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Nineteen Twenty-One
It is the freakishly hot, drought summer of 1921; dust storms in London, parched and cracking earth, autumn tints in July. Holed up in a cottage in the Chilterns, a young writer strives to write the first great novel of the War, impelled by his own suffering. Outward events and inner crises deflect him from his purpose, and love intervenes in the form of two very different women. A visit to the hallucinatory wreckage of post-war Flanders brings strange repercussions in its wake. Everyone is in some way damaged by the terrible years of the war; in what sense can art be made out of such horror?
Adam Thorpe's novel seeks to touch the marrow of this jazz and death-haunted period, which was ironically the most excitingly creative period of the last century. In a language deeply soaked in the time and by means of a beguiling story which gradually haunts its own process, Nineteen Twenty-One vividly recreates the year in which The Waste Land was written, as well as offering a bright mirror to the inner and outer complexities of our own troubled times.
Adam Thorpe's novel seeks to touch the marrow of this jazz and death-haunted period, which was ironically the most excitingly creative period of the last century. In a language deeply soaked in the time and by means of a beguiling story which gradually haunts its own process, Nineteen Twenty-One vividly recreates the year in which The Waste Land was written, as well as offering a bright mirror to the inner and outer complexities of our own troubled times.
371 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Adam Thorpe
52 books54 followersAdam Thorpe is a British poet, novelist, and playwright whose works also include short stories and radio dramas.
Adam Thorpe was born in Paris and grew up in India, Cameroon, and England. Graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1979, he founded a touring theatre company, then settled in London to teach drama and English literature.
His first collection of poetry, Mornings in the Baltic (1988), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His first novel, Ulverton (1992), an episodic work covering 350 years of English rural history, won great critical acclaim worldwide, including that of novelist John Fowles, who reviewed it in The Guardian, calling it "(...) the most interesting first novel I have read these last years". The novel was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for 1992.
Adam Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children.
-Wikipedia
Adam Thorpe was born in Paris and grew up in India, Cameroon, and England. Graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1979, he founded a touring theatre company, then settled in London to teach drama and English literature.
His first collection of poetry, Mornings in the Baltic (1988), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His first novel, Ulverton (1992), an episodic work covering 350 years of English rural history, won great critical acclaim worldwide, including that of novelist John Fowles, who reviewed it in The Guardian, calling it "(...) the most interesting first novel I have read these last years". The novel was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for 1992.
Adam Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 4, 2012
More of a two-and-a-half stars experience. It's perfectly readable and there are some interesting historical details and some atmospheres are conjured well. The writing style is annoying, though. Thorpe has a liking for placing the words in a sentence in an almost Yoda-ish strange order. His central character is not likeable nor very interesting. The ending is senseless, which comes as no surprise when most of the book has drifted about not getting very far. The middle section, visiting battlefields, is the best bit. Unfortunately, Thorpe scuppers that by making it into some drunken, symbolic voyage. None of the characters feels consistent, realistic or motivated. A lot of words are used to not get anywhere.
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October 16, 2013My third DNF in a row from the library. Another I should have loved because of the subject matter, but I just could not get into. It was very flat, and paradoxically the prose was very ornate (you could tell it was written by a poet). But the main protagonist just didn't do it for me, and I have become a lot more ruthless at stopping when I'm not enjoying. I think this is probably a very good book, it just didn't work for me.
September 6, 2014
Hard work but beautiful. Over a year after I finished it, it's images and themes are still vivid in my mind.
April 17, 2020
A précis of the novel can be found elsewhere in other reviews. Never mind not judging a book its cover, the moral here is to not judge by reviews. I came across this book in a rather strange way. Writing a novel based just after the 1st WW a search of dates, for research purposes, obviously brought up this suggestion. A purchased copy from a book recycling company landed on my doorstep, the front cover boasting it to be a ‘Jonathan Cape Uncorrected Proof’ with a close up picture of an eye as a cover illustration. Other covers I have seen are a woman’s head??? Presumably Tillie although who knows why, and an envelope of dirt – far too much dirt if you read the novel.
Gratingly the novel reminded me of others, but which and by who?
What intrigued me about this now much loved novel, was the style of writing which took me a while to work out and understand. Written in third person, it often doesn’t feel like it because we spend so much time in Joseph’s head. In fact, long passages in his mind can often be shocked-out by a third person jump at the end, reminding the reader that this is not a first person narrative. There are even paragraphs of third person with thought, perhaps stream of consciousness thought, intermixed.
It wasn’t until I was near the end of the book that it came to me and I realised the novels it reminded me of, a question that had been bugging me. Crime And Punishment was one and the other similarity took my head back in history. Years ago I worked in an office where I used to read in my lunch break, a novel always being in my (then trendy) shoulder bag. “What you reading?” Came a question. “Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre” my reply. My questioner informed me the author was hated by him. “He can take two pages to boil a kettle for a cup of tea.” He told me. But, oh what a two pages that was, I thought. And so, there it was. Nausea and Crime And Punishment. Lose yourself in this novel, enter Joseph’s head but be led through Europe by the author, not by Joseph who seems lost and should not be trusted in his decisions.
Joseph’s attempt at writing a novel needs a muse. Will it be a visit to the battlefields of the first world war or will it be one of two women? We suffer with him until that muse is found elsewhere. Not a novel with an incisive moment, plot and conclusion but a firm instruction on how it felt to be alive just after the war and flu epidemic.
I have read reviews from others who have enjoyed Adam Thorpe books but not enjoyed this one. Unfortunately, that has had the effect of stopping me reading any of his other novels, because I want this one to stay in my mind.
Gratingly the novel reminded me of others, but which and by who?
What intrigued me about this now much loved novel, was the style of writing which took me a while to work out and understand. Written in third person, it often doesn’t feel like it because we spend so much time in Joseph’s head. In fact, long passages in his mind can often be shocked-out by a third person jump at the end, reminding the reader that this is not a first person narrative. There are even paragraphs of third person with thought, perhaps stream of consciousness thought, intermixed.
It wasn’t until I was near the end of the book that it came to me and I realised the novels it reminded me of, a question that had been bugging me. Crime And Punishment was one and the other similarity took my head back in history. Years ago I worked in an office where I used to read in my lunch break, a novel always being in my (then trendy) shoulder bag. “What you reading?” Came a question. “Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre” my reply. My questioner informed me the author was hated by him. “He can take two pages to boil a kettle for a cup of tea.” He told me. But, oh what a two pages that was, I thought. And so, there it was. Nausea and Crime And Punishment. Lose yourself in this novel, enter Joseph’s head but be led through Europe by the author, not by Joseph who seems lost and should not be trusted in his decisions.
Joseph’s attempt at writing a novel needs a muse. Will it be a visit to the battlefields of the first world war or will it be one of two women? We suffer with him until that muse is found elsewhere. Not a novel with an incisive moment, plot and conclusion but a firm instruction on how it felt to be alive just after the war and flu epidemic.
I have read reviews from others who have enjoyed Adam Thorpe books but not enjoyed this one. Unfortunately, that has had the effect of stopping me reading any of his other novels, because I want this one to stay in my mind.
October 20, 2025
Way, way too much yearning.
May 31, 2012
Na 130 pagina's heb ik het opgegeven. Het boek klinkt interesant maar het verhaal gaat zooo langzaam. Steeds denk je dat het verhaal nu echt een vlucht gaat nemen maar uiteindelijk gebeurd er nog steeds niets. Wat ik na die 130 bladzijden over het boek kan zeggen:
Het taalgebruik is heel ouderwets, ik weet niet of dit uit de oorspronkelijke versie is overgenomen? Het is een keuze die past bij de tijd waarin het boek zich afspeelt maar komt wel wat knullig over. De sfeer van het boek is erg mooi, een beetje dromerig. En de beschrijvingen van het na-oorlogse België zijn bijzonder, en zetten je aan het denken.
Ik denk dat 1921 een mooi boek kan zijn, maar ik kan het geduld niet op brengen om het uit te lezen.
Het taalgebruik is heel ouderwets, ik weet niet of dit uit de oorspronkelijke versie is overgenomen? Het is een keuze die past bij de tijd waarin het boek zich afspeelt maar komt wel wat knullig over. De sfeer van het boek is erg mooi, een beetje dromerig. En de beschrijvingen van het na-oorlogse België zijn bijzonder, en zetten je aan het denken.
Ik denk dat 1921 een mooi boek kan zijn, maar ik kan het geduld niet op brengen om het uit te lezen.
August 25, 2016
Great sense of place (the ex-battlefields of WWI are evocatively described - and ring true if you have listened to the superb Hardcore History podcasts on the topic) and it certainly has its moments - I just found none of the major characters particularly likeable and was slightly annoyed to find that instead of a book about WWI, it was a a book about a struggling author writing a book about WWI.
September 6, 2012
Meh.
Overlong, weak characters and a preposterous ending.
That said, Thorpe does have talent, the book is not without poetry.
Overlong, weak characters and a preposterous ending.
That said, Thorpe does have talent, the book is not without poetry.
August 10, 2015
A poignant and beatifully written novel.
March 27, 2015
3 stars for the fascinating history
2 stars for the story itself
2 stars for the story itself
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews