Evex’s Weblog

This month we read ‘The Stars Look Down’ chosen by Ann. We were all swept off our feet by this tale of a manly professor of medicine winning the heart of a impressionable young woman… hang on, that was Paddy’s version. The rest of us read an epic tale of a north east mining community. And very gripping it was too. It’s set in the not too well disguised city of Tynecastle, although we did wonder if we would think about it if we lived in a different city.

Martin was incredibly impressed by the book, describing it as a timeless masterpiece. The rest of us took issue with that at first feeling that it was very rooted in the time that it was written. Ann and I felt that it was dated, but saw that as a strength: we recognised it as a book that probably wouldn’t be written now. However, Martin countered by saying that he felt that the themes were universal rather than the style of the writing. Considering the themes: love, sex, money, class struggle, war – I think he may be right. Martin read it in one go -I almost managed to equal that, reading the first 500 pages on a train journey to Cardiff. Ann felt that the middle part dragged a little, skimming over events.

The book had a large cast, and there was a general feeling that character development was a strength of the book. We discussed the male characters at first, with Ann feeling that the author demonstrated great skill in developing them, commenting on how you could trace how David grew up to be the man he was as he was Robert’s son. The narratives of David and Joe were possibly the principle stories of the book: very different men who both tried to leave their mining background behind, David through education and political activism, Joe through opportunism and his (ahem) natural charms. We felt that the author was able to show their flaws without being overly judgemental or moralistic. Joe is a deeply immoral man but is able to transcend the financial, sexual and class based restraints that bind the other characters. We debated Arthur’s character and motivation: why he refused to go to war and his conflicted attempts to atone for his father’s misdeeds. Nicky felt that his actions were motivated primarily by guilt, and we never fully resolved whether he was driven by cowardice and bravery. Ann thought the the author was representing the ambiguity of the characters he had created.

I felt that the author had a very complex relationship with the female characters that he had created. Ann felt that they were considerably weaker than his male characters, and Nicky wondered whether this was a reflection of the time in which they were written. We were dubious about the seeming equivalence of beauty with weakness and manipulation, while the female characters who had brains, talent or heart described as not particularly good looking. Hilda in particular was at times portrayed as a clever, ambitious woman, but in one rather odd passage described as a psychotic feminist. I had a bit of a soft spot for wayward Jenny, feeling that later on in the century a penchant for booze, dining out and having a couple of boyfriends in young adulthood wouldn’t have resulted in a mysterious STD/mental illness death. Martin thought that Jenny wanted to be like Joe but couldn’t manage it . Annie was probably the most sympathetic female character.

We felt that the sex scenes in the book were more straightforward and explicit than we were expecting from a book written in this time, especially Jenny’s predilection for doing it in public places, and some of the unusual settings. Again this was an example of the author showing us something about his characters without being overtly judgemental. Saying this, we wondered whether the author was being a little coy by suggesting Hilda was a lesbian rather than discussing it explicitly. Ironically, we couldn’t find any sex scenes in Paddy’s Mills and Boone book which we expected to be racier

The mine disaster stood out for us as a powerful and shocking part of the book. I had to skim read it because I found it too upsetting to fully engage with it. We all felt that the author had successfully given each man a realistic and compelling response to their predicament.

Cronin is unafraid to tackle the big themes, and to weave them together. Ideology, and its impact on people’s lives runs through the book. Martin felt that it was a strongly anti capitalist book, but Ann disagreed, saying that unlike The Jungle, it doesn’t offer an alternative, just holds up a mirror to society. Martin and Ann had a debate about whether David as misguided in his beliefs and actions. Ann thought that he believed in the system and in working hard to escape poverty, which ultimately brought him nothing. However, Martin saw him as an idealist who stood up for his beliefs. The beginning and end of the book mirrored each other, with David and his mother preparing for him to go down the mine. We debated whether this represented his return to his community where he belonged, or the futility of his attempts to escape.

We all really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. There’s also a film adaptation but it’s crying out to be a TV miniseries. Think I will read The Citadel next.