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Cold Snap
From master storyteller and psychologist, Francis King (1923-2011), comes this powerful drama of continuing antagonisms, nascent reconciliations, and obsessive love. Set in post-World War II Oxford, cousins Michael and Christine befriend a group of German prisoners camped on the outskirts of town. King's descriptions of the grimness of the lives of Germans, laboring outdoors in the bitter cold, and of the conflict between the natural humanity of the British and their desire for reparations, are etched with memorable sharpness.
- GenresFiction
280 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2010
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About the author
Francis King
78 books18 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 15, 2024
3.5, rounded down
King's final novel, his 32nd, published in 2009, two years prior to his death at 88. The 23rd of his books for me to read.
This is the King novel I've rated the lowest, which is a shame, that he didn't go out in a finer blaze of glory; more with a whimper, than a bang.
Here, King returns to the years of his most illustrious books, the years immediately following WW2, and tells the story of Christine, a young Oxford graduate student, who suddenly and rather inexplicably falls in love with Thomas, a German POW, and a friend of her cousin, Michael. Michael is also suffering from his passion for another one of the German POWs, Klaus, who is ill, possibly dying from TB. While Christine's saga constitutes the vast majority of the book, one can't quite help feeling that if the author had pursued the OTHER strand, where his own proclivities lied, in more detail, the book would have been more successful. As is, it isn't bad and certainly readable - but one feels King didn't really have his heart in it, and it is somewhat tame.
King's final novel, his 32nd, published in 2009, two years prior to his death at 88. The 23rd of his books for me to read.
This is the King novel I've rated the lowest, which is a shame, that he didn't go out in a finer blaze of glory; more with a whimper, than a bang.
Here, King returns to the years of his most illustrious books, the years immediately following WW2, and tells the story of Christine, a young Oxford graduate student, who suddenly and rather inexplicably falls in love with Thomas, a German POW, and a friend of her cousin, Michael. Michael is also suffering from his passion for another one of the German POWs, Klaus, who is ill, possibly dying from TB. While Christine's saga constitutes the vast majority of the book, one can't quite help feeling that if the author had pursued the OTHER strand, where his own proclivities lied, in more detail, the book would have been more successful. As is, it isn't bad and certainly readable - but one feels King didn't really have his heart in it, and it is somewhat tame.
Displaying 1 of 1 review