So Much Life Left Over

Daniel Pitt Trilogy #2

by Louis de Bernières

They were an inseparable tribe of childhood friends whose world was torn apart by the First World War. Some were lost in battle, and those who survived have had their lives unimaginably upended, scattered to Ceylon and India, France and Germany, and, inevitably, back to Britain. Now, at the dawn of the 1920s, all are trying to pick up the pieces. At the center of Louis de Bernières’s riveting novel are Daniel, an RAF flying ace, and Rosie, a wartime nurse. As their marriage is slowly revealed to be built on lies, Daniel finds solace—and, sometimes, family—with other women, and Rosie draws her religion around herself like a carapace. Here too are Rosie’s sisters—a bohemian, a minister’s wife, and a spinster, each seeking purpose and happiness in her own unconventional way; and Daniel’s military brother, unable to find his footing in a peaceful world. Told in brief, dramatic chapters, So Much Life Left Over follows the stories of these old friends over the decades as their paths re-cross or their ties fray, as they test loyalties and love, face survivor’s grief and guilt, and adjust to a new world.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, War, British Literature, Book Club, Audiobook

279 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2018

About the author

Louis de Bernières is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 historical war novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year. It has been translated into over 11 languages and is an international best-seller.

On 16 July 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the De Montfort University in Leicester, which he had attended when it was Leicester Polytechnic.
Politically, he identifies himself as Eurosceptic and has voiced his support for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louis de Bernieres writes a beautiful, emotionally heart tugging, often humorous, epic look at the lives that survived the horrors and losses of WW1, focusing on the inter war years and the human costs incurred at the beginning of WW2. In what is a relatively short novel, a large cast of characters, their lives, decisions and behaviour are portrayed as times change. Half French Captain Daniel Pitt, well known ace fighter pilot, had never expected to survive the war, and has to resolve the quandry of what do with so much life left over. The author presents the lives of the families of Daniel, who had lost two brothers, and his wife, Rosie, who lost her love, Ash, in the war, as they marry, and those with connections to them through these historically turbulent times, whilst pondering over the myriad of roads not taken. Daniel and Rosie move to Ceylon, under British colonial rule, running a tea plantation.

Initially the couple are happy, they have a daughter, Esther, but things begin to disintegrate when Rosie gives birth to a dead son, despite going on to have another son, Bertie. Using religion as an excuse, Rosie withdraws from sexual relations with Daniel and refuses to let him have contact with Bertie. A frustrated and unhappy Daniel finds himself in a relationship with 'native' girl, Samadara whom he grows to love, only to have his life shattered by Rosie insisting they return to Britain. Full of rage and anger, understanding that women are now expected to keep their children in this age, he feels he has no choice but to acquiesce to Rosie's demands. Through the years, Rosie does all that she can to keep the children from Daniel, lying and deceiving to ensure this whilst refusing him a divorce that would allow him to marry another woman. She has sufficient self awareness of her abhorrent actions, but is unable to change course. She has three sisters, Ottilia, who had wasted her life loving Daniel's self destructive brother, Archie, a lost and haunted man brimming with self hatred, finally reaches the point where she is finally able to move on. Sophie marries a clergyman but they are a childless couple. The bohemian Cristabel settles into a relationship with Gaskell, making remarkably unconventional decisions. Daniel finds himself loving women but unable to marry given Rosie's intransigence, he moves to Germany to see up close the rise of Nazism with Oily Wragge, a man tortured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire in WW1. The onset of WW2 has the characters doing their part in the war effort and inevitably faced with the tragedies that ensue.

I loved reading this historical novel, I was deeply engaged with the narrative and the characters de Bernieres creates and develops. However, there are flaws, for instance in the poor characterisation of Samadara, the young woman Daniel loves in Ceylon, and in the working class Edward. The author is transparently more comfortable with writing about white, upper and middle class people and it is their lives that are the ones that undeniably matter in the story. Nevertheless, I did enjoy reading this historical novel with its humour, such as the reading of the will of Mr McCosh, and the joy to be found in his batty and bonkers royalty obsessed wife. Of course, there is much tragedy and loss, emotionally affecting, particularly in the last part of the book. After the cliffhanger ending, I look forward to reading the final part of this trilogy. Many thanks to Random House Vintage for an ARC.

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may well have enjoyed this book more had I realised it was book two of a series with the Novel The Dust That Falls from Dreams being the first in the Series by Louis de Bernieres.
I picked this one up in hard copy and it didn't state that it was part of a series on the jacket or in the premise which seemed a shame. I found the book very difficult to get into and could not keep track of the characters until half ways through the novel. I was confused by who was who and I didn't find the characters vivid or realistic but this may be down to the fact that I hadn't read the first book in the series and therefore missed crucial insights in to the characters personalities. It was only on completion of the novel that I realised it was part of a series and therefore may be the reason I had difficulty connecting with this story.

The book did slightly redeem itself in the second half although the plot remained quite far fetched and improbable. I had a sense of relief on completing the novel and don't think I will miss the characters very much.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A warm-hearted saga of two families recovering from World War 1 and catching up with the modernism of the age. Daniel is a half-Brit, half-French man who was an aviator in the war and now runs a tea plantation and factory in Ceylon (Sri Lanka after independence in 1947). His wife Rosie, who met him as a nurse, tries to be happy as a mother to their daughter, managing the household, and promoting better conditions for the poor native workers, such as sanitation projects and volunteering at a clinic. But ever since giving birth to a stillborn child, she has retreated inward to her Anglican faith. Daniel is thereby doubly adrift:

Daniel Pitt and Hugh Bassett suffered from the accident of not being at war. Even in a land as beautiful and surprising as Ceylon, they missed the extremes of experience that had made them feel intensely alive during the Great War, in spite of its penumbra of death.
…There is a kind of man who, having been at war, finds peacetime intolerable, because he cannot develop the civilian’s talent for becoming obsessed with irrelevant details and procedures. …and, above all, he hates the feeling that what he is doing is not important.

SPOILERISH AHEAD
Daniel seeks solace in an affair with a Tamil tea-worker, Samadara, which blossoms into mutual love. Delightfully told from both sides. Even recognizing the affinity with colonial exploitation, it’s hard not to root for Daniel to harvest some loving from the oven. Meanwhile, Rosie soldiers on, but despite the birth of another child, she can’t abide Ceylon anymore. She precipitates a crisis for Daniel when she insists on moving back to England, ostensibly to care for her dying father and be closer to her three sisters.

Not only does Daniel suffer at the prospect of leaving Samadara, but also he finds himself dreading the loss of connection to the place, its wild beauty, weather, food, and people And the prospects of initiating a flying venture with Hugh. He also feels fulfilled and useful working with the factory machines as an escape from human concerns:

Daniel loved the huge and beautiful machinery in the factory, and could not resist rolling up his sleeves and helping the Singhalese engineers when it broke down. Machinery was so much easier to deal with than people. …People were slippery and elusive, changeable and moody. You thought you understood them and then found out you did not. You thought they loved you, and then they suddenly turned spiritual or indifferent.

BACK TO NON-SPOILERISH

So that is basically the setup at the beginning. Soon we step off into more venues, first England and immersion in Rosie’s colorful family and then Germany and a business venture ill-timed for their poor economy and early growth of the Nazis. These interludes seemed a bit diffusing and less coherent than the first part of setting the stage, but it was a great opportunity for de Bernieres to treat us to his usual panoply for colorful minor characters. For example, the lowly family gardener, “Oily” Wragge, provides us a sardonic perspective on the aristocratic pretensions of Rosie’s parents, the McCoshes and vivid reflections on his WW1 experience in the Middle East and sense of relief over surviving a brutal time as a POW at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. One of Rosie’s sister is married to a minister who writes novels that feature necromancy (communication with the dead) and shocks his superior in the church that the Old Testament God “actually is the Devil, pretending to be God.” Another sister, Christobel, is attuned to the avante garde of the Bloomsbury circle, lives in lesbian relationship, and schemes for some way to raise children of her own.

As part of a trilogy, one can see the obvious arc of World War 1 in the first phase (“The Dust That Falls from Dreams”, at hand for me but unread), the interwar period with this, and then World War 2 for the finale. With that framework, one can imagine that some of the apparent diversions here serve to interface the eras as well as to sow seeds for characters who will become more important in the volume to come. Compared to the drama of the author’s wonderful “Corelli’s Madolin” and “Bird Without Wings”, this volume has a satisfying lightness and play about the bounty of life “left over” after our characters experience world events such as war and the waning of good ship Britannia’s empire. The humor moves the needle more toward his earlier satirical trilogy about a wacky ensemble of characters in South America (of which I’ve only enjoyed “The War of Don Emanuel’s Nether Parts”), but it is more of the charming type and doesn’t go over the top or break into magical realism.

This book was provided for review by Penguin Random House through their “First to Read” program.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel was a legendary WWI Flying Ace, a survivor of the war now facing an immensity of endless days filled with trivialities. As a tea manufacturer in Ceylon, he has the company of Hugh who was also a pilot in the war, and a bright future in an exotic land. Daniel's wife Rosie is pregnant with their second child.

After the war, Daniel's brother Archie went to India, He is a risk taker and a drunk, in love with Rosie who married Daniel after her fiance died in the war. Rosie's sister Otillie in England is in love with Archie, but he distrusts anyone who could love him. He prefers his hopeless and unrequited love for Rosie. He writes to Otillie,"You could not have have been my salvation, because no one ever will be. I am one of the damned..reconciled to my fate here in this most godforsaken and lunatic corner of the Empire."

Daniel and Archie also lost two brothers in South Africa.

'I used to have three brothers," he said fiercely, 'and now I only have one. Two brothers lost to the Empire. Both killed in South Africa. My father is dead. Archie is the only brother I have left.'

Rosie's sister Sophie married a clergyman who writes novels; they have been unable to have children. And then there is sister Christabel, a Bloomsbury Bohemian living with Gaskell, two women artists who long for a child. Gaskell tells Daniel, "We are looking for a new way to live...There must be a better way of doing things." They later involve Daniel in their 'new way.'

The war haunts Daniel and Rosie. For the moment they are living on the tea plantation like kings in paradise, expecting a second child. But happiness is elusive, and their marriage is imperiled by tragedy. Rosie retreats into religion leaving Daniel to find love elsewhere. Daniel dearly loves his children, especially his eldest, Esther. But as the marriage falls apart the children become pawns.

Their generation fought to save civilization. Louis de Bernieres writes that returning to civilian life, some men became drunks while others turned inward, some embraced the new world while others returned to their old life repressing the war into distant memory. Each character has been scared and altered by the war.

"Mr. Wragge was content in his modest paradise. After the death marches, and the months of tunneling in the mountains with a pick, this English garden was indeed a dream of Eden...Oily Wragge was determined to salvage his sanity out of the purgatorial experience of captivity."
So Much Life Left Over was a wonderful read, with gorgeous writing and interesting, conflicted characters. Daniel and Rosie and their families were wonderfully drawn. There are moments of humor and scenes of great sorrow. Even the minor characters, like Rosie's mother Mrs. McCosh and Oily Wragge are memorable.

Daniel and Mr. Wragge go to Germany to start a motorcycle business with former POWs Daniel had captured and befriended. Daniel witnesses firsthand the rising anti-Semitism that fuels the rise of Hitler. The dynamics are eerily familiar and disturbing. Nearly 100 years later, and we seem to be repeating history.

The novel continues the story in The Dust that Falls From Dreams, which I had not read and which one does not need to have read to enjoy this book. So Much Life Left Over has an open ending, with Daniel making a momentous decision. I felt I knew what he decides, but I am sure there is going to be another volume to continue his story. In the meantime, I do want to read more by de Bernieres, who also wrote Corelli's Violin.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If you have been embroiled in a war in which you confidently expected to die, what were you supposed to do with so much life unexpectedly left over?"

That's the question Louis de Bernières seeks to answer in SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER, his second novel about the McCosh and Pitt families and their extended circle of friends, neighbors, servants, comrades, and others. The preceding novel, THE DUST THAT FALLS FROM DREAMS, followed his large and varied cast of characters during the First World War and the immediate postwar years. SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER picks up the story and covers most of interwar period and the early years of the Second World War.

I like the broad arc of his story, and his prose is always witty and readable. The narrative bounces around from character to character and also mixes in letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, etc. This is well-constructed, clever fiction that is often very funny and often deeply moving. It's very hard to put these books down once you've started.

Although his large cast of characters and big historical canvas could be a recipe for trouble, I find that he juggles it all nicely. The characters all emerge from the page as authentic, and de Bernières finds a way to humanize them all with great warmth. He clearly has a great fondness for his characters (some of whom are based on his own ancestors), and we can't help but share that. But it's that very warmth and fondness that I think is at the root of what's least successful about the McCosh/Pitt novels.

For all their charm, it sometimes feels as if a certain depth is lacking in the two novels. There's a prevailing comic tone that doesn't always fit: sort of like Pat Barker's First World War novels crossed with P. G. Wodehouse. Despite the hell of war and its aftermath, almost everyone is quirky, well-intentioned, and relentlessly decent. There's very little true villainy, cruelty, or cowardice on display. Everyone has a stiff upper lip and, by Jove, these demonstrably good people just get on with it. Their eccentricities, excesses, and mistakes (like Hamilton McCosh's string of mistresses, or Mrs. McCosh's prejudices and boorish behavior) are generally forgiven in a spirit of jolly good humor. There's a certain falseness in this fictional world of endlessly good motives, where nearly everyone obeys the law, is stalwart and brave, and tries so hard to do the right thing. This depiction of the world diminishes some of the emotional intensity his story might otherwise have.

For lack of a better way of putting it, the McCosh/Pitt novels can be a sort of "Downton Abbey" experience. Both share a similar setting in terms of time and place, and both show us a Britain that is dealing with the devastation of war and struggling with the massive social and economic changes of the postwar years. With both, there's a warmth and familiarity, and we can't help caring about the fate of these characters through all their triumphs and tragedies, loves and heartbreaks. In the end, both are just so damn likeable and comfortable. But both also can ultimately feel a bit slight and leave us wishing for more.

Of course, truly terrible things do happen to the characters in these novels. There is darkness and despair, and we're shown the evil and ugliness that exists in the world. There are harrowing depictions of combat and its aftermath. People suffer and die. And that's where I think SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER may be more successful than its predecessor. The story get progressively darker, and by the end, de Bernières doesn't allow the comic relief to overwhelm the sadness. He's willing to let us feel it and linger in it. Rosie, a character who is very sympathetic to us, engages in some terrible behavior. We see her pain and suffering, and understand why she acts as she does, but her cruelty isn't minimized or excused.

This exchange, involving a couple in an unlikely adulterous relationship is also illustrative:

D: "When I was younger I had absolutely no idea that it's utterly impossible to live without so much subterfuge, so many compromises, and secrets and lies."
C: "You can perfectly well live a dull life without them, but who wants a dull life? When I'm on my deathbed, I don't want to be lying there thinking about all the things I never did."

Their relationship is more complicated and interesting than those we generally saw in the first novel. There's an understanding of the profound hurt and damage that can result from even "good" choices made with the best intentions. SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER has a moral ambiguity and complexity that the first novel sometimes lacked.

I'll be back for any future installments, that's for sure. (I assume/hope that at least a third novel is planned, based on how this one ended.) As I said, these books are charming and just so damn likeable.

(Thank you to Pantheon Books for a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review.)

[John McDermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stuff. An excellent novel with characters you care about ; full of love ,compassion, tragedy, loss and regret. Great story telling that also explores the legacy of the Empire and how our veterans of WW1 coped with having to adjust to civilian life and dealing with the guilt of having survived when so many of their comrades were lost.
Highly recommended.

[OLT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story sneaked up on me and its full impact didn't hit me until the final chapters. Throughout the reading of more than two thirds of this, I was wondering why I was supposed to care about the characters. They felt shallow, unsympathetic, unlikeable, somewhat petty, living superficial, privileged lives. But the more I read, the more I began to suspect that this was perhaps the author's intention. These people had been intensely involved in WWI and now it's 1920 at the beginning of the book. When the Great War ended, they seemed to founder (and even flounder), perhaps with survivor's guilt, and not know what to do with "so much life left over."

The story has as its central figure Daniel Pitt, former RAF flying ace and war hero, now living an expat life in Ceylon with his wife Rosie, a wartime nurse. It seems to be an idyllic life on the surface but cracks in its perfection soon become visible. Rosie, for one, isn't a happy person and seems bound and determined to make Daniel unhappy too. And Daniel, denied Rosie's affection, seeks companionship elsewhere (and elsewhere and elsewhere as the story progresses).

The characters, unsympathetic and shallow as I found them all, did have their appeal. When Daniel and Rosie move back to England at Rosie's insistence, we have a comedy of errors and manners densely packed with quirky characters: The McCosh family of Rosie and her three sisters and their parents, Daniel's troubled brother Archie and their mother, friends and significant others and offspring of many, the McCosh gardener, Oily Wragge (just had to mention his name), an ex-soldier who went through a lot during the war and was one of my favorite characters.

There's much here that is funny, absurd, and ridiculous, especially in the part of the book taking place after the Great War and well into the 1930s, a time when the characters are trying to adjust to post-war life. It's entertaining in a superficial way. Then with the introduction of WWII, the serious finds its place along with the absurd. As a matter of fact, there are some poignant, sad, and touching moments in the last third of the book that affected me viscerally, giving me a lump in my throat.

Kudos to author de Bernieres for being able to densely pack a short (275 pages) book with so much. There is social commentary, about British colonization and its impact on a country and its natives, about the British class system, about marriage, about war and its impact on countries and individuals, about prejudice and bigotry and antisemitism. And huge amounts of historical facts and tidbits about the 1920s and 1930s, much of it in a somewhat Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire way for high school students, in that you might not be familiar with all the info thrown out there rather incidentally, but that's what reference books and Google are for, right?

The last third of this book, with its emotional impact on me, saved it from receiving only 3 stars from me. This is, BTW, the second in a planned trilogy. The first book, THE DUST THAT FALLS FROM DREAMS, about these same characters before and during the Great War, came out in 2015. The third one, obviously still to be released much farther in the future, will find them post WWII, I imagine. The author has me interested enough to read about them a third time, whenever that will be.

(Oh, I almost forgot to mention that a character from CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, perhaps Louis de Bernieres' most popular work, gets a cameo here. Won't tell you who. That's for me to know and for you to find out.)

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

After I finished reading, "The Dust That Falls from Dreams", I expressed my hope that Louis de Bernieres would follow it with a sequel, as I wasn't ready to let those marvelous characters go. Well, de Bernieres' latest novel, "So Much Life Left Over", is indeed a sequel, and I'm ecstatic! It follows the form of its predecessor beautifully; a sumptuous cast of characters, well-researched and compelling historical back-ground, exotic locals (India! Ceylon! Kent!) and short chapters to propel the novel forward at a perfect pace. (You do not have had to read "Dust" to thoroughly enjoy this new novel, though it will enhance your experience.)

This marvelous cast of characters are entertaining, interesting, endearing, and sometimes frustrating, but they are ALWAYS veddy veddy British. The dialogue between characters delights me to the core, and the "Brit wit" reminds me again why I love de Bernieres, and other "veddy" British writers (e.g., Chris Cleave who's, "Everyone Brave is Forgiven", is another novel to which I long for a sequel.) Think Noel Coward-esque dialogue and eccentric characters.

Most of the characters were neighbors who grew up together outside of London, and each suffered losses during The Great War. Now, these friends and siblings have dispersed and, having survived death and destruction - no longer expecting to die at any minute, they have “so much life left over” that they must cope with.

“So Much Life Left Over” isn’t all wit and fun, these characters experience tragedy, disappointments, bad marriages, and heartbreak, just like “real life”. I felt tears coming just as readily as laughs.

I’ve taken the liberty of “casting” (in my mind) some of these characters with British actors, here are just a few:

David Pitt: Benedict Cumberbatch
Archie Pitt: James Norton
Rosie McCosh Pitt: Morven Christie
Sophie McCosh Fairhead: Emily Blunt

I do think these novels would make for a WONDERFUL TV series. The characters are all over the place and the dialogue is already pitch perfect! Some examples:

“Now tell me, my boy, was it you or your brother who was killed in the war?”

And my favorite marriage proposal of all time:

“Do I take it that you’ve agreed to marry me?”
“I’m not racy enough to live in sin.”
“So is it yes?”
“You haven’t asked me properly.”
“You want me to kneel in a park? In front of all these ducks?”
“Yes.”

I suspect that there will be no sequel to “So Much Life Left Over”, because, as the story progresses into the 1930s and 40s, de Bernieres quite elegantly starts to give us brief glimpses into the characters’ future which serves to bring some closure for the reader. If “The Dust that Falls from Dreams” left me slightly unsatisfied, “So Much Life Left Over” left me perfectly satisfied. AND looking forward to whatever Louis de Bernieres writes next!

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book with a complex storyline and many different characters. Upon reading it I didn't realise it's actually a sequel to another book "The Dust That Falls From Dreams". I don't feel like I missed anything by not having read the previous book, but on the other hand I did struggle at the beginning of the book to get the hang of all the characters and who they are, because there are so many.

The characters are all members of the same family, or connected to the family. The main character is Daniel, and the book follows him and his extended family through the period between the World Wars. Daniel was an flying ace in World War I, and he and his wife moved to Ceylon following the war. He is blissfully happy there but she is not, and the main story throughout the book is the decline of his marriage and how this effects his relationship with his children.

There were a lot of colourful characters in the book. My favourites were Oily Wragge the gardener, the very bohemian couple Christabel and Gaskell, and Daniel himself, although he definitely makes some questionable decisions, he also has a lot of heartache and loss to deal with in the book.

The writing is wonderfully rich and full of life. Each character is an individual, and their stories are intertwined as those of a family always are. The turmoil of the times is evident, but life must go on and there are plenty of other factors to concern people at the time, just trying to live their normal lives the best they can. That comes through in this story, which is both joyful and full of sadness. I have never read anything by de Bernieres before, but he is a very poetic and emotive writer, and I really enjoyed this book.

[Erika Robuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prepare for infatuation and heartbreak. 

In SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER, the reader holds in her hands an entire world where she will become intimates of the men and women on the pages. These characters are both traumatized and cause trauma. They make awful decisions--from the small and foolish to the epically cataclysmic--and yet they are profoundly endearing because of their enormous capacities for love. 

De Bernieres titles each chapter, making little stories of them. Narrators and points of view change, style and structure shift, settings and times switch, threads left open are later picked up, hearts are broken, mended, and broken again, and yet the reader is never left confused or unmoored because of the assured storytelling. 

I was left a sobbing mess by SO MUCH LIFE LEFT OVER. If you love stories that consume you and leave you a little broken, I highly recommend it. This novel will win awards. 

[SueKich · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much book left over.

When authors come to the second volume in a trilogy, they sometimes manage a subtly interwoven catch-up which is much appreciated by those of us with less than stellar memories. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. But no matter because a desperately sad and really rather gruesome event early on in the book prevented me from going any further.

Apologies, therefore, for not being able to provide a more substantial review and my thanks to Harvill Secker for the ARC via NetGalley.

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a good story here, trying to get out from under some very average writing. It felt to me as it Bernieres came up with the story line, and wrote it down as he imagined it, without worrying too much about crafting it into a compellingly written tale.

It's got good bits, but I found the characterisation of many of the people a little 2 dimensional. Additionally, the variations in pace - some detailed descriptions of moments, sometimes huge leaps in time in single chapters - which is a technique I often enjoy in novels, in the case felt uneven.

Enjoyable enough, but not the best writing in the world.

[Amanda B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5\5 🌟rounded down to 3....

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked up this book, I didn’t realise it was the second book in a planned trilogy that started with The Dust That Falls From Dreams. Although it works perfectly well as a standalone, the book description makes me feel I would have enjoyed following the characters through the events of the earlier book first.

In So Much Life Left Over all the characters find themselves dissatisfied to a certain extent with what their lives have become. They are looking for direction, fulfilment, a challenge, a chance to contribute or pondering the ‘road not taken’. For example, Rosie’s sister, Sophie, is looking for something to replace the feeling of being valued she got from her war work. Her other sister, Christabel, is realising some opportunities only come along once in a lifetime. As she observes, ‘When I’m on my deathbed, I don’t want to be lying there thinking about all the things I never did.’

For some, like Daniel, the simple fact they have survived the war is unexpected leaving them, to quote the book’s title, with so much life left over. Their war experiences also make the boring, unimportant details of everyday life difficult to bear. ‘There is a kind of man who, having been at war, finds peacetime intolerable, because he cannot develop the civilian’s talent for becoming obsessed with irrelevant details and procedure. He hates the delays and haverings, the tedious diplomacy, the terrible lack of energy and discipline, and, above all, he hates the feeling that what he is doing is not important.’ As the humorously named Oily Wragge remarks, ‘War makes everything simple. There’s a tunnel in front of you and you put your head down, and you struggle forward for the light at the end of it one bloody impossible step at a time, and that frees you up somehow…’

Although I enjoyed the book, I wasn’t sure about the number of different points of view and the occasional switches between first and third person. Some of the narrators introduced felt as if they were there purely for the author to show off his (considerable) skill in creating distinct voices. Having said that, there were some great touches of humour and some memorable characters such as Mrs McCash who opines on subjects as diverse as when it’s appropriate to use the second best teapot and individuals who (horror!) conclude a sentence with a preposition and start a sentence with a conjunction. And you may chuckle like me at her response to the surprise contained in Mr McCash’s will, namely that he was ‘always a man for two birds with one stone’.

So Much Life Left Over is a beautifully told story of love and loss that certainly left me eager to find out what happens next. The final book in the trilogy, The Autumn of the Ace, is due to be published in November 2020.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of Louis De B ever since he was named as one Granta's Best of Young British Novelists back in 1993. It has been a delight to see how his career has progressed and I have loved everything he has written. ‘So Much Life Left Over’ has not disappointed. It is a captivating and absorbing book both humorous and tragic. What I particularly loved were the small cameos of characters from De B’s other novels, ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ and ‘Notwithstanding’; delightful.

The novel is set between the first and second world wars. It feature Daniel Pitt WW1 flying ace, who, now it is peacetime, feels he has so much life left over. He has a troubled marriage to Rose with whom he has two children. Amongst the other characters are Daniel’s brother Archie and Rose’s three sisters and we follow their lives up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

As with all De B’s novels the writing is beautiful and the characterisation is tremendous. I really engaged with the story and was sad when the book ended. I’m guessing there is going to be a third novel in the series and I can’t wait.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Niektorí ľudia neznesú mier po vojne, lebo sa nedokážu vyžívať v nepodstatných maličkostiach, ako to vedia civilisti. Neznášajú otáľanie a zbytočné reči, otrasný nedostatok energie a disciplíny, a najmä pocit, že to, čo robia, nie je dôležité..."  

Platí to síce najmä pre vojakov, ktorí napriek utrpeniu a zažitým hrôzam ako tak prežili, no platí to i pre pozostalých. Pre ľúdí vyrovnávajúcich sa so stratou, pre takých, ktorí trpeli prostredníctvom iných či takých, ktorí sa tvárou v tvár nepekným až groteskným zraneniam, snažili svet urobiť lepším. Nevedeli sa zmieriť s tým, čo videli, čo robili či o koho prišli... Vojna skončila, no boj v ich vnútri pretrval. Zasekli sa kdesi v minulosti, neustále sa vracali k tomu, čo bolo či mohlo byť a k tomu, čo je nenávratne stratené.

Práve na život po vojne, vytúžené mierové časy bez strachu a krviprelievania, sa zameriava Toľko života, druhá časť rodinnej (i spoločensky orientovanej) trilógie o rodinách Pittovcov a McCoshovcov, ktorá poukazuje na to, že vyrovnať sa s prežitým nie je vôbec jednoduché. Turbulentné obdobie skončilo, svet si vydýchol, no pre našich hrdinov to, žiaľ, neplatí. Jeden boj síce vyhrali, no druhý, o čosi osobnejší (a v istom zmysle komplikovanejší), sa ešte len začal.

Strata dieťaťa, citový chlad a zlomyseľné prekážky, nevera a narušené či priam absentujúce rodinné vzťahy. Boj muža proti mužovi, vojaka proti vojakovi, vystriedal boj muža a ženy, manžela a manželky. Jeden túžil po novom začiatku a zážitkoch, ktoré by potlačili neľahké spomienky, druhá na nevedela odpútať a v snahe kajať sa za "hriechy" voči prvému snúbencovi trestala seba i všetkých naokolo.

Oproti prvej časti ságy bola Toľko života rozhodne frustrujúcejšia (a do istej miery i nechutnejšia, minimálne v zmysle totálnej deštrukcie charakteru), no Louis de Bernières nesklamal. Zas a znovu sa majstrovsky pohral s osudmi jednotlivcov i skupín, poriadne ich zamotal a vyťahal za pačesy, pričom slovo dal nie len vyrovnávaniu sa s povojnovým svetom a rodinnými problémami, ale i istej miere náboženského skepticizmu a voľnomyšlienkárskeho zmýšľania, čím dal čitateľovi možnosť naplno si vychutnať dobový posun

Veľmi dobré, skoro ako Prach (viac-menej rovnako dobré, až na správanie jednej postavy) ☺

[Vivian Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | Pantheon for allowing me to read an eARC of this. Unfortunately, I got to it very late.
The good news is that I really enjoyed it. I read it in one day, and couldn't seem to put it down. It is the second book in the series, but I didn't seem to have trouble with that. I may even pick up the first one just to see if I actually missed anything.
You follow a cast of characters, which are developed quite well. The main ones are Rosie, Daniel, and their daughter. They try to move on from the first World War, and fix their marriage, which seems impossible at this point. You also follow Rosie's sisters, who are also dealing with their own challenges.
I didn't go into this novel expecting to like it as much as I did. It's definitely dark, and heartbreaking. It has its moments though. The children in the story were so innocent, and you just want to give them a hug. The family dynamic in this is very hard to follow. It's hard to read about. There is cheating involved, and the guys often have multiple children from other women. I would think it was actually like that during that time.
This is a war novel, and it talks about Hitler more toward the middle/end, but it doesn't just focus on that. That's what I love about it. I wasn't sad the entire time. I do tend to get a little bored of a novel JUST talks about war, and fighting. I'm not saying that war is boring, so please don't take it that way. It's just not something I tend to enjoy reading about, obviously.
This was such an interesting read. It probably won't be a novel everyone would want to read, but I highly recommend giving it a shot. I will say that there is quite a bit of talk about suicide, and hating ones life. If you are triggered by that, then maybe stay away from this book. I could see myself buying this one in the future! Solid read.

[Sarah Epton · Rating 2 out of 5]

My utter frustration with this book came down to characters. I didn't believe any of them. I didn't believe they grew up when they did. I didn't believe they were products of the great war. The dialog was wrong. Their preoccupations didn't ring true. I kept coming back to the conviction that the author wrote a sprawling domestic drama set in, maybe, the 1970s, and then went, no, this needs some period spice! and haphazardly splashed some interwar details around. There were unforgiveable moments too. de Bernieres is one of those authors who likes to slyly insert characters from his books into others of his books. This can be a clever device but in this case, a protracted scene involving a Greek doctor from Corelli's Mandoline served zero purpose and made me want to throw the book at the wall. Towards the end the author chooses to advance the narrative through a series of letters written from a father to his young daughter, and that de B. seems to think that I would swallow a man of this generation writing to his pre-adolescent daughter about his wife's frigidity is insulting to my intelligence. There was a single chapter, told from the perspective of the frigid wife, which kept me from giving this book one star. I have thought about it many times over the past week. The rest of the book is just overreaching garbage painted over with a faintly historical patina to, presumably, class it up.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

So Much Life Left Over seems a somewhat ironic title for Louis de Bernieres’ book, since it seems like the main characters don’t make much of an attempt to truly live life. This book was pretty blah to me, and I don’t know that reading the first book in the series (which I wasn’t aware of) would improve it. This book is told mostly from the point of view of Daniel, a RAF pilot during WWI, and his life after the Great War. The chapters from alternative perspectives don’t really add much to the book for me. I felt that the main characters in this book, especially Rosie, were hard to like and I felt disappointed that more enjoyable, interesting characters that the story could have been built around came off as mere distractions to the miserable lives of the married couple at the center of book.

[Smurfette · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He thought about how, if you have no faith, there is no meaning in anything unless you put it there yourself."

What a read - intriguing, heartbreaking, thought-provoking and educational.
It's crazy to think how different one's priorities and perceptions must be in times of war.
Also got me thinking about how there are so many different forms of love - some unconventional, some unexpected, some unreasonable. Some painful, others healing, all beautiful.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I picked this book up I thought I would get a different take on life after war.

"But now he and Hugh, and the rest of those who had survived, had so much life left over that it was sometimes hard to cope with. Some became drunks; others fell quiet and imprisoned themselves inside themselves; some foresaw a brave new world and strode out towards it; others returned to what they had been before, and turned the war into the memory of an outrageous dream from which they had at last awoken. Most were as proud of what they had done as they were amazed to be yet alive."

Alas, this idea was only touched upon in this novel.

While the extremely short chapters propelled the story forward, there was no depth to the characters, and their motivations were heavy handedly delivered. Just as disappointingly there were plot lines introduced and then not followed.

I did enjoy the flashes of humor such as when Rosie, because her mother who loved the royals frequently wouldn't go into the shelter, wrote to King George requesting that he command Mother to do so .And there were moments when the story drew me in and I felt touched.

This is the middle book of a trilogy and perhaps if I can bring myself to read the third book when it comes out later this year, I might have a different perspective.

[Inji · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,7/5

This book is actually the second book in a trilogy, but I didn't realize that until Gaskell & Christabel's story. All of a sudden they started talking about Gaskell as if you had to know who Gaskell was, long story short I found out it was a trilogy :D
Tbh the story is a common WWI and WWII story, but I liked how realistic it was, how people moved on with their lives after WWI, what war changed in their lives, and how they reacted to them.
My favorite character is Ottilie, I'd like to read a lot about her character. And of course, Daniel. Fairhead was interesting too.
The author's narrating style is interesting too, the narrator changes in each chapter.

I almost forgot, one thing I didn't like about the book is that some events happened suddenly, like Esther's death.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent sequel to The Dust that Falls from Dreams. This book covers the inter wars years and how the family members cope with making adjustments to their way of life.
It is beautifully written and you can really get to know all the characters. Each has a different lifestyle which makes the book so interesting. I was sorry when it finshed!

[Laura JC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at an airport shop, where the selection is limited, but it said it was set in Sri Lanka (Ceylon at the time of the story), and that interested me. In fact, only the first section of the book is set there, the rest being in England, and a bit of Germany. I always find stories about wartime and pre-wartime Britain interesting, and this was no exception. I enjoyed this book.

[Dave Szostak · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuation, or sequel, of the familial lives found in The Dust That Falls From Dreams, but at half the length, making this feel more like brief glimpses and scattered episodes rather than a cohesive whole. The result is a fast read but one less entrancing than its predecessor, though it does not stint on the tragedy.

[H. Daley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Readable but such irritating main characters!

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Jasmine Clifton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author is a gifted writer, and I enjoyed the first book in this series. However, I did not enjoy this book. This doesn't happen to me very often, but through the book I found myself continually thinking to myself "this was so written by a MAN." and rolling my eyes. Our poor protagonist cannot help but have mistresses, as his previously warm and lovely wife turns into a frigid bitch. And he really can't help having many mistresses, his awful wife won't give him a divorce so he can't marry his lovers...what is a poor kind man to do other than keep sleeping around?! Not to mention his wife's sister, a lesbian whom he becomes lovers with, unwillingly, to give her children. Although he would rather sleep with the butch female in the relationship of course she isn't interested, but the soft feminine half of the pair not only is interested, but loves him and very much enjoys sex with him! (see what I mean, tell me this makes you roll your eyes too?!) There were just too many things about this book I didn't enjoy, and I ended the book dissatisfied and disappointed.

[Kama · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to put a finger on why I enjoyed this book so much. Mainly the characters and the dialogue, I suppose. Everyone is so British and wry [despite Daniel always self-deprecatingly explaining that he's half French]. Also the author is masterful at walking the line between humor and heartbreak.

I also have no idea why I picked up the sequel, but I'm definitely going back to read the first one.

[SueLucie · Rating 1 out of 5]

With thanks to Random House Vintage via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC. Not for me, I'm afraid.