Confusion

Book, 1969

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

Publisher Unknown (1969)

Description

This sequel to the acclaimed novel, The Light Years, continues the story of the Cazelet family, now on the brink of World War II. The three girls, Louise, Polly, and Clary, are immersed in good times and the relative safety of peace in England, until the war hits home.

User reviews

LibraryThing member k8_not_kate

I keep trying to come up with an elevator pitch way to describe this series but I always fall short. "It's about an upper crust-ish English family before, during, and after WWII" is technically accurate but doesn't quite cover it. "Like Downton Abbey but...better?" also isn't quite right although I

think technically accurate. "Coming of age series" comes closer. I finally realized that the other piece of storytelling I have felt this way about is Mad Men and for the same reason: it's mostly just a series of great characters living in a time not far from our own (but far enough to feel very different), living their lives, making their mistakes, having their heartbreaks, feeling their feelings. Nothing all that thrilling happens and yet you are so invested. It's a perfect slice of life because the emotional lives of the characters are so well realized. I truly cannot recommend this series enough, even if I still don't have a few sentences that might convince someone to read it.

Show Less

4 more

LibraryThing member KayCliff

I do find the author's way of using the third person pronoun to start each section of the narrative, giving no name, so you're some way in before you discover or work out which character is featured, most irritating.

LibraryThing member starbox

Wonderful family saga set against WW2
By sally tarbox on 8 March 2018
Format: Audible Audio Edition
Fabulous- you start reading this series and have to work through all five volumes as the characters are so vivid, their dramas so well-drawn.
This, the third, takes place through the years of World War

2, ending with the celebrations for peace.
With Rupert still missing in France, the family are starting to conclude he must be dead; wife Zoe starts to move on with her life, even devoted daughter Clary is starting to doubt...
Louise marries; Sybil's death has left a void in her family; the youngsters are growing up... New friends, careers, all set against the fears and privations of War. Unputdownable. And on to Volume 4...

Show Less

LibraryThing member ParadisePorch

I love this series, the saga of an English family during the years 1939 through the war. Howard's writing is dignified but does not shy away from difficult issues.

LibraryThing member lauralkeet

In 1942, the Cazalet family mourns one of their own, an emotional event in no way lessened by foreshadowing in the previous book. And of course the war continues to shape their lives as well. The story unfolds over the next three years mostly through the eyes of Louise, Polly, and Clary, the eldest

child of each family, as they become young adults and hope to find their purpose. Their parents have their own issues, from marital infidelities at home to uncertainty about those at the front. As England celebrates VE Day, Elizabeth Jane Howard continues spinning a long story arc. While some threads are neatly tied up in this novel, some remain unresolved and new plot developments have whet my appetite for the next book.

Show Less

Fewer