Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Valancourt Books (2015), 354 pages
Description
THE SEPARATION is the story of twin brothers, rowers in the 1936 Olympics (where they met Hess, Hitler's deputy); one joins the RAF, and captains a Wellington; he is shot down after a bombing raid on Hamburg and becomes Churchill's aide-de-camp; his twin brother, a pacifist, works with the Red Cross, rescuing bombing victims in London. But this is not a straightforward story of the Second World War: this is an alternate history: the two brothers - both called J.L. Sawyer - live their lives in alternate versions of reality. In one, the Second World War ends as we imagine it did; in the other, thanks to efforts of an eminent team of negotiators headed by Hess, the war ends in 1941. THE SEPARATION is an emotionally riveting story of how the small man can make a difference; it's a savage critique of Winston Churchill, the man credited as the saviour of Britain and the Western World, and it's a story of how one perceives and shapes the past.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member roxy
I’ve just finished reading this and I must admit that I’m a bit confused… I’m confused but I’m also pretty sure that I haven’t enjoyed – no wait, I think I can say – loved a SF book this way in a very long time.
The Separation is the story of twins during the WWII; Joe and Jack
The Separation can be classified as an “uchronie‿ (that would be the French term, perhaps in English you just stick to alternative history) but I would even go further than that and say that it’s an “uchronie‿ about “uchronie‿ because unlike other novels of the genre, the author doesn’t change on particular event so as to end up in a completely different world. There isn’t a clear distinction between our world and the world(s) in which the characters evolve.
Priest also uses this to explore the various possibilities offered by History. He raises the question of interpretation and perception of event and how people witnessing the same event never quite have the same point of view on what truly did happen… from then on, what is the truth?
I was particularly interested by the twin’s awkward love-hate-envy relationship and how in the end even though they were separated both because of the war and because of their opposite views of the war, their actions were often defined by their relationship… but then I’ve always found twins fascinating and I suppose Priest knows what he’s talking about since he’s got two of his own.
Some will love and others will hate, my point is that I don’t think you can remain indifferent to this novel. Some will find it brilliant while others will find that it completely missed the point but then, isn’t that what the entire novel is about? Interpretation.
I was immediately caught up in the twin’s everyday life. Here, the battles are mostly inner turmoil and the author uses SF to concentrate and analyse his characters.
This is a novel I would recommend to all even those who don’t usually read SF because they sometimes have the feeling that there’s more science than fiction. Here it is not the case. If you aren’t afraid of unexpected turn than go read it! Why are you still here?
The Separation is the story of twins during the WWII; Joe and Jack
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known as JL. It starts in 1936, as they both leave for Berlin to participate in the Olympic Games. On their journey back, they bring back a young Jewish woman who they are both madly in love with… until she marries Joe. Priest provides us two (or perhaps even more) stories as Joe and JL both deal with the war and its consequences separately. JL becomes a pilot in the RAF while Joe, a pacifist joins the Red Cross. From then on, their paths go different way though they can never free themselves of this special bond that links as twins. However, History itself goes its own way as well and the reader is never quite sure which reality he is in and exactly how many realities there are. Is Joe dead or alive? Or is JL the one who’s dead? Did the war truly end on May 11th 1941 when Churchill signed a separate peace treaty with Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s dophin?The Separation can be classified as an “uchronie‿ (that would be the French term, perhaps in English you just stick to alternative history) but I would even go further than that and say that it’s an “uchronie‿ about “uchronie‿ because unlike other novels of the genre, the author doesn’t change on particular event so as to end up in a completely different world. There isn’t a clear distinction between our world and the world(s) in which the characters evolve.
Priest also uses this to explore the various possibilities offered by History. He raises the question of interpretation and perception of event and how people witnessing the same event never quite have the same point of view on what truly did happen… from then on, what is the truth?
I was particularly interested by the twin’s awkward love-hate-envy relationship and how in the end even though they were separated both because of the war and because of their opposite views of the war, their actions were often defined by their relationship… but then I’ve always found twins fascinating and I suppose Priest knows what he’s talking about since he’s got two of his own.
Some will love and others will hate, my point is that I don’t think you can remain indifferent to this novel. Some will find it brilliant while others will find that it completely missed the point but then, isn’t that what the entire novel is about? Interpretation.
I was immediately caught up in the twin’s everyday life. Here, the battles are mostly inner turmoil and the author uses SF to concentrate and analyse his characters.
This is a novel I would recommend to all even those who don’t usually read SF because they sometimes have the feeling that there’s more science than fiction. Here it is not the case. If you aren’t afraid of unexpected turn than go read it! Why are you still here?
Show Less
LibraryThing member craso
A writer of oral histories about World War II is fascinated by the mysterious J. L. Sawyer who is listed as an RAF pilot and a conscientious objector. He soon finds out there were two J. L. Sawyers; twin brothers. He receives a journal attributed to J. L. Sawyer that paints a very different picture
The story is told through journal entries and various government documents. It’s as though we are reading the historians research materials.
There are a number of separations in the story. The first is the physical separation of the main characters, Joe and Jack Sawyer. They are separated by the love they have for the same women and then by their differing ideologies. Jack is an RAF pilot and Joe is a conscientious objector working for the Red Cross. Another separation is the separate peace Britain negotiates with Germany.
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of the war and its aftermath. Through the historian’s research we learn about the lives of these brothers and how they influenced the outcome of the conflict.The story is told through journal entries and various government documents. It’s as though we are reading the historians research materials.
There are a number of separations in the story. The first is the physical separation of the main characters, Joe and Jack Sawyer. They are separated by the love they have for the same women and then by their differing ideologies. Jack is an RAF pilot and Joe is a conscientious objector working for the Red Cross. Another separation is the separate peace Britain negotiates with Germany.
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LibraryThing member Clurb
The wonderfully confusing parallel stories of twin brothers during WWII. The book is peppered with doubles and is very focused on the shifting of identity and time.
I felt confident that I understood what was going on, right up to about three quarters of the way through this book, but then began to
I won't pretend to understand the true version of events Priest writes about. I'm guessing the point is that there's never a true version, just different interpretations which merge and overlap, but which are ultimately very enjoyable to read.
I felt confident that I understood what was going on, right up to about three quarters of the way through this book, but then began to
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spiral into confusion and found myself flicking back and forth to investigate different interpretations of events. I won't pretend to understand the true version of events Priest writes about. I'm guessing the point is that there's never a true version, just different interpretations which merge and overlap, but which are ultimately very enjoyable to read.
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LibraryThing member phoebesmum
I maybe half-finished this. There’s not much point my reading an alternate history of WWII when I can’t keep the real history straight in my head. Very much a boy book.
LibraryThing member g026r
In which Christopher Priest continues his obsessions with doubles and unreliable narrators. There's maybe half a really good book here scattered among the various sections/plot-lines, but the other parts drag a bit too much.
LibraryThing member wjohnston
Every time I try to review this I get bogged down in retelling the plot, so I've decided to try something simpler. I like 'alternate history,' I loved Priest's 'The Prestige,' and I was really looking forward to reading this. Ultimately I found it disappointing and confusing. It might be a book
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that benefits from multiple readings, but there's nothing in it that makes me want to read it again. Show Less
LibraryThing member jobbi
Wonderfully atmospheric WW2 alternate history. I especially enjoyed the depictions of Winston Churchill and Rudolf Hess, although the two main characters were a little flat.
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
I finished this book because I kept thinking that there had to be some sort of order to the story. There wasn't.
LibraryThing member RobertDay
In my memorial catch-up read to bring myself up to date with all of Christopher Priest's books, I came to The Separation. I am a sucker for alternate histories and this did not disappoint. (Warning: some spoilers may follow.)
On a dismal March afternoon in 1999, a military historian is doing a
The author researches further and uncovers a story of two identical twins, Joe and Jack Sawyer, both known (confusingly) as J.L. Sawyer. In their day, they won medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics for rowing; but war separates them. One becomes a bomber pilot; the other a conscientious objector, who ends up working for the Red Cross. Both become embroiled with the defection to Britain of the Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess - but each has a very different experience of the same event.
But the two timelines aren't irretrievably separated; although their differing attitudes to war cause a rift between the two brothers, their separation and those of the timelines aren't total. Things are complicated by their relationship with Birgit, a Jewish refugee that the two brothers smuggle out of Germany after the Olympics. Both love her; one marries her. Events take tragic turns in each timeline; yet the timelines are intertwined, leading to dislocating events for both brothers.
The themes of identity and duplication re-appear here, as in Priest's earlier novel The Prestige. We also see themes of dislocation and whether what an individual is experiencing at any one time is real or not. At the same time, Priest's grasp of detail is very good; I detected only a handful of minor errors or omissions, no more than you would get in any other memoir of historical events written in our reality by a real person. We are treated to pen portraits of Churchill and Hess; the pacifist brother's reaction to Churchill is interesting, as he considers Churchill to be a despicable warmonger, and yet when he hears him speak he cannot but fail to be moved by his determination and steadfastness. (There is also an account, as from the official minutes, of a key meeting of Churchill's War Cabinet which I found very amusing.) Even these major characters display separations; Churchill uses body doubles so that he can appear be in two places at the same time, whilst JL (the pilot) sees two different instances of Hess' flight to Britain, though there are different explanations for the events he sees.
As the novel was set, partly, in places I know well (Buxton, Bakewell and Lincolnshire), it started by giving me a great sense of presence which persisted for me through the rest of the book. There is also an account of the drafting of a major international treaty which struck me as a very likely depiction of how these things happen in real life. (I suspect that one of Priest's sources was the diary of John Colville, Churchill's private secretary during the war years, as he is namechecked in the book.) There is a minor loose end which isn't adequately explained, but it's incidental to the story and doesn't really impact on the narrative.
Perhaps the thing that I was most worried about as the book drew to a close was the instance of Priest's framing device, the military historian. I could not see how that was going to be closed; yet it was, in an ingenious way. I said that the alternate histories were intertwined instead of being discrete, and that might cause some readers expecting a literal or more science-fictional approach to the subject to have trouble with this book. Yet I am often struck, on looking at old films or photographs of cities, or travelling by train to another town or even another country, by all the individuals I see in passing. They all have their own lives, which I know nothing about. I see them once, and then they are gone from my view. From their viewpoint, the same could be said of me. Is not each of these lives a separate alternate reality, a parallel history affected in different ways by the same events?
The intertwining timelines in this novel have a certain inevitability about them; the parts fit together with elegance even if the impacts on the two protagonists are life-changing. I found this a most intriguing exploration of history and the effects of separations on both private lives and great events.
On a dismal March afternoon in 1999, a military historian is doing a
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signing session in a bookshop in the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton, in the Peak District. A customer comes into the shop and offers him her father's wartime memoirs, detailing his experiences in RAF Bomber Command. But we find that the account in the memoir seems to be from an alternate reality.The author researches further and uncovers a story of two identical twins, Joe and Jack Sawyer, both known (confusingly) as J.L. Sawyer. In their day, they won medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics for rowing; but war separates them. One becomes a bomber pilot; the other a conscientious objector, who ends up working for the Red Cross. Both become embroiled with the defection to Britain of the Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess - but each has a very different experience of the same event.
But the two timelines aren't irretrievably separated; although their differing attitudes to war cause a rift between the two brothers, their separation and those of the timelines aren't total. Things are complicated by their relationship with Birgit, a Jewish refugee that the two brothers smuggle out of Germany after the Olympics. Both love her; one marries her. Events take tragic turns in each timeline; yet the timelines are intertwined, leading to dislocating events for both brothers.
The themes of identity and duplication re-appear here, as in Priest's earlier novel The Prestige. We also see themes of dislocation and whether what an individual is experiencing at any one time is real or not. At the same time, Priest's grasp of detail is very good; I detected only a handful of minor errors or omissions, no more than you would get in any other memoir of historical events written in our reality by a real person. We are treated to pen portraits of Churchill and Hess; the pacifist brother's reaction to Churchill is interesting, as he considers Churchill to be a despicable warmonger, and yet when he hears him speak he cannot but fail to be moved by his determination and steadfastness. (There is also an account, as from the official minutes, of a key meeting of Churchill's War Cabinet which I found very amusing.) Even these major characters display separations; Churchill uses body doubles so that he can appear be in two places at the same time, whilst JL (the pilot) sees two different instances of Hess' flight to Britain, though there are different explanations for the events he sees.
As the novel was set, partly, in places I know well (Buxton, Bakewell and Lincolnshire), it started by giving me a great sense of presence which persisted for me through the rest of the book. There is also an account of the drafting of a major international treaty which struck me as a very likely depiction of how these things happen in real life. (I suspect that one of Priest's sources was the diary of John Colville, Churchill's private secretary during the war years, as he is namechecked in the book.) There is a minor loose end which isn't adequately explained, but it's incidental to the story and doesn't really impact on the narrative.
Perhaps the thing that I was most worried about as the book drew to a close was the instance of Priest's framing device, the military historian. I could not see how that was going to be closed; yet it was, in an ingenious way. I said that the alternate histories were intertwined instead of being discrete, and that might cause some readers expecting a literal or more science-fictional approach to the subject to have trouble with this book. Yet I am often struck, on looking at old films or photographs of cities, or travelling by train to another town or even another country, by all the individuals I see in passing. They all have their own lives, which I know nothing about. I see them once, and then they are gone from my view. From their viewpoint, the same could be said of me. Is not each of these lives a separate alternate reality, a parallel history affected in different ways by the same events?
The intertwining timelines in this novel have a certain inevitability about them; the parts fit together with elegance even if the impacts on the two protagonists are life-changing. I found this a most intriguing exploration of history and the effects of separations on both private lives and great events.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
SF Site Editor's Choice (2002)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2003)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 2003)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2002)
Seiun Award (Nominee — 2008)
Sidewise Award (Finalist — 2002)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (Winner — 2006)
Locus Recommended Reading (2002)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
354 p.; 5 inches
ISBN
1941147909 / 9781941147900