How It Ends
How It Ends reveals an American military family’s hopes, loves, stresses and breakdowns after they are relocated to a USAF airbase in rural eastern England a decade or so after World War Two. Communists, the bomb, and aliens are the perceived enemy, a distant unknown – but which, if any, might pose a threat from within? Told initially from the viewpoint of twelve-year-old twin Hedy, themes of family, love, exclusion, remorse, disability, prejudice, moral codes, sexual awakening and awareness, military power and secrecy all vie for attention yet do not crowd or impinge; rather they enhance one another.
The effortless present tense narrative beckons us to follow along an intricately woven timeline in which neither a single word is wasted nor one scene superfluous. The cast of characters, although not large, is clearly examined in accurate detail and each is portrayed realistically and simply over a quarter-century two-continent story both in the now and in flashbacks which, by another’s pen, might well have become convoluted and confused.
The language throughout is captivating and picturesque in its inventiveness. Razor wire is “snarling”, metal buildings “crouching”, and a black Packard saloon car “sleek as a beetle”. England herself appears “faded, as if the place is worn out from being so old”. The wartime pilots flew their B-17 bombers “winging past death time and time again, grazing its cheek with their own as if they were gods spinning across the sky.”
How does the story end? I thoroughly recommend you find out for yourself – you will be very far from disappointed. Life experience advises the adoption of a healthy scepticism toward the praise afforded works of art by others; however, Saskia Sarginson’s accolades are a justified reflection of her MA Honours in Creative Writing.
