A Girl in Winter

by Philip Larkin

Katherine Lind is a refugee who has become a librarian in a wartime Northern town. One winter’s day, she receives a telegram: and her thoughts drift back to falling in love with her pen-pal, Robin Fennel, on a glorious summer exchange. But on his return from the army, their reunion is not what they imagined …

Philip Larkin's second novel was first published in 1947. This story of Katherine Lind and Robin Fennel, of winter and summer, of war and peace, of exile and holidays, is memorable for its compassionate precision and for the uncommon and unmistakable distinction of its writing.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Poetry, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. He spent his working life as a university librarian and was offered the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman, but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. He first came to prominence with the release of his third collection The Less Deceived in 1955. The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows followed in 1964 and 1974. In 2003 Larkin was chosen as "the nation's best-loved poet" in a survey by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2008 The Times named Larkin as the greatest post-war writer.

Larkin was born in city of Coventry, England, the only son and younger child of Sydney Larkin (1884–1948), city treasurer of Coventry, who came from Lichfield, and his wife, Eva Emily Day (1886–1977), of Epping. From 1930 to 1940 he was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry, and in October 1940, in the midst of the Second World War, went up to St John's College, Oxford, to read English language and literature. Having been rejected for military service because of his poor eyesight, Larkin was able, unlike many of his contemporaries, to follow the traditional full-length degree course, taking a first-class degree in 1943. Whilst at Oxford he met Kingsley Amis, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent correspondent. Shortly after graduating he was appointed municipal librarian at Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946, he became assistant librarian at University College, Leicester and in 1955 sub-librarian at Queen's University, Belfast. In March 1955, Larkin was appointed librarian at The University of Hull, a position he retained until his death.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Girl in Winter is a complex psychological novel.
Wartime… Wintertime…

To look at the snow too long had a hypnotic effect, drawing away all power of concentration, and the cold seemed to cramp the bones, making work harder and unpleasant.

She is a lonely foreign girl – a refugee – working as a library assistant… She exists in a drab world among colourless people… She lives in a moody atmosphere…
She is asked to help a young colleague, suffering from severe toothache, to go to dentist…

“Oh.” Miss Green considered this. “I thought you’d have lived in a hostel, or something.” As Katherine did not say anything, she went on: “It’s nice to have a place where you can bring people.”
“I’ve no-one to bring,” said Katherine, scratching the parting of her hair with one fingernail. “You’re the first visitor I’ve had.”
“Oh!” Miss Green stared at her with her mouth slightly open. “Not really?”
“It’s quite true.”
“Don’t they allow it, then?”
“Oh, they allow it, I suppose. I just haven’t had anyone to bring.”
“I expect you go out to other people’s – it’s different when they’ve their own houses.”
“No. I mean I don’t know anyone.”

Six years ago, when she lived in her home country, she had a pen pal in England and was invited by him to visit his family in the summer… Now she recollects that nice vacation: the boy, his sister and his parents…

At some untraceable point she had fallen in love with him. Her curiosity and his fascination had brought her to the brink of it, she knew, but she had fancied that love needed two people, as if it were a lake they had to dive in simultaneously. Now she found she had gone into it alone, while he remained undismayed.
Because Katherine was so young she had hitherto thought love a pleasant thing; a state that put order into her life, directing her thoughts and efforts towards one end, and because she found it pleasant she thought it could not be real love, which by all accounts caused suffering and was to be feared.

She had written to the family once again and got the answer… The boy – now a soldier – promised to call on her… So now, in the state of some nostalgic uncertainty, she’s waiting for their meeting… But time and her life experience made her different…

For the world seemed to have moved off a little, and to have lost its immediacy, as a bright pattern will fade in many washings. It was like a painting of a winter landscape in neutral colours, or a nocturne in many greys of the riverside, yet not so beautiful as either. Like a person who is beginning to go physically colour-blind she was disturbed. She felt one of her faculties had died without her consent or knowledge, and she was less than she had been. The world that she had been so used to appraising, delighting in, and mixing with had drawn away, and she no longer felt she was part of it. Henceforward, if she needed comfort, she would have to comfort herself; if she were to be happy, the happiness would have to burn from her own nature. In short, since people seemed not to affect her, they could not help her, and if she was to go on living she would have to get the strength for it solely out of herself.

As we grow older we begin to see some of our adolescent passions as no more than our childish caprices.

[Guille · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sencillez y elegancia en una historia mínima cuya sensibilidad debe correr por encima o por debajo de la zona de detección de mi radar porque no me ha dicho gran cosa.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Larkin in Oxford, 1943

Philip Larkin opens A Girl in Winter with a chapter, three paragraphs long, in which he describes England during World War II, suffering through a stormy winter, its people trying to carry on daily life through numbness and deprivation:

[The snow] lay in ditches and in hollows in the fields, where only birds walked. In some lanes the wind had swept it up faultlessly to the very tops of the hedges. Villages were cut off until gangs of men could clear a passage on the roads; the labourers could not go out to work, and on the aerodromes near these villages all flying remained cancelled. People who lay ill in bed could see the shine off the ceilings of their rooms, and a puppy confronted with it for the first time howled and crept under the water-butt. The outhouses were roughly powdered down the windward side, the fences were half submerged like breakwaters; the whole landscape was so white and still it might have been a formal painting. People were unwilling to get up. To look at the snow too long had a hypnotic effect, drawing away all power of concentration, and the cold seemed to cramp the bones, making work harder and unpleasant. Nevertheless, the candles had to be lit, and the ice in the jugs smashed, and the milk unfrozen; the men had to be given their breakfasts and got off to work into the yards. LIfe had to be carried on, in no matter what circumscribed way; even though one went no further than the window-seat, there was plenty to be done indoors, saved for such time as this.

Larkin’s way with words was not a surprise to me; A Girl in Winter has many beautiful passages where he turns his skills as a poet to gorgeous descriptions of the English countryside. However, his ability to develop a complex, nuanced portrait of his main character, Katherine Lind, gives the novel its strength and emotional power. This is a sensitive, quiet novel, exploring the difficulty in penetrating people’s facades to understand who they are and what their motivations are. I emerged with a strong sense of isolation, which provided me with a nuanced understanding of the loneliness faced by the English and European emigrants alike during World War II. The novel also presents a subtle, cautionary warning that this sense of isolation may not be confined to wartime, but may instead be part of the human condition, making it difficult to form true connections with others.


England, 1940

We first meet Katherine Lind in the second chapter, as she is working as a floater in an English library. We are not told much about her background: we know she is a European displaced by the war, whose English is good in part because of a summer she spent in England when she was 16. We never learn her home country (although Larkin does let us know it lies near the Rhine River), nor do we hear what happened to her and her family and friends at the hands of the Nazis (although we do know that she is quite alone, so the implication is that her recent past was traumatic). Larkin presents her as an intelligent woman who is working in a job below her capabilities, at odds with a peculiar and demanding boss, but fortunate to have even a precarious place in wartime England.


England, 1940

In the first section of the novel, Katherine’s thoughts are torn among dissatisfaction with her wartime job, immediate complications related to her escorting home a colleague who is suffering from a toothache, and conflicted nostalgia spurred by her recently receiving a letter from the Fennels, the English family whom she had visited as a teenager. When she learns that a visit from Robin Fennel is imminent, she is torn between wanting to see her childhood pen pal again, and wanting to avoid a meeting with murky significance. She spends much of her time struggling with issues of translation -- not because her English is not good, but because of the difficulty in determining people’s true intentions from their statements and actions. Although Larkin uses dialogue to present some of these conflicts, he anchors them in Katherine’s own interior monologue throughout the novel. Her voice emerges as intelligent, perceptive, but lonely and fundamentally insecure over the accuracy of her perceptions.


Oxfordshire countryside

The long middle section of the novel is a prolonged flashback, in which Katherine remembers her initial correspondence with Robin as part of a pen pal program at her school, her surprise invitation to spend a summer with the Fennels, and her experiences with the family in Oxfordshire. When she arrives, her English is not yet good enough to pick up on all the nuances of meaning in spoken conversation, and cultural differences lead to complications in her discerning meaning from nonverbal communication as well. Larkin masterfully depicts the shifting ground from cultural gaps and misunderstandings, as Katherine desperately tries to understand Robin and his family.


Punting

Some of the cultural gap in the novel comes from the differences between Katherine’s life in a faster-paced European town, and the slow, sleepy summer in the Oxfordshire countryside:

Undistinguished as [the village] was, Katherine found it fascinating. She looked curiously round the sides of cottages, where small ugly children were fussing, and at old people who sat on kitchen chairs in the doorways. When she saw their hands lying in their laps, or on the wooden arms of the chair, she thought it was strange that these husks, that had poured out their lives so distantly and differently from her, should for a second look at her with their bright eyes. From occasional doorways came dance music from Radio Luxembourg, and she could see dimly through the lace curtains on the windowsill mass-produced china figures and Sunday newspapers, read by men in shirt sleeves.

Larkin’s compelling descriptions of the Oxfordshire countryside, along with some amusing sequences during which Katherine tries to learn traditional English pastimes, like punting, convey these cultural differences while also imparting a hazy golden nostalgia to this sequence of the novel.


River in Oxfordshire

In the concluding section of A Girl in Winter, Larkin returns us to Katherine in wartime England, as some of the questions she pondered about coworkers and friends are answered, but in ways that simply give rise to more questions. As she finds opportunities to become closer to some characters, the more remote she feels. In his concluding paragraphs, as Larkin returns to descriptions of the falling snow, he leaves us with a sense that Katherine is seeking, more than anything, for a sense of order and predictability in her life. She is seeking a peaceful ending, rather than a happy ending:

There was the snow, and her watch ticking. So many snowflakes, so many seconds. As time passed they seemed to mingle in their minds, heaping up into a vast shape that might be a burial mound, or the cliff of an iceberg whose summit is out of sight. Into its shadow dreams crowded, full of conceptions and stirrings of cold, as if icefloes were moving down a lightless channel of water. They were going in orderly slow procession, moving from darkness further into darkness, allowing no suggestion that their order should be broken, or that one day, however many years distant, the darkness would begin to give place to light.
Yet their passage was not saddening. Unsatisfied dreams rose and fell about them, crying out against the implacability, but in the end glad that such order, such destiny, existed. Against this knowledge, the heart, the will, and all that made for protest, could at least sleep.

I recommend this novel for its beautiful language, its themes concerning difficulties of translation and connection between people, and its compelling depiction of earlier places and times in England. Larkin’s insights transcend a specific historical period, and instead touch on sources of isolation that we can recognize today.

[Magrat Ajostiernos · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Que maravilla!
Este es otro de esos libros cargado de sentimientos con el que se podrá conectar o no, y en mi caso he conectado de lleno, dejándome al final una sensación agridulce de tristeza y desamparo.
La historia nos habla de una bibliotecaria en plena Segunda Guerra Mundial. Nuestra bibliotecaria es extranjera, vive sola, no tiene amigos y la frialdad del invierno inglés parece haberle calado hasta los huesos.
La novela está dividida en tres partes, siendo la segunda un flashback cálido y extraño y la tercera el desenlace perfecto para nuestra historia en el que comprendemos la impotencia, la soledad y la falta de significado de todo para unas personas perdidas en mitad de una guerra.
Me ha parecido tan sutil, tan bello, lleno de esa cotidianeidad que esconde cosas importantes.
Seguramente será una novela similar a 'La librería' de Penelope Fitzgerald en la que habrá mucha gente que no le encuentre la gracia o el sentido, pero para mi ha resultado una grandísima lectura.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across a recommendation for this 1947 novel in an online article about “winter reads” and was curious since I’d never read anything by Larkin. He’s obviously best known as a poet, but I rarely read poetry and wondered what he was like as a novelist.

I enjoyed reading this but was left puzzled about the personality and motivations of the main character, Katherine Lind. Actually there’s a lot in this book that is left open to the reader’s interpretation. I’ve no problem with that though. If nothing else it provides something for me to talk about in my review.

This novel is in three parts, with Parts 1 and 3 taking place over a single day during a harsh winter in wartime England, where Katherine is living as a refugee. Her home country isn’t specified. At first I thought from her surname that she might be Danish or Norwegian, but later references suggest she is probably German and possibly Jewish or of part-Jewish heritage. In Part 2 Katherine recalls and describes a pre-war visit to Oxfordshire as a 16-year-old, when she stayed with a middle-class English family, the Fennels. Their son Robin was a penpal of Katherine’s, part of a school scheme aimed at improving pupils’ foreign language skills.

Part 1 opens with Katherine working as a library assistant, where she has a difficult relationship with her boss. I had to smile at Larkin’s portrayal of the latter. He’s one of those people who has an exaggerated opinion both of his own cleverness and his own importance. I think many of us will recognise the type. Katherine is asked to escort home a colleague who has become unwell, and during this journey we learn more about her life. In whatever way she got to Britain, she did so on her own, and she seems to struggle to connect to people. She has no friends and doesn’t socialise, though she has written to the Fennels and is expecting a visit from Robin, now a young army officer.

I found the flashback story in Part 2 to be the least satisfying part of the book. At 250 pages this isn’t a long novel, but I found this section dragged on a bit. Again, the main theme seemed to be a lack of connection between Katherine and the Fennels, who were polite but distant.

What’s behind this continual sense of isolation? There is a suggestion that, although Katherine has good English, she struggles with intonation. Or does the problem lie with cultural differences and the traditional “English reserve”? In the wartime section of the novel there are hints that Katherine has experienced trauma. Again Larkin doesn’t provide any details but there is mention of “unpleasantness” and that she has “had a rotten time of it.” Might this also be part of the explanation?

In Part 3, Katherine returns to the library where she has a major clash with her obnoxious boss. This was a well-written scene where the author succeeded in getting me to share Katherine’s sense of outrage. After work she has her reunion with Robin, and again I found it a compelling read. It would be including too many spoilers to say how this went, but my own interpretation is that the description of Katherine as being “a girl in winter” refers to more than just the snowy weather outside.

I feel that Larkin probably enjoyed playing with the reader in this novel, and with getting each of us to draw our own conclusions.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little nervous about this one. Nervous, not only because of Larkin's reputation, but because of this:
"This masterful novel by the great modern poet is the story of the development of a lonely, self-centered adolescent into a mature young woman and the man who helps her find the way."

Now, that suggests all sorts of unsavory things!: that the protagonist is unlikeable throughout most of the book, that the omniscient narrator is judgmental for the entirety of the book, and that solitary women are portrayed as self-absorbed losers in need of a man's manly counsel.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. It's actually a very nuanced and sensitive novel. The aforementioned man plays a relatively minor role. And, the ending is not as triumphant as the synopsis would have us believe. Larkin's outlook was (famously) bleak and his novel concludes on a bleak note, however you look at it.

Though he's known primarily for his verse, Larkin's prose is lovely, both poetic and highly readable. It's very evenly written, like the lull of a rippling stream. But, what particularly impressed me was his ability to guide the reader. When Katherine feels fear, you feel fear. When Katherine feels content, her contentment envelopes you. Her indignation is your indignation. Never once did I get ahead of the narrative. Like a stream, it bears you along. Though it seems to meander, there's certain symmetry to it once you reach the end.

Whatever Larkin's personal issues, I didn't see them here. Just a man, not The Man, but a person: subjective, highly sensitive...and good at what he did.

[SilviaG · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Llegué a este libro gracias a la lectura conjunta del mes de noviembre del Club Pickwick. No conocía al autor, pero al leer la sinopsis del libro, me cautivó totalmente. Y tengo que decir que es un libro que me ha gustado mucho.
No es una historia de acción, sino de esas para disfrutar poco a poco de lo que te va contando.
Todo empieza en Inglaterra, durante la segunda guerra mundial. La protagonista, Katherine (refugiada de la guerra) trabaja cómo asistente en una de las bibliotecas de la ciudad. Lleva una vida muy rutinaria, triste y marcada por la austeridad y la pobreza. Todo es monótono en su vida, y su única forma de escape es recordar tiempos pasados donde su vida era más alegre, y más concretamente, un verano en el cuál visitó por primera vez Inglaterra.
Es un contraste entre la vida gris y uniforme del presente, y los días pasados en la campiña inglesa con la familia de su amigo Robin , donde todo era luz, naturaleza y tranquilidad.
Durante todo la historia, se intuye un reencuentro con Robin, su amor de adolescencia. ¿Cómo será?, ¿habrá cambiado?, ¿Cómo le habrá afectado la guerra y qué recuerdo tendrá él de ella?.....
La historia me ha cautivado, y me ha gustado mucho cómo discurre y el desenlace.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) foi um grande poeta inglês; trabalhou durante trinta anos na biblioteca de uma universidade, período em que produziu grande parte da sua obra.

Uma Rapariga No Inverno é um dos seus dois únicos romances e conta a história de Katherine e dos dois momentos da sua vida passados em Inglaterra: numas férias quando adolescente e, anos depois, a trabalhar como bibliotecária.
Com ela se cruzam homens e mulheres, novos e velhos, pobres e ricos; todos tendo em comum uma grande solidão, que se transforma em desalento e tristeza quando a tentam romper procurando a companhia de quem está por ali...

A história é vulgar mas a forma como Larkin a conta torna-a especialmente bonita. Apesar de ter sido uma leitura pacífica, sem grandes arrebatamentos que me levassem ao choro ou ao riso, este é um daqueles livros que me ficarão na memória.

"Sonhos não realizados cresciam e desmoronavam-se à sua volta, gritando, é certo, contra o seu curso implacável, mas contentes, apesar de tudo, por existir essa ordem, esse destino. Sabendo que assim era, o coração, a vontade, e tudo o que se elevava num protesto podiam finalmente adormecer."

[Andrew]

No one wrote like Philip Larkin. As unique a poetic voice as could be, this was my first foray into his fiction. The usual themes are there – a simultaneous affection for and repulsion at English provincialism, the dirt and awfulness and mousiness and grayness of daily life, the inability of people to understand one another – and while A Girl in Winter comes nowhere close to the commanding heights of his poetry, there are moments of real beauty. And for a man who's developed a posthumous reputation as a quivering and virginal misogynist, an incel avant la lettre, I've rarely seen a better rendering of a female protagonist by a male writer (because while standpoint epistemology is idiotic, there's a reason why r/menwritingwomen is a thing).

[Piesito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me esperaba una historia de amor triste, pero me he encontrado con un libro lleno de vida. Terriblemente bello, capaz de sumergirte en una atmósfera de ensoñación, de días luminosos y dorados de verano, y días fríos y blancos de invierno. También me ha sorprendido que no sea una historia de amor al uso, con personajes misteriosos, carismáticos y irónicos, es hasta divertido. Una joyita, muy agradable de leer, está escrito de una forma poética, que hace que leerlo sea un dulce para el alma (oh por favor). Lo recomiendo mucho, un libro perfecto para estos días de invierno con un buen café calentito bien cargado.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to stop myself from gobbling this book. I did not ever want it to end. Written by a poet with the talent to transport the reader into the atmosphere of his story. I believe I actually lived it--- he is so good. What pleasure.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Best known for his poetry, Philip Larkin wrote two loosely connected novels during his lifetime. The second of these, A Girl in Winter, concerns itself with the confusing mix of emotions which characterise a critical period in a young girl’s life: her coming of age. It also captures the deep sense of loneliness and isolation that marks its central character, a woman named Katherine Lind.

First published in 1947, A Girl in Winter represents my contribution to Karen and Simon’s 1947 Club which is running next week (my post is a little early as I’ll be offline during the event itself). It’s a quiet, contemplative novel, one that explores the difficulties we face in understanding and interpreting the behaviour of others, especially when we are young and inexperienced and eager to be loved. I hope to find a place for it in my end-of-year highlights.

Girl is composed of three sections, the first and third of which take place on the same Saturday in winter – the setting is an English town in the midst of WW2. (The second part takes the form of an extended flashback which I’ll return to a little later.)

The novel focuses on Katherine Lind, a twenty-two-year-old girl who is working as a temporary assistant in the town’s library. As the story unfolds, we start to form a picture of this somewhat fragile figure. While she is sensitive and intelligent, Katherine finds herself working in a role which is beneath her capabilities, a position only made worse by the small-minded bullying of her boss, the obnoxious Mr Anstey. It soon becomes clear that Katherine – a European by birth – has come to England having been displaced by the war, and as such she is permanently conscious of her status as an outsider.

She had been appointed temporary assistant, which marked her off from the permanent staff: she was neither a junior a year or so out of school who was learning the profession, nor a senior preparing to take the intermediate or final examination. It meant that she could safely be called upon to do anything, from sorting old dust-laden stock in a storeroom to standing on a table in the Reading Room to fit a new bulb in one of the lights, while old men stared aqueously at her legs. Behind all this she sensed the influence of Mr. Anstey. There was a curious professional furtiveness about him, as if he were a guardian of traditional secrets; he seemed unwilling to let her pick up any more about the work than was unavoidable. Therefore any odd job that was really nobody’s duty fell to her, for Miss Feather, who was a pale ghost of his wishes, had caught the habit from him. It annoyed her, not because she gave two pins for library practice, but because it stressed what was already sufficiently marked: that she was foreign and had no proper status there. (p. 25)

While Larkin never explicitly states Katherine’s nationality, there are several hints to suggest she is German, possibly a refugee of Jewish descent. From an early stage in the novel, it is also clear that she is desperately lonely. Katherine has made no friends since her arrival in England some two years earlier, preferring instead to avoid any social contact with others in favour of a solitary existence. There is a sense that she is living day by day, suppressing every reference to her former life while also disconnecting herself from any possible thoughts of what the future may bring. As Katherine’s story reveals itself, there is a strong suggestion that her family may have suffered at the hand of the Nazis. Once again this is never explicitly confirmed, only implied by the portrait Larkin creates. What we do know is that Katherine has experienced significant trauma in her life.

To read the rest of my review, click here:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...

[Sub_zero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una chica en invierno es una novela preciosa. Elegante, sobria y atmosférica. Se compone de muy pocos elementos, pero están tan bien medidos y estructurados que no hacen sino realzar la solidez del conjunto. A través de una solitaria y refunfuñona refugiada europea que ejerce como bibliotecaria en un pueblo inglés durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Philip Larkin narra una hermosa historia sobre encuentros con el pasado, desarraigo y descubrimiento personal que trata de indagar en esa enorme brecha que a menudo separa nuestras intenciones de nuestros actos. La trama, que a priori resulta de todo menos emocionante, consigue mantenerte atrapado en casi todo momento, pero es sin duda la profundidad y complejidad de sus personajes lo que hacen de Una chica en invierno una lectura tan recomendable.

[Debra Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most perfect novels I have ever read--not a word or gesture or character out of place. It's one of the only novels I've read set in war time that doesn't sentimentalize or mythologize that state of siege. It is luminous, very funny and very sad and very brave.

[Chiffchaff Birdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love over the 2 days that I read this book.
The prose was like some mental lyrical massage, quite the most beautiful and yet profoundly sad book I have read yet. The description of the summer spent with robin's family filled my senses with the scent of hot languid english summers. I could hear the sound of willows by the thames, swishing in the humid air.
Finishing this book left me bereft and empty. I am yet to recover from it so have moved on to Jill.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bettie.booklikes.com/blog

[Estrella · Rating 5 out of 5]

He disfrutado muchísimo de su lectura, de ritmo pausado pero me ha encantado la forma de escribir del autor. Deseando leer más cosas de Larkin.
Me ha sido fácil entender a Katherine, la protagonista, sobre todo los sentimientos y sensaciones que experimenta en la tercera parte. En el libro los hombres son llamados a filas y las vidas de todos quedan suspendidas en la incertidumbre. Los planes y el futuro que se habían ideado quedan congelados sin saber si podrán realizarse o no, en los tiempos de pandemia que estamos, no es difícil sentir ese mismo desasosiego, ansiedad, el no saber, no poder hacer planes. Querer salir, experimentar la vida y no poder.
5 estrellas, sin duda alguna🌟

[Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought on a whim (the bookstore was closing down, it cost pennies). Didn't think I would actually enjoy it all that much -- but I did. It was beautifully written, impressionistic, evocative. The middle part, in particular, was a great read. I will probably re-read it in the future to experience it again. 

[Magdalith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Znałam tylko wiersze Larkina i jestem nieco zaskoczona, bo spodziewałam się czegoś zupełnie innego. Muszę się zgodzić z Jackiem Dehnelem, który w posłowiu pisze, że "poezje Larkina od początku były narracyjne, proza zaś – poetycka." Dokładnie tak! Ładny tekst, z głębokimi psychologicznie portretami bohaterów. Ładne tłumaczenie Dehnela. I chociaż na koniec miałam odczucia podobne, jak główna bohaterka, która : "przybyła, oczekując, że rozwiąże tu jakąś tajemnicę, by odkryć w końcu, że nie było żadnej tajemnicy do rozwiązania", to to również ma swój urok.

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For the world seemed to have moved off a little, and to have lost its immediacy, as a bright pattern will fade in many washings. It was like a painting of a winter landscape in neutral colours, or a nocturne in many greys of the riverside, yet not so beautiful as either. Like a person who is beginning to go physically colour-blind she was disturbed. She felt one of her faculties had died without her consent or knowledge, and she was less than she had been. The world that she had been so used to appraising, delighting in, and mixing with had drawn away, and she no longer felt she was part of it. Henceforward, if she need needed comfort, she would have to comfort herself; if she were to be happy, the happiness would have to burn from her own nature. In short, since people seemed not to affect her, they could not help her, and if she was to go on living she would have to get the strength for it solely out of herself."

It's a beautiful little book about loneliness. I wasn't too sure about it on my first reading, but second time, got it. The value of rereading, tbh.

[Annaliese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Girl in Winter is the second of Larkin's two novels and is divided into three parts: the first and third relate one day in Katherine Lind's life (Lind being the titular Girl). The second is six years in the past when Lind (a foreigner, as is pointedly and continually nodded at in the book) visits her pen-pal in England for the first time.

The novel's plot, jumping a six-year gap between the 1930s and 1940s, intertwines the narrative with wartime. The most conspicuous, but never mentioned, aspect of this novel's WWII undertones is Lind's nationality—a careful reader will find that she is German, and living in England during the ongoing war. Robin Fennell, her pen-pal, is her obvious opposite: a born-and-raised Brit serving as a soldier in the first and third parts. Lind and Fennell are the instruments of Larkin's wartime metaphors—shifting perceptions of and between Germans and Brits are not the focus of this novel, nor is the war, but these themes come through so artfully.

Overall, the book is mellow and quaint. It is certainly a read for the dead of winter.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Classical Serial:
In wintery wartime Britain, Katherine Lind, exiled and alone, endures her job as an assistant in an obscure provincial library with an unpleasant boss and unfriendly colleagues. Frozen in time and tragedy, her past is gone - and with it her family, her friends, her old life. She is living moment by moment. But on this cold, bleak Saturday, news from an English family she once knew forces her to relive the idyllic summer she spent with them six years before. Will Katherine's icy heart finally start to melt?

[Ada · Rating 2 out of 5]

2'9.

M'ha deixat bastant freda. No acabo d'entendre què hi vol fer Larkin. Va d'un costat a l'altra en dues frases. Els personatges no els he acabat de pillar mai perquè el narrador diu una cosa diferent d'ells cada moment. Ara està enamorada ara no sent res en absolut. Se n'havia oblidat i ara torna a ser el més important. No ho sé, m'ha frustrat tot bastant. L'últim paràgraf molt bé, però per mi no el salva!

[Miriam. L · Rating 2 out of 5]

2'5.

Es indiscutible que Larkin tiene una forma muy bella de escribir, casi poética, pero con eso no me ha bastado.
No he conseguido conectar con los personajes, hasta el punto de aburrirme en algunas partes.

Es una lastima porque llevaba tiempo con ganas de leer algo de Larkin y no ha sido lo que esperaba. Definitivamente no es un mal libro, simplemente ni ha sido momento ni es para mí.

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Es cuestión de voluntad. Si se pudiera aprender con el deseo, a estas alturas lo sabría todo."

"Una chica en invierno" fue de esos libros que te llaman la atención tanto por el nombre como por la portada y confías en que su argumento esté bien. He de decir que me costo arrancar, la primera parte de la novela se me hacia pesada y monótona, que es lo que realmente el autor quiere expresar. A partir de la segunda parte, toma más movimiento. No deja de ser una historia de esas que todos hemos vivido: sumergidos en la rutina de nuestras vidas, recordamos aquel amor pasado que quedó a medias con la esperanza de que nos salve de la monotonía. Creo que lo que más me gustó del libro, es el final tan sencillo y real que tiene. Es un libro simple en su historia y creo que ahí es donde reside su magia. La protagonista está bastante bien construida. No sería uno de mis libros favoritos, pero está tan bien escrito que sin querer algo queda de él en tu cuando lo acabas y lo recuerdas con cariño.

[Mercedes Fernández Varea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reseña en 5 minutos y al dictado

Esta ha sido mi lectura conjunta del mes de noviembre con el Club Pickwick y como sugiere el título me ha dejado un poquito fría.

Empiezo el libro y veo que arranca bien: si un autor te encandila con la descripción de una visita al dentista, promete. Sigo leyendo y poco a poco entro en un semiaburrimiento, solo compensado por el hecho de que el autor tiene maestría con la pluma. Veo que es de esos libros en que no tienes ni idea en cómo va avanzar la historia y esperas que en algún momento vuelva a coger fuelle. Y así a lo tonto a lo tonto llego al final, donde vuelvo a encontrar escenas, reflexiones, párrafos que me devuelven a la historia. Me quedo con el fragmento final que copio en Goodreads para mi propio recuerdo.

Una chica en invierno es un libro de personajes que van sobreviviendo su día a día sin ningún tipo de ilusión por la vida, actuando sin orden ni concierto y sin que yo llegue a entenderlos mucho. Me he dedicado a chafardear unas cuantas reseñas y veo que los comentarios son de lo más dispares, pero coinciden en una cosa, el libro está bien escrito, que es en mi opinión lo que solemos decir cuando un libro nos ha aburrido un poquillo... pero está escrito por un gran autor.

Fragmento para el recuerdo

"Estaba la nieve, y el tictac del reloj. Tantos copos, tantos segundos. Y a medida que pasaba el tiempo los copos parecían mezclarse con los pensamientos, acumulándose en un vasto montículo que bien podía ser un túmulo funerario, o la punta de un iceberg cuyo cuerpo no se veía. En esa sombra derivaban los sueños, plenos de intuiciones y escalofríos, como bloques de hielo deslizándose por un canal nocturno. (...) Sueños frustrados se alzaban y caían entre bloques, protestando contra su inflexibilidad pero en el fondo contentos de que existiera aquel orden, semejante destino. Recostados en esa certeza, corazón, voluntad y todo cuanto elevara una protesta podían al fin dormirse."

[Irene Lázaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una chica en invierno es el típico libro en el que mi novio diría que no pasa nada. Es un libro muy realista que te describe un día en la vida de Katherine, que trabaja en una biblioteca y tiene que acompañar a una compañera al dentista. La mayor parte del libro es un flashback que describe las vacaciones a Inglaterra que hizo Katherine años atrás, cuando era una adolescente, invitada por un chico con el que se carteaba.

Y eso es prácticamente todo. No esperes una gran historia de amor o un drama de la guerra mundial. Podemos percibir que hay drama en el pasado de algunos personajes y podemos intuir que lo habrá en su futuro, pero Larkin se centra a propósito fuera de la acción, no contándonos nada de lo importante sino narrando los hechos mundanos, sólo dejando caer alguna pista de vez en cuando. Es sobre todo un estudio del carácter de los personajes, en el que vamos viendo cómo reaccionan en distintas situaciones.

En definitiva, es un libro bueno. Es increíblemente sutil y está bien escrito y planteado. Lo que ocurre es que en general estos libros no me llaman la atención personalmente. No me gusta leer acerca de la Guerra Mundial, no me gusta el romance ni me interesan tanto las relaciones humanas. Prefiero leer cómo los personajes viven situaciones límite antes que leer sobre la vida cotidiana. Por eso no lo he disfrutado mucho. Si hubiera estado ambientado en el meollo del problema y no antes y después me hubiera gustado más. Creo que a un público más indie que yo les puede gustar mucho.
Como dice el cantautor: "Emociones fuertes buscadlas en otra canción".

[KateP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully bleak innocence to experience novel. Part coming of age story, part wartime novel where the effects of WWII are looming in the background but not explicit. Story follows Katherine Lind, a refugee who has moved to a dreary provincial English town to do a job she dislikes in the library. The narrative hints that she is of Jewish-German descent and has faced much suffering back home. Tale is in three parts and the middle part nostalgically retells one summer when Katherine stayed with the family of her penpal Robin, conveying perfectly the confusing expectations versus reality of awkward teenage romance. In the third part, Katherine and Robin reunite after six years, both much changed and both cynical with the bitterness of war life. Katherine grappling once more with Robin not meeting her idealised hopes and Robin seemingly struggling with finding purpose and meaning as a soldier fighting in a brutal war.

What I liked about it I can’t fully put my finger on. I read it engrossingly and enjoyed the ending despite it being unromantic and somewhat sad. I think I appreciated the writing style which felt to me a bit of a blend of Virginia Woolf’s modernism and Forster’s engaging style. Ultimately, I appreciated and enjoyed the realistic telling of human character and relationships blended with symbolic (but not over the top) descriptions of winter.

[Paola F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambientada en plena Segunda Guerra Mundial, nos cuenta la vida de Katherine Lind, una bibliotecaria, la cual es extranjera, esta sola en Inglaterra, no tiene amigos.

Nos narra la confusa mezcla de emociones que caracterizan dos períodos en la vida de Katherine, su juventud y mayoría de edad, relacionada con su actual situación. Nos transmite una profunda sensación de soledad y aislamiento, a eso le sumamos el invierno ingles.....

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to A Girl in Winter familiar with Larkin's poetry. But I'd never before read any of his prose, whether fiction or reviews. Not knowing anything about it other than the impressive credentials of the author, I came to it with curiosity. I found the prose good, steady, and clear without being poetic.

I also found the Larkin of the mildly curmudgeonly and cynical reputation. The novel is composed of 2 seasonal backdrops. The summer section sits in the middle--as in every year--dividing 2 sections of cold. Katherine has somehow left her native France to work as a librarian during a wartime winter. In the course of her trying day of bitter weather and unpleasant work situation at the library we're given a long flashback section in which she remembers her first visit to England as a student before the war. She'd been the guest of a family whose son, Robin, now a soldier, she expects to call on her later in the evening, their first contact in years.

There's a sharp distinction being made between winter and summer. Jacket copy suggests war and peace, exile and holiday. But I wonder if there isn't something Eliotic in Larkin's portrayal of this young couple. The summer is mildly romantic, partly because they feel it's expected. Their emotions, they think, should match the bucolic richness of weather and foliage around them. The winter streets of the later time point to a sterility, a cold which is as emotional as it is meteorological. What warmth they felt for each other during the pre-war summer isn't possible in the wartime winter. Larkin's descriptions focus on the seaminess of their environment and the mindless, automatic reactions of people who can't love, not only Katherine and Robin but also those she works with in the library. It's the Fire Sermon section of The Waste Land where meaningless seduction occurs on Margate Sands, where people crouch in rooms to hide from the violet hour, and where a young man gropes down the hall toward the unlit stair. Eliot pictures a relieved character:

Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:
"Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."

It's grim. Still, it's a conclusion we're not surprised Larkin would express.