August

The Jones Trilogy #1

by Gerard Woodward

Shortlisted for the Whitbread Award, August is the life of a family through fifteen summer trips to Wales. Little did Aldous Jones know when he careened over his bicycle handlebars back in 1955, landing next to farmer Evans’s field, that it would turn into the idyllic start to a series of camping holidays in that same field. With Gerard Woodward’s deadpan wit and poignant evocation, August encapsulates the portrait of the Joneses and their growing family. Strangely enough, the rural site seems to change in conjunction with their city life, creating a parallel universe instead of a getaway. The Jones family also is featured in I’ll Go to Bed at Noon and A Curious Earth .

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, London, British Literature

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Gerard Woodward (born 1961) is a British novelist, poet and short story writer, best known for his trilogy of novels concerning the troubled Jones family, the second of which, I'll Go To Bed at Noon, was shortlisted for the 2004 Man-Booker Prize.[1] He was born in London and briefly studied painting at Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall. He later attended the London School of Economics, where he studied Social Anthropology, and Manchester University, where he studied for an MA in the same subject. In 1989 he won a major Eric Gregory Award for poets under thirty and his first collection of poetry, Householder, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1991. His first novel, August, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award. In 2011 he was writer in residence at Columbia College, Chicago. He is currently Professor of Fiction at Bath Spa University.

Reviews

[Justin Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not positive this is a five star book, but it was such a relief to read a book by someone who a) can write, b) is alive and c) doesn't feel the need to resort to gimmickry in plot or prose, that I can't go any lower. Easily the best written book I've read in a long, long time; easily the best character development I can remember. A few reviewers complain that the characters' actions aren't always motivated, and this highlights the one problem with the book: not that their actions aren't motivated, but that everything - death, love, self-hatred... eating breakfast, the shape of mountains, light-hearted conversation - really, everything, is narrated in more or less the same voice. It can be difficult to distinguish what's really important. But that's kind of like life, and [*slight plot spoiler*, but really, there's not much plot] the developments are motivated. Colette gets addicted because her mother died and her children change; Janus is incapable of dealing with disappointment or, in fact, anything; and on it goes.
So if you like early Henry James, but wish he was funnier, pick this up. I'm going to recommend it to everyone I know.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was going no where fast and so I only read 1/2 the book.
Have too many other good books to read and don't want to waste my time on this one!

[Wisewebwoman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Persisted, but ultimately didn't care. Dropped.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sweet baby Jesus, glad this is done! I just did not care for this, the style of writing, the characters, the events, the whole enchilada. I don’t know how this is so well-received by some but to each his own. If there is one word for this book: disturbing.
1 1/2 stars

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this about ten years ago and it blew me away. All re-reads are a gamble, but this one paid off. This is a brilliant book.

The Jones family head off to Wales to camp on the field of Farmer Evans and his family every August. The book gives us snippets of some of those holidays and a little of the intervening time back home in London, over a period of sixteen years. We see the family grow, and we watch as the family dynamics change and gradually fall apart. This is not a light-hearted book. The Jones's holidays and the Jones family are idyllic in the early years, but as time passes stuff happens (don't read on if you don't want to know!). Janus, the eldest son of whom much is expected as a musician, can't cope with failure and turns to alcohol - and he also has a nasty sideline in stalking. Colette, the mother sniffs glue. Juliette and James, the middle two children, are pushed to the perimeter of the family and start to disassociate themselves. And Julian, the youngest, is a bomb waiting to go off. Only Aldous, the father, seems unchanged, bemused, striving desperately, to hold everyone together. The family holiday is no longer an idyllic escape from reality, it's Aldous's route back to reality, a dream that in the last, sad episode, becomes a nightmare.

This book really got under my skin. It is in many ways a tragic book, though it is also a very darkly humorous one. The landscape of Wales is so lovingly described I wanted to go there. But it's the intimacy that Woodward creates that makes it so emotionally powerful. There's a scene with Janus and Scipio his cat that I almost couldn't read. What follows between Janus and Colette is awful, but it's also ridiculous, a perfect safety valve. And as for Colette's descent into the netherworld her glue-sniffing creates - it's so vivid, it's so funny, and it's absolutely horrific. This book starts slowly. It lulls you into a false sense of security. And then it eats and eats into you, until you can't put it down. I have the next in the series ready, but I'm bracing myself.

I'd highly, highly recommend this. Brilliant.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

For once, I am not too sure what to make of a book. This is a first novel written by a prize winning poet that on the surface is deceptively simple.

It tells the story of the Jones, taking sequential summer holidays in Wales in August in the 50s and 60s as the chapters.

Very simple. The author handles the charaterisation very well. We have an eager liberal family who like their camping and we watch as the children grow up to young adults. Most of the drama is around Janus, the eldest, who is a talented musician but deeply sarcastic causing eventual family strife.

The next major character is the mother who, for wholly unknown reasons gets hooked on sniffing bicycle glue and on sleeping pills. Why, we dont really know.

And this is where the simple formula of the book backfires... having years between chapters mean that sometimes it hard to know how the characters are growing and with the minor children, where unless you keep a very close eye, you dont really know how many of them there are.

There is enough dry humour in the book to keep it trundling along, but ultimately, I dont know what the message was. The book ultimately seemed to have no point.

Not sure whether to move on to the I'll wake at noon sequel. I may, as collette gets into alcohol and its set in London.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel follows the life of the Jones family from 1955-1970, as seen through the prism of their yearly August camping vacations in northern Wales. Over the years, the family descends from contented togetherness into increasing troubles and dysfunction. The mother, Colette becomes addicted to sleeping pills and sniffing glue. The eldest son, Janus, while a gifted pianist, proves to be a somewhat disturbed young man and quite an unpleasant jerk who treats his family and associates very badly. I very much disliked Janus - his parents (especially Colette) clearly showered him with love, support, and encouragement and he repays them with cruelty. He was the only character in the book that I had trouble mustering up any sympathy for.
But that's the beauty of this book. I had strong feelings toward the Joneses not as characters but as people. Woodward does not over-dramatize the family's troubles - despite the dysfunction that develops, there is no melodrama, moralizing, or excess of sentiment. The author instead approaches the story and the people with an almost stark and blunt clarity. And he manages to do so with good prose that seamlessly shifts from dispassionate narration to lyrical glimpses of the characters' inner lives.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure about this book. It is certainly beautifully written. It tells of fifteen years of a family's August camping escapes to a random farm field in Wales, and the descriptions of the countryside and the nearby beach capture an idyllic setting. However, the disintegration of the family is harder to read and reminds me of so many melancholic Irish stories. Woodward presents a wry observation of their dysfunction and I hoped, early on, that they would finally find their way. I came to eventually dislike most of the family members, and in the end I didn't much care about them anymore. I understand that there are two sequels - I think I'll pass.

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm on the verge of giving up.

Well written observations but it is endless description and character study and back story, so a little boring as a whole. Will give it another 20 pages, can't say fairer than that as I've already dragged myself to page 92.

I think the problem with this novel is that the author doesn't allow you enough time to get to know anyone before flipping you to someone else and isn't skilled enough, despite beautiful sentences, in fast characterisation. I just don't care about anyone enough to continue.

[Jennifer Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who revels in character development, this has it in spades, right down to the family cat. The narrative is wonderful, and very imaginative.
An English family story is chronicled through their yearly camping trip to a farm in Wales. As the family grows, so do their idiosyncrasies.
The first of a trilogy (2010: my year of trilogies)I want to go back and visit this family again, although with trepidation as this story is destined to become darker.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book surprisingly engaging considering how little happens for much of the book. Some of the changes undergone by the family members didn't quite make sense to me but I could see that the author was making chronological jumps so things changed faster than in real life.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy family become dysfunctional. Some beautifully poignant moments and thoughts expressed.

[Sean Kinch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing good can last, is Woodward's message, not childhood, not family traditions (such as camping in Wales in August), not love, not happiness. Throw addiction into the mix (mother Colette's to sniffing glue, Janus's to alcohol), and the decline can be rapid. How this novel, and its sequel I'LL GO TO BED AT NOON, keep from being depressing to read is the secret to Woodward's art.

[Hilary Doyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lost all interest in this book after about 50 pages. My feeling is always that life is too short to read a bad book. This book was stultifyingly boring, with two-dimensional characters, so it will go straight to the charity shop, while I get on with some decent reading!

[Ann Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made for really hard slogging. I ended up finishing it, but only after setting it aside repeatedly. It has literary merit, it has interesting characters, it has an intriguing structure, but ultimately it fell a little flat.

[Jaskaran Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick five days, random hour reads, and finally managed to finish August by the end of August. Overall, a good read, drenched in memories. Can be boring for some as the first 50, 60 or some pages can seem going nowhere, but once it picks pace it really is pacy and a brilliant book. 💫😊

[Cath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Great characters and whilst no real plot, there was a story-line. Excellent writing.

[Tolkien InMySleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original, sometimes challenging and melancholic

[Mckochan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with each family member.

[Corinne McGuckian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some beautiful phrases in this - written by a poet but the story doesn't really go anywhere

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a ok read about a family who holiday in Wales for many years. There story / lives. Was long winded at times.

[Parksy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Really enjoyed the characters and the flow. Great snapshot of a family and its trials and tribulations.


_______________

Reviewer: "drkennydouglas"

This was Gerard Woodward's first novel, after three award-winning collections of poetry, but from his mastery of the form anyone would think he had a dozen novels under his belt. The loving but troubled Jones family, complete with Mum who sniffs glue and unstable eldest son Janus who fixes his pencil sketches of trees to the wall of the Tate Gallery with drawing pins, are vividly drawn and unforgettable characters. Woodward shows a born novelist's skill in the way he carefully elides whole sections of the Jones' narrative, skipping a couple of years and only gradually revealing crucial information to the reader in retrospect. At the same time, it's a poet's book as well: almost every paragraph has some striking (though often unlikely) image or some felicitous use of language to capture the reader's attention.

The basic premise is so simple that it's difficult to believe no-one has used it before: Woodward centres the novel around the Jones' annual fortnight's holiday in 1960s rural Wales, only gradually allowing the details of the family's normal working life in London to emerge. As for so many families, the annual Big Holiday has a special importance for all of the Joneses: because they always go to the same part of Wales, it has become a sort of spiritual homeland to them, viewed with almost mythical significance. (For instance, when a window is broken in a drunken family brawl towards the end of the novel, it gets patched with one of Dad's paintings of Wales - a minor but telling detail.)

When Aldous Jones first discovers the perfect spot for a family camping holiday after a bicycle accident, the early holidays with his young wife Colette and their steadily growing family are portrayed in glowing prose as an extended rural idyll. However, things very quickly darken and start to complicate as the years roll by: Woodward has eyes in the back of his head for the crocodiles lurking beneath the apparently tranquil surface of family life. Troubled by her mother's death and by the skeletons in her own family closet, Colette develops an unlikely but entirely convincing fondness for sniffing glue - this in an era when solvent abuse was an unheard-of oddity. Tellingly, again, her favourite sniff is the bicycle glue from Aldous' puncture repair kit. Brilliant but mildly unhinged eldest lad Janus also quickly slides off the rails, and by the end of the book the initial idyll is sliding towards nightmare.

Yet Woodward always emphasises that the Joneses (with the exception of Janus, who has real difficulties in relating to other people at all) are very much a loving family. This is what is so disturbing about the book, and what makes it such a fine and original novel: Woodward carefully dissects the tangled and cloying relationships of love and obligation between the family members, and shows how easily they change from something that keeps the family strong into something that is ultimately entrapping and destructive. A bit like glue, come to think of it.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a day or so to think about this book before writing my review. It's different to most books I've read in that it doesn't really go anywhere. I believe that it's part of a series, however, and so this could be the reason why.

The book follows the Jones family as they go on holiday to the same place in Wales over a number of years. As the years pass by we see the children grow up and we see how the relationships become more and more complex and dysfunctional, from the glue-sniffing mother to the passive-aggressive elder son.

The book was written by a poet and this shows in the writing. There is no doubt that the prose is well written. The description is slightly too much at times, but overall works well. The plot, however, moved a little too slowly for me and, as I mentioned, it didn't really go anywhere.

The story was ok and I will probably read the sequel at some point, but it was nothing to rave about.

[Yalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quietly brilliant novel that's exemplary of the art of character development. The plot is thin and simplistic on the surface, but the novel's true power is in the writer's ability to draw the reader in with deliberately suppressed information, deceptively simple sentences that hint at something deeper beneath the surface, and deeply memorable characters because of how ordinary and normal they are. At the same time, Woodward immerses the reader in the lush landscape of Wales and makes it come to life. This novel is truly a great example of top-notch story-telling through character development, and what I loved about it is that it dispenses with post-modernist preoccupations with deconstructing the standard narrative form and simply tells an absorbing story about an ordinary family struggling to deal with change. Gerard Woodward is an incredibly talented writer, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of his novels.

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

August tells the story of an ordinary family from London, who go every year to a farmer's field in Wales to camp out for a few weeks. Beginning in 1955, when Aldous meets the farmer and is invited to stay, until their last visit in 1970, when all but the youngest Jones is too old for a family camping holiday, Woodward tells of Aldous, a promising art student who finds contentment in teaching and loves his vivacious wife Colette, who loves her family and is devastated at the death of her mother. Their children, Janus, James, Juliette and Julian, grow up loving the Welsh countryside.

This isn't a book with a clear plot line. Rather, it follows the ups and downs of the Jones family, changing in point of view from one to the other. It's a book about family relationships. I liked it quite a bit. Woodward writes well and provides a vivid picture of what ordinary life was like fifty years ago.

[Jo and Hali]

This was a really interesting read. I liked the visual language the author used and relied on that often when the literal language failed my minds tongue...I dont speak welsh and cant even seem to wrap my head around the jumble of letters that name a hillside or lake in this book. Still I found that hurdle worth the jump to get through the narrative. The characters were real and interesting enough to me to care for, despise, fall in love with and fear for the safety of at one point or another throughout. The blunt ending made me wish for more while simultaneously giving me a jolt of "well, it was all really none of my business anyway". This book will stick with me for awhile as I find myself recalling parts and becoming aware of what trickery the author used to manipulate my feelings. Tricked and amused and glad to have taken the ride.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about a kind of a quiet, ordinary, got-our-problems family, who vacations every summer in a farmer's field in Wales.

Excitement-wise, it's kind of a brown story, a light beige-brown. The jacket copy proclaims Woodward's book (this is the first in a trilogy) full of deadpan wit. It's the kind of wit I often miss.

I wouldn't want to be the main characters Aldous and Colette or their four (or five?) children, but I was curious enough to follow them through the years.

In a particularly quirky twist of the story, Colette develops an odd habit. Today, there would be a 1-800-get-help line they could call, but back in the '60s, nobody had come up with that sort of thing yet.

No cow patties (except the real ones in that Welsh farmer's field).

[Sandee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nice story. No sudden family tragedy, no one gets eaten, no one is turned into a zombie. This is a story of the Jones family, who spend every August camping on the same farm in Wales. We see glimpses of their lives during these summers and how things can change from year to year.

If you like this, read the series in this order though they were not published in this order: August/I’ll go to bed at noon/Curious Earth

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it hard to really get into this book. Maybe it was the impossible to pronounce Welsh names (of towns, etc.) but for a while I had a hard time figuring who was who and who was related to who. It was about a third of the way through the book that I started to want to pick up the book. It's a bit of a heavy read. Beautifully written but the story of the Jones family is ultimately heartbreaking.