The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (New York Review Books Classics) Review

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The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (New York Review Books Classics) ReviewI have long had a fascination for islands and count among my memorable experiences times spent on them and meeting the people who live there. It often amazes me how the geography of these small areas of land surrounded by open sea can expand in the minds of island residents to seem much larger than they in fact are. This psychological phenomenon must be due in part to the density of memory and history compacted within such confining natural boundaries.
G.B. Edwards' novel captures exactly that experience. It takes place on Guernsey, an English-speaking island with French cultural roots, and it embraces in its many pages the lifetime of one man. Born into the attitudes and values of the Victorian era, he's a very singular man, living alone, often cranky and difficult but his heart filled with yearning. His whole life has been transfigured by a boyhood adventure that leaves him stranded at high tide with a dearly loved friend on a chunk of rock offshore.
The island confinement is intensified in the years of German occupation during World War II. This seldom-told chapter of British history is depicted with absorbing detail and considerable suspense, as diminishing supplies of food and fuel, the constant threat of harsh treatment by the occupiers, and the sense of being "abandoned" by the British government make resistance difficult.
Like others who have written reviews here, I was enthralled by this big, well written book and was reluctant to see it end. I heartily recommend it as both an engaging story with a rich cast of vividly drawn characters and a window into a time and place that are little known to the rest of the world.The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (New York Review Books Classics) OverviewEbenezer Le Page, cantankerous, opinionated, and charming, is one of the most compelling literary creations of the late twentieth century. Eighty years old, Ebenezer has lived his whole life on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a stony speck of a place caught between the coasts of England and France yet a world apart from either. Ebenezer himself is fiercely independent, but as he reaches the end of his life he is determined to tell his own story and the stories of those he has known. He writes of family secrets and feuds, unforgettable friendships and friendships betrayed, love glimpsed and lost. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page is a beautifully detailed chronicle of a life, but it is equally an oblique reckoning with the traumas of the twentieth century, as Ebenezer recalls both the men lost to the Great War and the German Occupation of Guernsey during World War II, and looks with despair at the encroachments of commerce and tourism on his beloved island. G. B. Edwards labored in obscurity all his life and completed The Book of Ebenezer Le Page shortly before his death. Published posthumously, the book is a triumph of the storyteller's art that conjures up the extraordinary voice of a living man."Imagine a weekend spent in deep conversation with a superb old man, a crusty, intelligent, passionate and individualistic character at the peak of his powers as a raconteur, and you will have a very good ideas of the impact of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page...It amuses, it entertains, it moves us..." –The Washington Post"A true epic, as sexy as it is hilarious, it seems drenched with the harsh tidal beauties of its setting...For every person nearing retirement, every latent writer who hopes to leave his island and find the literary mainland, its author–quiet, self-sufficient, tidy Homeric–remains a patron saint." –Allan Gurganus, O Magazine

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