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Judgment Day
Penelope Lively is one of England's greatest living writers, whom The New York Times Book Review has called "blessed with the gift of being able to render matters of great import with a breath, a barely audible sigh, a touch. The result is wonderful writing." Judgment Day takes us into the life of Clare Paling, who has just moved with her family to Laddenham, a s...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
February 20th 2003
by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
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Short novel featuring a number of interlocking characters in a small village called Laddenham. The ancient village Church stands as a character, one which is in need of repair and it is this repair which is, perhaps, an underlying metaphor. Each of the main characters and even some of the minor ones limp woundedly through their lives or, with a couple of them, they forge ahead rather like those people who run from their cars after crashes and get a litle way along on the adrenalin rush before co...more
I loved this book with its use of the everyday to illustrate deeper themes and its ability to understand and sympathise with differing points of view. It was also good on making the children real characters instead of weak accessories.
But....I found the ending almost unbearably sad to the point where it almost spoiled my enjoyment of the book. Partly this because the dramatic, tragic ending seemed to me not to fit well with the rest of the gentler pace of the book even though there was som...more
But....I found the ending almost unbearably sad to the point where it almost spoiled my enjoyment of the book. Partly this because the dramatic, tragic ending seemed to me not to fit well with the rest of the gentler pace of the book even though there was som...more
I love Penelope Lively's books, and I always find it so hard to describe why. They are generally quiet, without the bluster or bombast of so many novels, yet they are not cloying or claustrophobic. They are observational, but not overly full of description. Generally, I have to like a character in a book to like the book, but I don't feel that need with Lively's books. Certainly, there are characters I empathize with, and others that I dislike immensely, but I don't latch on to any one person.
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History persists and keeps playing out in people's lives, and it isn't always picturesque, although most people, like the amusingly annoying Miss Bellingham, much prefer the theme park version of it (quaint costumes, heritage buildings, maypole dancing). People are just as complicated and messy, hard, often impossible, to know, mysterious to us, yet in small moments we can see someone astonishingly clearly. And the whole thing is messy and shocking and joyous and painful and beautiful, sometimes...more
In this book, judgment day does not come after life but during. We judge each other; we judge ourselves. Lively's vision of faith in this book is a sad one--moments of fate show its futility and human beings' kindnesses or lack thereof, seem unrelated to their religious leanings.
The characters are well drawn and the story quietly compelling.
The characters are well drawn and the story quietly compelling.
I've decided to embrace the theology of Penelope Lively. As set forth by the agnostic heroine of this amazing little book, it is an eminently rational and humane belief, rooted in the heroine's staunch insistence on the truth and power not of a deity, but of words. And I can't argue with that.
This is a story about a small town; like all stories about small towns, the secret lives of the inhabitants are more sordid than anyone would care to admit. Lively's strength comes from her exploration of these secrets, the deft way she comments on class, gender, and education. Clare Paling, the newest resident of Laddenham, is an avowed atheist who loves the language of the King James Bible; her passion for art spurs her to be part of a committee focused on restoring the squat local church. The...more
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Penelope Lively CBE (born March 17, 1933) is a prolific, popular and critically acclaimed author of fiction for both children and adults. She has been shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize, winning once for Moon Tiger in 1987.
Born in Cairo in 1933, she spent her early childhood in Egypt, before being sent to boarding school in England at the age of twelve. She read Modern Histor...more
More about Penelope Lively...
Born in Cairo in 1933, she spent her early childhood in Egypt, before being sent to boarding school in England at the age of twelve. She read Modern Histor...more
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