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Blasted Things
1920: Britain is trying to forget the Great War. Clementine, who nursed at the front and suffered her own losses, must bury the past and settle for a life of middle class respectability. Then she meets Vincent, an opportunistic veteran whose damage goes much deeper than the painted tin mask he wears to face the world.
Powerfully drawn together they enter a deadly relationship that careers towards a dark and haunting resolution.
Powerfully drawn together they enter a deadly relationship that careers towards a dark and haunting resolution.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2020
5 people are currently reading
6247 people want to read
About the author
Lesley Glaister
47 books401 followersNovelist Lesley Glaister was born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. She grew up in Suffolk, moving to Sheffield with her first husband, where she took a degree with the Open University. She was 'discovered' by the novelist Hilary Mantel when she attended a course given by the Arvon Foundation in 1989. Mantel was so impressed by her writing that she recommended her to her own literary agent.
Lesley Glaister's first novel, Honour Thy Father (1990), won both a Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award. Her other novels include Trick or Treat (1991), Limestone and Clay (1993), for which she was awarded the Yorkshire Post Book Award (Yorkshire Author of the Year), Partial Eclipse (1994) and The Private Parts of Women (1996), Now You See Me (2001), the story of the unlikely relationship between Lamb, a former patient in a psychiatric ward, and Doggo, a fugitive on the run from the police, As Far as You Can Go (2004), a psychological drama, in which a young couple, Graham and Cassie, travel to a remote part of Australia to take up a caretaking job, only to be drawn into the dark secrets of their mysterious employers. Nina Todd Has Gone (2007) was another complex psychological thriller. Chosen, a dark and suspenseful book about a woman trying to rescue her brother from a cult, was followed by Little Egypt in 2014. This novel - set in the 20's in Northern England and Egypt, won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award. Her next novel, The Squeeze, published 2017, centres on a relationship between a teenage Romanian sex-worker - a victim of trafficking - and a law-abiding, family man from Oslo. It's an unusual and (of course, twisted!) love story. Because not all love is romantic. In 2020 Blasted Things was published. This one is set just after World War 1 and is about the warping after-effects of a global war on society and on individuals. The two main characters, Clementine and Vincent, both damaged in different ways, must find their way in the post-war period. For them this results in a most peculiar kind of relationship and one that can only end in distaster.
Lesley Glaister lives with her husband in Edinburgh with frequent sojourns in Orkney. She has three sons and teaches Creative Writing at the University or St Andrews. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Lesley Glaister's first novel, Honour Thy Father (1990), won both a Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award. Her other novels include Trick or Treat (1991), Limestone and Clay (1993), for which she was awarded the Yorkshire Post Book Award (Yorkshire Author of the Year), Partial Eclipse (1994) and The Private Parts of Women (1996), Now You See Me (2001), the story of the unlikely relationship between Lamb, a former patient in a psychiatric ward, and Doggo, a fugitive on the run from the police, As Far as You Can Go (2004), a psychological drama, in which a young couple, Graham and Cassie, travel to a remote part of Australia to take up a caretaking job, only to be drawn into the dark secrets of their mysterious employers. Nina Todd Has Gone (2007) was another complex psychological thriller. Chosen, a dark and suspenseful book about a woman trying to rescue her brother from a cult, was followed by Little Egypt in 2014. This novel - set in the 20's in Northern England and Egypt, won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award. Her next novel, The Squeeze, published 2017, centres on a relationship between a teenage Romanian sex-worker - a victim of trafficking - and a law-abiding, family man from Oslo. It's an unusual and (of course, twisted!) love story. Because not all love is romantic. In 2020 Blasted Things was published. This one is set just after World War 1 and is about the warping after-effects of a global war on society and on individuals. The two main characters, Clementine and Vincent, both damaged in different ways, must find their way in the post-war period. For them this results in a most peculiar kind of relationship and one that can only end in distaster.
Lesley Glaister lives with her husband in Edinburgh with frequent sojourns in Orkney. She has three sons and teaches Creative Writing at the University or St Andrews. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
April 9, 2020
On finishing a Lesley Glaister novel, I’m always surprised that she’s not usually spoken of in the same breath as some of our foremost British novelists. Not only can she plot a gripping story but her choice of language is always so apt, her characters so real and her narrative so memorable.
In ‘Blasted Things’ Glaister goes back to the early twentieth century to focus on the scars, both physical and mental, borne by those who have been caught up in the ceaseless death and destruction of the First World War. Between them Vincent and Clementine, the central characters in her novel, have experienced terrible loss: of lover; of identity; of place in the world. This suffering makes them vulnerable to rash decisions and misunderstandings which have fatal consequences.
From the outset, the reader feels for Clem. Having lost Powell, a Canadian surgeon and the love of her life in France where she served as a field auxiliary nurse, she returns home to marry her respectable doctor fiancé, Dennis. The latter is condescending, controlling and patronising – a product of his age, his old-fashioned ways perhaps exacerbated by the fact that he fought the war by working in a hospital ‘at home’. Constrained, with a baby she finds hard to love, she meets Vincent and, strangely, there is something about him of Powell that draws her to him.
Vincent, a former door to door salesman who rose to the position of sergeant in the army, is so physically damaged by the war that he wears a prosthetic mask covering one side of his face. Reading Clem as a soft touch, he accepts her offer of payment for his motorbike repair. After all, she caused the accident, didn’t she? Nevertheless, this is not the end of their financial association and the pair meet clandestinely on several occasions. Whilst it would be easy to make Vincent into a pantomime villain, Glaister gives us a much more nuanced portrayal of a man unravelling through no fault of his own. In 1920s England, he is an unwanted reminder of the damage caused by war.
This is a very moving novel. Glaister explores why vulnerable people tell themselves the stories they do. She reminds the reader of the constraints and constrictions women of all classes faced in the early twentieth century, seen in proprietorial terms even by those who love them. She writes of the aspirations that war kills and the corrosive secrets that damage the possibility of a bright future. Whilst many of the characters are flawed, there are no easy judgements to be made. At the end of the novel, whilst Clem’s paper boats may drift calmly away downstream, the reader understands that her future is unlikely to be so tranquil.
My thanks to NetGalley and Sandstone Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.
In ‘Blasted Things’ Glaister goes back to the early twentieth century to focus on the scars, both physical and mental, borne by those who have been caught up in the ceaseless death and destruction of the First World War. Between them Vincent and Clementine, the central characters in her novel, have experienced terrible loss: of lover; of identity; of place in the world. This suffering makes them vulnerable to rash decisions and misunderstandings which have fatal consequences.
From the outset, the reader feels for Clem. Having lost Powell, a Canadian surgeon and the love of her life in France where she served as a field auxiliary nurse, she returns home to marry her respectable doctor fiancé, Dennis. The latter is condescending, controlling and patronising – a product of his age, his old-fashioned ways perhaps exacerbated by the fact that he fought the war by working in a hospital ‘at home’. Constrained, with a baby she finds hard to love, she meets Vincent and, strangely, there is something about him of Powell that draws her to him.
Vincent, a former door to door salesman who rose to the position of sergeant in the army, is so physically damaged by the war that he wears a prosthetic mask covering one side of his face. Reading Clem as a soft touch, he accepts her offer of payment for his motorbike repair. After all, she caused the accident, didn’t she? Nevertheless, this is not the end of their financial association and the pair meet clandestinely on several occasions. Whilst it would be easy to make Vincent into a pantomime villain, Glaister gives us a much more nuanced portrayal of a man unravelling through no fault of his own. In 1920s England, he is an unwanted reminder of the damage caused by war.
This is a very moving novel. Glaister explores why vulnerable people tell themselves the stories they do. She reminds the reader of the constraints and constrictions women of all classes faced in the early twentieth century, seen in proprietorial terms even by those who love them. She writes of the aspirations that war kills and the corrosive secrets that damage the possibility of a bright future. Whilst many of the characters are flawed, there are no easy judgements to be made. At the end of the novel, whilst Clem’s paper boats may drift calmly away downstream, the reader understands that her future is unlikely to be so tranquil.
My thanks to NetGalley and Sandstone Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.
May 20, 2020
A delightfully well-plotted and beautifully written novel!
Clementina and Vince have very little in common except wounds from their time serving as nurse and soldier on the front World War I, some wounds visible and some not. The story follows their chance meeting after the war (in 1920) and the dramatic and unexpected changes this will make to both their lives. The novel is easy to read while also beautifully poetic (‘Champagne and glasses and a stack of toasts, thin and crisp as autumn leaves’), the characters vivid and entertaining - the pub landlady Doll was a highlight - and the plot is fast-paced and unpredictable. I haven’t enjoyed a novel this much in ages…. (or has a novel made me cry as much!).
Very much recommended. Another enjoyable gem from the underrated Lesley Glaister...
Clementina and Vince have very little in common except wounds from their time serving as nurse and soldier on the front World War I, some wounds visible and some not. The story follows their chance meeting after the war (in 1920) and the dramatic and unexpected changes this will make to both their lives. The novel is easy to read while also beautifully poetic (‘Champagne and glasses and a stack of toasts, thin and crisp as autumn leaves’), the characters vivid and entertaining - the pub landlady Doll was a highlight - and the plot is fast-paced and unpredictable. I haven’t enjoyed a novel this much in ages…. (or has a novel made me cry as much!).
Very much recommended. Another enjoyable gem from the underrated Lesley Glaister...
May 19, 2020
Read all of Lesley Glaisters novel, loved them all, everyone so different.
This one is about the effects of WWI on different people. The horrors of hospitals on the front line, amputations, brief romances, death and despair.
How can people make a life after their experiences. Two such people are Clementine and Vincent, whose chance meeting leads to unforeseen events and tragedy. Clementine battles against the restrictions imposed on married women, whilst her suffragette sister-in-law relishes her freedom. Vincent is disfigured and will do anything to get the woman he is besotted with..
Lots of historical detail and good characterisation.
This one is about the effects of WWI on different people. The horrors of hospitals on the front line, amputations, brief romances, death and despair.
How can people make a life after their experiences. Two such people are Clementine and Vincent, whose chance meeting leads to unforeseen events and tragedy. Clementine battles against the restrictions imposed on married women, whilst her suffragette sister-in-law relishes her freedom. Vincent is disfigured and will do anything to get the woman he is besotted with..
Lots of historical detail and good characterisation.
September 27, 2020
Blasted Things is another fabulous Lesley Glaister novel. She just keeps getting better and better - and every book is different and differently wonderful.
Others have outlined the story of Clem and Dennis, Powell and Vincent, not to mention Harri and Gwen and all the other beautifully delineated characters. There is passion and quiet love, sadness and joy, betrayal and fidelity. It's all here - the horror of war and death, of illusions and a kind of madness, of loss and love and fantasy, and of quiet home life that can seem tedious in comparison. The descriptions are immediate and powerful and give a great sense of time and place. The thoughts and feelings of Vincent at the end are powerfully done.
Can't recommend it enough.
Thank you!
Others have outlined the story of Clem and Dennis, Powell and Vincent, not to mention Harri and Gwen and all the other beautifully delineated characters. There is passion and quiet love, sadness and joy, betrayal and fidelity. It's all here - the horror of war and death, of illusions and a kind of madness, of loss and love and fantasy, and of quiet home life that can seem tedious in comparison. The descriptions are immediate and powerful and give a great sense of time and place. The thoughts and feelings of Vincent at the end are powerfully done.
Can't recommend it enough.
Thank you!
March 8, 2021
War imprints and indelible marks– a fascinating new novel
British author, poet, playwright Lesley Glaister is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews as well as a writer in residence at the University of Edinburgh. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has published fifteen novels, one play, and numerous short stories and radio plays as well as book reviews for The Spectator and The Times. Lesley is the recipient of numerous awards for her novels; BLASTED THINGS is her most recent publication.
There is a magnetism infused in Lesley’s writing, encouraging the reader to be drawn into the story line with both beautifully written prose and a unique imaginative approach to atmosphere and character development. Even in passages that address frightening matters, a dark humor invades, allowing a more complete vision of the story at hand. The opening lines suggest the mood: ‘Darling, we have a son. The voice echoed from somewhere far away. There seemed no connection between this news and she. “A son, my darling, a beautiful boy.” After a period of drifting she registered that it was Dennis’ voice. That if was light. That it was over. The child was born and it was a male. She turned to the wall, which was pitted, the paint a sickly green to match the smell of ether. A boy. Cannon fodder. Imagine pushing that paint into all those little pits, the sticky brush, the claggy pigment, the chilly smell of it. But perhaps it would be a soothing occupation? Later they put the boy, shawl-wrapped, into her arms and he snuffled his face towards her breast….She put the vat tip of her forefinger against his open palm and as the fingers closed around it, her heart was crushed.’
The engrossing story unfolds as follows: ‘1920 and WW1 is over. Britain is trying to forget the Great War. As a nurse at the front who suffered her own losses, Clementine has found and lost love but has settled for middle-class marriage and respectability. Then she meets Vincent, an opportunistic veteran whose damage goes much deeper than the painted tin mask he wears to face the world: Vincent had half his face blown off and wants more than life offers now. Drawn together by their shared experiences at the Front, they have a compulsive relationship, magnetic and parasitic, played out with blackmail and ending in disaster for one of them.’
A fascinating, dark story with a bizarre romance, BLASTED THINGS is well titled, a suspense filled read that is guaranteed to titillate and please. Lesley Glaister is one fine writer, one of the more important authors of the day! Highly recommended
British author, poet, playwright Lesley Glaister is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews as well as a writer in residence at the University of Edinburgh. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has published fifteen novels, one play, and numerous short stories and radio plays as well as book reviews for The Spectator and The Times. Lesley is the recipient of numerous awards for her novels; BLASTED THINGS is her most recent publication.
There is a magnetism infused in Lesley’s writing, encouraging the reader to be drawn into the story line with both beautifully written prose and a unique imaginative approach to atmosphere and character development. Even in passages that address frightening matters, a dark humor invades, allowing a more complete vision of the story at hand. The opening lines suggest the mood: ‘Darling, we have a son. The voice echoed from somewhere far away. There seemed no connection between this news and she. “A son, my darling, a beautiful boy.” After a period of drifting she registered that it was Dennis’ voice. That if was light. That it was over. The child was born and it was a male. She turned to the wall, which was pitted, the paint a sickly green to match the smell of ether. A boy. Cannon fodder. Imagine pushing that paint into all those little pits, the sticky brush, the claggy pigment, the chilly smell of it. But perhaps it would be a soothing occupation? Later they put the boy, shawl-wrapped, into her arms and he snuffled his face towards her breast….She put the vat tip of her forefinger against his open palm and as the fingers closed around it, her heart was crushed.’
The engrossing story unfolds as follows: ‘1920 and WW1 is over. Britain is trying to forget the Great War. As a nurse at the front who suffered her own losses, Clementine has found and lost love but has settled for middle-class marriage and respectability. Then she meets Vincent, an opportunistic veteran whose damage goes much deeper than the painted tin mask he wears to face the world: Vincent had half his face blown off and wants more than life offers now. Drawn together by their shared experiences at the Front, they have a compulsive relationship, magnetic and parasitic, played out with blackmail and ending in disaster for one of them.’
A fascinating, dark story with a bizarre romance, BLASTED THINGS is well titled, a suspense filled read that is guaranteed to titillate and please. Lesley Glaister is one fine writer, one of the more important authors of the day! Highly recommended
June 28, 2020
As always, Lesley Glaister has complete control over her prose, her plot, and, especially, her well developed characters. This novel is divided into three sections: Before, During, and After with the middle section being longest and most relevant.
Clem is married to a doctor who’s a perfectly ordinary and bland individual when her true love is the Canadian surgeon she last saw at the front of WWI where she was a nurse in order to deal with her brother’s death in the war.
Class, of great importance in Britain, divides Clem from Victor Fortune, who was seriously injured in the war. He tries to shake her down and is a bit of a scoundrel and conman. Communications between Victor and Clem are often muddled and misunderstood, primarily because of class differences . It is never quite clear why Clem submits to all of Victor’s demands. Victor, in turn, loves Dolly, the landlady of a local pub. I was never quite certain where this plot was going, but it ended with, perhaps, the only conclusion it could have.
A similarity in the reviews here is that readers seem to have read previous books by Glaister and agree that she deserves a larger following. I add my voice to theirs and hope that Hilary Mantel’s front cover blurb and this excellent novel help Glaister get the following she deserves.
Clem is married to a doctor who’s a perfectly ordinary and bland individual when her true love is the Canadian surgeon she last saw at the front of WWI where she was a nurse in order to deal with her brother’s death in the war.
Class, of great importance in Britain, divides Clem from Victor Fortune, who was seriously injured in the war. He tries to shake her down and is a bit of a scoundrel and conman. Communications between Victor and Clem are often muddled and misunderstood, primarily because of class differences . It is never quite clear why Clem submits to all of Victor’s demands. Victor, in turn, loves Dolly, the landlady of a local pub. I was never quite certain where this plot was going, but it ended with, perhaps, the only conclusion it could have.
A similarity in the reviews here is that readers seem to have read previous books by Glaister and agree that she deserves a larger following. I add my voice to theirs and hope that Hilary Mantel’s front cover blurb and this excellent novel help Glaister get the following she deserves.
June 22, 2020
This departure into historical fiction by Lesley Glasiter was a big success for me as a reader. By transferring her psychological insight and her ability to craft complex characters and twisted plots, she has given us a unique piece of historical fiction. Her take on life in the aftermath on World War I manages to feel modern and fresh and yet she never lets her characters stray beyond the confines of their era and circumstances. And the writing is a joy—prose peppered with striking imagery that transports you to another time and place. Highly recommend.
August 12, 2020
#BlastedThings #NetGalley
Thanks to netgalley for this book ~
It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a decent ww1 book. And here we are, at last! The story is believable, and the characters one can relate to. Especially due to the circumstances they face. The only thing I will criticise is that VADs weren’t allowed in Clearing Stations, I think there was only one incredibly rare situation where that happened. But the general rule was no VADs in a C.C.S. But hey, it’s fiction.
Anyway, I give this a 4 out of 5. A book worthy of the WW1 genre!
December 16, 2020
What a beautiful, tragic story this is. Two people, both irrevocably changed after experiencing the horrors of the First World War, meeting by chance and turning each other’s lives upside down.
Clem, suffering an unimaginable loss, is trying to put a brave face on things and get back to “normal” when she’s almost knocked over by Vince on his motorbike. Seeing something familiar and comforting in Vince’s face, she doesn’t want to let him go, and Vince, back from the war, injured, unable to find work, is certainly going to take advantage of the situation. Yet the impact that Clem will have on his life is even more unimaginable...
I was hooked within moments of opening this book - and crying by the end of the first few chapters.
This story is heartbreaking, but Glaister’s writing is so elegant and enchanting that you can’t bear to turn away for a second.
The way in which she handles the most violent and harrowing scenes by describing them poetically is wonderful and original, and her dialogue is so perfect for each of the characters, of which there are many to love, hate and feel desperately sad for. The impact of the war is felt fully between these pages.
Every moment spent with this story was a pleasure - I would recommend this not only to historical fiction fans, but to anyone who enjoys beautiful, effortless writing.
Clem, suffering an unimaginable loss, is trying to put a brave face on things and get back to “normal” when she’s almost knocked over by Vince on his motorbike. Seeing something familiar and comforting in Vince’s face, she doesn’t want to let him go, and Vince, back from the war, injured, unable to find work, is certainly going to take advantage of the situation. Yet the impact that Clem will have on his life is even more unimaginable...
I was hooked within moments of opening this book - and crying by the end of the first few chapters.
This story is heartbreaking, but Glaister’s writing is so elegant and enchanting that you can’t bear to turn away for a second.
The way in which she handles the most violent and harrowing scenes by describing them poetically is wonderful and original, and her dialogue is so perfect for each of the characters, of which there are many to love, hate and feel desperately sad for. The impact of the war is felt fully between these pages.
Every moment spent with this story was a pleasure - I would recommend this not only to historical fiction fans, but to anyone who enjoys beautiful, effortless writing.
August 25, 2020
Much underrated writer Lesley Glaister has set her most recent novel just after WWI.
Clem joins the VAD after her brother is killed in the war. Caught up in the horrors of work at a clearing station close to the Front Line, she has little time to dwell on her fiancé who has rebuffed her when she went against his wishes and volunteers overseas. Unexpectedly, she finds true love in the form of a Canadian Doctor at the station, but not for long.
Returning home, now married to the fiancé, she meets Vincent. He has suffered dreadful facial injuries and having served his country, now faces a future as an outcast. Both Clem and Vincent look for something in the other that neither can provide, and their desperation leads them dangerous measures.
Blasted Things is a moving study of the limited choices of a woman in a middle class, loveless marriage to an emotionally harmless man, but one who has control over every aspect of her life. Caught up by his efforts to use Clem to alleviate his own lack of prospects, Vincent has no idea of how little power she actually possesses to help him, but he doesn’t really care.
This descriptive writing is powerful, and uncomfortable as the meetings between the two become harder to bear and a tragic conclusion seems inevitable.
Thank you to Netgalley and Sandstone Press for the chance to read it.
Clem joins the VAD after her brother is killed in the war. Caught up in the horrors of work at a clearing station close to the Front Line, she has little time to dwell on her fiancé who has rebuffed her when she went against his wishes and volunteers overseas. Unexpectedly, she finds true love in the form of a Canadian Doctor at the station, but not for long.
Returning home, now married to the fiancé, she meets Vincent. He has suffered dreadful facial injuries and having served his country, now faces a future as an outcast. Both Clem and Vincent look for something in the other that neither can provide, and their desperation leads them dangerous measures.
Blasted Things is a moving study of the limited choices of a woman in a middle class, loveless marriage to an emotionally harmless man, but one who has control over every aspect of her life. Caught up by his efforts to use Clem to alleviate his own lack of prospects, Vincent has no idea of how little power she actually possesses to help him, but he doesn’t really care.
This descriptive writing is powerful, and uncomfortable as the meetings between the two become harder to bear and a tragic conclusion seems inevitable.
Thank you to Netgalley and Sandstone Press for the chance to read it.
September 3, 2020
An absorbing, beautifully written book that stays with you long after the reading is finished. The story centres on a very young nurse working in a field hospital in Flanders during the Great War. She sees, hears, smells and lives things that cannot help but stay with her forever, and affect the relationships she forms after the war is over. The story is darkly gripping, but has an appealing innocence too, along with an underlying tension throughout that keeps the reader engaged. All the characters are realistically drawn and make themselves visible to the reader - to my mind the mark of a very fine writer indeed.
September 17, 2021
Structured in three parts – Before, During and After – the opening chapters of Blasted Things transports the reader to the mayhem and horror of a Casualty Clearing Station close to the Front and the Allied trenches in 1918. The job of nurses like Clementine (Clem) and the other medical staff is to ‘patch up’ the wounded for the journey to hospital; many of them will not make it, dying on the operating table or from infection. The sheer awfulness of what Clem witnesses – the results of what human beings can do to other human beings – is vividly depicted. I loved the imaginative metaphors, such as the descrption of the sounds Clem hears as she lies exhausted on her bunk in her cramped quarters: ‘the rat-tat-tat of gunfire, rapid and snippy like the keys of two vast, duelling typewriters battering out threats to each other in a paper sky’. Snatched moments of joy are intense and serve as a temporary distraction. Just how temporary, the reader will discover. The dramatic event which ends part one of the book is conveyed in a quite remarkable way.
Part two of the book, set in 1920, sees Clem, now married and with a young child, suffering the after-effects of her wartime experiences. Taking the form of something between shellshock and post-natal depression, it brings Clem to the brink of a monstrous act. She spends the next few months confined to bed, isolated and in a drug-fuelled haze as a result of the medication prescribed by her doctor husband, Dennis. ‘Months, months after months, a blur. Fingers on the arms, a steel shaft in a vein, sparkle of drug in blood, limbs loose, child cries, someone always looking in…’ Clem imagines her brain as ‘a house with an upstairs room and a basement: the basement locked with a long, serious key’ containing the traumatic memories she dare not face, the memories Dennis urges her to put behind her. Gradually, Clem recovers but she finds herself restless – ‘There is not enough – though enough of what she was not clear’ – and finally determined to assert herself.
Chance brings an encounter with Vincent Fortune, left with severe facial wounds by his time in the trenches. Clem is drawn to him by a resemblence – real or imagined – to someone she once cared about deeply. The mask Vincent wears seems as much a way of concealing the baser aspects of his nature as a means of hiding his injuries. Yet, as we learn more about his background, his wartime experiences and impact of his injuries, he becomes a slightly more sympathic character. I was especially touched by his pathetic devotion to his landlady, Doll, imagining his feelings are returned despite all evidence to the contrary. The events that follow will have consequences for Clem, revealing an unexpected source of love and loyalty, but even more so for Vincent. His is a story of misfortune, not fortune, and the final sections of the book will surely tug at the heartstrings.
As Clem observes at one point, ‘It was normal to be damaged these days, visibly or not’. Blasted Things explores the multiple ways in which that damage can manifest itself and the struggle to overcome it, if indeed it ever can be. The book left a deep impression on me both for the quality of the writing and the power of the story it tells.
Part two of the book, set in 1920, sees Clem, now married and with a young child, suffering the after-effects of her wartime experiences. Taking the form of something between shellshock and post-natal depression, it brings Clem to the brink of a monstrous act. She spends the next few months confined to bed, isolated and in a drug-fuelled haze as a result of the medication prescribed by her doctor husband, Dennis. ‘Months, months after months, a blur. Fingers on the arms, a steel shaft in a vein, sparkle of drug in blood, limbs loose, child cries, someone always looking in…’ Clem imagines her brain as ‘a house with an upstairs room and a basement: the basement locked with a long, serious key’ containing the traumatic memories she dare not face, the memories Dennis urges her to put behind her. Gradually, Clem recovers but she finds herself restless – ‘There is not enough – though enough of what she was not clear’ – and finally determined to assert herself.
Chance brings an encounter with Vincent Fortune, left with severe facial wounds by his time in the trenches. Clem is drawn to him by a resemblence – real or imagined – to someone she once cared about deeply. The mask Vincent wears seems as much a way of concealing the baser aspects of his nature as a means of hiding his injuries. Yet, as we learn more about his background, his wartime experiences and impact of his injuries, he becomes a slightly more sympathic character. I was especially touched by his pathetic devotion to his landlady, Doll, imagining his feelings are returned despite all evidence to the contrary. The events that follow will have consequences for Clem, revealing an unexpected source of love and loyalty, but even more so for Vincent. His is a story of misfortune, not fortune, and the final sections of the book will surely tug at the heartstrings.
As Clem observes at one point, ‘It was normal to be damaged these days, visibly or not’. Blasted Things explores the multiple ways in which that damage can manifest itself and the struggle to overcome it, if indeed it ever can be. The book left a deep impression on me both for the quality of the writing and the power of the story it tells.
October 9, 2020
★ 1.5 stars
I've not read Lesley Glaister before and I was drawn to BLASTED THINGS for it's premise which promised something a little different to what I was actually expecting. As a historical fiction fan, I had expected a lovely easy read set during and after the Great War. A love story? Or something of a saga, maybe? But that's not what BLASTED THINGS is about.
In fact, what is IS about, beyond Clementine and Vincent and their dangerous liaison, is an exploration into the damage left behind after the war. Clementine and Vincent are products of such an horrific time, yet each suffer differently.
Clementine was a VAD nurse in France during the war where she worked alongside fellow nurses Iris and Gwen, under the watchful eye of Sister Fitch. After the death of her brother Ralph, Clementine trained for the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse and, against her pompous fiance's wishes, went to France to serve in a field hospital. There she met Canadian surgeon Powell Bonneville and fell in love. He asked her to marry him, returning also to Canada with him when the time came. But just as he was about to leave and the field hospital was packing up to move five miles further out of harms way, a shell landed in their midst...killing Powell instantly as well as her dear friend Iris. Only she, Gwen and Sister Fitch survived, with Clem secretly miscarrying whilst recuperating.
She returned home to Blighty to marry her fiance Dennis Everett, a doctor no less, but a pompous, condescending, patronising fool. She bore him a son they named Edgar...though I doubt Clem had much say in the naming as she was too busy reliving and mourning the loss of Powell and their baby all over again. Being a doctor, Dennis knew how to treat her and she spent the next few weeks or so in a haze of injections and medications and, I fear, her marital duties.
On a visit to her widowed sister-in-law Harri and after a show of Dennis patronising her, Clem managed to escape for some fresh air and a walk. While on this walk, she stepped out into the road as a motorbike came around the corner and swerved to miss her...and ultimately crashing. Filled with a sense of guilt, Clem feels she must visit the poor chap in hospital but Dennis cannot see the logic. However she is is insistent and he acquiesces...though protesting loudly and often.
And so Clem meets Vincent Fortune, ex-sergeant, but the war left him changed. He is now so physically damaged that he wears a prosthetic mask covering one side of his face and an unseeing glass eye. Dennis thinks this is the end of it but he couldn't be more wrong. Clem insists on paying for the damage to Vincent's prized possession - his Norton motorcycle - which Vincent milks for all it's worth.
The two continue to meet clandestinely, looking for something in the other that neither can provide, leading them something far more dangerous. And while Vincent may seem like something of a "villain", the reality is his unravelling through no fault of his own. The war left many people changed and damaged...and Vincent was but one of its living casualties.
BLASTED THINGS was nothing like I expected it to be so therefore I was disappointed. I didn't want an exploration into the damage of war or those of the limited choices of a woman caught in a loveless marriage. I wanted a light easy read that I so love about historical fiction. This was too heavy for me and not to my taste at all.
The writing, whilst powerful, was at times rather uncomfortable. In the end, I could not finish this book so I have no idea how it all panned out. But from what I did read, it couldn't have ended well.
While it may not have been to my taste, BLASTED THINGS will certainly appeal to many others, I'm sure. I just don't think I was the right kind of audience.
I would like to thank #LesleyGlaister, #NetGalley and #SandstonePress for an ARC of #BlastedThings in exchange for an honest review.
This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.
I've not read Lesley Glaister before and I was drawn to BLASTED THINGS for it's premise which promised something a little different to what I was actually expecting. As a historical fiction fan, I had expected a lovely easy read set during and after the Great War. A love story? Or something of a saga, maybe? But that's not what BLASTED THINGS is about.
In fact, what is IS about, beyond Clementine and Vincent and their dangerous liaison, is an exploration into the damage left behind after the war. Clementine and Vincent are products of such an horrific time, yet each suffer differently.
Clementine was a VAD nurse in France during the war where she worked alongside fellow nurses Iris and Gwen, under the watchful eye of Sister Fitch. After the death of her brother Ralph, Clementine trained for the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse and, against her pompous fiance's wishes, went to France to serve in a field hospital. There she met Canadian surgeon Powell Bonneville and fell in love. He asked her to marry him, returning also to Canada with him when the time came. But just as he was about to leave and the field hospital was packing up to move five miles further out of harms way, a shell landed in their midst...killing Powell instantly as well as her dear friend Iris. Only she, Gwen and Sister Fitch survived, with Clem secretly miscarrying whilst recuperating.
She returned home to Blighty to marry her fiance Dennis Everett, a doctor no less, but a pompous, condescending, patronising fool. She bore him a son they named Edgar...though I doubt Clem had much say in the naming as she was too busy reliving and mourning the loss of Powell and their baby all over again. Being a doctor, Dennis knew how to treat her and she spent the next few weeks or so in a haze of injections and medications and, I fear, her marital duties.
On a visit to her widowed sister-in-law Harri and after a show of Dennis patronising her, Clem managed to escape for some fresh air and a walk. While on this walk, she stepped out into the road as a motorbike came around the corner and swerved to miss her...and ultimately crashing. Filled with a sense of guilt, Clem feels she must visit the poor chap in hospital but Dennis cannot see the logic. However she is is insistent and he acquiesces...though protesting loudly and often.
And so Clem meets Vincent Fortune, ex-sergeant, but the war left him changed. He is now so physically damaged that he wears a prosthetic mask covering one side of his face and an unseeing glass eye. Dennis thinks this is the end of it but he couldn't be more wrong. Clem insists on paying for the damage to Vincent's prized possession - his Norton motorcycle - which Vincent milks for all it's worth.
The two continue to meet clandestinely, looking for something in the other that neither can provide, leading them something far more dangerous. And while Vincent may seem like something of a "villain", the reality is his unravelling through no fault of his own. The war left many people changed and damaged...and Vincent was but one of its living casualties.
BLASTED THINGS was nothing like I expected it to be so therefore I was disappointed. I didn't want an exploration into the damage of war or those of the limited choices of a woman caught in a loveless marriage. I wanted a light easy read that I so love about historical fiction. This was too heavy for me and not to my taste at all.
The writing, whilst powerful, was at times rather uncomfortable. In the end, I could not finish this book so I have no idea how it all panned out. But from what I did read, it couldn't have ended well.
While it may not have been to my taste, BLASTED THINGS will certainly appeal to many others, I'm sure. I just don't think I was the right kind of audience.
I would like to thank #LesleyGlaister, #NetGalley and #SandstonePress for an ARC of #BlastedThings in exchange for an honest review.
This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.
November 2, 2024
A vivid illustration of the constrictions of a life as a middle class 1920s wife, contrasting with earlier freedom and responsibility in WW1 clearing stations. Sad, tense, and a push-pull of emotion as Clem negotiates the changes in her situation while not entirely compos mentis herself.
Re-read, having forgotten how it ended. so many characters possess both reasons to like and reasons to equally dislike, sadness interwoven.
And, a year later, read again, remembering only that I much enjoyed it, and what I first said still stands.
Re-read, having forgotten how it ended. so many characters possess both reasons to like and reasons to equally dislike, sadness interwoven.
And, a year later, read again, remembering only that I much enjoyed it, and what I first said still stands.
April 28, 2021
A compelling read. Every emotion is there, subtle humour, tragedy, warmth, sadness. A gripping storyline so well told with all the senses and feelings totally apt to whatever type of character.
August 14, 2022
Lesley Glaister is one of my favourite writers so when I found one I hadn't read I had to get it. I like the way she usually has something dark beneath the fractured character she creates, although in this one, we see the issue that makes Clementine fractured as it happens. Glaister is great at portraying character, and I feel she did that well - I could really picture Clem, her austere husband Dennis, his sister Harri, her ex colleague Gwen, and of course the ultimately monstrous Vincent. I was struck by the high praise on the cover by Hilary Mantel, which suggests that its historical credentials would be top notch. I don;t have any quibble with the historical side, although I thought it was a little light.
Yes, it is set as the First World War ends, and there was clearly some research done. Indeed, 'plastic surgery' as we know it today was in its infancy and many men did indeed get their faces shattered as they peered over the trench, and were aided with a tin-plate likeness of a face suspended by spectacles (if they still had ears). It brought into startling relief the tragedy of men getting disfigured after giving their all, and their body parts, for their country, then the same country shuns them afterwards. Thus the character of Vincent emerges, his character twisted by this treatment, working on his next move to secure his future, but his ultimate nastiness and jealousy finally getting the better of him.
I enjoyed the book, but felt let down at the end. I was expecting to see Dennis blow his top when he found out what Clem had been up to, but we never really got that. He figured it out by putting things together but then immediately rolled over to hang on to his wife in the light of the way she would have been implicated by Vincent's actions. Somehow I didn't find that credible. As a Doctor, I am sure he could have had his pick of ladies to remarry if this marriage failed. He wasn't drawn in sufficient detail for us to know if he was also desperate for some reason to hang on to Clem, save for the general shame of divorce that we know about anyway but was never discussed.
Glaister did what she always does, I think; a fascinating study of character. The historical backdrop was just that. This could have been Easy Peasy, or As Far as You can Go, or any of the others really, it's just that this one a was set in that era.
As such, I was disappointed in the ending. Clem got off with all her lying, and Vincent... well. I won't declare his fate here, but I think he was the true subject of the novel. I really did enjoy seeing him from the point of view of Ted, as the poor chap was so engrossed in his own fantasy about a future with Doll, so his first person narrative was an excellently unreliable one. The decorating of the pub being a good example of this, how he thought it was marvellous but Doll had to have it redone properly.
Because the ending seemed to concentrate on Vincent, it seemed to stop, fairly suddenly. I would have liked to see a better reaction from Dennis. This is why I couldn't give it the full 5 stars.
Yes, it is set as the First World War ends, and there was clearly some research done. Indeed, 'plastic surgery' as we know it today was in its infancy and many men did indeed get their faces shattered as they peered over the trench, and were aided with a tin-plate likeness of a face suspended by spectacles (if they still had ears). It brought into startling relief the tragedy of men getting disfigured after giving their all, and their body parts, for their country, then the same country shuns them afterwards. Thus the character of Vincent emerges, his character twisted by this treatment, working on his next move to secure his future, but his ultimate nastiness and jealousy finally getting the better of him.
I enjoyed the book, but felt let down at the end. I was expecting to see Dennis blow his top when he found out what Clem had been up to, but we never really got that. He figured it out by putting things together but then immediately rolled over to hang on to his wife in the light of the way she would have been implicated by Vincent's actions. Somehow I didn't find that credible. As a Doctor, I am sure he could have had his pick of ladies to remarry if this marriage failed. He wasn't drawn in sufficient detail for us to know if he was also desperate for some reason to hang on to Clem, save for the general shame of divorce that we know about anyway but was never discussed.
Glaister did what she always does, I think; a fascinating study of character. The historical backdrop was just that. This could have been Easy Peasy, or As Far as You can Go, or any of the others really, it's just that this one a was set in that era.
As such, I was disappointed in the ending. Clem got off with all her lying, and Vincent... well. I won't declare his fate here, but I think he was the true subject of the novel. I really did enjoy seeing him from the point of view of Ted, as the poor chap was so engrossed in his own fantasy about a future with Doll, so his first person narrative was an excellently unreliable one. The decorating of the pub being a good example of this, how he thought it was marvellous but Doll had to have it redone properly.
Because the ending seemed to concentrate on Vincent, it seemed to stop, fairly suddenly. I would have liked to see a better reaction from Dennis. This is why I couldn't give it the full 5 stars.
September 17, 2021
This narrative seemed to follow quite an unexpected path while I was reading it. I was already hooked by the first couple of chapters reading flashbacks to Clementine’s time on the frontline and the devastating pain and loss she suffers. It shocked me and Glaister’s way of writing is so clever that it really brings to the forefront of our imaginations of the horrors of the war. What is interesting is this book focusses on life after the Great War, following the lives of Clementine and Vincent who try to live normal lives but are unable to forget past traumas. This inability to forget and the haunting past regularly interrupts the flow of the narrative, purposefully and deliberately, making even the reader hard to move on from thinking about their past. I found this use of writing style effective and jarring.
Clementine and Vincent are both odd characters, pulled together only by their common experiences of the Great War, where they both feel seen and are able to seek some form of gain from the other. It soon turns out that Vince is the villain in this story. However, we equally see his vulnerability through the narrative and in some way can perhaps empathise with his current state of mind and desire to achieve a more comfortable lifestyle.
Lastly I would say this is quietly understated but no less moving as it immerses the reader into these characters’ lives and getting a sense of what their futures may hold. The narrative is distinct and memorable and will stay with the reader long after reading.
Clementine and Vincent are both odd characters, pulled together only by their common experiences of the Great War, where they both feel seen and are able to seek some form of gain from the other. It soon turns out that Vince is the villain in this story. However, we equally see his vulnerability through the narrative and in some way can perhaps empathise with his current state of mind and desire to achieve a more comfortable lifestyle.
Lastly I would say this is quietly understated but no less moving as it immerses the reader into these characters’ lives and getting a sense of what their futures may hold. The narrative is distinct and memorable and will stay with the reader long after reading.
September 24, 2024
Blasted Things by Lesley Glaister is a beautifully written novel. I listened to the audiobook version, and Danielle Cohen (narrator) did a fabulous job bringing the characters to life. As Clementine, a frontline nurse, tries to navigate her post WWI life, she struggles to understand herself while also trying to settle into the woman she’s expected to be as a wife. Meeting a damaged sergeant changes everything and brings new complications to her life. This audiobook was powerful and emotional with flawed dynamic characters. I did find the pacing a bit slow, but I do think it is worth the read for lovers of WWI era historical fiction and complicated romances. Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
May 3, 2021
Clem, a VAD nurse at the front during WW1, is left heartbroken after her lover is killed. Returning home she marries, whilst still suffering grief and post-traumatic stress. Vince too, post-war, is left shell-shocked and with life changing injuries which means he wears a prosthetic to hide where half his face was blown off. They meet and so begins a tangled relationship which leads to tragedy.
The characters are richly drawn, the description and sense of place and period absorbing. There is despair and yet, also hope, - for one of the protagonists at least. This is Lesley Glaister's best book yet.
The characters are richly drawn, the description and sense of place and period absorbing. There is despair and yet, also hope, - for one of the protagonists at least. This is Lesley Glaister's best book yet.
September 9, 2021
I was sent a copy of Blasted Things by Lesley Glaister to read and review by NetGalley. I love Lesley Glaister’s writing, she really knows her characters and manages to get the reader right inside their heads. No matter what the era that one of her novels is set or who the protagonists are the insight into the human psyche is astonishing. I for one get totally involved in the stories she weaves and this is no exception. Well crafted and emotive this is a story of love, loss, guilt, shame and conscience. A well earned 4 stars, teetering on the brink of 5.
June 11, 2024
More than anything else, Lesley Glaister´s book seems to be a chilling reminder of the rigidity and injustice of class boundaries that existed in early 20th Century Britain and that still have a grasp on society today.
I particularly enjoyed her characterisation of Doll, brought to life on the page through Vince´s love for her. Although Doll isn´t one of the main protagonists, I found her more vivid than any other character in the book. She reminds me of Glaister´s character, Olive Owens in her much earlier book, Trick or Treat, who has "a voluptuous, blousy beauty about her".
As always, Glaister exposes the darkness lurking underneath seemingly presentable and even at times attractive facades. Her use of masks and disguise, both real, in the case of Vince, and conjured up, with Clementine, is a clever motif throughout the book.
I found the use of language, particularly descriptive and evocative vocabularly more repetitive and not as highly charged and sparkling as in Glaister´s earlier work but perhaps this is down to editorial cuts and choices? For example, two different characters both "wince" in an exchange, one line after the other. I´m not sure if this is a deliberate use of emphasis to highlight the awkwardness of their shared encounter or an editiorial oversight?
Lesley Glaister remains one of my favourite writers and I enjoyed this book, but more for the themes it raises and its clever, fatalistic plot than for her use of language which is usually such a delicious treat to read.
I particularly enjoyed her characterisation of Doll, brought to life on the page through Vince´s love for her. Although Doll isn´t one of the main protagonists, I found her more vivid than any other character in the book. She reminds me of Glaister´s character, Olive Owens in her much earlier book, Trick or Treat, who has "a voluptuous, blousy beauty about her".
As always, Glaister exposes the darkness lurking underneath seemingly presentable and even at times attractive facades. Her use of masks and disguise, both real, in the case of Vince, and conjured up, with Clementine, is a clever motif throughout the book.
I found the use of language, particularly descriptive and evocative vocabularly more repetitive and not as highly charged and sparkling as in Glaister´s earlier work but perhaps this is down to editorial cuts and choices? For example, two different characters both "wince" in an exchange, one line after the other. I´m not sure if this is a deliberate use of emphasis to highlight the awkwardness of their shared encounter or an editiorial oversight?
Lesley Glaister remains one of my favourite writers and I enjoyed this book, but more for the themes it raises and its clever, fatalistic plot than for her use of language which is usually such a delicious treat to read.
September 21, 2021
At the end of 1917, Clementine volunteers to become a VAD nurse on the frontlines, doing all she can to help the poor wretches injured in battle as a way to find some sort of peace over the death of her younger brother in the trenches. Dirty, exhausted and emotionally drained she has little time to think of the GP fiancé Dennis she has left behind in leafy Surrey, let alone find the time and energy to keep up any sort of correspondence with him.
This is a place where every small comfort is clutched at in the fleeting moments between death and bloody mayhem - a hasty cigarette, a fitful few hours of sleep, a selfless act of kindness for a dying man to remind you that you are human - but somehow amid this hell, Clementine finds true love with a Canadian doctor called Powell. Their passionate affair and depth of feeling sustaining them through the nightmare they live day to day, as they look ahead to the time when they can settle into married life after this terrible conflict, and make a future for themselves with the child Clementine secretly carries. But then tragedy strikes. Powell is killed when their field unit comes under bombardment, and in the hazy traumatic days that follow, Clementine miscarries her baby.
The story then moves to 1920. In a Britain that is desperate to forget the war to end all wars, Clementine is now married to Dennis and expected to live the life of a respectable rural GP's wife. She has given birth to a son, but rather than bringing her joy, this event only reminds her of the child that never lived and the loss of the man she loved - none of which she has ever told her husband about. Consumed by memories of the past, Clementine succumbs to a breakdown that keeps her confined to her room for days on end, moving between a murky awareness of the time passing around her and the oblivion of drugged sleep.
As the months pass, Clementine gradually comes back to herself and achieves a fragile, if numb existence. But this is not quite the recovery Dennis believes it to be and he remains blissfully unaware of the memories that haunt her about her wartime experiences, especially since he never served in the trenches himself. During a visit to Dennis' sister Harri, who is also a war widow, Clementine feels the desperate need to escape their constant bickering about whether or not Harri should return to the family home under the control of Dennis. Fleeing the house she is almost knocked over by a male motorcyclist who for some fathomless reason reminds her of Powell - it is a meeting that becomes fateful for them both.
The motorcyclist is a man called Vincent. A former door-to-door salesman who was profoundly injured in the war, and who now wears a tin mask to cover the devastation of his half ruined face. Clementine finds herself drawn to this man, seeing him as a kindred spirit, and Vincent is not beyond preying on her fixation with him to manipulate the relationship to his advantage, even into the realms of blackmail. As events spiral out of control, the secrets and lies begin to mount up until a violent resolution to their twisted association becomes inevitable.
Blasted Things is a wonderful novel that evokes such a feeling of time and place, and examines the legacy of unresolved trauma, grief and the mourning for lives which will never be lived. Set in one of my favourite periods of history, this novel is intriguingly unlike anything I have ever read about how the events of the Great War marked the lives of those who lived at this time, because is it shines a light on the trauma experienced by the women who served at the front through the eyes of Clementine. In many ways this turns a story about the legacy of the horror of WWI on its head, because Clementine comes home from the front to marriage with a man who is unable to even to begin to comprehend what she has gone through, and even though she is unable to share the full truth of the past with Dennis he still blunders onwards with thoughtless witticisms and petty controlling behaviours that will obviously cause her pain.
Unsurprisingly, Clementine is desperate for a way to share the secret heartbreak she hides inside, and it is this that draws her into the clutches of a man like Vincent - a man with secret sorrows of his own, not just a half-ruined face that he keeps hidden behind a tin mask. However, Vincent is not the man Clementine judges him to be. I really enjoyed the way in which Glaister uses the idea of physical and mental trauma to compare and contrast the stories of Clementine and Vincent, each profoundly scarred and hiding their wounds in different ways - Vincent wears a mask to hide the worst of what the war has done to him, but Clementine's injuries are every bit as debilitating even though she holds then deep inside. Both are flawed in their own way, caught up in a twisted association that will bring them harm, but they are also capable of redemption - and strangely their meeting, while also leading them down a dark path, does ultimately bring this too. Even Vincent shows a certain nobility of spirit at the end, despite all he has done.
But this a book that encompasses so much more than focussing on the relationship of two damaged individuals. This is certainly a quietly devastating portrayal of heartbreak, loss, and what it means to be human, with threads that bring in equally dark themes of guilt, shame and reputation, but there are so many moments of gold among the sorrow as Glaister also touches on female sexuality and the freedom many women found after the war through the stories of Harri, the irreverent Gwen, and Vincent's object of desire Doll. There are many intimate and tender moments, even some chuckles to be had from Gwen and Harri, that bring in a warmth and lightness to the piece among the more heartrending episodes.
This may sound a gruelling read, but I can honestly tell you that this novel was an absolute delight to devour from cover to cover. Glaister's writing is simply wonderful and I cannot believe I have not read any of her books before now. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - particularly if you enjoy the very best that historical fiction has to offer, and have a fascination with WWI and the time between the wars.
This is a place where every small comfort is clutched at in the fleeting moments between death and bloody mayhem - a hasty cigarette, a fitful few hours of sleep, a selfless act of kindness for a dying man to remind you that you are human - but somehow amid this hell, Clementine finds true love with a Canadian doctor called Powell. Their passionate affair and depth of feeling sustaining them through the nightmare they live day to day, as they look ahead to the time when they can settle into married life after this terrible conflict, and make a future for themselves with the child Clementine secretly carries. But then tragedy strikes. Powell is killed when their field unit comes under bombardment, and in the hazy traumatic days that follow, Clementine miscarries her baby.
The story then moves to 1920. In a Britain that is desperate to forget the war to end all wars, Clementine is now married to Dennis and expected to live the life of a respectable rural GP's wife. She has given birth to a son, but rather than bringing her joy, this event only reminds her of the child that never lived and the loss of the man she loved - none of which she has ever told her husband about. Consumed by memories of the past, Clementine succumbs to a breakdown that keeps her confined to her room for days on end, moving between a murky awareness of the time passing around her and the oblivion of drugged sleep.
As the months pass, Clementine gradually comes back to herself and achieves a fragile, if numb existence. But this is not quite the recovery Dennis believes it to be and he remains blissfully unaware of the memories that haunt her about her wartime experiences, especially since he never served in the trenches himself. During a visit to Dennis' sister Harri, who is also a war widow, Clementine feels the desperate need to escape their constant bickering about whether or not Harri should return to the family home under the control of Dennis. Fleeing the house she is almost knocked over by a male motorcyclist who for some fathomless reason reminds her of Powell - it is a meeting that becomes fateful for them both.
The motorcyclist is a man called Vincent. A former door-to-door salesman who was profoundly injured in the war, and who now wears a tin mask to cover the devastation of his half ruined face. Clementine finds herself drawn to this man, seeing him as a kindred spirit, and Vincent is not beyond preying on her fixation with him to manipulate the relationship to his advantage, even into the realms of blackmail. As events spiral out of control, the secrets and lies begin to mount up until a violent resolution to their twisted association becomes inevitable.
Blasted Things is a wonderful novel that evokes such a feeling of time and place, and examines the legacy of unresolved trauma, grief and the mourning for lives which will never be lived. Set in one of my favourite periods of history, this novel is intriguingly unlike anything I have ever read about how the events of the Great War marked the lives of those who lived at this time, because is it shines a light on the trauma experienced by the women who served at the front through the eyes of Clementine. In many ways this turns a story about the legacy of the horror of WWI on its head, because Clementine comes home from the front to marriage with a man who is unable to even to begin to comprehend what she has gone through, and even though she is unable to share the full truth of the past with Dennis he still blunders onwards with thoughtless witticisms and petty controlling behaviours that will obviously cause her pain.
Unsurprisingly, Clementine is desperate for a way to share the secret heartbreak she hides inside, and it is this that draws her into the clutches of a man like Vincent - a man with secret sorrows of his own, not just a half-ruined face that he keeps hidden behind a tin mask. However, Vincent is not the man Clementine judges him to be. I really enjoyed the way in which Glaister uses the idea of physical and mental trauma to compare and contrast the stories of Clementine and Vincent, each profoundly scarred and hiding their wounds in different ways - Vincent wears a mask to hide the worst of what the war has done to him, but Clementine's injuries are every bit as debilitating even though she holds then deep inside. Both are flawed in their own way, caught up in a twisted association that will bring them harm, but they are also capable of redemption - and strangely their meeting, while also leading them down a dark path, does ultimately bring this too. Even Vincent shows a certain nobility of spirit at the end, despite all he has done.
But this a book that encompasses so much more than focussing on the relationship of two damaged individuals. This is certainly a quietly devastating portrayal of heartbreak, loss, and what it means to be human, with threads that bring in equally dark themes of guilt, shame and reputation, but there are so many moments of gold among the sorrow as Glaister also touches on female sexuality and the freedom many women found after the war through the stories of Harri, the irreverent Gwen, and Vincent's object of desire Doll. There are many intimate and tender moments, even some chuckles to be had from Gwen and Harri, that bring in a warmth and lightness to the piece among the more heartrending episodes.
This may sound a gruelling read, but I can honestly tell you that this novel was an absolute delight to devour from cover to cover. Glaister's writing is simply wonderful and I cannot believe I have not read any of her books before now. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - particularly if you enjoy the very best that historical fiction has to offer, and have a fascination with WWI and the time between the wars.
July 24, 2021
I've avoided books set in the war for a while,having read too many of them and feeling they were all saying the same thing.
This one though,is more to do with the after effects the war has on people,the damage it did to them and the chain of events that spiral from that,to its surprising ending.
I liked Clem almost from the first page, and throughout the book I willed that all would be well for her.
A small cast of characters meant I felt I got to know everyone very well,and could predict how they might act next,but not the repercussion from their actions.
My first Glaister book,probably not my last.
This one though,is more to do with the after effects the war has on people,the damage it did to them and the chain of events that spiral from that,to its surprising ending.
I liked Clem almost from the first page, and throughout the book I willed that all would be well for her.
A small cast of characters meant I felt I got to know everyone very well,and could predict how they might act next,but not the repercussion from their actions.
My first Glaister book,probably not my last.
January 18, 2022
This is a heartbreaking account of people trying to put themselves together, after undergoing trauma in World War I. The "Blasted things' of the title are trying to get back to regular life, but it's nearly impossible to do that when you've been through life changing events. The author's also very clear about how much tougher it is, when you belong to a lower socio-economic class and don't have the relative comfort of a financial cushion to support you, as you're trying to find your footing. There aren't clear resolutions for anyone, and the only thing they can hope for is some measure of peace, and for some, that can be unattainable. This is a very quick read, but it's deeply tragic.
November 7, 2024
This just wasn’t for me. Took me forever to get through. I was really looking forward to it, because WWI is my favorite. But it’s structured in an odd way, which really threw me off. The beginning WWI scenes were great, but after that it lost my interest..mostly due to the general oddness of it all. I don’t think it was badly written, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. Less historical, & more literary-ily strange? 😅
Thanks to NetGalley for this audio ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley for this audio ARC!
July 5, 2021
A graphic account of the life of a VAD (volunteer nurse in France in the First World War) and her problems in accepting life for a woman back in England in the 1920s.
September 18, 2021
The period just after the First World War is a time that fascinates me. Not only was everyone trying to settle back into a normal way of life, there was also the Spanish Flu pandemic to deal with. It must have seemed like the difficult times would never come to an end.
Blasted Things focuses on two characters, both damaged though in different ways by the Great War. Clem had been a nurse at the front line and as you can imagine had seen some horrific things which the author vividly describes in the first section of the novel. Like everyone, she had significant losses to deal with and is finding it very difficult to settle into the life as a doctor’s wife and a new mother. Vincent has suffered serious facial injuries meaning that he wears a tin plate over part of his face to hide his deformities. Their worlds literally collide one day and this sets them on a destructive path.
What was fascinating about this book for me was the way the characters behaved. Clem is clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at a time when these kind of mental health issues were not understood and were swept under the carpet. You would think that with her husband being a doctor, he might be more understanding but he was more of the mindset that you just didn’t talk about what you had seen. He was a product of his time I’m sure but he did seem rather cold towards Clem and not very sympathetic at all. It was not much of a surprise to me that Clem made some rather bad decisions as she tried to cope with her experiences. And my goodness what disastrous decisions she made at times!
Vincent is more of the villain of the piece and yet I did feel some sympathy towards him. It must have been so infuriating coming home from the war, so badly damaged and yet finding that because of the way he looked, some possibilities were no longer available to him. He was definitely opportunist and a bit of a chancer. Yet it seemed to me that all he wanted was the chance to make a new start, to be accepted as he was before his injuries and mostly to be loved. I was very conflicted in my feelings towards Vincent.
Blasted Things is beautifully written historical fiction showing that people can be damaged physically or mentally, and that scars cannot always be seen. The intertwining stories of Clem and Vincent are both compelling and moving.
Blasted Things focuses on two characters, both damaged though in different ways by the Great War. Clem had been a nurse at the front line and as you can imagine had seen some horrific things which the author vividly describes in the first section of the novel. Like everyone, she had significant losses to deal with and is finding it very difficult to settle into the life as a doctor’s wife and a new mother. Vincent has suffered serious facial injuries meaning that he wears a tin plate over part of his face to hide his deformities. Their worlds literally collide one day and this sets them on a destructive path.
What was fascinating about this book for me was the way the characters behaved. Clem is clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at a time when these kind of mental health issues were not understood and were swept under the carpet. You would think that with her husband being a doctor, he might be more understanding but he was more of the mindset that you just didn’t talk about what you had seen. He was a product of his time I’m sure but he did seem rather cold towards Clem and not very sympathetic at all. It was not much of a surprise to me that Clem made some rather bad decisions as she tried to cope with her experiences. And my goodness what disastrous decisions she made at times!
Vincent is more of the villain of the piece and yet I did feel some sympathy towards him. It must have been so infuriating coming home from the war, so badly damaged and yet finding that because of the way he looked, some possibilities were no longer available to him. He was definitely opportunist and a bit of a chancer. Yet it seemed to me that all he wanted was the chance to make a new start, to be accepted as he was before his injuries and mostly to be loved. I was very conflicted in my feelings towards Vincent.
Blasted Things is beautifully written historical fiction showing that people can be damaged physically or mentally, and that scars cannot always be seen. The intertwining stories of Clem and Vincent are both compelling and moving.
April 23, 2022
Blasted Things is the perfect title for this book. Not only is it a phrase that fits the middle class nineteen twenties setting, but it describes the two main characters perfectly - they were both damaged, one mentally, the other physically, by events in the First World War.
Before the war Clementine was to be married to a fine catch, a doctor no less. The trouble was that she didn't love him. When the war began she went against his wishes to serve as a nurse at the front. There she met and fell in love with a Canadian doctor who asked her to marry him and to go live in Canada. She accepted and became pregnant, only to lose both her lover and her child when an artillery shell landed on the field hospital.
After the war Clementine returned to England and did marry her original suitor. Now she has a child with him but she yearns for the life she could have had with her true love. A life denied her.
Before the war Vincent was a successful salesman. He had the gift of the gab and could persuade people to do almost anything. He was also a charmer with the ladies.
He served in the trenches and rose to the rank of sergeant. But, in the final stages of the war he was hit in the face by a German bullet and now wears a prosthetic cheek and eye. He still has his charm but his looks are gone and all who see him grimace at his appearance.
Unable to work as a salesman Vincent uses his charms to better himself. He has his eye on marrying the landlady of the local pub and becoming a landlord. But this plan requires money.
Clementine and Vincent are brought together by fate. Both have something the other wants and they use each other to get it. But their lives unravel as the situation becomes more and more complicated.
A sad tale of how different people were affected in different ways by the madness that men called The War to End All Wars. The millions slaughtered but the millions more who survived but whose lives were ruined by the conflict.
My only criticism is that the dark humour, usually a feature of Glaister's books, was missing from this.
Before the war Clementine was to be married to a fine catch, a doctor no less. The trouble was that she didn't love him. When the war began she went against his wishes to serve as a nurse at the front. There she met and fell in love with a Canadian doctor who asked her to marry him and to go live in Canada. She accepted and became pregnant, only to lose both her lover and her child when an artillery shell landed on the field hospital.
After the war Clementine returned to England and did marry her original suitor. Now she has a child with him but she yearns for the life she could have had with her true love. A life denied her.
Before the war Vincent was a successful salesman. He had the gift of the gab and could persuade people to do almost anything. He was also a charmer with the ladies.
He served in the trenches and rose to the rank of sergeant. But, in the final stages of the war he was hit in the face by a German bullet and now wears a prosthetic cheek and eye. He still has his charm but his looks are gone and all who see him grimace at his appearance.
Unable to work as a salesman Vincent uses his charms to better himself. He has his eye on marrying the landlady of the local pub and becoming a landlord. But this plan requires money.
Clementine and Vincent are brought together by fate. Both have something the other wants and they use each other to get it. But their lives unravel as the situation becomes more and more complicated.
A sad tale of how different people were affected in different ways by the madness that men called The War to End All Wars. The millions slaughtered but the millions more who survived but whose lives were ruined by the conflict.
My only criticism is that the dark humour, usually a feature of Glaister's books, was missing from this.
September 18, 2021
Set in 1920 Britain, the time where everyone is trying to forget the War, trying to move forward with their lives, however, the effects of what they have experienced will haunt them forever.
Clementine was a nurse at the front line, she had a fiancé back in England who stayed on British soil, and although he played his part in the war, he will never understand the true turmoil of seeing the effects at the front. Clementine then meets Vincent, a man who had half his face blown off, a man who is damaged, and maybe more damaged than Clementine first realises. It is through their shared experiences, they form a relationship, but this relationship may come with dangerous consequences.
I initially didn’t think I would have read this book in time to post a review for my stop on the book tour, however as soon as it arrived and I couldn’t resist reading the first page and this resulted in me not putting it down. I flew through this book! I recently learnt that it's Lesley Glaister’s first novel in this time period which is astounding as I was taken to the front line with vivid imagery. Also, her use of language is brilliant and I have now added a couple of fantastic words to my vocabulary, words which should be brought back to life, such as ‘flibbertigibbet’, oh, what a word! This is a brilliant book for all WW1 historical fiction lovers as it highlights the comparison of how mental states varied in the aftereffect of those who were at the front and those who stayed behind.
Clementine was a nurse at the front line, she had a fiancé back in England who stayed on British soil, and although he played his part in the war, he will never understand the true turmoil of seeing the effects at the front. Clementine then meets Vincent, a man who had half his face blown off, a man who is damaged, and maybe more damaged than Clementine first realises. It is through their shared experiences, they form a relationship, but this relationship may come with dangerous consequences.
I initially didn’t think I would have read this book in time to post a review for my stop on the book tour, however as soon as it arrived and I couldn’t resist reading the first page and this resulted in me not putting it down. I flew through this book! I recently learnt that it's Lesley Glaister’s first novel in this time period which is astounding as I was taken to the front line with vivid imagery. Also, her use of language is brilliant and I have now added a couple of fantastic words to my vocabulary, words which should be brought back to life, such as ‘flibbertigibbet’, oh, what a word! This is a brilliant book for all WW1 historical fiction lovers as it highlights the comparison of how mental states varied in the aftereffect of those who were at the front and those who stayed behind.
October 3, 2021
https://beverleyhasread.wordpress.com/
One of my favourite genres to read is books set around the early part of last Century. I particularly enjoy fiction which explores the two world wars and especially enjoy novels which examine the period between the wars as it was a time of great social change. The Suffragettes had lead the charge for more freedom and power for women with the war leading to many women working whilst keeping the home fires burning whilst their husbands and sons went to battle.
When I read about Blasted Things by Lesley Glaister, I knew it would be right up my street. Set in 1920 it is about Clementine, a young woman married to Dennis, a doctor. She is the very epitome of middle class, living as she does in a large house with staff and her husband is a respectable member of society and member of the local golf club. They have a child, Edgar who has a nanny and her life, from the outside, seems to be pretty perfect.
But Clementine is troubled. She had worked as a nurse at the front during the war, patching up men horrifically injured, assisting at amputations and holding the hands of soldiers as they lay dying. She has seen things that have remained burned in her memory and she also experienced great loss and suffering. She carries deep mental scars which refuse to heal. When she meets Vincent, a Sergeant who wears a tin mask to hide his terrible facial scars from the war, she feels a connection to him which takes her down a dark and dangerous path.
This is my first book by Lesley Glaister but I really don’t think it will be the last. She is an astonishing writer who transported me me back in time and brought Clementine and Vincent into my life. Glaister writes vividly yet sensitively about the weights they carry, making us sympathise with them, even when their actions are questionable.
Vincent in particular is a character who it would be easy to dislike; he schemes and plots, blackmails and connives, but he is also lost and lonely. He was a successful salesman with a wife before the war but now finds himself single and lodging in a pub, helping out with odd jobs and behind the bar to earn his keep. He is both bitter and resentful and it is those feelings which cause him to behave the way he does and despite his heart being in the right place they cause him to make poor decisions. Clementine seems too good an opportunity to pass up and she is similarly lonely and lost. Married to a narrow minded man who doesn’t understand her and struggling to bond with her baby, she is desperate for a distraction and when Vincent crosses her path it seems inevitable that she will fall into his orbit.
This is a book about the after effects of war, both physical and mental and a social commentary on life in the 1920s, exploring such things as the role of women and the treatment of mental illness. It is an expansive yet nuanced novel, transporting us to a time where women must look pretty, dress well and request money from their husbands to buy new clothes. I found it utterly absorbing and heart-breaking. Glaister’s writing is so beautiful and poetic and I fell in love with it. The plot is clever and went in entirely unexpected and moving directions.
This is a wonderful piece of historical fiction and I think fans of Kate Furnivall would like Blasted Things hugely. It is a deeply emotional and poignant book with compelling characters and a powerful plot. Highly recommended.
One of my favourite genres to read is books set around the early part of last Century. I particularly enjoy fiction which explores the two world wars and especially enjoy novels which examine the period between the wars as it was a time of great social change. The Suffragettes had lead the charge for more freedom and power for women with the war leading to many women working whilst keeping the home fires burning whilst their husbands and sons went to battle.
When I read about Blasted Things by Lesley Glaister, I knew it would be right up my street. Set in 1920 it is about Clementine, a young woman married to Dennis, a doctor. She is the very epitome of middle class, living as she does in a large house with staff and her husband is a respectable member of society and member of the local golf club. They have a child, Edgar who has a nanny and her life, from the outside, seems to be pretty perfect.
But Clementine is troubled. She had worked as a nurse at the front during the war, patching up men horrifically injured, assisting at amputations and holding the hands of soldiers as they lay dying. She has seen things that have remained burned in her memory and she also experienced great loss and suffering. She carries deep mental scars which refuse to heal. When she meets Vincent, a Sergeant who wears a tin mask to hide his terrible facial scars from the war, she feels a connection to him which takes her down a dark and dangerous path.
This is my first book by Lesley Glaister but I really don’t think it will be the last. She is an astonishing writer who transported me me back in time and brought Clementine and Vincent into my life. Glaister writes vividly yet sensitively about the weights they carry, making us sympathise with them, even when their actions are questionable.
Vincent in particular is a character who it would be easy to dislike; he schemes and plots, blackmails and connives, but he is also lost and lonely. He was a successful salesman with a wife before the war but now finds himself single and lodging in a pub, helping out with odd jobs and behind the bar to earn his keep. He is both bitter and resentful and it is those feelings which cause him to behave the way he does and despite his heart being in the right place they cause him to make poor decisions. Clementine seems too good an opportunity to pass up and she is similarly lonely and lost. Married to a narrow minded man who doesn’t understand her and struggling to bond with her baby, she is desperate for a distraction and when Vincent crosses her path it seems inevitable that she will fall into his orbit.
This is a book about the after effects of war, both physical and mental and a social commentary on life in the 1920s, exploring such things as the role of women and the treatment of mental illness. It is an expansive yet nuanced novel, transporting us to a time where women must look pretty, dress well and request money from their husbands to buy new clothes. I found it utterly absorbing and heart-breaking. Glaister’s writing is so beautiful and poetic and I fell in love with it. The plot is clever and went in entirely unexpected and moving directions.
This is a wonderful piece of historical fiction and I think fans of Kate Furnivall would like Blasted Things hugely. It is a deeply emotional and poignant book with compelling characters and a powerful plot. Highly recommended.
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