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Jack the Lad and Bloody Mary
1939. Jackie and Mary are just two of the millions of ordinary Londoners whose lives are changed by extraordinary circumstances. Unmarried yet very much in love, their life together before the war is ordered and conventional enough. The coming of war changes all of this.
- GenresFiction
584 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 26, 2015
There are authors who are magnificent prose stylists. For example, Phillip Roth – at his best – can take English sentences and make them light up like fireworks. It doesn’t even matter if the topic Roth is tackling is a comparatively minor one, or would have been exhausted in a lesser author’s hands, he is able to perform alchemy and create something magnificent. Prose poems which inspire and amaze and whose brilliance transcends the subject matter.
Unfortunately not all authors are Phillip Roth. (And if we’re realistic, all authors being created equal would not lead to much variety in fiction).
In ‘Jack the Lad and Bloody Mary’, Joseph Connolly aims for great writing on a small theme. Epic stream of consciousness passages are thrown at the reader again and again as we explore the thoughts playing around these character’s heads and the world in which they live. Unfortunately Connolly’s prose does not fly anywhere near as high as it should, with the end effect that the reader feels bludgeoned rather than inspired. This book is nearly six hundred pages long, and – if I’m honest – even before halfway through, it was a bloody chore.
Following a Cockney couple before and during the Second World War, there is the spine of a good book in here, but it’s just too long and wearying. Also for all its attempts to capture this lost world, I found myself raising odd little questions with it: would an English couple in the Thirties and Forties really refer to the man with the beard who brings presents as Santa Claus, rather than Father Christmas? And how could a young girl in 1938 imitate Veronica Lake, when she didn’t make her debut until 1939? In the main Connolly does a good job of putting his fingers on the pulse of the time, but errors like that jar a reader right out of the book’s setting.
I’ll feely admit that I was just scanning this towards the end, as despite creating good characters and a dramatic central relationship, it is a fairly dull read.
Unfortunately not all authors are Phillip Roth. (And if we’re realistic, all authors being created equal would not lead to much variety in fiction).
In ‘Jack the Lad and Bloody Mary’, Joseph Connolly aims for great writing on a small theme. Epic stream of consciousness passages are thrown at the reader again and again as we explore the thoughts playing around these character’s heads and the world in which they live. Unfortunately Connolly’s prose does not fly anywhere near as high as it should, with the end effect that the reader feels bludgeoned rather than inspired. This book is nearly six hundred pages long, and – if I’m honest – even before halfway through, it was a bloody chore.
Following a Cockney couple before and during the Second World War, there is the spine of a good book in here, but it’s just too long and wearying. Also for all its attempts to capture this lost world, I found myself raising odd little questions with it: would an English couple in the Thirties and Forties really refer to the man with the beard who brings presents as Santa Claus, rather than Father Christmas? And how could a young girl in 1938 imitate Veronica Lake, when she didn’t make her debut until 1939? In the main Connolly does a good job of putting his fingers on the pulse of the time, but errors like that jar a reader right out of the book’s setting.
I’ll feely admit that I was just scanning this towards the end, as despite creating good characters and a dramatic central relationship, it is a fairly dull read.
May 7, 2017
maybe this should be a five? The story was un-put-downable, and the research into WW2 times seemed really painstaking.
I also loved the frequent use of FID. It brought the book alive. I even liked the constant switch (inside sentences sometimes) between narrator and the characters' POV.
However, there was something clunky about the prose. A bit too self-conscious. Right, Dickens' characters are often caricatures, but Connelly hasn't got the skill. He polarises. There are cockneys and toffs and a smattering or other races, but Connelly just seems to try too hard to differentiate between them.
And his worse fault, and it drove me crazy, and maybe I'm chief of the style gestapo, but it was his refusal to use the word, 'said'.
How's this for the SAID substitutes in one half page!
Page 34
Nodded Jackie
Pouted Sheila
Mary deplored
Gurgled Sheila
Decided Mary
Cautioned Jackie
Moaned Sheila
Insisted Jackie
Nuf expostualted!
I also loved the frequent use of FID. It brought the book alive. I even liked the constant switch (inside sentences sometimes) between narrator and the characters' POV.
However, there was something clunky about the prose. A bit too self-conscious. Right, Dickens' characters are often caricatures, but Connelly hasn't got the skill. He polarises. There are cockneys and toffs and a smattering or other races, but Connelly just seems to try too hard to differentiate between them.
And his worse fault, and it drove me crazy, and maybe I'm chief of the style gestapo, but it was his refusal to use the word, 'said'.
How's this for the SAID substitutes in one half page!
Page 34
Nodded Jackie
Pouted Sheila
Mary deplored
Gurgled Sheila
Decided Mary
Cautioned Jackie
Moaned Sheila
Insisted Jackie
Nuf expostualted!
March 1, 2013
This could be my book of the year. This is a really good novel, that you have to work with a bit due to its narrative style but is ultimately rewarding right up to the very last line where you dont want the book to end as Mary makes her choice.
The book is written in a very distinctive manner which is not always easy to follow - relying heavily on diagloue written in the cockney patoia of the time primarily with dialogue between Jack and Mary and a number of well rounded supporing characters.
Its starts in the war and we know that Jack has changed and Mary is considering the moral obligations of this. Jack has turned into a murderer in the war time.
By going back in time we start of grounding the two working class characters what motivates them and their ignorance of political, racial and social standings of the time.
Main characters are introduced at a new year eves party in 1938 where the characters are introduced including the shady Mr Leaky, who eventually takes Jack on his way down into the criminal underworld, Mr wisely - the toff making a mint from the war and the great Dicky - the pissed up toff doctor who is great mates with Jack.
The main thrust of the book is a love story. Jack and Mary are common law partners with one child who is constantly bundled out of the way by social events and then the war itself. After all the things the couple go through - they still love and respect each other.
The parallels of the war are explained through Jacks relationships with the kindly steins who are jewish refugees - often contradictory it shows how facism can grown through the ill informed working classes.
Jack and Mary both suffer a descent into the criminal world through the start of the war - Jack becomes a spiv through rental, protection and a scam with the increasingly pissed dickie where they get medical documents to get young men discharged from the war.
Mary gets pregnant and is forced into a back street abortion and then becomes an aborsonist herself. This is well written but disturbing prose.
Things continue to spiral during the war and Jacks brother is introduced during the dunkirk evactuations who loses a leg and gets pulled into Jacks shady world. Some great set pieces including Jack liberating him from the hospital and then getting setup by leaky in a whisky robbery.
As situations spiral out of control, Jack eventually disappears - presumed dead - only to reappear towards the end of the book just as Mary is settling down with an american. He reappears and Mary has a choice to stay or go.
This is a wonderful read with real people, real characters and a cracking story that just flies along. Couldn't get over how good it was and Connolly is definitely someone that I will look out for more.
The book is written in a very distinctive manner which is not always easy to follow - relying heavily on diagloue written in the cockney patoia of the time primarily with dialogue between Jack and Mary and a number of well rounded supporing characters.
Its starts in the war and we know that Jack has changed and Mary is considering the moral obligations of this. Jack has turned into a murderer in the war time.
By going back in time we start of grounding the two working class characters what motivates them and their ignorance of political, racial and social standings of the time.
Main characters are introduced at a new year eves party in 1938 where the characters are introduced including the shady Mr Leaky, who eventually takes Jack on his way down into the criminal underworld, Mr wisely - the toff making a mint from the war and the great Dicky - the pissed up toff doctor who is great mates with Jack.
The main thrust of the book is a love story. Jack and Mary are common law partners with one child who is constantly bundled out of the way by social events and then the war itself. After all the things the couple go through - they still love and respect each other.
The parallels of the war are explained through Jacks relationships with the kindly steins who are jewish refugees - often contradictory it shows how facism can grown through the ill informed working classes.
Jack and Mary both suffer a descent into the criminal world through the start of the war - Jack becomes a spiv through rental, protection and a scam with the increasingly pissed dickie where they get medical documents to get young men discharged from the war.
Mary gets pregnant and is forced into a back street abortion and then becomes an aborsonist herself. This is well written but disturbing prose.
Things continue to spiral during the war and Jacks brother is introduced during the dunkirk evactuations who loses a leg and gets pulled into Jacks shady world. Some great set pieces including Jack liberating him from the hospital and then getting setup by leaky in a whisky robbery.
As situations spiral out of control, Jack eventually disappears - presumed dead - only to reappear towards the end of the book just as Mary is settling down with an american. He reappears and Mary has a choice to stay or go.
This is a wonderful read with real people, real characters and a cracking story that just flies along. Couldn't get over how good it was and Connolly is definitely someone that I will look out for more.
February 14, 2011
A great story, mixing happiness and melancholy, hope and sadness. Hope, when Jack and Mary are expecting Jack's situation to get better and setting plans to buy a little house around London. At that time of the story, both are satisfied with the few things that they have. Melancholy and sometimes sadness, when Jack loses his job, when Mary has to control Jack's fury against various people (mostly when he is drunk).
The setting of the story, WW2, is an intense part o the story. It shows what the humble people were ready to do to try to improve their condition. It also learns to a reader how difficult life was at the time, especially in London.
Every character in this book get exhausted by the war. It's almost as if they didn't care anymore about what could happen to them next: they are completely out of themselves, they don't live anymore, since they have to focus on how to survive the bombings that take place every night.
The setting of the story, WW2, is an intense part o the story. It shows what the humble people were ready to do to try to improve their condition. It also learns to a reader how difficult life was at the time, especially in London.
Every character in this book get exhausted by the war. It's almost as if they didn't care anymore about what could happen to them next: they are completely out of themselves, they don't live anymore, since they have to focus on how to survive the bombings that take place every night.
April 21, 2013
Bloody Lad is about a Vampire named Staz who loves Japanese culture and owns a territory in the demon world. One day someone from Japan comes into the demon world and looses her life while Staz is fighting, so he promises to bring her back to life. However Staz needs the help of his enemies and friends to save this girl.
October 29, 2008
I picked this up at an airport in Athens because I wasn't sure what else to get. Turned out to be a good read though. A very interesting take on what life was like for people at home during the war.
September 1, 2012
Didn't finish
January 4, 2015
Didn't finish. I like the plot but the style is way too complicated for me. It's not an easy book to read so I couldn't really get into the story
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews