Troubles: Winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize 1970 (W&N Essentials)

This is a most absorbing book by a very accomplished writer. It bears marked similarities of theme and structure to Farrell's most famous book, 'The Siege of Krishnapur'. Here, the beleagured British colonial community are not in India but in Ireland in 1919 (at the opening of the book - it covers about two years). A huge, crumbling hotel, the Majestic, is run increasingly eccentrically by its owner, Edward Spencer, a high Tory. Its guests are largely elderly, genteel ladies who have made it more or less their home. To the hotel for a reason which seems bizarre and unreal even to him (and indeed proves to be so) comes 'The Major', Brendan Archer, suffering from post-traumatic stress following front-line service in the Great War. With, really, no other home to go to, he stays, increasingly falling under the spell of a local Catholic girl, Sarah Devlin, a character who reminded me very faintly of Flora Post in 'Cold Comfort Farm'. Indeed, there's a surreal side to the Majestic which is a little like that other book, but this novel has a far more genuinely sinister and historically grounded basis. For this is Ireland just pre-Partition, with deadly activity from 'the Shinners' (Sinn Feinn and the IRA) and equally brutal and indiscriminate responses from the Black and Tans. As with the anti-British Indian forces in 'The Siege of Krishnapur', these two factions remain largely in the background, but as a constant threat, and the central focus is on the Anglo-Irish in the Majestic.And what a strange group they are - Norton, the mathematician, creepily fixated on young girls (he likes them to sit on his knee), Evans, the unfortunate tutor of Spencer's twin daughters Faith and Charity, the old ladies, Mrs. Rappaport, Spencer's mother-in-law (again, shades of Aunt Ada Doom here), Murphy, the incomprehensible Irish butler, a group of boorish young irregulars billeted on the hotel for a time (it amuses them to make throat-slitting gestures to the old ladies) and so on. It is all seen through the Major's eyes, and he is essentially a decent character who has been through too much and needs to recover - and this is not the best place to do it. In his dutifulness and common sense he is rather like The Collector in 'The Siege of Krishnapur'.And as in that book, Farrell displays a very considerable comic genius, even in these unpromising circumstances. He has a real sense of the absurd and the unexpected, and some of the book is very funny indeed. He is also a lovely writer whose prose falls easily and fluently on the eye of the reader and is always a pleasure to follow.'The Siege of Krishnapur' ends as it does, with a deliberately anti-climactic rescue. The ending of 'Troubles' is surprisingly grim, and for a few pages things become very serious indeed. Of course, I cannot reveal how this is or what happens, but I was a little taken by surprise, and yet the situation always makes disaster, cruelty and tragedy not only possible but even probable. Anyway, the last pages of the book are most compelling, but then so is nearly all of the rest. This is an unusual and very fine novel.

This book was great, I liked the major character very much, it was funny in places yet disturbing in others, enchanting, entertaining and clever. Its true, like some reviews say, there's not a great deal that happens in terms of events in the book but that doesn't matter for me, it was still a pleasure to read.

Major Brendan Archer goes to Ireland in 1919 after WWI. He has been writing to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family run the - now decrepit - Majestic Hotel in Kinalough. Brendan seems to recall that he proposed to Angela and, although he can hardly recall her now, he feels that he must go and get things straight...This novel is set during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and, in some ways, it reminded me of, "The Magic Mountain," where a man goes to visit someone and, somehow, stays. For, despite the fact that Brendan is unable to get any real answers from Angela, he finds his fate gets mixed up with the Majestic. Although he has gone for a holiday, apart from a brief trip to his dying aunt, he seems fated to spend his time in the decaying hotel; full of elderly ladies, cats, despair, cold, damp rooms and endless corridors. Of course, the hotel itself mirrors the destruction going on outside, while the Major becomes obsessed with Sarah and involved in the lives of the Majestic's inhabitants.Although the writing is excellent, I struggled with this. I cared little for any of the characters and the novel often felt repetitive and rambling. I can admire the writing, but have no wish to revisit the Majestic.

Really nice to read something great from 53 years ago. The first winner of the Booker Prize. Fabulously understated, funny and clever.

The sheltered lives of those who inhabit the crumbling Majestic Hotel are about to be blown apart emotionally and physically. This is an Ireland teetering on the brink of revolt but still clinging awkwardly to a faded past. A past where tradition and ritual are paramount, but which are now forced to rub up against a new and increasingly violent way of doing things.To me this is reminiscent of Nancy Mitford's later novels where the genteel society of old England is smashed up against the effects of World War Two with shattering results and the death of a way of life.Here the major is an onlooker, alien, confused and out of place. At first the book seems amusing, almost to be poking fun at itself and then things get serious and the pace ratchets up a notch or two, moving the characters and readers from the edges of events to a bewildering place in the middle of turmoil.Well written, a darkly comic tragedy that perfectly captures a time and place.

A wonderful and multi-textured exposition of the British Empire's mostly malign impact on Ireland - told in a highly engaging manner with a dramatis personnae of memorable leading and minor characters - most notably the 'Majestic Hotel itself and 'The Major'. The only building that I can recall that plays an equally vital role in a novel is the Mansion that is being restored in the equally wonderful 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'. Both novels are essentially about a world in transitional decline. The Major is a spartan character who encapsulates much that is best and much that is anachronistic about the servants of a bye gone age. Although his character remerges in Farrell's (far, far less successful) 'Singapore Grip' there he is a mere (and frankly implausible) cypher. Better by far to remember his defeated dignity as the Majestic explodes into pyrotechnic Armageddon with flaming cats falling about him.

This book was a drama copiously sprinkled with humor. I enjoyed the descriptions of the eccentric characters and their odd behaviors. The book was slow moving at first and almost put it down but am glad I kept reading. The Majestic mirrors the dying British Empire post World War One. And the characters are echos of the various strata of society in denial of the decline.I enjoyed the writing so much that my next three books are the Empire Series Trilogy (by the same author) starting with the Siege of Krishnapur.

The Majestic Hotel was crumbling and so was the British empire. Inside a mix of ecentrics annoyed and disturbed each other. After the war the major goes to Ireland to see his pen pal fiancee and the story unfolds. The book is ingenious, well written to say the least. Good humour, but some monotonous and sad parts. The author is very descriptive detailing interpersonal relationships and and every character's emotional posture.

A great read.

If you like Irish writers you’ll love this book. The framing of the Troubles within the books narrative is a masterstroke.

Bellissimo romanzo che racconta i tragici eventi dei contrasti anglo-irlandesi durante e dopo la I guerra mondiale, attraverso gli occhi di un reduce dalla guerra inglese che si trova a soggiornare in un grandioso albergo sulla costa irlandese di fronte al Galles. L'albergo è in rovina ma ha un suo fascino, così come il suo proprietario, la sua famiglia e gli ospiti, per lo più anziani. Libro malinconico e divertente al tempo stesso. Non ho ancora letto la fine.