There are no wounds more damaging than those suffered as a child. For the young lack the armor possessed by the old, that particular toughening of skin and spirit that results from an accumulation of life's experiences. Adults can contextualize pain because they have endured it before and know it will pass, allowing peace to return at some future time. Children lack this perspective. To them, a wound may well last forever, or may well be the end of the world. They simply lack the knowledge to believe otherwise. Mr. Hartley has penned a wonderfully nostalgic novel and carried it to a moving conclusion, but it is providing this reminder, that we carry forward our childhood wounds, that his novel is gloriously and grievously potent.
Sparked by the rediscovery of a child's box of trinkets, The Go-between is an old man's ruminations on the most pivotal year of his life, 1900, when he was an innocent boy of 12. Colorless by nature, Leo Colston uses these mementos of his adolescence, chiefly a well-worn diary he once kept, to reflect upon his childhood, revealing in the process that Leo the younger was far different in temperament than Leo the elder. Where the latter is taciturn and grim, the former is spirited, energetic and care free, anticipating the life before him as much as he does the 20th century which holds so much promise. How did it come to pass that the same man could have possessed such different personalities at different stages of his life?
For an answer, Leo plunges us into the heat of the British summer of 1900 where, fresh off a difficult year at boarding school, young Leo accepts an invitation to summer with the Maudsleys, the well-to-do family of his schoolfriend, Marcus. While at Brandham Hall, a grand structure that once was the family home of the local viscount, Leo overcomes the shyness brought about by his relative poverty to capture brief moments of local glory by showcasing his voice at a concert and his glove in a cricket match. But as much as these pleasures sustain him, it is the devastating crush he has on Marian Maudsley, the elder sister of Marcus, that consumes all, turning else into pale remembrances. Leo will agree to do anything the lovely Marian wishes of him; serving as her little messenger boy -- carrying notes back and forth between herself and Ted burgess, a tenant of Brandham hall -- is nothing. But when it becomes clear that these notes are the keys to an inappropriate relationship between Marian and farmer Ted, Leo tries to withdraw. Marian is having none of it, though, and so Leo is forced to continue as the go-between, never imagining the doom his turn as Mercury might bring.
Originally published in 1953, The Go-between builds slowly to a wrenching conclusion. A classic of 20th century British literature, it is best remembered for its opening line: "the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." And yet, Mr. Hartley's novel is far more memorable as both a poignant and a devastating return to the memories and the wounds of childhood where formative experiences, for good or ill, shape us into the people we become. It is not too much to say that Leo is shattered by what befalls him at Brandham Hall in that fateful summer. He senses disaster's approach and even tries to avoid it. But falling prey to the passions of others, he cannot avoid onrushing events and is swallowed whole by them. His 12-year-old mind cannot grasp the complications of love and sex, of social classes and gender roles. He is an innocent, thoughtlessly taken up and discarded by fate and the Maudsleys, both of which expect him to understand and recover. But he does not and he cannot. For there are some introductions to life so harsh, so painful, that they cannot be overcome.
With its meandering plot, its preoccupation with symbols, its flirtation with the Zodiac and its exultation in nostalgia, The Go-between is slow to seize the reader's attention. But when the heat of the summer of 1900 finally proves too much for Leo and those for whom he has agreed to play postman, Mr. Hartley's piece explodes into an emotional, conflagrational conclusion that rends the heart. The innocence of youth, when lost, cannot be reclaimed. With a kind of gentle brutality, the author brings this lesson home. It will not be forgotten... (4/5 Stars)
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