Book Corner – June 2019 (3)
The Danger Tree – Olivia Manning
Published in 1977 this is the first of the Levant trilogy and the fourth book in which Manning follows the war fortunes of Harriet and Guy Pringle, her fictional incarnations of herself and her hubby, Reggie. The Pringles have arrived in Cairo but are not out of the soup as the Germans are making a steady advance through the North African desert. Their next obvious port of call, Palestine and Syria, is also under threat from the Germans.
In a narrative twist from that we saw in the Balkan Trilogy the narrative entwines the exploits of the Pringles with that of Simon Boulderstone, very much an innocent abroad who seems to wander around in a trance. It is through his eyes that we see the brutal realities of war and the fact that he seems so other-worldly heightens the sense of horror he, and by extension we should, feels about his experiences.
Boulderstone is haunted by what seems an incidental and mildly humorous episode which is described in the first chapter of the book. He hooks up with a party, which includes Harriet, which are having a conducted tour of the pyramids, conducted by the self-proclaimed Egyptologist, Sir Clifford. They drop in at the Hooper’s when a woman bursts into the room, cradling the dead body of a child. He had picked up what we would call an IED which went off, blowing half his face away. The Hoopers are in shock and, bizarrely, try to feed the boy, obviously dead, with soup through the hole in the side of his face. This becomes a standing joke amongst the ex-pats holed up in Cairo.
But it has greater significance and is a leitmotif that Manning returns to throughout the book. In particular, it comes to Simon when out in the desert and warned to be on the lookout for unexploded bombs “like a returning dream”. It also introduces to Angela Hooper who, after the tragedy, leaves her husband and throws herself into the Cairo set with gusto. She will have a more important role as the trilogy develops, I’m sure.
Guy continues to be the insufferable prig that he always was and it is a miracle that Harriet is still with him. He is sidelined in Cairo and sent out to Alexandria. Harriet worries about him as he is nearer to the front but Guy being Guy won’t leave his beloved students and throws himself into his work. Desperate to be liked and gathering hangers-on by the dozen. Guy continues to ignore his wife, treating her just as an extension of himself rather than a person in her own right. Harriet, feels increasingly isolated and fearful for her marriage, particularly when Guy’s luck changes, landing him a top job in Cairo and she sees him in close quarters with girl about town, Edwina Little who was the girlfriend of Simon’s brother.
The sense of impending doom is presaged by the book’s title. The Danger Tree is the mango tree which dominates the skyline outside the Pringle’s Cairo flat. Guy hates it but Harriet loves it. Its roots are poisonous to humans and it is a haunting image of a relationship on the rocks, a feeling of doom and hopelessness emphasised by the protagonists’ reaction to it.
As before, we are in Anthony Powell territory. Many of the old faces from the Balkan Trilogy reappear, perhaps unsurprisingly as Manning describes Cairo as “the clearinghouse of Eastern Europe.” Life settles down to the same routine of drinks and parties, a sense of impermanence heightened by the ebbs and flows of the fortunes of war. First impressions of characters we have met before change as we get to know them and new players thrown into the mix are likely to develop and move the story on as the trilogy continues.
The ending I found a little disappointing, leaving too many loose ends dangling to be, presumably, explored further in The Battle Lost and Won, which I will have to read. A minor quibble, for sure, about what is otherwise an entertaining read.
