George Beneath a Paper Moon

by Nina Bawden

(From the back cover blurb)
'I intended a comedy', writes Nina Bawden, ' a love story, a thriller. And maybe it's also a bit of a moral tale.
You get all these elements and more in this superbly constructed and mercilessly observed comedy of George, the travel agent, who is constantly being prodded into amazement at the absurdity of his own existence.

Genres: British Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1974

About the author

Nina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.

When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.
Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter.

A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.

Bawden passed away at her home in London on 22 August 2012.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
This is a 1974 novel from Nina Bawden and it was an oddity which didn’t know what it intended to be. Bawden herself said:
“I intended a comedy, a love story, a thriller. And maybe it’s also a bit of a moral tale.”
Unfortunately Bawden attempts to add all of these things, most of them in the last three or four chapters. So the whole thing is a bit of a mess.
The novel is about the George of the title who is a successful travel agent. George sets up adventures for others and doesn’t have them himself. He feels “the important things happened while his back was turned”. He has a fairly comfortable life and is in his mid-30s. He has good friends in Sam and Claire (a married couple) with whom he was at university. Sam and Claire have a fifteen year old daughter, Sally. Fifteen years earlier George and Claire had an affair because Claire wanted a child and it was very unlikely that Sam would be able to provide one. It is therefore likely that Sally is George’s child. Just to complicate things and add a Nabokov element George is in love with Sally. However Sally also has a teenage crush on George.
Bawden is good at creating unsympathetic characters and George marries Leila and decides to be a supportive husband, you can imagine how that goes.
The whole thing moves to Turkey for the end of the book. Introduce a few suave English diplomats and assorted locals who clearly do not know the “English” way of doing things. Sally is on sort of exchange with a Turkish girl and there are assorted youthful political things going on (Sally is about seventeen by now). George and Leila are there as well. The comedic touches are present throughout. How then do you sort out the tangle of the moral, love and thriller narrative threads? Of course, you have an earthquake.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books)]

I read about a quarter of this and never could shake the feeling I was reading a summary of a novel, rather than a work of fiction itself. These notes pointed towards a novel that could’ve been rather interesting, but it seems the author never got around to actually writing it.

[Reginald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nina Bawden ,who died this year, is probably best known for her children's stories like Carrie's War.
I have read several of her books both for adults and children and they are consistently good.
This is the interesting story of George who feels that he is always a bystander and never an instigator of events. Read it and see if you agree with him.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

George Hare leaves Oxford University after reading French and German and borrows some money from his grandmother to open a travel agency that very soon becomes successful. He is making a lot of money, but not bothered about financial success, it is the desire to send people to destinations that suit them that drives him.

Despite pressure from his friends he remains single for many years, though he is in love with his best friend's wife, Claire. In his mid 30s he does marry, though remains attracted to Claire, amd alos her daughter, Sally, who could actually be his daughter.

Basically the novel is the story of George's life. It is a deftly composed story that flits between time periods. Bawden portrays George really well, so that despite his failings the reader develops sympathy for him.

[Bohemian Book Lover · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Nina Bawden, and what a first impression it was!

A LOLITA-like, Electra-Complexed short novel with an apparent, absurdist, Oedipal twist of fate; twisting once again in its literal earth-shaking conclusion.

Existentialist yet entertaining, this peculiar page-turner and mix bag of a book turned out to be a tonic of a read; stirring an interest in trying out other Nina Bawden novels.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second Bawden book I've read in lockdown. Odd subject, a man in love with his daughter, nothing nasty happens.

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another disconcerting Bawden, and again with the implied incest.
Her books are so discomforting in an awfully British way.