Nothing Undone Remained
I’m not the target audience for this as I am not interested in, for instance, cricket, which according to Roderick, the Edwardian schoolboy hero of the novel, makes me such a girl! Consequently I found it dragging in some parts. Although the publishers don’t say so, this is the corresponding novel to Autumn Softly Fell, which was Roderick’s cousin Dorothea’s story, so there is some cross-over of events, although Roderick’s story would stand alone.
It is the story of his schooldays, where he is driven by two ambitions – getting his revenge on those he considers have harmed him in some way, and making his house pre-eminent at cricket and football. The depiction of the public school background is well done, and I could enter into Roderick’s feelings, although he is sometimes a bully and a coward. But his growth towards adulthood is well depicted, and the ending, during his first term at Oxford, leaves the reader with hope that he will turn into a decent adult.
This series weaves personal and world events together well, and I am hoping that there will be another book in the series, sorting out Roderick and Dorothea’s relationship, which appears to be heading for a satisfying dénouement.
