The strongest part of the book to my mind was the portion regarding the Great War. Sarah’s fictional life covers ninety-nine years of a history-rich century, and though as a member of the upper middle class our narrator is cushioned from the harshest realities of her time, she is fully aware – at least in retrospect – of what is going on all around her. Written in the first person as an autobiography, with Sarah starting to record her life in her later years and the tone very much one of “looking back”, there are of course many references to future events, interweaving Sarah’s past and present and going off into short tangents here and there. I am not going to share many more plot details than this, as the story was most rewarding to me as I read with no prior knowledge as to where it was all going to go, and there were some surprising developments. On her third birthday, May 1, 1851, young Sarah Rainborough visits the newly-opened Crystal Palace in London, and the experience so impresses her that it becomes her earliest vivid memory, to be referenced throughout the rest of her long life. Fine print, thin pages, and rather intense content made it crucial to be able to really concentrate it was not a particularly “easy” read, though I did find it completely engaging.

It took me quite a long time to work my way through it, both because of general busy-ness in my real life, and my reluctance to rush through the book.

This ambitious novel certainly has some flaws, but the overall reading experience, to me at this point in my life, was utterly satisfying.Ī week or so ago I posted a quick teaser about this novel, and I am happy to report that it more than fulfilled its promise. My rating: After some deliberation, I cannot honestly give this less than a 10/10. The Houses in Between by Howard Spring ~ 1951.

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