The Heat of the Day
83. Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day
In the early 1940s, WWII is going badly for England: the whole country lives in a state of numbed fear, and London itself is under attack. But London resident Stella Rodney is making the best of these dark times. Though she is middle-aged and has an adult son, she is still attractive and is having an affair with wounded soldier Robert Kelway. Despite the outside danger, Stella feels secure in her love, until an acquaintance named Harrison tells her that Robert is selling secrets to the enemy. He also offers her a deal: if she agrees to become his lover and break off the affair with Robert, he will not report Robert to the British authorities. Shocked and unsure what to believe, Stella must question everything she thought she knew.
The plot of this book intrigued me from the start: a woman finds out her lover might be an enemy agent and is caught between the attentions of two men. Unfortunately, Bowen’s self-consciously “modern” writing style completely obliterated any enjoyment I might have received from this book. She turned what could have been a thrilling espionage story into a turgid study of isolated, pathetic characters. There were several subplots, none of which were either interesting or relevant to the main story. I think Bowen was using this novel to make some sort of Important Point about the human condition in World War II, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. In short, this book was boring - I could hardly get through it. I’m so disappointed, too, because I was expecting such a great novel! Oh well, you win some, you lose some…but this is definitely one book I won’t be keeping around.