Judgment Day

by Penelope Lively

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 seemingly drowsy village enlivened by sideshows of adultery and gossip. An avowed agnostic, Clare is nonetheless caught up in the restoration of the church, even inciting the villagers to put on a pageant that re-creates the church's dark past.

With flawless precision, Lively brings the village and its inhabitants to life as an unpardonable death reminds them all that the world is a very uncertain place.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, Classics, Religion

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.

Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong 3 stars. 🙂 🙃

A somewhat short novel (210 pages) about a small town somewhere not terribly far from London in, I think, the 1980s. It involves a vicar, an agnostic and her family, the churchwarden who lost his wife and daughter in The Blitz of WWII, and a couple who are in a marriage that is not working well and their 10-year-old son. And a motorcycle gang of young men who occasionally drive into the town and vandalize various places.

I have a number of other books on my shelves by Penelope Lively and I will probably dip into them, given my experience with this book and her writing was positive. She is a Booker Prize winner (Moon Tiger, 1987).

Note: She wrote 31 children’s books from 1971 to 2001; 22 works of adult fiction from 1977-2017, and four memoirs. Wow...one productive writer! At the time I am writing this, she is 89 years of age.

Reviews:
• https://stevedewey.wordpress.com/2018...
• https://www.booktopia.com.au/judgemen...

[Joy D · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a low-key story about a rural English community getting ready to put on a fundraiser for their local church. Key characters are the vicar, a newly arrived agnostic and her family, a couple having marital issues and their confused teenage son, and a lonely man who takes in the teenager when his parents leave town. It is about life, faith (or lack thereof) and community.

Up to about the three-fourths point, I was enjoying it very much. Unfortunately, it then takes an unexpected turn and becomes extremely dark and sad. The ending did not work for me. I have previously read and enjoyed books by Penelope Lively and will continue to read her back catalogue. I can highly recommend Moon Tiger, How It All Began, and The Road to Lichfield.

2.5

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judgment Day is an intelligent, mostly benevolent depiction of village life in Oxfordshire in the late 70s. Clare Paling, self-confident, attractive, shockingly agnostic, a stay-at-home mother with degrees, becomes the object of sadsack beta male vicar George Radwell's sexual daydreams. Sydney Porter's wife and daughter were killed decades ago in a London air raid; now he hoes his garden and gets a second chance to love a child when neglected Martin from the slatternly parents next door needs a babysitter.

Lively deftly creates a sense of place: "Only the church and a few of the older houses were a reminder that this place lay on the limestone spine of England, and was built from its own bones." Her writing is superb: "The Coggan girls, stiff and smug with reflected glory, watched their father take his place at the lectern." Every character is finely sketched and she creates a full and humane world over only 210 pages. I'm reminded of Anita Brookner's novels, which are also gentle, but populated with pain, regret, and unfulfilled longings.

All is not well in Laddenham: rough bikers roar through the streets, a plane crashes at an Air Show, punks vandalize the church, and not everyone will live to adulthood.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

Judgment Day is very much a Lively novel, in all of those senses. Set in a small English village, it is centered around an ancient church and its neighbors, and the events that happen one spring and summer when they plan a church fundraiser. The fundraiser is to be a play based on several violent moments in the history of the village and church. Throughout the story, there is an undercurrent of tension, or possible violence, like a tiger waiting to spring, and you don't know until the end how or if it will strike. Several of the main characters ponder faith and fate and existence, as many people do, and come away changed, and yet the same, as most people do. Lives are changed forever, and not changed, as is so often the case in real life. A picture of a village, and a picture of the wider world.

[Paul Secor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penelope Lively knows the characters she creates, and when I've finished reading one of her books, I know them too. To me, that's one sign of a fine writer.
Judgement Day is one of my favorite Lively's - perfectly written.

[Elizabeth Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 collapsing with broken legs. It is ' events, dear boy, events' which move this wonderful story along. You encounter the careless, the thoughtless, the hopeless and the futureless and with many of them Penelope Lively has succeeded in making you care about them even though you are annoyed by them at the same time. There is humour here but brilliantly, Lively allows you to see the possible unfurling of tension and loneliness in some of the characters only to have it wrenched horribly away. The back cover of my copy spoke of ' an unpardonable death ' and this seeming spoiler actually serves to increase the tension as you read with an eye half on the future. Sadly but perhaps purposely it was the very character i longed to survive who didn't. Read this and though perhaps you may not weep you will know an anguished moment or six.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deceptively slight and short story of village life in England. But alongside village life we get an examination of human vulnerability in the face of death, tragedy, judgement. Sounds grandiose and pretentious? Well it isn't - because it is done with such a light touch. Different characters show different aspects of human 'coping' with reality. The vicar has to confront his lack of fervour and his inability to make an impression on those around him. The clever middle-class mum discovers that fate and chance can dent her security. These two characters are contrasted. Clare's faith is in beauty, art and human history embodied in her scandal at the abandoning of the language of the Saint James Bible within the church, something which bothers the vicar not a jot. George's faith is in convention alone - religion is convention and not faith. These contrasting positions find an uneasy truce in the face of tragedy. All is wrapped up in a portrait of typical village society and its preoccupations and trials at a particular time and place, with other characters carrying their own griefs. But don't think the book is maudlin, it has some fine humorous moments.

Another treat from Penelope Lively, an author with a fine gift for understatement, who gently nudges the reader into insights.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penelope Lively is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites. She is able to tell the reader so much with so few words, her characters are so identifiable from the little details she gives us. Some are instantly dislikable and then others seem to reveal themselves slowly throughout the course of the book. Just as I was wondering where this book was headed, it broke my heart.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Good book. Love her writing style!

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

By turns funny, sad, wise, and heartbreaking, with a randy reverend to boot, this gem offered a great return on a modest investment of reading time.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's a crude threat, that division into the damned and the saved; as crude as the weighing of souls. All to induce guilt - guilt and therefore compliance. Do as I say, or else. Nowadays we are less gullible, but we still feel guilt: different guilts. When I contemplate the day of judgment it is not the possibility of salvation I have in mind."

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatly enjoyed this book, Lively's writing really skewers the characters and their backgrounds.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laddenham is full of church going believers, but not all profess faith. Lively creates her own blend of characters in this delightful story.

[Patrick King · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Either you lived with specters, or they simply were not there for you. Either you waited for the coin to be flipped, at any moment, or you were barely aware of the reverse side. There are two worlds: the real world, in which we live, and pretend we don't, and the world in which bed for little girls is always at seven and the cottage pie is forever cooking nicely in the oven.”

A funny, poignant novel about a small village’s church fundraiser organized by an Agnostic woman and a group of somewhat pious churchgoers. Laddenham is a typical village: sleepy, not much going on besides the odd affair or teenage vandals. But what everyone shares, or at least our main characters, is a sense of loneliness. Or if not loneliness, displacement.

Lively’s writing is gripping, masterfully slipping from first to third person and back again, sometimes in a single paragraph. Her ability to bring you right inside someone’s mind is impeccable. I loved her observations on faith and legacy and loneliness, they were universal and yet so connected to the characters. And it manages to be so, so funny even in the midst of tragedy.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected, this is a well written book with some interesting characters and themes (eg family, belief, community, loss). However, surprisingly, I found it slow and a bit dull at times. Also, the promising ending turned out to be unnecessarily tragic, in my opinion.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well observed depiction of life in middle England in the late 70s/early 80s

[Steve Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Penelope Lively novel. Her name on spines has followed me around bookshops for the best part of my reading life. But in my drive to read more women authors, I found a couple of Lively's second-hand, and thought I'd give them a go. She is a prolific author, and the first two purchases were pretty much pot-luck. Turns out that Moon Tiger, the first of the two I bought, was a Booker prize winner. However, I began my Lively journey with the slightly slimmer Judgement Day.

Judgement Day is story set around a church. That might make it sound like some kind of story about religion or belief, but it's not really about that, although those topics are touched on. We meet the people involved in the church, but not all of them are religious. They are the members of a fund-raising committee -- the old church is in need of repair. It is through this committee that various inhabitants of the town meet. There are also a other characters, who are not part of the committee and not interested in the church who nonetheless interact with the central characters and add colour and motivation to the plot.

The central characters are, for me at least, Ruth, the atheist with an interest in church architecture; the ineffectual and doubting vicar, George; the church Warden and veteran of the World War 2, Sydney; and Martin, the troubled child of warring parents who live next door to Sydney.

The story is told from various viewpoints, first one character and then another. Lively chops the viewpoints around quite quickly, with perhaps half a page devoted to one voice, then a page or two to another. Changes in viewpoint are clearly signposted, so the story is easy to follow, and each voice is distinct enough, because of their internal dialog or concerns, to keep the characters straight.

The novel follows the characters as they interact - through the fund-raising committee, or because they are neighbours, or because their children play together. Even though what happens might be considered mundane, still I wanted to know what was happening, what the result of these relationships would be. Because it is a novel, of limited duration, you know there will be a pay-off, a crisis. But how? And what? Why the title? What is, when is, judgement day? To reveal that would be to write a spoiler.

Suffice to say that a novel I thought would be about one relationship was very much about another. And ultimately, it is very sad book. You begin to see a glimmer of hope, changes occurring, a blossoming, perhaps. But that is cut short. And you can see and feel sad lives stretching out beyond the end of the book.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once in a while a book comes along that reminds me why it’s worthwhile reading fiction. This is one of those books. It’s set in a small English village during one spring and summer and has to do with a group of people who are planning a fundraiser for the village church by focusing on its history.

On the surface that might seem like a rather boring subject for a novel but it’s what’s going on in the lives of the planning committee that makes this one of those novels well worth reading. There was nothing particularly outstanding about them – in fact several of the characters in this novel were the kind of people I wouldn’t want to have to work with on a committee. It was their “ordinariness” and in some cases their brokenness that spoke to me because of what it had to say about how fragile and vulnerable we are as human beings.

Penelope Lively is one of those writers who manages to say a lot without overdoing it and yet she's managed to create a cast of memorable characters without going into unnecessary detail about any of them. They come across as complex people who are trying to live their lives as best they can, trying not to get pulled down by their circumstances or their past. Some of them are feeling lost, lonely and heartbroken, while others are questioning their purpose in life wondering whether they’ve made too many wrong decisions, anxious and uncertain about how to deal with their frustrations, anxieties and desires.

This is the kind of novel that shows us the truth in the famous saying “be kind, for everyone is fighting a huge battle.” It’s something we all need to be reminded of and that’s something a well written piece of fiction can do.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Judgment Day takes us into the life of Clare Paling, who has just moved with her family to Laddenham, a seemingly drowsy village enlivened by sideshows of adultery and gossip. An avowed agnostic who has a preoccupation with the savagery of fate, Clare is nonetheless caught up in the restoration of the church, even inciting the villagers to put on a pageant that re-creates the church's dark past. With flawless precision, Lively brings the village and its inhabitants to life as an unpardonable death reminds them all that the world is a very uncertain place."
~~back cover

An odd book, with odd characters. I wasn't able to "get into" Clare -- never understood why she chose to get involved with the church restoration simply to relieve her boredom. Surely there must have been other interests she could have pursued, that were more in line with her character?

The book wanders along through the general anomie of said inhabitants until the final shocking & completely unexpected ending, which I won't describe here as knowing the outcome would ruin the book for future readers. Suffice it to say the ending changed the entire warp and woof of the book. Or perhaps it didn't -- perhaps that staggering ending was purposely done to offset the mundaneness of village life: a statement the author wanted to make about the quixoticness of fate.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

(#39 in my Year of Reading Women)
I'd never read anything by Penelope Lively before - I'd heard the name a lot, but had no idea what to expect .... I think from the name Penelope (probably because of Penelope Keith) I expected something effete, upper middle class and a little bit vacuous. But I was completely wrong - well, it IS a bit middle class, I suppose - but the writing in this book is top notch. It's a little bit objective, standing to one side from the characters and the action, but it's also very spare, wiry and leaves you to fill in lots of the blanks, which I like.

This is a short novel, about 170pp, and deals mostly with Clare Paling, an intellectual stay-at-home mother of two who's just moved into a leafy commuter belt village, probably somewhere in Surrey. Although an atheist she gets involved in organising a church fete to raise funds and celebrate the 900 anniversary of the church buildings. We're drawn into the lives of the families who live around the village green beside the church until the shocking and tragic denouement (which I won't spoil). All in all, I was very impressed with Ms Lively and might look out for others books she's written.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judgement Day is a strange book that I somehow failed to engage with fully. It's a tale of unfulfilled lives set around a small village church 'perilously sited...beside the Amoco garage, its grey stone extinguished by lime green and tangerine plastic bunting flapping along the perimeter of the adjoining forecourt'. Published in 1980, it feels very much of its time, and there's an aura of failure and frustration about the characters and their environment. The urgent need for repairs to the church brings together the vicar (who went to theological college instead of technical college because of a typing mistake) and Clare Paling, well-off, educated, agnostic mother of two, who lives most of her life in her husband's shadow. They rub each other up the wrong way every time they meet, and the frustrations of attempting to put on a pageant to raise funds leads to disaster and ultimately, tragedy. There's not a lot of hope in this book, rather a sense of the dangers of wanting the world to be other than it is. I usually love Penelope Lively's books, but this one didn't quite work for me.

[Andrew Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Lively. She is excellent at writing about normal people & is a wonderful commentator on social issues. The politics of the small town and how people live their lives. The significance of the past and the sorrows people carry with them. The importance of religion, history, class and snobbery. There is a deceptive depth to her writing & a kindness to how she depicts the frailties we all possess. So nothing happens in a suburban Southern commuter town! This book packs an unexpected punch!!!!!

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to compare this to 'According to Mark' written some four years later. 'Judgement Day' felt very much akin to Aga sagas, but checking I find it preceded them by a decade, which makes her growth as a writer, in four years, hugely impressive, particularly when compared to some Aga writers whose style has not changed one iota in the thirty years since.

And really, even then, this is a cut above, particularly is its much less than sugary ending.

[Katedurie50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not new, not startling but quiet and subtle and, of the more traditional kind of novel, very well done. It registers the small-scale human suffering of loneliness, awkwardness, hopeless desire and inspects a faith and village community with clarity and sympathy. A rougher, more disorderly world threatens, but real loss and sudden death are cruel precisely because they are so random.

[Artie LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became very involved with this book. As ever, the characters are credible, some sympathetic, some very much less so. Lively has an excellent sense of the private, deeply personal feelings of her characters.
The story gathered me up and I read it quite quickly: but it will remain with me. It's really rather sad.

[Leslie Siegmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penelope Lively writes novels about ordinary people and relationships in England—generally, my favorite kind of books. However, this book about a small village community putting together a historical pageant to raise money for the chuch’s restoration is not one of her best.

[EB Fitzsimons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A church needs restoration and a new arrival to the village takes on organizing a fundraiser. All around, the lives of the inhabitants are ticking away, spared by grace one day and struck down the next. A short, brutal struggle of faith and fate.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book just wish it had gone a bit deeper or more thoroughly into the lives and characters portrayed.