Book description
THIS IS A SILK STOCKING of a novel: fragile, light, of little practical purpose – and yet possessed of surprising tensile strength. De Bernières’ mellifluent, clear prose slips through the reader’s mind with efficient ease, and even at its most dramatically jarring, you never need to come up for air. This is de Bernières’ skill, and it is a considerable one. The world is full of ponderous, self-important novelists; making it look this simple is a real art.
At its core, this is a novel about human sadness. It is the story of a failed, uncertain love affair, a relationship unconsummated and founded entirely on the pain, insecurity and damaged personalities of the two protagonists. Each feeds the other’s flaws; it is the worst kind of love affair – and one that the reader knows is doomed from the start. But there is another significant dimension to the action: the culture clash between East and West.
Representing Britain in all its mediocrity is Chris, a travelling salesman in the grip of a midlife crisis. He is married to a woman he rather nastily refers to as the “Great White Loaf”, adding that she has skimmed milk in her veins. Like most men of his age and stage he has an almost Olympian ability to feel sorry for himself. It’s a quality that does not endear him to the female reader, especially when he uses his wife as an excuse to seek out the services of a prostitute.
It is in this manner that he meets Roza, the Yugoslavian object of his affections. At once dangerous and vulnerable, Roza perfectly encapsulates Chris’s need to feel both adventurous and in control. But it is she who takes control of him, and instead of sleeping with her he ends up giving her a lift home.