about a boys' school choir. I simply could not imagine such a topic holding my interest for more than five seconds, Trollope or not.But it did. Far from being the dismal plot described above, it turns out to be probably one of Joanna Trollope's very best, both in the writing and the plotting. Yes, it does take place in a boys' school, which is closely affiliated with the town's cathedral. The main characters are all quite Britishly normal, thank you, and not a bit precious. On the contrary. We have a runaway wife who always returns, a bored-stiff housewife (mother of a choir boy) who begins a torrid affair, four utterly horrid teenaged and twenty-ish offspring of the cathedral's long-suffering dean, and much, much more.When a group of disaffected socialist (seriously) townspeople decides that the choir is antiquated and must go, that the headmaster's house must be sold out from him and his family and made into a town social hall, and that the catherdral, the deanery, and everything in between is a haven for the rich, the close-knit and relatively peaceful community is torn apart. Trollope's skill, as always, is in somehow effortlessly drawing us into the real feelings and anguish of very ordinary people who become less ordinary as they face the crises of their lives. In that, she is like her ancestor, the great English novelist of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Unlike any other of Joanna Trollope's books, this one most closely reminds this reviewer of the senior novelist's brilliant works.As always, the end is not a happily ever after, but, as the British say, a "sorting out" of feelings, personalities, and lives. Some come out the better--others collapse."The Choir" is simply a wonderfully written work of art, and I am glad to have read it, and doubly glad to be able to recommend it to any reader who loves a finely drawn novel.

Joanna Trollope introduces us to a small British city with a cathedral that dates back to before Henry VIII and all that goes in making this building a living, breathing entity. Trollope does a fine job of setting the mood in the first few pages. As one would suspect, caring for a building which was first built in the 15 or 16th century requires a great deal of funds. Unfortunately the structure has not stood the test of time and major reconstruction is needed to save the building. Where to get the money for this not-inexpensive undertaking is the task that the dean of the Cathedral faces. The political manuverings to save the structure are all consuming for this man. He will do almost anything to keep the building but what he has forgotten is that it will be just that - a building, but one without a soul. The soul of the cathedral is it's choir and it is this that the dean proposes to dispense with to divert funds from the upkeep of the choir to the upkeep of the building. What he doesn't bargin for it the opposition of this idea that erupts from the cathedral school in the form of the headmaster and a few long time members of the school board and the choirmaster. The opposition is quite an interesting group, from the headmaster who is a respectable priest married to an independent and strong-willed woman, to the choirmaster who is divoreced and at the school at all, only by good fortune and the suffereance of the dean of the cathedral. Their professional and personal lives are quite well detailed and totally beliveable. I found myself wondering who the models for these charecters were.We see town politics interjected as well as the grandfather of one of the boys has set his eye on obtaining church property for use by town as a social service office. He is portrayed as a late in years Labourite, still at war with elitest organizations and sees the church as a prime example of this class distinction. Set in the height of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in Britain, it is a small scale depiction of the events that took place throughout the country as Conservatism rearranged the social fabric of the country.Trollope does a masterful job of taking a subject that is little known in this country, the Anglican Church, and introducing us to this organization. She also makes her characters believable and interesting. I found myself unable to leave the book - it bears the scars of being read while I was inhaling both the book and fast foods. I first read the book several years ago and have read several times since then. It is a book I never tire of reading and discover things I missed each time I do. I highly recommend this book to all with an interest in the social and religious fabric of Great Britain.