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Mr Mac and Me
1914. Thomas Maggs is thirteen and lives with his parents and sister at the Blue Anchor pub, in the village of Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. Born in winter while the sea stormed, Thomas is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. In Dunwich, life is quiet and shaped by the seasons: fishing and farming, the summer visitors, and the girls who come down from the Highlands to gut and pack the herring. Thomas visits his brothers’ grave in the churchyard, sketches the boats from the harbor, and longs for adventure—a chance to go to sea. Then one day a mysterious Scotsman and his red-haired wife arrive in the village. The man's name is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but the locals are soon calling him Mac. Mac and his wife are both artists, regarded as eccentrics in town, but a source of wonder and fascination for Thomas. Yet just as Thomas and Mac’s friendship begins to bloom, war with Germany is declared. The summer guests flee, replaced by regiments of soldiers on their way to Belgium. And as the war weighs increasingly heavily on the community, the villagers on the home front become increasingly suspicious of Mac and his curious behavior.
Mr. Mac and Me is the story of an unlikely friendship, and a vivid portrait of one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation.
Mr. Mac and Me is the story of an unlikely friendship, and a vivid portrait of one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation.
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 11, 2014
83 people are currently reading
1723 people want to read
About the author
Esther Freud
32 books273 followersEsther Freud was born in London in 1963. As a young child she travelled through Morocco with her mother and sister, returning to England aged six where she attended a Rudolf Steiner school in Sussex.
In 1979 she moved to London to study Drama, going on to work as an actress, both in theatre and television, and forming her own company with fellow actress/writer Kitty Aldridge - The Norfolk Broads.
Her first novel Hideous Kinky, was published in 1992 and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993, after the publication of her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was named by Granta as one of the Best of Young Novelists under 40.
She has since written seven novels, including The Sea House, Love Falls and Lucky Break. She also writes stories, articles and travel pieces for newspapers and magazines, and teaches creative writing, in her own local group and at the Faber Academy.
Her most recent book, Mr Mac and Me, was published in September 2014. She lives in London with her husband, the actor David Morrissey, and their three children.
In 1979 she moved to London to study Drama, going on to work as an actress, both in theatre and television, and forming her own company with fellow actress/writer Kitty Aldridge - The Norfolk Broads.
Her first novel Hideous Kinky, was published in 1992 and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993, after the publication of her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was named by Granta as one of the Best of Young Novelists under 40.
She has since written seven novels, including The Sea House, Love Falls and Lucky Break. She also writes stories, articles and travel pieces for newspapers and magazines, and teaches creative writing, in her own local group and at the Faber Academy.
Her most recent book, Mr Mac and Me, was published in September 2014. She lives in London with her husband, the actor David Morrissey, and their three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 281 reviews
August 30, 2016
Thomas is 14 yrs. Old, living in Suffolk, with his mom, dad and older sister. His parents run a local eating and drinking establishment, and he had six older brothers born before him, though none survived. He was born healthy, strong though with a twisted foot.
His life is fairly simple, helping his mother at the inn, working part time for the local rope maker, wandering through the town and the woods. He knows all the flowers, birds, loves to fish and because he is everywhere and people are used to seeing him he manages to over hear things and in this way he knows things many don't. Things are not
Completely rosy though, when his father drinks he becomes abusive.
Mac is Charles Ronnie Mackintosh, an architect and painter from Glasgow, come to the coast with his wife for health reasons. William takes to following Mac and eventually becomes wrapped up with him and Margaret. Things are fairly normal until Germany infiltrates France and Suffolk, on the coast, becomes a prime target.
This is a simple story, a story about villagers living their lives. Some struggle financially, some are afraid of losing their livelihoods, there are tragedies and times of joy. Many of the things we all experience in our own lives.The war will change these people, make villagers suspicious of each other and particularly of strangers.
I embraced this touching story, loved Thomas, all his thoughts and deductions. How he wanted to keep everyone he loved safe. Charles Ronnie and his wife, who was an artist in her own right, were not recognized for their work during their lifetimes. As with what happens with many artists, their genius would not be recognized until after their deaths. Enjoyed the many descriptions in this novel, the setting and the flowers and plants Mac so painstakingly paints. The ending took a turn I didn't expect but it was right, fitting and poignant.
ARC from NetGalley.
His life is fairly simple, helping his mother at the inn, working part time for the local rope maker, wandering through the town and the woods. He knows all the flowers, birds, loves to fish and because he is everywhere and people are used to seeing him he manages to over hear things and in this way he knows things many don't. Things are not
Completely rosy though, when his father drinks he becomes abusive.
Mac is Charles Ronnie Mackintosh, an architect and painter from Glasgow, come to the coast with his wife for health reasons. William takes to following Mac and eventually becomes wrapped up with him and Margaret. Things are fairly normal until Germany infiltrates France and Suffolk, on the coast, becomes a prime target.
This is a simple story, a story about villagers living their lives. Some struggle financially, some are afraid of losing their livelihoods, there are tragedies and times of joy. Many of the things we all experience in our own lives.The war will change these people, make villagers suspicious of each other and particularly of strangers.
I embraced this touching story, loved Thomas, all his thoughts and deductions. How he wanted to keep everyone he loved safe. Charles Ronnie and his wife, who was an artist in her own right, were not recognized for their work during their lifetimes. As with what happens with many artists, their genius would not be recognized until after their deaths. Enjoyed the many descriptions in this novel, the setting and the flowers and plants Mac so painstakingly paints. The ending took a turn I didn't expect but it was right, fitting and poignant.
ARC from NetGalley.
February 26, 2019
A quaint little novel that opens up in such extraordinary (surprising!) ways--it's converted into something way bigger. It plays with your senses--in every way this book is the perfect segue for the autumn season. Cidery crispness--Freud accomplishes the very trick to every successful-and-beyond coming-of-age novel. Our main man Maggs grows just as much as our interest over the whole thing and our genuine care for him & the titular Mr. Mac--architect, painter, thinker.
This one is worth looking for this September season. Read!!
This one is worth looking for this September season. Read!!
February 5, 2016
Esther Freud concentrates a whole range of wartime experiences and emotions – fear, courage, and doubts – into one English village, and one young man trying to make his way. Tommy is a gently companionable narrator, and through him readers get what feels like a privileged glimpse into the life of a historical figure. What with the centenary of World War I, the time is right for reading books set in the 1910s. Although Mr. Mac and Me is set during the war, it is a distinctly offbeat selection, more about family relationships and unlikely friendships than it is about the actual conflict.
(Non-subscribers can read an excerpt of my full review at BookBrowse.)
(Non-subscribers can read an excerpt of my full review at BookBrowse.)
April 2, 2015
In a novel set in the early 20th century on the Suffolk coast of England, young Thomas Maggs becomes the friend of a new visitor to his town, not just a summer guest, a man who stays and wanders the marshes, watches the animals and seems to study all the life in the area. We gradually come to know this man is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish artist and architect. He is a man of some mystery to Thomas and also a man who shows him new paths in life.
Life in this village is hard. There is the sea, the pub, the domestic animals, the marshes. Then there is the war which comes suddenly and changes the rules of everyday life.
Night fishing is banned. And the ringing of church
bells is now illegal. As is the feeding of bread to
chickens, and the buying of binoculars....But there is
one rule that is the most important rule of all. It is
written many times, backwards and forwards and all
round every way. And it is important Father knows it:
no person must do anything to help the enemy in any way.
Freud expresses the young boy's growing anxiety very realistically in this totally new situation. He feels personal responsibility as children do.
There are also charming descriptions of Mr Mac's art as well as the creations of his wife. Here Thomas views some of the pictures he saw created.
The walls have been repainted white, the air is thick
with the clean new smell of it, and all around are hung
Mac's flowers. Each one on its own grained page of
Whatman, the colour bursting from the pencilled lines.
I start at the beginning, by the door, and stare at the
ragged pink and purple of the larkspur. Next is hung the
borage, two blazing blue flowers, and two unpainted
buds to show what might have been....and I stare at a
petunia and see the face of bird in it. A comical bird
with a yellow beard and two beaky eyes and I laugh
because I'm sure I've conjured it, but when I shake myself
and look again, it's there....
I go closer. I look at everything again for what else is
hidden....
This is a lovely tale of family and friendship surrounded by sometimes brutal times. Recommended.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Life in this village is hard. There is the sea, the pub, the domestic animals, the marshes. Then there is the war which comes suddenly and changes the rules of everyday life.
Night fishing is banned. And the ringing of church
bells is now illegal. As is the feeding of bread to
chickens, and the buying of binoculars....But there is
one rule that is the most important rule of all. It is
written many times, backwards and forwards and all
round every way. And it is important Father knows it:
no person must do anything to help the enemy in any way.
Freud expresses the young boy's growing anxiety very realistically in this totally new situation. He feels personal responsibility as children do.
There are also charming descriptions of Mr Mac's art as well as the creations of his wife. Here Thomas views some of the pictures he saw created.
The walls have been repainted white, the air is thick
with the clean new smell of it, and all around are hung
Mac's flowers. Each one on its own grained page of
Whatman, the colour bursting from the pencilled lines.
I start at the beginning, by the door, and stare at the
ragged pink and purple of the larkspur. Next is hung the
borage, two blazing blue flowers, and two unpainted
buds to show what might have been....and I stare at a
petunia and see the face of bird in it. A comical bird
with a yellow beard and two beaky eyes and I laugh
because I'm sure I've conjured it, but when I shake myself
and look again, it's there....
I go closer. I look at everything again for what else is
hidden....
This is a lovely tale of family and friendship surrounded by sometimes brutal times. Recommended.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.
January 7, 2015
This is the story of a young boy growing up in a coastal fishing village in England as WWI begins. It is a story of the times , of a family's woes with an alcoholic , abusive father and a disabled boy dreaming about going to sea on boats like the ones he draws .Through the words of thirteen year old Thomas Maggs, we learn about the village - what a day in the life might be as we meet the people and discover what life is like . Then we see how life changes as the war starts. Sometimes the place is almost a character and that's how I felt about this seaside village .You get the feeling you are there . It's not the same place or even the same war but was reminiscent to me in some ways of The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society .
The impact of the war is evident : Zeppelins fly overhead , The Defense of the Realm Act is enacted to prevent people from aiding the enemy and we see how it dictated the lives of the people of this community - pubs could only be open certain hours , no fishing boats allowed out at night , and the villagers open up their homes to the soldiers , as their sons leave for the war .
A stranger and his wife , both artists arrive in the village and they befriend Thomas and begin to nurture his artistic talent . I did not know who Charles Rennie Mackintosh was before I read this novel . While this is a story in many ways about this Scottish architect and artist , for me it was Thomas's story as he moves from boyhood to becoming a man.
All of Thomas's older brothers before him have died , leaving him as the only surviving son. There are some touching moments as Thomas visits their graves and sees the starlings there as his brothers . The close relationship with his sister Ann is evident as the two of them conspire and steam open letters written by Mac to his wife before Thomas mails them. Thomas wants to know more about Mac and whether the suspicions he raises are warranted . Ann wants to know how to write a proper love letter .
I couldn't help but feel connected to Thomas with his hopes and dreams and I found that I cared what would happen to him . I was also drawn to Mac and his wife and I loved their loving relationship . This is a beautifully written story and I highly recommend it .
Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley.
February 8, 2015
I chose to read this book entirely due to an interview with the author I heard on the radio:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/24/3791310...
I had never heard of Charles Rennie Macintosh, but Esther Freud, the author, has woven a brief time in Macintosh's life, the opening year of World War I, into a novel. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy, Thomas, who lives in the village along the Suffolk coast where Macintosh and his wife have come on holiday (and to recuperate from illness). When the war begins, most visitors leave, since the coast is considered more vulnerable to attack. Macintosh and his wife however have very little money and so they stay on in very modest quarters, continuing to sketch and paint. Mr. Mac often wanders along the beach with binoculars to better see subjects for his artwork, but this arouses suspicion among the town folk. Even Thomas, whom Mr. Mac has befriended, struggles with doubts about the artist. Thomas, who also likes to sketch, lives a rather grim life as the only remaining son of a man who operates a bar and is often abusively drunk, and an overworked mother. There are two sisters, but one has gone into service and the other has some issues (which I won't disclose) through much of the book. For Thomas, then, the kindness of Mr. Mac and his wife, is like a balm. Thomas also wanders the coastline, dreaming of an escape into a seafaring life (and once the war begins, always alert for enemy activity) but is hindered in his dreams by the reality of a "twisted foot" (the shocking cause of which is told later in the story).
This is a quiet, well-told story which will draw you into life in a Suffolk village in 1914. I enjoyed it, and I learned a bit about an architect/artist about whom I previously knew nothing.
The dust jacket of the book is really lovely, with one of Macintosh's actual paintings of a flower (paintings which absorb much of his time throughout the story).
If you want to learn more about Charles Rennie Macintosh, here is a website:
http://www.charlesrenniemac.co.uk/
Here is another review of the book:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/27/3786122...
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/24/3791310...
I had never heard of Charles Rennie Macintosh, but Esther Freud, the author, has woven a brief time in Macintosh's life, the opening year of World War I, into a novel. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy, Thomas, who lives in the village along the Suffolk coast where Macintosh and his wife have come on holiday (and to recuperate from illness). When the war begins, most visitors leave, since the coast is considered more vulnerable to attack. Macintosh and his wife however have very little money and so they stay on in very modest quarters, continuing to sketch and paint. Mr. Mac often wanders along the beach with binoculars to better see subjects for his artwork, but this arouses suspicion among the town folk. Even Thomas, whom Mr. Mac has befriended, struggles with doubts about the artist. Thomas, who also likes to sketch, lives a rather grim life as the only remaining son of a man who operates a bar and is often abusively drunk, and an overworked mother. There are two sisters, but one has gone into service and the other has some issues (which I won't disclose) through much of the book. For Thomas, then, the kindness of Mr. Mac and his wife, is like a balm. Thomas also wanders the coastline, dreaming of an escape into a seafaring life (and once the war begins, always alert for enemy activity) but is hindered in his dreams by the reality of a "twisted foot" (the shocking cause of which is told later in the story).
This is a quiet, well-told story which will draw you into life in a Suffolk village in 1914. I enjoyed it, and I learned a bit about an architect/artist about whom I previously knew nothing.
The dust jacket of the book is really lovely, with one of Macintosh's actual paintings of a flower (paintings which absorb much of his time throughout the story).
If you want to learn more about Charles Rennie Macintosh, here is a website:
http://www.charlesrenniemac.co.uk/
Here is another review of the book:
http://www.npr.org/2015/01/27/3786122...
October 12, 2020
Enjoyable coming of age story set in Suffolk at the start of the first world war. Thomas lives with his violent, alcoholic father, mother, and sister whom he adores. Thomas long to go to sea but because of a de-formed foot Thomas is forced to stay at home, dreaming of his dead brothers and making friends of the old fishermen and the girls who come every summer to gut the fish. He also meets Mac - Charles Rennie Macintosh - who has come to stay in the village and who teaches him to draw. The story is subtle and gentle, although the end was a little rushed. Not my favourite Freud, but still a good one.
June 14, 2022
3.5
Set during WW1 on the Sussex coast. Our central character and narrator is Tom Maggs a plucky, even inspirational (his crippled foot is a challenge) and engaging adolescent . He is the youngest child of the landlord of the Blue Anchor, a windy drunkard and his hard working and much abused wife.
Tom forms a close relationship with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect, designer and water colourist and his wife. They move to his village in 1914. (CRM and his wife moved to the actual village of Walberton, Suffolk on which the author’s fictional village of Dunwich is presumably based). Through Tom’s eyes and from ‘Mac’s’ reminiscences we build up a picture of the great man and his talented artistic wife.
Very atmospheric and rich depiction of rural and coastal England in the early war years and the effects of the war on communities. I was a ‘hooked’ reader but somehow the last important pages of the novel seemed rushed and I found the ending a disappointment.
Set during WW1 on the Sussex coast. Our central character and narrator is Tom Maggs a plucky, even inspirational (his crippled foot is a challenge) and engaging adolescent . He is the youngest child of the landlord of the Blue Anchor, a windy drunkard and his hard working and much abused wife.
Tom forms a close relationship with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect, designer and water colourist and his wife. They move to his village in 1914. (CRM and his wife moved to the actual village of Walberton, Suffolk on which the author’s fictional village of Dunwich is presumably based). Through Tom’s eyes and from ‘Mac’s’ reminiscences we build up a picture of the great man and his talented artistic wife.
Very atmospheric and rich depiction of rural and coastal England in the early war years and the effects of the war on communities. I was a ‘hooked’ reader but somehow the last important pages of the novel seemed rushed and I found the ending a disappointment.
March 23, 2015
Meh. It's oaky. Far more fun was looking up all the flower watercolors mentioned in the book and researching Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Book served as a nice reminder of how interesting these artists were.
January 19, 2016
seductive read: if you start it late at night you may find yourself reading on till long past your bedtime. Fortunately for me I started it on a Friday night, so it didn’t matter that it was well after four o’clock in the morning when I finally drifted into sleep, and I was able to finish the book first thing when I woke up on Saturday. It’s that kind of book: it’s delicious.
The voice of Freud’s young narrator is pitch-perfect. Thomas Maggs reminded me of Stephen in Michael Frayn’s Spies, and Leo in The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley. A boy on the cusp of adolescence, observant, good-hearted and thoughtful – but limited in his understanding by his youth and inexperience. The novel is set in 1914 on the Suffolk coast when the Defence of the Realm Act – nicknamed ‘Dora’ by the village – begins to impact on Tom’s parents’ business and on the suspicions of the locals on the Home Front.
While the Blue Anchor is a billet to an endless succession of young men bound for the front, the hours of opening are cut and the beer must be sold half-strength. The one person still able to get full-strength beer is the publican – Tom’s father, a morose and violent drunk nostalgic for his days butchering pigs. Tom, at 12 and with a crippled foot into the bargain, is too young to take him on, but he knows one day he will.
Into the stasis of the village also comes Mr Mac, an artist-architect modelled on Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
To see the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/11/01/mr...
The voice of Freud’s young narrator is pitch-perfect. Thomas Maggs reminded me of Stephen in Michael Frayn’s Spies, and Leo in The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley. A boy on the cusp of adolescence, observant, good-hearted and thoughtful – but limited in his understanding by his youth and inexperience. The novel is set in 1914 on the Suffolk coast when the Defence of the Realm Act – nicknamed ‘Dora’ by the village – begins to impact on Tom’s parents’ business and on the suspicions of the locals on the Home Front.
While the Blue Anchor is a billet to an endless succession of young men bound for the front, the hours of opening are cut and the beer must be sold half-strength. The one person still able to get full-strength beer is the publican – Tom’s father, a morose and violent drunk nostalgic for his days butchering pigs. Tom, at 12 and with a crippled foot into the bargain, is too young to take him on, but he knows one day he will.
Into the stasis of the village also comes Mr Mac, an artist-architect modelled on Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
To see the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2014/11/01/mr...
June 14, 2016
The Quiet Artist
I thought I knew a good deal about Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I once worked at the museum that holds most of his archives. I taught for a year at the Glasgow School of Art, his architectural masterpiece. But I did not know the quiet artist who in 1914 came to the Suffolk coastal village of Walberswick to paint wild flowers. When British novelist Esther Freud moved there, she came to feel for the talented stranger who was little understood by the villagers, especially given the fears of invasion following the outbreak of war, when on a still day, the guns could be heard echoing across the sea from Flanders.*
To tell his story, she invents another loner, a young teenage boy named Tommy Maggs. Son of a drunken publican, he has a damaged foot, but that does not stop him from patrolling the beaches, making friends with a Highland girl who comes down for the herring season, or spying on the artist and his wife. She, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, and a highly original artist in her own right (Google them both), is a truly warm character and the main reason why the couple take Tommy into their lives, encouraging his latent passion for art, even if he seems solely interested in drawing boats. The Mackintoshes also give Tommy a much-needed example of a loving, supportive marriage.
Meanwhile we see a totally believable picture of the effect of war on a small English village: soldiers in training billeted in local houses, village men going away and many not coming back, restrictions of all kinds, and a general suspicion of outsiders. All is not well in Tommy's own family: his father beats his mother when drunk; his sister Ann has a love affair that may well turn tragic. All small happenings on the global scale, but the people and period detail are interesting and the texture is woven with scarcely a dropped stitch.
So why was I less than enthralled? I think because the action was just too small, too slow. There is very little sense of narrative tension, very little reason why there should be 53 chapters rather than 43 or even 30. There is one historical event that could have been a major structural climax, but it is sort of slipped in sideways at the end and resolved offstage. While I understood that in using a young boy as narrator, Freud had to compensate for his lack of direct knowledge, I did not like all the solutions she chose. To have him sneak into other people's houses and steam open all the letters the Mackintoshes give him to post just makes him less sympathetic. And her solution for the end, giving Tommy the all-knowing view of an angel, involves too strange a shift in tone to be successful.
Especially since we know him to be no angel but a little scamp. But it is precisely that which makes his friendship with the gentle, reclusive artist so effective.
======
*
That bit about hearing the guns; is it really so? I certainly know that the fighting in SW Belgium and the Pas de Calais could be heard in Kent, but that is only a distance of about 30 miles. But the distance from Walberswick to the nearest battlefield would be on the order of 100 miles. Does sound really carry that far?
But Esther Freud is right about the general feeling in East Anglia. People on the Suffolk coast are separated from London by at least one other county, and miles of flat fenland. You would feel very isolated out there by the North Sea, and psychologically closer to the unknown Europe than to your own heartland. That line about the gales blowing in unimpeded all the way from the Urals is very much part of the mindset; I remember it from Cambridge, and that is not even on the coast.
I thought I knew a good deal about Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I once worked at the museum that holds most of his archives. I taught for a year at the Glasgow School of Art, his architectural masterpiece. But I did not know the quiet artist who in 1914 came to the Suffolk coastal village of Walberswick to paint wild flowers. When British novelist Esther Freud moved there, she came to feel for the talented stranger who was little understood by the villagers, especially given the fears of invasion following the outbreak of war, when on a still day, the guns could be heard echoing across the sea from Flanders.*
To tell his story, she invents another loner, a young teenage boy named Tommy Maggs. Son of a drunken publican, he has a damaged foot, but that does not stop him from patrolling the beaches, making friends with a Highland girl who comes down for the herring season, or spying on the artist and his wife. She, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, and a highly original artist in her own right (Google them both), is a truly warm character and the main reason why the couple take Tommy into their lives, encouraging his latent passion for art, even if he seems solely interested in drawing boats. The Mackintoshes also give Tommy a much-needed example of a loving, supportive marriage.
Meanwhile we see a totally believable picture of the effect of war on a small English village: soldiers in training billeted in local houses, village men going away and many not coming back, restrictions of all kinds, and a general suspicion of outsiders. All is not well in Tommy's own family: his father beats his mother when drunk; his sister Ann has a love affair that may well turn tragic. All small happenings on the global scale, but the people and period detail are interesting and the texture is woven with scarcely a dropped stitch.
So why was I less than enthralled? I think because the action was just too small, too slow. There is very little sense of narrative tension, very little reason why there should be 53 chapters rather than 43 or even 30. There is one historical event that could have been a major structural climax, but it is sort of slipped in sideways at the end and resolved offstage. While I understood that in using a young boy as narrator, Freud had to compensate for his lack of direct knowledge, I did not like all the solutions she chose. To have him sneak into other people's houses and steam open all the letters the Mackintoshes give him to post just makes him less sympathetic. And her solution for the end, giving Tommy the all-knowing view of an angel, involves too strange a shift in tone to be successful.
Especially since we know him to be no angel but a little scamp. But it is precisely that which makes his friendship with the gentle, reclusive artist so effective.
======
*
That bit about hearing the guns; is it really so? I certainly know that the fighting in SW Belgium and the Pas de Calais could be heard in Kent, but that is only a distance of about 30 miles. But the distance from Walberswick to the nearest battlefield would be on the order of 100 miles. Does sound really carry that far?
But Esther Freud is right about the general feeling in East Anglia. People on the Suffolk coast are separated from London by at least one other county, and miles of flat fenland. You would feel very isolated out there by the North Sea, and psychologically closer to the unknown Europe than to your own heartland. That line about the gales blowing in unimpeded all the way from the Urals is very much part of the mindset; I remember it from Cambridge, and that is not even on the coast.
September 18, 2014
Early in the twentieth century Thomas Maggs grew up in the Blue Anchor public house on the coast of Suffolk. When his parents took on the lease they had six children in infancy, only two young daughters, Mary and Ann survived, and they hoped that starting a new life would bring them luck, and a son who survived.
Thomas was born with a twisted leg but he was strong; he did survive.
By 1914 Mary had gone into service, Ann was very nearly grown up, and Thomas was thirteen. Life at home was not easy; his father drank heavily; his mother was overworked, and so Thomas escaped whenever he could. After school her worked for the local rope maker in order to earn a few pennies. And he gazed across the country, towards the sea, watching the fisherman, looking at the girls who came to gut and pack the herrings that those fisherman caught, and dreaming of going to sea.
Esther Freud sets the scene beautifully; capturing the country and the community at the very edge of the land; capturing a way of life that had remained the same for generations, and that moved slowly with the seasons; capturing a world that was about to be changed for ever by the Great War.
He prose is simple, clear, and so very, very evocative.
As soon as the scene is set she gives Thomas his voice, because this is his story. She’s very good at child narrators, and that voice rings true.
I was quick to realise that this was a book to read slowly, because each and every short chapter painted a picture that I had to absorb. It was very easy to read, very easy to linger.
When Mr and Mrs Mac came to settle in the area the locals gossiped. Who was this man who spent hours out in the country and gazing out to sea, before setting up his easel to paint landscapes and flowers?
He was Charles Rennie Macintosh.
Thomas was fascinated by the newcomers and they warmed to him, encouraging his own artistic aspirations.
Meanwhile, young men were being billeted in the village on their way to the war, and when news arrived of the slaughter of a local regiment the villagers began to realize how terrible the consequences of that was would be.
There were repercussions for Thomas’s family.
And there were repercussions for his friend, who was an outsider, who looked out to see towards Germany, who had links with Germany and received a letter addressed to ‘Herr Macintosh’ ….
Esther Freud too a real incident from the artist’s life and brought it together with a boy’s coming of age to wonderful effect.
Thomas maybe sees and understands a little too much, but she gets away with it, because her story is so quietly compelling. I was captivated.
The vivid descriptions of the country and the coastline are captivating; the community lives and breathes, and the dialogue, the actions, the reactions, are utterly believable; and the way the war encroached on lives was portrayed beautifully and movingly.
I loved watching Thomas watching the artists; that was so very well observed.
The different strands of the story were balanced beautifully, and my only disappointment was with a little unevenness in the pace and a little predictability in certain places.
So I don’t think this is quite Esther Freud’s masterpiece, but it is definitely a step towards it. Her eighth novel is her best to date, and a very, very good book.
Its images are still swirling in my head ….
Thomas was born with a twisted leg but he was strong; he did survive.
By 1914 Mary had gone into service, Ann was very nearly grown up, and Thomas was thirteen. Life at home was not easy; his father drank heavily; his mother was overworked, and so Thomas escaped whenever he could. After school her worked for the local rope maker in order to earn a few pennies. And he gazed across the country, towards the sea, watching the fisherman, looking at the girls who came to gut and pack the herrings that those fisherman caught, and dreaming of going to sea.
Esther Freud sets the scene beautifully; capturing the country and the community at the very edge of the land; capturing a way of life that had remained the same for generations, and that moved slowly with the seasons; capturing a world that was about to be changed for ever by the Great War.
He prose is simple, clear, and so very, very evocative.
As soon as the scene is set she gives Thomas his voice, because this is his story. She’s very good at child narrators, and that voice rings true.
I was quick to realise that this was a book to read slowly, because each and every short chapter painted a picture that I had to absorb. It was very easy to read, very easy to linger.
When Mr and Mrs Mac came to settle in the area the locals gossiped. Who was this man who spent hours out in the country and gazing out to sea, before setting up his easel to paint landscapes and flowers?
He was Charles Rennie Macintosh.
Thomas was fascinated by the newcomers and they warmed to him, encouraging his own artistic aspirations.
Meanwhile, young men were being billeted in the village on their way to the war, and when news arrived of the slaughter of a local regiment the villagers began to realize how terrible the consequences of that was would be.
There were repercussions for Thomas’s family.
And there were repercussions for his friend, who was an outsider, who looked out to see towards Germany, who had links with Germany and received a letter addressed to ‘Herr Macintosh’ ….
Esther Freud too a real incident from the artist’s life and brought it together with a boy’s coming of age to wonderful effect.
Thomas maybe sees and understands a little too much, but she gets away with it, because her story is so quietly compelling. I was captivated.
The vivid descriptions of the country and the coastline are captivating; the community lives and breathes, and the dialogue, the actions, the reactions, are utterly believable; and the way the war encroached on lives was portrayed beautifully and movingly.
I loved watching Thomas watching the artists; that was so very well observed.
The different strands of the story were balanced beautifully, and my only disappointment was with a little unevenness in the pace and a little predictability in certain places.
So I don’t think this is quite Esther Freud’s masterpiece, but it is definitely a step towards it. Her eighth novel is her best to date, and a very, very good book.
Its images are still swirling in my head ….
October 21, 2014
It's 1914, and twelve year old Thomas Maggs, lame since birth, lives with his parents in The Blue Anchor, an old inn in Walberswick, on the Suffolk coast. Tom's life is a lonely one: his father is a drunk, his mother grieves for her lost babies, his sisters are older - Mary is away in service and Ann thinks mostly of boys and marriage. Tom's days are dominated by his rambles through the countryside, and to the sea he adores - Tom dreams of a life at sea, a dangerous calling his parents seem determined to keep him from. There's little excitement in Tom's life, until the arrival of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret MacDonald; exotic flowers in tiny, parochial Walberswick.
Charles Rennie is as lonely as Tom: his wife is frequently away in Glasgow, dealing with family troubles and Charles fits uneasily into village life as the mistrusted 'foreigner' with his binoculars, always watching out to sea - a risky pursuit in wartime, when all the eastern coast is on alert for German spies and even small, sleepy fishing villages are under threat of invasion and attacked by Zeppelins. Tom and Mackintosh strike up a strange, shy, stilted friendship based on art and nature: Mac paints his flowers, Tom obsessively sketches boats and dreams of the sea. The main character in this novel is not Tom, or Mackintosh, or any of the human players, but the Suffolk countryside itself - the woods and meadows; the beach and the sea; the rolling waves of weather that bathe and batter the land; the murmurating starlings, which Tom names and takes for the spirits of his dead brothers; the flowers that Mackintosh paints and which Tom's mother places on the graves of her lost sons - which is eulogised above all else, the constant, unchanging background on which all else is played.
Despite the tension and tragedy, the constant threats from the not-so distant war, Mr Mac and Me is a very gentle book. Pain and tragedy abound in every life, but the characters are stoical; they accept what life brings, pick themselves up and get on with it - or not. Life is sometimes too tragic for some; those who never recover from life's blows. There are no dramatic highs and lows. Joys come, tragedy strikes: all is woven into the tapestry of a life that has has barely changed in a thousand years.
The characters are well drawn individuals; Mackintosh and Margaret stand out, of course; the discordant notes in this unchanging world. The rest are background, for the most part; highlights in a colour-washed, watercolour scene; they play on a low volume, but all are nicely done. Keep an eye on Tom's father; I thought I had his number, a bit of a cliché, I thought, but I was wrong. Tom's father was the only one who surprised me. I feel I need to re-read the novel now, watch out for the clues.
The ending bothered me badly. The pace suddenly changes and we whisk through the years and Tom's father's fears come to pass despite it all. But there was nothing of letters home, of his poor mother, left grieving and - without spoiling, it's hard to say what upset me, but it did, quite a lot. I thought it a poor ending to such a marvellously slow unfolding of a tale.
Charles Rennie is as lonely as Tom: his wife is frequently away in Glasgow, dealing with family troubles and Charles fits uneasily into village life as the mistrusted 'foreigner' with his binoculars, always watching out to sea - a risky pursuit in wartime, when all the eastern coast is on alert for German spies and even small, sleepy fishing villages are under threat of invasion and attacked by Zeppelins. Tom and Mackintosh strike up a strange, shy, stilted friendship based on art and nature: Mac paints his flowers, Tom obsessively sketches boats and dreams of the sea. The main character in this novel is not Tom, or Mackintosh, or any of the human players, but the Suffolk countryside itself - the woods and meadows; the beach and the sea; the rolling waves of weather that bathe and batter the land; the murmurating starlings, which Tom names and takes for the spirits of his dead brothers; the flowers that Mackintosh paints and which Tom's mother places on the graves of her lost sons - which is eulogised above all else, the constant, unchanging background on which all else is played.
Despite the tension and tragedy, the constant threats from the not-so distant war, Mr Mac and Me is a very gentle book. Pain and tragedy abound in every life, but the characters are stoical; they accept what life brings, pick themselves up and get on with it - or not. Life is sometimes too tragic for some; those who never recover from life's blows. There are no dramatic highs and lows. Joys come, tragedy strikes: all is woven into the tapestry of a life that has has barely changed in a thousand years.
The characters are well drawn individuals; Mackintosh and Margaret stand out, of course; the discordant notes in this unchanging world. The rest are background, for the most part; highlights in a colour-washed, watercolour scene; they play on a low volume, but all are nicely done. Keep an eye on Tom's father; I thought I had his number, a bit of a cliché, I thought, but I was wrong. Tom's father was the only one who surprised me. I feel I need to re-read the novel now, watch out for the clues.
The ending bothered me badly. The pace suddenly changes and we whisk through the years and Tom's father's fears come to pass despite it all. But there was nothing of letters home, of his poor mother, left grieving and - without spoiling, it's hard to say what upset me, but it did, quite a lot. I thought it a poor ending to such a marvellously slow unfolding of a tale.
June 22, 2015
"Mr. Mac and Me" is a book that I found thoroughly enjoyable from cover to cover. It's a rare experience to read a book that evokes such a poetry from an innocent child whose sensitive vision of life is beautiful and kind and heroic. Narrated through the eyes of, Tom Maggs, an unsophisticated but sensitive and wise 13-year-old boy, who is defined by villagers as a "cripple" because of his twisted foot. Thomas Maggs, brings us into the story of his seaside village in the first two years of WWI and describes the landscape with such truth that one can see the ocean and rivers and beach. Tom establishes an awed friendship with "Mr. Mac",the incomparable arts and crafts genius, Charles Rennie Macintosh. With his beloved wife and artistic partner, Margaret MacDonald Macintosh, they have left behind a failed business in Glasgow, Scotland to live simply and share a life painting and drawing and walking by the sea. Tom is drawn irresistibly to Mr. and Mrs. Mac and spends time drawing with them and watching Mr. Mac work. Some of the book's most tender scenes are when Tom Maggs visits his brothers' gravesite. He whispers their names "William, William, James, William, James and Thomas" - six brothers predeceased before his birth. He has two elder sisters. Mary, who is in service at a manor house and Ann who stays at home to help. His mother is extremely protective of Thomas, as her only surviving boy. Mother slaves dawn to night in the pub house kept by her abusive, alcoholic husband. Full of adventure and imagination and superstition and dangers real and imagined, this is a book I will revisit again and again for the pure joy of reading it.
February 8, 2015
So as in several her previous novels, Hideous Kinky Peerless Flats Freud employs a child narrator to tell her quirky tale. The deliberately maimed fourteen yearold boy Thomas Maggs tells the story of a year in his life in which many extraordiary events occured. The setting is the Suffolk coast, the time 1915 when the war has got off to a good start and there are Zepplins in the night sky. For Tom the most intriguing event by far is the arrival of the Scots architect Charles Rennie Mcintosh and his gorgeous PreRaphaelite wife with her glorious red hair.
The novel limps on with Thomas eavesdropping on Mr and Mrs Mac and recounting all the various gory events that occur to his family and neighbours. Though there are some patches of lyrical prose particularly in regard to the flora and fauna of the local landscape and the sea and interesting information on the life and backgrounds of the Macs I found the narrative voice irritating and shallow.
As we move towards the final part of the novel Freud does what appears to be a fast forward , changing from the slow journey of Toms experiences and racing towards the end of the book. Maybe she to was finding it tedious and sprinting to the finish line.
I enjoyed the snapshot of this time in the life of the MacIntoshes particularly as I myself was born i Glasgow and am familliar with the Glasgow School of Art , the Lighthouse and others of the buildings described. Also interesting that Mac like DH Lawrence , living in Zennor in West Cornwall was arrested as a spy as a result purely of his otherness.
The novel limps on with Thomas eavesdropping on Mr and Mrs Mac and recounting all the various gory events that occur to his family and neighbours. Though there are some patches of lyrical prose particularly in regard to the flora and fauna of the local landscape and the sea and interesting information on the life and backgrounds of the Macs I found the narrative voice irritating and shallow.
As we move towards the final part of the novel Freud does what appears to be a fast forward , changing from the slow journey of Toms experiences and racing towards the end of the book. Maybe she to was finding it tedious and sprinting to the finish line.
I enjoyed the snapshot of this time in the life of the MacIntoshes particularly as I myself was born i Glasgow and am familliar with the Glasgow School of Art , the Lighthouse and others of the buildings described. Also interesting that Mac like DH Lawrence , living in Zennor in West Cornwall was arrested as a spy as a result purely of his otherness.
June 6, 2017
Okay, that ending, and the narration by John Banks boosts this one to a 4 star. I think this is what they call a "pastoral" novel? There isn't a great deal going on here other than a lovely story about Thomas Maggs and his friendship/curiosity with the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Mac) and life in a small town on the Suffolk coast at the start of WWI.
Banks' narration was wonderful - he had a young voice for Tom that aged subtlely as he grows older and a wonderful, buttery and rich brogue he used for the voice of Mac. At the end, Tom has taken us through a very quick trip into his adult life, never losing sight of this man Mac. Here, Banks ages his voice to match Tom's late age. Very nicely done!
Thank you to Audiobook Jukebox and Recorded books for sending. It's been about 3 or 4 years since they sent this audiobook? Sorry it's taken so long to finally listen to! If you're looking for a gentle read, Mr Mac and Me would be a good one, and I would recommend the audiobook for the narrative entertainment. I'm not quite sure if I would have stayed with the story to the end - it is a fairly quiet read and the narration elevated the story to an enjoyable one for the daily commute.
Banks' narration was wonderful - he had a young voice for Tom that aged subtlely as he grows older and a wonderful, buttery and rich brogue he used for the voice of Mac. At the end, Tom has taken us through a very quick trip into his adult life, never losing sight of this man Mac. Here, Banks ages his voice to match Tom's late age. Very nicely done!
Thank you to Audiobook Jukebox and Recorded books for sending. It's been about 3 or 4 years since they sent this audiobook? Sorry it's taken so long to finally listen to! If you're looking for a gentle read, Mr Mac and Me would be a good one, and I would recommend the audiobook for the narrative entertainment. I'm not quite sure if I would have stayed with the story to the end - it is a fairly quiet read and the narration elevated the story to an enjoyable one for the daily commute.
March 15, 2016
It was so boring and long and I'm just glad I was finally able to finish it
February 22, 2015
Mr Mac of the title is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the great Scottish architect and painter, best known for his buildings and their decorations in Glasgow (anticipating art deco and close to William Morris, yet uniquely Scottish as well). He believed that his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, was a greater artist than he, and it is quite plausible that this is so since her contributions to his work were obscured in that husband-wife relationship so typical – in this regard – of the time. In other ways, they were a highly unconventional couple, and in Esther Freud’s novel we sense their mutual support for each other under the miserable conditions – amounting to exile within the UK – they were living in during the First World War.
So this is a novel in the currently popular bio-genre, fictionalized biography. It is also an art-novel, evoking the power of creativity within the creation of the fiction – also currently a popular genre. And then it is a story of the First World War, another fascination of these centenary times – but it is not about the diplomatic disasters of the period, nor about the misery of trench warfare or naval austerity but rather about domestic life in provincial Britain, marginally, yet powerfully affected by the war. It also belongs to another popular genre, the Bildungsroman. Finally, it uses a device that is also much in use these days, the child narrator who understands only part of what he (in this case) or she sees.
On at least five counts, then, it fits into current expectations. Does this mean it is an opportunistic, fashionable pot-boiler? Certainly not. Esther Freud is simply too good, far too good, for that to be the case. Her sensitive insight into the view of her child protagonist as well as the two artists he comes to love in his emotionally unformed way lifts “Mr Mac and Me” onto a high literary plane. The portrait of village life also holds the attention and Freud's skills with narrative prose and dialogue are wide-ranging and accurate. The blending of so many genres is not a mish-mash but is held together by the complex weave of the life stories, fictional and non-fictional, that appeal to our sense of diversity and unity in human life. For the space of the novel the reader can share in other people’s rich experiences, while being aware that there has been and will be much more before and after this window is opened. That gives us as readers the opportunity to extend our imaginations and go on creating the world that the novelist has started for us – she sets us off on a journey we will need to complete for ourselves.
So this is a novel in the currently popular bio-genre, fictionalized biography. It is also an art-novel, evoking the power of creativity within the creation of the fiction – also currently a popular genre. And then it is a story of the First World War, another fascination of these centenary times – but it is not about the diplomatic disasters of the period, nor about the misery of trench warfare or naval austerity but rather about domestic life in provincial Britain, marginally, yet powerfully affected by the war. It also belongs to another popular genre, the Bildungsroman. Finally, it uses a device that is also much in use these days, the child narrator who understands only part of what he (in this case) or she sees.
On at least five counts, then, it fits into current expectations. Does this mean it is an opportunistic, fashionable pot-boiler? Certainly not. Esther Freud is simply too good, far too good, for that to be the case. Her sensitive insight into the view of her child protagonist as well as the two artists he comes to love in his emotionally unformed way lifts “Mr Mac and Me” onto a high literary plane. The portrait of village life also holds the attention and Freud's skills with narrative prose and dialogue are wide-ranging and accurate. The blending of so many genres is not a mish-mash but is held together by the complex weave of the life stories, fictional and non-fictional, that appeal to our sense of diversity and unity in human life. For the space of the novel the reader can share in other people’s rich experiences, while being aware that there has been and will be much more before and after this window is opened. That gives us as readers the opportunity to extend our imaginations and go on creating the world that the novelist has started for us – she sets us off on a journey we will need to complete for ourselves.
August 17, 2015
Four and a half stars.
The novel is set in a little fishing village on the Suffolk coast, at Walberswick - an area I know only very slightly. It centres on the growing friendship between the young son of the village publican, Thomas Maggs, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret, who are renting a house in the village.
It is set at the beginning of the First World War although, in such a remote coastal community whose ways of life appear not to have changed much for centuries, you could be forgiven for thinking it set much earlier than 1914. The advent of the war and all that involves comes as a huge shock to the community, when modern warfare arrives, bringing cars, airships, and planes into their world. Thomas, when imagining the warship HMS Formidable, had drawn a wooden ship with masts and sails. He is shocked to discover it a modern battleship. Regiments of soldiers are billeted in the village pub. Thomas loses his job with Mr Allard the rope maker when he devises a more modern method of rope-making. Their world is changing fast.
Zeppelin bombing raids attack the coastal villages and arouse the suspicion of the villagers, who begin to point accusatory fingers at the Mackintoshes, believing them to be spies or at least German sympathisers.
What begins as a quiet thoughtful novel about coming of age, friendship, and a shared love of art, grows slowly into something with an underlying menace. The effects of the wartime restrictions, and the presence of the soldiers all lead to tensions in the community.
What I loved about the novel particularly was the closeness between the Mackintoshes and their willingness to allow Thomas into their lives, to share their interests and love of art. They encouraged him to explore his interests which were otherwise being suppressed. The descriptions of CRM's finely detailed botanical drawings were delightful. The calmness of their sketches lay in direct contrast to the reports of the battles and the bombing raids.
If I had to have a criticism, and really it is only a very small one, I thought the final part wound Thomas's story up rather too quickly. I wanted more detail of his adult life. What did he do with his life? The details are a little sketchy. That said, though, it was a delightful novel, a pleasure to read and another author to add to my favourites list.
The novel is set in a little fishing village on the Suffolk coast, at Walberswick - an area I know only very slightly. It centres on the growing friendship between the young son of the village publican, Thomas Maggs, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret, who are renting a house in the village.
It is set at the beginning of the First World War although, in such a remote coastal community whose ways of life appear not to have changed much for centuries, you could be forgiven for thinking it set much earlier than 1914. The advent of the war and all that involves comes as a huge shock to the community, when modern warfare arrives, bringing cars, airships, and planes into their world. Thomas, when imagining the warship HMS Formidable, had drawn a wooden ship with masts and sails. He is shocked to discover it a modern battleship. Regiments of soldiers are billeted in the village pub. Thomas loses his job with Mr Allard the rope maker when he devises a more modern method of rope-making. Their world is changing fast.
Zeppelin bombing raids attack the coastal villages and arouse the suspicion of the villagers, who begin to point accusatory fingers at the Mackintoshes, believing them to be spies or at least German sympathisers.
What begins as a quiet thoughtful novel about coming of age, friendship, and a shared love of art, grows slowly into something with an underlying menace. The effects of the wartime restrictions, and the presence of the soldiers all lead to tensions in the community.
What I loved about the novel particularly was the closeness between the Mackintoshes and their willingness to allow Thomas into their lives, to share their interests and love of art. They encouraged him to explore his interests which were otherwise being suppressed. The descriptions of CRM's finely detailed botanical drawings were delightful. The calmness of their sketches lay in direct contrast to the reports of the battles and the bombing raids.
If I had to have a criticism, and really it is only a very small one, I thought the final part wound Thomas's story up rather too quickly. I wanted more detail of his adult life. What did he do with his life? The details are a little sketchy. That said, though, it was a delightful novel, a pleasure to read and another author to add to my favourites list.
January 10, 2015
Mr. Mac is the famed Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Macintosh. Me is young Thomas Maggs, son of the local pub managers. Maggs is club footed and has a talent for drawing; his fondest wish is to get out of little seaside village he lives in and see the world. His family spends its time working hard and trying to not upset his drunken, abusive father. When Macintosh and his beautiful, red haired, wife rent a tiny cottage in the seaside village, Maggs suddenly has someone who appreciates and even encourages his sketching of boats in the margins of his schoolwork. Soon Maggs is entangled in the lives of the Macintoshs as he sees lives that are very different from any he’s seen in the village. This budding relationship is threatened by the onset of WW 1 and the warnings the British government publish about spies and traitors; Macintosh speaks with a heavy accent- could he be German? He walks the cliffs at all hours, frequently using binoculars. There are German words in pamphlets in his house; he even corresponds with a German! Could he be in the village to spy for the Germans?
This is a coming of age story; young Maggs has his first romantic relationship, works for a rope maker to help support the family, learns to look at the world with new eyes, and learns horrid fear as Zeppelins fly overhead. It’s also a story about how abruptly lives can change; a village that people come to to enjoy holiday becomes a watchful town with soldiers billeted in it, handmade rope is being replaced by barbed wire, a Scotch artist is suddenly seen as a German spy, people die or nearly die, and people are changed in ways no one thought they could be.
The prose is just lovely; it’s like the words were lovingly set by a jewel maker. Freud made me able to see this little village and feel the fear of the Zeppelins. It was a delight to read.
This is a coming of age story; young Maggs has his first romantic relationship, works for a rope maker to help support the family, learns to look at the world with new eyes, and learns horrid fear as Zeppelins fly overhead. It’s also a story about how abruptly lives can change; a village that people come to to enjoy holiday becomes a watchful town with soldiers billeted in it, handmade rope is being replaced by barbed wire, a Scotch artist is suddenly seen as a German spy, people die or nearly die, and people are changed in ways no one thought they could be.
The prose is just lovely; it’s like the words were lovingly set by a jewel maker. Freud made me able to see this little village and feel the fear of the Zeppelins. It was a delight to read.
September 2, 2016
3.5 stars.
I liked it. Some of the descriptions were particularly stunning. It's a slower-paced book, and I'm fine with that.
It took me a while to get into it because the beginning felt a bit disjointed -- jumping from one scene to another, without real connection. Once war is declared, however, it picks up some steam and the story really starts. I loved the "slice of life" feel of it. Danky knowing how to swim, the herrings, rope-making, things like that.
Next bit under spoilers:
I liked it. Some of the descriptions were particularly stunning. It's a slower-paced book, and I'm fine with that.
It took me a while to get into it because the beginning felt a bit disjointed -- jumping from one scene to another, without real connection. Once war is declared, however, it picks up some steam and the story really starts. I loved the "slice of life" feel of it. Danky knowing how to swim, the herrings, rope-making, things like that.
Next bit under spoilers:
November 6, 2014
Esther Freud’s new novel is the story of a young boy living in a small town on the south-east coast of England during the First World War. One day a mysterious man and his wife appear in the town. They turn out to be Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret McDonald. It’s part coming-of-age story and part war novel. The perspective is interesting because it’s about those who stayed behind and the impact that the war has on them. They are living in constant fear of invasion from across the channel. The story was both interesting and heartfelt.
The problem for me was the writing. I just didn't find it engaging in the way I had hoped. I was also hoping for a little more about CRM's art, or more from his wife (who was a wonderful artist in her own right), but that's just a personal thing. Some of the twists and turns in the plot seemed a little sensational too. In a realistic novel like this I like to see a little less of the fantastical and coincidental.
A lot of people will enjoy this though, so please don't let my view of it stop you from reading it if the premise sounds interesting to you.
The problem for me was the writing. I just didn't find it engaging in the way I had hoped. I was also hoping for a little more about CRM's art, or more from his wife (who was a wonderful artist in her own right), but that's just a personal thing. Some of the twists and turns in the plot seemed a little sensational too. In a realistic novel like this I like to see a little less of the fantastical and coincidental.
A lot of people will enjoy this though, so please don't let my view of it stop you from reading it if the premise sounds interesting to you.
October 17, 2014
Thomas Maggs, the narrator of this delightful novel, is an awkward 13 year old living with his parents at their pub in a small Suffolk village. His world is a narrow one, but when Charles Rennie Mackintosh rents a local house and moves in with his wife, Thomas’s world is turned upside down and new horizons open up for him. Mac, as he is known, becomes a source of fascination for Thomas and an unlikely but genuine friendship grows up between them. But when World War 1 breaks out, Mac’s position in the village becomes a source of suspicion, and Thomas has to face a whole new set of emotions.
I loved this beautifully written and compelling novel. Charles Rennie Mackintosh did indeed stay in Suffolk, and what happened there is based on fact. Freud has painstakingly researched the time and place, and interweaves seamlessly the real with the fictional. The relationship between Mackintosh and Thomas is both convincing and compelling. The novel is well-paced, with a rising sense of menace as the villagers begin to turn against Mac. Descriptions are vivid and dialogue and characterisation authentic and realistic. The book is a real joy, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
I loved this beautifully written and compelling novel. Charles Rennie Mackintosh did indeed stay in Suffolk, and what happened there is based on fact. Freud has painstakingly researched the time and place, and interweaves seamlessly the real with the fictional. The relationship between Mackintosh and Thomas is both convincing and compelling. The novel is well-paced, with a rising sense of menace as the villagers begin to turn against Mac. Descriptions are vivid and dialogue and characterisation authentic and realistic. The book is a real joy, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
July 21, 2015
I'm not surprised that the reviews for this are somewhat mixed. Interesting idea but for me it had several flaws.
I was born and bred in Suffolk and know the area that the book is set in very well. I'd have liked a lot more of a genuine 'Suffolk' feel in the dialogue. It's a distinctive way of speaking and it isn't in this book (Suffolk people do NOT call potatoes 'tatters' by the way).
I also found the child narrator Tom Maggs to be far too knowing - at times he came close to being the clichéd disabled lad with the sharp brain and hidden talents. Then there's the drunken father, the put upon mother, the lost babies .......ground that is far too familiar.
All in all a good idea that didn't quite work out.
I was born and bred in Suffolk and know the area that the book is set in very well. I'd have liked a lot more of a genuine 'Suffolk' feel in the dialogue. It's a distinctive way of speaking and it isn't in this book (Suffolk people do NOT call potatoes 'tatters' by the way).
I also found the child narrator Tom Maggs to be far too knowing - at times he came close to being the clichéd disabled lad with the sharp brain and hidden talents. Then there's the drunken father, the put upon mother, the lost babies .......ground that is far too familiar.
All in all a good idea that didn't quite work out.
February 4, 2018
This is the best book I have read in 2015. This combines the best of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Loving Frank, Starry night, Clare and Mr Tiffany and cranks out a wonderful book that I enjoyed and learned a great deal about art.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, of Glasgow school of art fame has fallen on hard times. The story is told by Thomas Maggs a poor crippled boy from Suffolk county who is inspired by Mac and his wife, also an artist. It is hard to tell who has the most unfortunate life, Mac or Thomas.
The language is lyrical, the characters intriguing. It just a d... good read.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, of Glasgow school of art fame has fallen on hard times. The story is told by Thomas Maggs a poor crippled boy from Suffolk county who is inspired by Mac and his wife, also an artist. It is hard to tell who has the most unfortunate life, Mac or Thomas.
The language is lyrical, the characters intriguing. It just a d... good read.
March 14, 2015
I paid for one book, but I think I got two. I'm not sure which I was meant to have—an achingly lovely but all too familiar coming-of-age story set in Suffolk during World War I, or a paean to the long-suffering, under appreciated, but ultimately vindicated, justly world renowned Glaswegian architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his equally brilliant wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Are we in a pub? Are we in a tea shop? Fortunately, the best writing has to do with nature: the sea; flowers; the stars and the sky. Stay outside and you'll be fine.
August 7, 2018
I've picked this up three times now, and it just hasn't grabbed me. It feels stylistically quite different to Freud's other books, and Mackintosh's story seems like a largely unconnected aside from the story of the protagonist. I liked it well enough whilst I was reading, but had no compulsion to go back and pick it up. I do not feel as though this story was done justice; Mackintosh comes across as largely a dull figure. Mr Mac and Me is largely an underwhelming novel, despite having so much promise.
August 14, 2016
I love the way Esther Freud writes -- such sense of place, music of language without being forced, originality of perception, fully imagined characters. She has a great gift for depicting children, writing from a child's view and being realistic without being childish. I love Tommy, the narrator here, and also Mr. Mac, who is based on the Scottish artist Charles Rennie Macintosh, whom I discovered through this book!
March 21, 2015
This was such a good and interesting book with the story told by a fictional boy about his encounters with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife.
The story kept me interested since my son in law graduated from the architecture school Mackintosh designed and I have visited CRM's House for an Ar Lover in Glasgow. However, I did not like the ending.
The story kept me interested since my son in law graduated from the architecture school Mackintosh designed and I have visited CRM's House for an Ar Lover in Glasgow. However, I did not like the ending.
August 30, 2022
I loved the claustrophobic feel of this novel. The vulnerability of the village folk as they waited for news of their loved ones at war. Esther really captured their longing without lengthy narrative.
The relationship between Mr. Mac and young Thomas is fragile at times, but always pure-hearted and true.
This was a real treat.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The relationship between Mr. Mac and young Thomas is fragile at times, but always pure-hearted and true.
This was a real treat.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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