Homecomings

Strangers and Brothers #7

by C.P. Snow

'Homecomings' is the seventh in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series and sequel to 'Time of Hope'.

This complete story in its own right follows Lewis Eliot's life through World War II. After his first wife's death his work at the Ministry assumes a larger role.

It is not until his second marriage that Eliot is able to commit himself emotionally.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literature, 20th Century, Ebooks

382 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Known British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series Strangers and Brothers (1940-1970).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow

Reviews

[David]

I like some aspects more as re-read from the perspective of my 60s. Still, I find it almost inconceivable how Lewis Eliot seems to be able to compartmentalize his life. I don’t feel as comfortable with Eliot as I do with Powell’s Jenkins. Perhaps that is not surprising, Eliot being a man of science, business, and the law, while Jenkins is allied almost exclusively with the arts. I suspect I could re-read the books for years without ever quite managing to satisfactorily explain to myself (let alone anyone else) why Snow doesn’t work for me as Powell does.

[Robert Ronsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sixth in the series for me as I'm reading in the order of publication. This book was the least satisfactory so far. It focuses on Lewis Eliot's love life and he is at his most introspective. Self-analysis, like the retelling of dreams, doesn't make for a great read.
As before in the series, the mores of the time of writing create jarring moments, none more so than this: I went upstairs to our bedroom, where she was lying on her bed, reading. Although it was rarely that I had her – (as our marriage went on, it was false to speak of making love, for about it there was, though she did not often refuse me, the one-sidedness of rape) – nevertheless she was easier if I slept in the same room. Even the most un-woke of today's editors would tell Snow that the text as it stands makes his protagonist a monster.
Some of the 'action' takes place during WW2, although you wouldn't know it from the almost complete lack of reference to the blitz and its effects, and this introduces a reference that resonates with our current emergency. The civil servants discuss, with scant soul-searching, the awarding of a government contract to a firm with which they have connections: I expected him to be more finicky about the procedure ... in fact as the war and the state became more interleaved with business, civil servants ... had made themselves tougher-minded; nothing would get done if they thought first how to look immaculate. This, of course, is the defence for the awarding of PPE contracts to friends, families and donors in 2020.
On the credit side, the book's final third did develop something of a narrative direction (you couldn't call it a plot). The last 50 pages fair ripped along to a gratifying conclusion but this wasn't enough to overcome the stodginess in the majority of the book where Eliot's snobbish, arrogant and overwrought psycho-analysis of his own and the other characters' motivations slowed everything to a glacial pace.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this installment of the series. It represents another view into the home life of Lewis Eliot, and continues the story of his married life where 'Time of Hope' left off. I don't think that it quite captured how unhappy his first wife Sheila made him, and the potential for happiness with his second wife Margaret had only stated to become evident by the end of the book.

This theme strikes quite a chord with me. A first marriage that didn't go quite well, followed by a second marriage that has left me settled, and which has allowed me to grow as a person. I can't speak for the rest of humanity, but for me a settled home life, underpinned by a loving and nurturing relationship, has allowed some of my early potential to develop. If there were to be a message within this book, I think that would be it.

The second marriage in the story introduces the complication of children. Eliot ends up with two children, one his own, and one who is a step son from Margaret's first marriage. The technique used in the story is to have the danger posed by the child contracting meningitis as a device to bring Lewis closer to Margaret. I am quite convinced by that storyline. I see the episode as the event that made the marriage. After that, Eliot could commit to his wife in a way that he couldn't quite before.

This has left me wondering about what might be the pivotal in my marriage? Was there a single event to which I could point as the decisive moment in our relationship? I can't think of one off the top of my head, but I think that it is worth pursuing. To me, this is the pay-off from Snow's fiction. His ability to frame the story in terms of the lives of his readers. The knack of being able to strike a chord as we follow the narrative. This is why he is one of my favourite writers.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Era într-o după-amiază de februarie. Un soare palid lumina cheiul Tamisei pe când mă îndreptam spre casă, la soţia mea. Fluviul şerpuia argintiu în bătaia soarelui; din coşul unui remorcher un fir de fum se înălţa spre cer, albăstrui ca fumul de ţigară; pe celălalt mal, soarele reflectat în ferestre strălucea prin ceaţă şi în jos, spre Chelsea, încotro mă îndreptam, eu, fumul era atât de dens, încât clădirile din depărtare, hornurile înalte căpătau un contur estompat.
Era într-o marţi a anului 1938; ca de obicei, nu mai fusesem acasă de joia trecută, căci stăteam jumătate din săptămână la Cambridge. Simţeam o undă de îngrijorare, o uşoară încordare a nervilor, ca întotdeauna când mă îndreptam spre acasă după o absenţă fie şi de numai câteva zile, ca acum. De când mă ştiu, din fragedă copilărie, avusesem acest sentiment de teamă când mă apropiam de casă, de teamă de ce m-ar putea aştepta.
N-aveam nici un motiv serios. Era o simplă anxietate neîntemeiată, cu care ajungi să te obişnuieşti. Chiar şi acum, când uneori se dovedise a nu fi întru totul lipsită de temei, ajunsesem, să mă obişnuiesc cu ea. Marţi seara, mergând pe jos spre casă, din Millbank până în Chelsea, de-a lungul fluviului, eram cu inima strânsă, ca întotdeauna când mă întorceam acasă, dar refuzam să mă gândesc de ce.
Totuşi, în ziua aceea, de cum am ajuns în Cheyne Walk, mi-am încordat privirea, cu mult înainte de a zări casa noastră. Când am dat cu ochii de ea, priveliştea ar fi părut unui străin calmă şi îmbietoare. Lumina ardea în salon, – era singura casă luminată de pe acea parte a străzii, – perdelele nu fuseseră trase şi, din stradă, dincolo de petecul de grădină, se vedeau pereţii acoperiţi până sus cu lambriuri albe. Dacă aş fi fost un străin privind de la poarta grădinii, din Cheyne Walk, imaginea unei camere luminate ar fi avut şi pentru mine farmecul misterului domestic şi al tihnei.

[Derran Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Seventh Book in the Series is as compelling as ever

C P Snow’s characters face the ups and downs of life so realistically. With the backdrop of a group of friends from their younger lives Lewis and Margaret deal with a child, their first together, a serious illness and the worries this brings are brilliantly described by Snow.

Arguably the darkest of the first seven books in the series.

[Stuart Murden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've entered the world of the main character in this series. This is the most personal book so far. I'm quite interested in Snow's depiction of life during the late 40's. A world very 'stratified' and class driven.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

7) 'Homecomings'
blurb - It is August 1945 and Eliot is working in Whitehall as Chief Liaison with Britian's Nuclear Weapons Establishment at Barford. The news that the Americans had beaten Barford to the atom bomb knocked the stuffings out of them. Walter Luke, their chief scientist, had wanted to send a delegation to the States to tell them not to use the bomb in anger - not to let the spider out of the box. Then when the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, they were appalled and ashamed. Then the second bomb on Nagasaki left many of them winded. Close on it's heels came something that would make Barford utterly unbearable - a spy.

Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway from C. P. Snow's 1956 novel, "Homecomings".

With David Haig [Lewis Eliot], Tim McInnerny [Martin Eliot], Jeremy Swift [Walter Luke], Juliet Aubrey [Margaret Davidson], Adrian Scarborough [Eric Sawbridge], Robert Lang [Sir Thonas Bevill], David Collings [Austin Davidson], Ian Hughes [Geoffrey Hollis], John Carlisle [Sir Hector Rose], Sean Baker [Captain Smith], and Stephen Moore [Herbert Getliffe].

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sort of hinge in this novel sequence, more personal to Lewis Eliot the sequence narrator than the rest; others (with the exception of first and last of the eleven) focus outward, on colleagues friends and relatives. But this deals with the end of Eliot's doomed first marriage, the lessons drawn from it and the ways he's forced to change, and his eventual settling as second-time husband and first-time father. And because more personal it packs a greater emotional charge than some of the others.

[Mikee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best in the Strangers and Brother series. This is the most personal of all the books, since Lewis is finally outgrowing his love of power. Highly personal, it fills in some of the gaps of other novels in the series, and introduces some of its own. Excellent

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
7/10. As the Cold War intensifies, a spy is at large within Britain's nuclear research programme.

[Giles Denmark · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like this as the best so far as it seems to understand the han condition the best